Midline is off, ortho wants to leave it.

[threescompany]

So, I am at the end of my treatment However, my midline is off. When I brought this up at the ortho, he said that yes, it's off, but that he doesn't want to try to correct it. His reason is that he says my bite right now is really good, and that correcting the midline by moving the teeth would throw it off. He believes it's off because of a slight variation in the size of my incisors top and bottom. In order to get it lined up, he'd want to shave a few teeth down. While he's willing to do that to make teeth fit correctly, he doesn't want to remove enamel in this case. He will if I want to, but doesn't recommend it. I'm feeling mixed about it because it sure would be great to have everything lined up perfect, but my goal was getting rid of the gaps, and that's been done. I guess what I'm wondering is does his reasoning sound right?

Another question. He said my bite looks great, but now, a few hours later I notice that while everything lines up great on the outside of the arch, there is space between the top and bottom molar (2nd to last) on the inside of the arch that I can feel with my tongue. It's as if the lowers are tipped in just a bit. Does that make sense? Is that still a good bite or should it be flush inside and out?

I'm a month over my 6 month estimate, but that's no biggie, I'd keep them longer to get it right.

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

You should request he spend more than the 6 months and fix it propperly and then refix the bite to be absoultely perfect. Tell him you dont want spaces you want it fixed propperly and if he does not you can call around nad see who wont charge u too much to finnish it for you before you get those braces taken off. You are the patient and he should make the patient happy esp if you've ONLY been in braces for 6 months. You should be in braces for the normal 2 years to get everything perfected I mean I would. I hope all goes well with you, dont let him take your braces off if you are not comfortable, aside from my overbite my midline was the FIRST thing my ortho told me about.

[threescompany]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not really looking to spend 2 yrs in braces, my issues weren't very severe to begin with. I had gaps in the front 6 teeth, likely due to tongue thrust. My bite wasn't off. Things did shift a bit of course, but they seem back where he wants them.

I guess what I'm asking is if anyone else has been told that a slight midline mismatch was the result of teeth not being uniformly sized left to right.

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

You are welcome my midline was off to start with but I had elastics on the same hooks on both sides and that was to fix my overbite but I think my midline is getting better. I'm sure you can live with the midline being off that's never bothered me because a bunch of people won't even notice that, they're notice your beautiful new teeth.

[Jethro]

My midline is slightly off (less than a mm I'd say) due to a discrepancy in the size of the teeth in my lower arch. My ortho said it could be aligned with additional IPR (filing), elastics and time in braces. I opted to leave it alone as I had been in braces for over 2.5 years and already had a siginificant amout of IPR. I am satisfied with my decision, although I certainly understand wanting things to be as close to perfect as possible. Ultimately, if a perfect midline and a perfect bite can't be achieved, I'd opt for the perfect bite.

As for the extra spacing on the inside vs outside arch by your molars, I would ask your ortho about that one.

Best of luck to you!

[conine]

The same thing happened when I was sixteen - my ortho left my midline "just a little off." Being sixteen, just starting to date and drive, and being tired of braces, my Mom and I told him to go ahead and take them off. Fast forward 15 years - my midlines were WAY off, I had a bad overbite, and I was starting to develop sleep problems. And yes, I did wear my retainers regularly at night, through college and law school in fact. I didn't know how bad things were until I went to have my wisdom teeth extracted - my dentist recommended that I have a non-wisdom tooth extracted along with teeth that had to go since there would be nothing lining up against it once the wisdom tooth was gone. When I told him "but I had braces," he said that he could tell that the ortho didn't finish. I scheduled a consult with the local ortho, who said that one side of my mouth was class 1, and the other side was class 2. He thought that 15 years of things being out of balance has taken its toll, and a small problem had become a huge one. He said that surgery was the best bet, but since I live in a rural, poor area, he doesn't do a whole lot of surgery cases. He offered to treat it with elastics only. My sis-in-law has a bad class 3, so I scheduled a consult with her surgeon and ortho 90 minutes away. It took a year to sort out the insurance, but after 16 months of braces and surgery, it's finally right. In fact, the corrections were so dramatic that the first time I checked into a hotel after the surgery, the clerk thought I was using someone else's ID. Just something to think about. I don't know how old you are, but small things can blow up into big ones.

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Well when I went to this consult my ortho started making a BIG deal out of my midlines being off so maybe she will "perfect" them. She's a real good ortho from what people tell me. Glad you found a good ortho too and sorry it had to result in the surgery.And you're happy with the result tho. I think my ortho will do the midlines too.