Don't know what's "normal" anymore

[CLB26]

I don't know what's normal anymore and it's driving me crazy! I am trying to reverse what my previous dentist did i.e., I am trying to push my top teeth back so that my lips no longer catch and stick on my teeth (a side effect of my botched ortho treatment). This Monday I have an appointment with my new ortho and he is going to be asking me if I think I need to push my teeth back more or if they are good the way they are. The problem is, after over 4 years in braces and having everything moved around so much and screwed up so badly, I have no idea if the things I feel are normal and 'right' or if they are abnormal and still need further treatment.

For example, I find that when I smile and say certain words, such as words with a 'v' sound in them, I catch my lower lip with my top teeth. I don't think this used to happen before I started all of this, but my teeth were pushed reeeally far back, so maybe that wasn't 'normal' and this is? I could just be being hypersensitive ... Also, when I smile and speak, when my lips come down from my smile on certain words, they sometimes catch on my braces and pretty much always my braces feel big and in the way. So I don't know if that means my teeth are still too far forward and also in the way, or if it's just a braces thing?

On one hand, I really just want to say that it's good enough and just be done with it. It looks good and like it is going to be fine, but before I started my second round of ortho it looked fine too and it wasn't. So part of me wants to keep going just for the peace of mind and the idea that the more I do, the less chance it's going to be an issue once the braces come off. But I also don't want to push my teeth TOO far back either because that wasn't good when they were like that either. I already feel a bit of TMJ lately, but of course I've been so stressed it could just be that too.

Aaaah this is driving me absolutely crazy. I have so much anxiety over this appointment on Monday as I feel like I have this huge decision to make and I don't want to screw it up. My boyfriend suggested asking the ortho for his opinion, which I will, but my ortho keeps telling me that this is up to me since only I know how I feel. Except that I don't know if what I feel is right or wrong, normal or abnormal. Help me .

[Crafter]

I had the same situation when my ortho asked me to bite down in order to correctly place my brackets or checking on biting correction. The problem is that all my life with an overjet, I had the tendency to move my lower jaw forward to make the overjet less noticeable or bite things better. But I know that is not the right bite. When I am biting down at the ortho office I don't know if I am biting right or too pushed forward or too backwards and so on.

I told my ortho about that and she said that she will help me to find out my correct bite, but also, she said that I will notice how the biting will change along with my moving teeth. So at the end, I "will know" how to bite correctly....

I am not sure about that, but I hope she is right.

[ArchWired28]

CLB26
have you closed the gaps already? If you have not, my advice would be to wait until the gaps are actually closed before you make any further decisions.

In general, I don't feel like your lips should be catching on braces when you speak, at least my do not. However, this depends on your profile too. When you look at yourself, does it look like your lips and front teeth are protruding? Using your imagination, can you picture your teeth pushed a little bit back? How do you feel about your look? But again, I think this is pointless until you have all the gaps closed and all teeth where they should be.

Me too have a lot of anxiety about my ortho treatment. My story is a little similar to yours, in the sense that a dental bridge has completely screwed up my bite. I just wanted to express my support to you. Let's hope that everything will turn out fine this time.

[CLB26]

No gap closures yet. I haven't had an appointment since I posted last. Plus he isn't going to even think about closing any gaps until the rest of my teeth have been pushed back to the point they need to be. That makes sense since if we keep pushing the teeth back, the gaps will get smaller, so there's no point closing them first.

Like I said, everything looks good to me, but I'm just not sure. And my lips only catch when I'm kind of in a smiling position while I speak. If I'm just speaking normally it doesn't happen.

I don't think I'll ever be sure because I am so afraid of things going wrong . I'm sorry to hear things didn't go well with your bridge either. *sigh* I guess we just have to hope that things will turn out okay! It is hard not to have the anxiety, though.

I guess I will just have to talk to my ortho on Monday and hope he has some insight. I keep going back and forth, but right now I'm leaning towards pushing the teeth back a little more. We shall see.

[ArchWired28]

CLB26
I can see the logic that there is no point in closing the gaps until the teeth are pushed back where they need to be. However, keep in mind that gap closure includes both pushing the back teeth forward AND forward teeth backwards, so you will get some additional backward movement I am assuming. You may want to ask him about that because you don't want them too slant inwards either. It would be nice to have braces removed and see how you feel, but perhaps this is not feasible...
What is he thinking though? There should be some rule on how far backwards they need to be...

[CLB26]

Thank you, ArchWired, for your responses.

Yes, I'm hoping he will move the back teeth forward as well. He is hesitant to do so since he's never used those TADs (like we discussed in previous posts), but I'm hoping he will concede .

We did talk about taking the braces off and seeing how I feel and if it isn't good enough, then putting them back on. He said when the time came, we would work out a reduced fee for this service if need be. Luckily he is a pretty compassionate man so he is sensitive to my plight(s) and willing to compromise with me. I just would rather, of course, not have to get them put back on once they've been taken off so I'm trying my best to avoid it!

I will let you know how my appointment goes on Monday. Crossing my fingers that everything goes well!

[CLB26]

So I had my appointment this morning. It went okay. He adjusted some things and said that he is trying to get the bite right. He said next time we'll evaluate if you want to push the teeth back further (it's always 'next time'), but he kind of made a face as if to say that I shouldn't. I then asked him what his opinion is - if he thinks I should go back more or if I'm good where I am. He said that he doesn't want me to go back anymore due to potential loss of lip support and that I have gone back quite a bit already. He also mentioned that if I go too far back tooth replacement will be difficult. Well, I of course don't want tooth replacement, but that's a separate issue. Anyway, it looks like I won't be going any further back. You would think that would make me feel better, but it really doesn't. Again, just because I have no way of knowing if things are in the right place or not until these braces are gone. It's frustrating and anxiety-inducing. Although I know that even if I get the braces off and things still aren't right I can always get them put back on, it would really, really not be fun. Not to mention expensive. *sigh* I am getting into the obsessive mode again - the looking in the mirror and constantly staring at them and wondering if they are okay. Also, every time I speak or smile I am paying attention to if they feel okay, etc. Blah, that is the anxiety!!!

Also, does anyone here know much about implants? At the veeery beginning, I was supposed to get two implants rather than two three-unit bridges. My previous dentist (the one who screwed up) ended up telling me my spaces were too small for implants and gave me bridges instead. I absolutely hated the bridges for many reasons, some of which were that I felt like I had a wad of something stuck between my teeth all of the time (the pontic or 'floater' tooth) and I had mega saliva issues, both with too much of it in my mouth and with the saliva feeling like it was going 'over top' of the pontic all of the time. My gaps are even smaller now, but I have read things about mini implants and was thinking about going for a consultation to see if that is feasible for me. I highly doubt it, but it's worth a shot since the thought of getting bridges again (which is starting to look inevitable …) makes me really really sad .