Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi All,

I've done a fairly thorough search to see if this has come up before, but if it has, I can't find it – so please accept my apologies if I'm being redundant.

Anyway, I've been braced for about 14 months to correct an overbite although my teeth actually looked pretty good before the braces. I.e., they weren't crooked, overcrowded or gappy. Now, I've got an annoying gap just left of centre on the upper teeth – I look sort of like a lopsided Alfred E. Numan. Joy.

So I'm wondering: Has anyone ended up with gaps during their treatment although no teeth were extracted? And if so, do the gaps eventually work themselves out, or is this something that has to be fine-tuned near the end of the treatment? Can relatively small gaps be fixed w/o power chains or elastics?

I'd love to hear from anyone who can shed some light on this situation.

Thanks in advance.

I never had a gap in my life before I had braces. Since braces I've had two different gaps in my upper arch and now I have a huge gap on the lower arch. The upper gaps are gone now and were fixed with power chains. The lower gap just opened up since my last adjustment. I assume I will have a power chain eventually to fix that one too.

Thanks for the replies. Siiiggh... I guess power chains must be in my future too. If I had a buck for all the unpleasantries I wasn't warned about at the beginning.

I have only had crowding all my life. Except maybe when my teeth were coming in. I now have gaps all over the place. My ortho put power chains on a few months ago to close the gaps and then he took them off. The gaps are back again and he put powerchains on again.

I think it is totally normal.

Also nothing but crowding before here. Now I have lots of small gaps(not even at first adjustment for another week), and one annoying gap of about 1mm between my front teeth that I keep catching my tongue on(and I don't even have an expander!)

Before getting braces, I never had any gaps in my teeth. In fact, my teeth were extremely close together. I had my wisdom taken out a few years before being braced, also. I havent had any extractions, but when the ortho began using powerchains on my upper teeth, I developed gaps on both sides of my teeth, between the canines and the teeth in front of them. It drove me absolutely nuts but after a few powerchains, everything closed back up. Dont worry, I'm sure your teeth will come out perfect, but I admit I was a little paranoid until the gaps closed lol!! Im sure your ortho knows what he's doing

I have a new gap too. It's between my molars and sort of acts like a magnet for spicy bits. Seriously, if there's the smallest little piece of a chili or something spicy in my food, it finds its way into that gap. Ouch!!

Glad to hear that these gaps will eventually get closed. Thanks for all the info.

wow we're just about the same.
I've been in braces for almost 13 months and I'm trying to correct a slight overbite as well.
My teeth are not crocket or crowded, bites seemed normal so I didn't get any extraction except I had one wisdom tooth removed.
I also have slight gap and I'm not too concerned about that because that should be easy to fix.
Although I'm curious as to how my overbite will be corrected without any extraction. I do want noticeable result but sofar not much progress.
How about you?
What does your treatment involve? I've been wearing elastics for about 6 months but now I'm not even wearing that.
I only have wires and I don't see any progress and I don't see what that's gonna do for my overbite.

I had 5 teeth extracted before I began my process...with powerchains those gaps are closing well. But, they ARE making gaps in other places...

I just try to look at it as a sign that everything is moving, I'd be more bothered if I didn't see anything happening .

Like someone said above, it's gotta get worse before it get better, but you're excused, you have braces on

I had an activator as a kid, it produced a small gap between my upper front teeth, and little bigger ones between my second laterals and canines. They have not disappeared anywhere during the years....

Since my original post, I have indeed spent some time wearing powerchains, and as kk points out, they really do work. Right now I'm on a bit of a hiatus from them because I'm wearing elastics, and my ortho is humane enough not to subject me to too much gear in my mouth all at once. I still have a couple of little gaps to close up, but I'm confident that a few more weeks in power chains should do the trick.

BTW, Karen -- I know I've had a tendency to be pretty negative during certain stages of my treatment, but I'll hit the 2-year mark in March, and I do think I've become more effective in dealing with those emotions. These days, I get inordinately happy about little things like getting my teeth cleaned, which in fact I'm going to in about half an hour -- YAY!