Metal Mouth Message Board

Greetings everybody,

This is my first posting since June, when I had 2 upper
bicuspids extracted. The short-term treatment plan is
to move the upper canines into the spaces previously
occupied by the (extraced) bicuspids. This creates
the spaces into which the upper incisors will be
rotated and moved (Sorry, I have no pix available.)

So the good news is that the canines are -by
adult teeth standards - moving at a brisk pace.
The bad news is that the extraction gaps are,
obviously, shifting to a more forward position,
and are much more conspicuous. Somehow, I had
assumed that the ortho would work on
repositioning the incisors, as the canines were
moving back, in other words, close 2 sets of
gaps simultaneously. No such luck, as I learned
yesterday: The ortho intends to completely move
the canines all the way back, and only after that
will he start repositioning the incisors. Aside
from having these ugly front-lateral gaps, this
also means nance will have to stay on longer
(possibly the worst apsect of my orthodontic
experience so far).

There seems to be no multitasking in my
treatment -every single aspect of it has been
sequential. I haven't gotten my bottom braces
yet (uppers were banded exactly 5 months ago),
and I don't think he plans to put them on
until early next year. The ortho has explained
why he has adopted a sequential approach to
the upper gap-closing. It makes sense to me
if I think of him as being extremely conservative,
and in fact he is well-known for his (dental)
conservatism. But I was curious about others
on this board. Is it common to have a highly
sequenced treatment, or do you some of you
have orthos who are trying to accomplish
several things at once? Thanks for listening.

It is very hard to make comments without a picture. Sometimes different things take the work of a different wire and therefore cannot be done at the same time.

mominbraces I don't have an answer for you, but it seems to be how they work.
I have got to have my molars and 2nd biscuspid (I have no 1st bicuspid) moved back one whole space using miniscrew implants and a nance, in order to make room for my overjet to be reduced. Apparently my top front teeth will not be braced until all that is done, and they will be moved one at a time! So my gaps will gradually move forward over treatment until there is enough room for the front teeth to be moved.
I guess they have to take other things into consideration than just the closing of gaps and doing things more sequentially gives them time to do minor adjustments to positioning and bite, rather than having to deal with 14 or so teeth all at once.