Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi guys
I'm new, a 30 years old male. I'm new to this braces stuff. I've never had them but decided to do so now since I have a job and can afford them now.
I went to a doc today. He said: Got to take out 4 teeth (premolars: two in the bottom, two in top), $5000, Metal braces (Invisialign cant do it), 2 years treatment plan.
When I came back, I saw found this website:
http://www.speedsystem.com/HTML/user_su ... ase04.html , which showed a before/after case:

Before:



After just 4 months:

I did search on this forum but couldnt find any information on this "Speed system". How can these teeth move in just 4 months?


What should I do? I want to get my teeth straight in 6 months - that would be nice. I dont know if I'm going to stay in this city for the next 2 years and I heard transfers are difficult - they usually want to start over again. Plus 2 years of braces seems so painful and inconvinient.

Here are some basic pics as my teeth are right now:

The back teeth are fine, its just the front ones. Two teeth are hugely out of whack, as you can see - one in the bottom and one at top.

So I dont understand, if those before/after teeth were able to move so fast, why isnt everyone doing them?

I'm not sure if I will be much help -- but I can tell you that it is possible to have teeth moves really fast -- it is also really dependent on the person's own teeth movement. Also, as far as why not everyone is doing it... might have something to do with the cost?
When i first started treatment (traditional route)..i was told the process will take about 2.5 years to 3 years....
it's only been 20 months for me, and I'm already schedule to have my braces taken off next month. So I would say my teeth moved faster than usual
I don't know if your ortho can predict how fast your teeth will move even if it is on the speed treatment ??

Ego, thanks for the reply! At one website I saw the cost of the speed treatment as about $1000. Infact maybe the regular treatment costs bigger because it takes longer?

I'm going to concult with two more docs in my city and will ask them about these speed treatments. Gosh a few months treatment sounds to good to be true. Now that case above again was just 4 months.

Good for you! You're almost done

I've only been braced for 10 weeks and have almost no crowding left but still have 9 months of treatment left. Orthodontics is not all about making your teeth straight for a good smile. As they move your bite changes so it takes longer to align your teeth up with each other the way they should be. Sometimes I look at my teeth when I smile and think YEAH I should be almost done then I bite down and realize that almost none of my teeth line up and remember why I have a bit of time to go.

good luck.

I'd be afraid of doing damage to gums, bone, teeth by going that quickly. Meryaten is right -- if you look at a lot of photos posted here, you'll see some big straightening results in the first six months or so, but those people are still having to wear braces for another year or so to get everything right. I'd also ask about the risk of your teeth going crooked again soon after a quick treament like that.

Let us know that the orthos you talk to say. It will be interesting to hear their take on it.

Hello guest_guest!

I'm currently wearing the speed system braces, and I'm sorry to say that you've been a little mislead as to them being so much faster. The 'speed' part of their name is just that- a name. They are a self-ligating system much like the Damon system (spring clips, no ligatures, etc). While their particular hype promotes it being faster, I don't think it would be by much. My ortho still gave me a 18-24 month sentence in them, just like pretty much everyone else here. Notice the pictures that you found don't show the braces yet removed from that person's teeth. It doesn't say what their total treatment time was.

Cost too - I believe at most orthos self-ligating systems can generally be a bit more expensive than the traditional system? Don't quote me on that, but I'd check it out.

Speed system also has brackets with a smaller footprint than others, creating possible torquing issues... again check with your ortho on your particular case.

That all being said, I really like them, but of course I have never worn anything else to compare them to!! So take your time and shop around... get some orthos opinions on what would work best for your case. I suppose braces are like anything else - don't impulse shop!!

Good luck with your journey!!