Metal Mouth Message Board

Hello! I don't get to post very often, so I'll give a little background first. I got my braces on 8 months ago for an overbite and upper and lower crowding. I had 4 extractions right off the bat. My upper teeth have moved quicker than my lowers, and at my last visit, my ortho put on powerchains to close up the upper gaps. They go from my molars over to my canines. I know they're working because I've seen a lot of movement. I now have gaps between my canines and the front teeth next to them, and also between those teeth and my front two teeth. I kind of expected those gaps. What I didn't expect however, is that I'm now noticing a small gap between my front two teeth.

Is this just part of the closing-the-gaps process? I'm hoping that the process is a bit of a moved slowly game, and that eventually there won't be any gaps anywhere..... but I am slightly worried that I'm going to have a big ol' space between my front to choppers for a while.

Anyone familiar with this? Are my new gaps normal?

Thanks!

You got it right...it is a sort of moved slowly game.

What you describe sounds normal to me.

yeah that's normal, I had gaps appearing also, even between my front teeth. It's cos the first stage of the process involves generally pushing teeth out a little, and they do tend to flare. Your powerchains will close the gaps quickly and then the teeth can be accurately positioned.

Yep, this happened to me, also. In fact, my ortho warned me that I might be seeing some spaces opening and that they would be fixed at the next appointment.

The specifics: I had a powerchain across my front 4 upper teeth. He said that I might see a gap next to those, but that they were getting ready to put a heavier wire on the uppers and that would flatten everything out and get rid of the gap. And, he was right. The powerchain went on in October, the heavier wire went on in November, and here we are in December, with the gaps almost gone.

I also had a gap appear next to one of the "anchor teeth" for my elastics - that got corrected with yet another powerchain.