Metal Mouth Message Board

I have a slight gap between my front teeth, and I like it! Last visit my ortho was talking powerchains, so I have a feeling he's gonna want to close it (and other gaps) on my next visit. Has anyone tried to convince an orthodontist to leave a gap open for aesthetic reasons? Is there a potential downside to doing so? I'm very interested to see what he'll have to say about it. The gap has been stable for over 10 years and feels like part of my identity (it opened up after I got my braces off the first time).

Pix at http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/4760 ... ontto3.jpg if you want to see what I'm talking about (that's my pre-treatment photo from October).

In other news, I'm 2 1/2 months in, and my posterior open bite seems to be closing pretty nicely with rubber bands. I'll put up some pictures soon.

Thanks!

I realize you like it because you think it's part of your identity, but all of your teeth have changed, so I say close it. I think you'll like closed, now that your teeth are straighter.

Keep in mind you would be asking a professional to NOT complete his/her job.

Also, I am having surgery on my lower jaw and I've always had a weak jaw which is associated with my identity, but I'll be glad to be having it fixed.

Once you have your gap closed people will forget you had it in the first place and they'll see your new smile as your identity

I felt the same about my gap but after speaking with my dentist I changed my mind as he told me it would stengthen my after-surgery bite if it was closed.

As everyone already stated, having an open gap would indeed allow for alot of instability, as Denise already pointed out.

But going to the image issue. I think the strongest way to create and maintain your image, is through your personality, not the way you look because looks can fade or change with age, but a solid personality says alot about your character. Change does not always mean bad, change can be very good and inspirational.

And even if looks are important to you, as others entioned, what's wrong with a great smile being your trademark?


In any case, this is your life and your teeth, we are just here sharing our opinions, good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Thanks for all the replies! Seems like everybody's basically on the same page, strongly recommending closing the gap. I'll see what my ortho says, but I'm sure you're right, he'll want to close it, and I imagine I'll go along with it and be happy when it's done. Regardless, I'll post his response.

Well I think you should go with what you want... I've kept my gap because its been part of my identity for so many years.

I love having my straight teeth don't get me wrong, but I also find that straight teeth almost loose their identity and funniness which is something I slightly miss in a strange sort of way.

Keeping my gap in my upper front makes me feel that my teeth are individual and part of the wacky side of me!!

I love having my straight teeth don't get me wrong, but I also find that straight teeth almost loose their identity and funniness which is something I slightly miss in a strange sort of way.

Keeping my gap in my upper front makes me feel that my teeth are individual and part of the wacky side of me!!

Yes! Thank you, sjsarre, that's EXACTLY what I'm talking about! One obvious example is David Letterman.



His well-known gap is part and parcel of his whole persona as a silly guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. Letterman with perfect teeth would be a little less absurd and a little less unique, and that would be a real shame in my view.

Plus I've been told my gap is "sexy" by more than one woman. I doubt very many people would want to voluntarily discard a characteristic that they've been told is attractive. And while I'm sure perfect teeth wouldn't hurt me in that regard overall, I have a weak spot for the type of girl who appreciates the beauty in imperfection.

(By now it should be obvious that I like how my teeth look and would never have gotten re-braced if it wasn't for my structural/functional issues, specifically that my posterior open bite is wearing down my front teeth.)

So it sounds like there's at least one orthodontist in the world who's cool with preserving a gap for aesthetic reasons. This is very encouraging! Sjsarre, did your ortho put up a lot of resistance?

Meryaten wrote:We're all unique, whether we have a large diastema between our upper centrals or not. Letterman's comedy and his personality would still be the same even if he went and had his teeth fixed - his teeth are not what makes him who he is, even if some of us see it that way.

I've no idea if maintaining the gap will compromise the stability of your results (though the posts above make sense to me). But I'll tell you that there's no way in he11 that I'd risk compromising my results for the sake of retaining a small feature that someone happened to have told me they considered cute/sexy.

you can be happy all you want but for me i am glad i am rid of my gap. Maybe yours is like Letterman's small and unnoticeable. If mine was that big i wouldn't have gotten braces but if yours was like you missing a tooth i think you would have a different opinion.

brace ventura, I think your best bet is to ask your ortho how stable your result will be if you choose not get your gap completely closed. I, too, have a gap between my two upper incisors. I've heard that it gives my smile "character". I'm more self-conscious about this than proud of it, so I have braces to close the gaps.

There is a difference between a slight gap like David Letterman or Madonna and having a gap the size of an extracted tooth. Maybe, once you're finished with braces, your ortho can give you a bonded retainer that would keep your new teeth positions stable and would allow you to keep your gap? Of course, your teeth would have to be close enough that the bonded retainer wouldn't show, and I'm not sure if that's an option.

Please keep us updated after you consult your ortho. : - )

I am prolly the other person on the board who wanted to keep their gap.

Right now, my gap is "closed" due to power chains and has been close for about a year now (even tho it reopened a couple times).

I very much would like to keep my gap, it is a sense of cultural as well as familial pride for me. Yes, i told my first ortho that I wanted it open and he was fine with that. I have not told my new ortho (i moved) that I want to keep my gap open. I want nature to take its course....if its meant to be open, it will be open.

But I dont think there is anything wrong with telling a professional that YOU are PAYING to follow a request IF it is possible for them to do that. In some cases, keeping a gap open is impossible and if so, you kind of have to resolve yourself to that. But if it IS possible, i dont see anything wrong with asking that. You are paying them to do a job and there's nothing wrong in wanting the job done to your specifications, if possible.

Maybe, once you're finished with braces, your ortho can give you a bonded retainer that would keep your new teeth positions stable and would allow you to keep your gap?

Thanks for the suggestion, lilblackdress, but if an appliance was the only option for keeping it open, I would just let it close. My attachment to my gap is not as strong as my attachment to not having extra junk in my mouth.

But I dont think there is anything wrong with telling a professional that YOU are PAYING to follow a request IF it is possible for them to do that. In some cases, keeping a gap open is impossible and if so, you kind of have to resolve yourself to that. But if it IS possible, i dont see anything wrong with asking that. You are paying them to do a job and there's nothing wrong in wanting the job done to your specifications, if possible.

That's how I see it as well......ultimately, my orthodontist is working for me, not the other way around. So far he's been flexible on some tricky issues (like removing my torturous bonded tongue gate and replacing it with a more endurable removable version), so I expect he'll be at least somewhat sympathetic to my request. I do have a lot of respect for his experience and judgment (that's why I chose him in the first place), so if he thinks it's truly an awful idea to preserve the gap and has convincing reasons related to the longterm health of my teeth ("it would make me look bad at orthodontist dinner parties" doesn't cut it), I'll probably go along with his plan. There's a decent chance it will just open up again anyway, as that's what happened after I got my braces off the first time around. Good luck with yours, Dovechild20, and thanks for the info! I'm happy to hear that another orthodontist was apparently OK with leaving a gap intact.

Either way, I'll have an answer on January 28!

Saw my orthodontist today. When he instructed his assistant to put a powerchain on my uppers to close the gap, I asked him if it was possible to leave it be, and without hesitation he replied in the affirmative. I then asked if there was any orthodontic downside to this, and he said the only concern was the potential annoyance of food getting stuck (which has never been a problem in the past). So as for now, I'm keeping it. They said they'd ask me again at each visit, and to let them know if I change my mind, but I detected neither pressure nor disappointment from them.

So I guess that's that!

In other news, my posterior open bite has shrunk from 3mm to .5mm on the left side, and 4mm to 1mm on the right. Elastics! Looks like I may be able to avoid jaw surgery after all!!

My trademark is not really anything inside my mouth. That tooth that is behind the rest is part of my identity and really I think it's annoying that that tooth is behind the rest. I need to post pics so you can see what I'm talking about (it's a bottom tooth FYI).
My trademark is something else. It might be the way I think, the way I speak, I don't know. How I write my name with a big lowercase m.
- mariah