Metal Mouth Message Board

Hey guys,

I suffered a TMJ disc displacement about a year ago leaving me with a bit of a cross bite, 2 mm open bite. My face is longer as a result and I am in pain a lot of the time since my disc no longer functions as it once did.

My gameplan is to go forward with an arthroscopic surgery to reposition the disc in its correct anatomical position and follow up with invisalign braces with miniscews to close the bite. If none of this works I will inquire about jaw surgery...although I do not know if I would be a candidate.

Any help would be great! Pictures from before the disc displacement and after.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39568565@N03/?saved=1[/img]

I had a larger open bite than you (not sure how many mm but based on the photo I can tell it was much larger) and have seen some great improvements with the bone anchors in lieu of jaw surgery. I am still in treatment with the bone anchors but my open bite has greatly decreased so I am optimistic that the bone anchors will be able to close it completely. I was a candidate for jaw surgery but chose not to go that route.

I had to get regular metal braces due to the fact that the invisalign would not be able to make all the movements I needed and they also provide the brackets to attach to the bone anchors which invisalign does not. I will try to get some pics on sometime soon. I have been very lax about writing a "my Braces Story" but my ortho has provided me with pics of my mouth before I got the braces. I am receiving treatment at the UNC Dental School in NC which has been excellent thus far.

Here are some photos of my before and after. After they straightened my teeth the open bite was increased so they are using the bone anchors to bring it in.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39560218@N ... 914658090/

This is my first link posting so if it does not work please let me know what I'm doing wrong...

I guess the more appropriate term would be before and then progress so far as I still have more work to go.

Actually, temporary anchorage devices can be secured with invisalign...for a minimal open bite I think it could be effective. Check out the link below:

http://www.orthodonticproductsonline.co ... -02_02.asp

anyone have any opinion of what I should do?

If there is even the slightest chance of invisilign not solving it, go straight to proper braces. Or does your ortho say the chance with either is the same? Can't imagine that.

While I think it is really cool that they can now attach the bone anchors and other tads to invisalign, my ortho told me that they still can get the most efficient motion with the old school metal braces. He said that it even exceeds the rate of progress with ceramic. They are stronger and can simply exhibit more force.

You should ask your ortho about the varying treatment times using the two different types of braces and then go from there.