I was told Damon Technique leaves you with an unstable bite

[Cowgirl99]

I just asked my ortho about Damon brackets to correct an overjet. First, he told me Damon brackets are fine, but the technique itself is garbage.

He said the person inventing it has never published one study on it. Is this true. He told me you can achieve expansion with any brackets. It's no different from what orthos do now.

I was told you are supposed to only expand the arch 1MM on each side, and beyond that if you do too much expansion, you can damage the roots and the teeth can fall out.

Also, I was told that the bite is extremely unstable due to the expansion, and a fixed retainer wired must be used at all times on the top and bottom because the teeth immediately relapse to their originally position. As a result, no ortho trusts the damon technique enough to give anyone a regular retainer hawley/or invisalign. They must glue the teeth with a wire in the back.

Does anyone have experience with an expanded arch by Damon years after it's been done.

[sisi]

Very interesting post, Cowgirl. I have Damons on my lower arch and will be getting Innovation C's on my upper arch soon. Main advantage is that they are self-ligating.

Anyone I know who has had their palate expanded has the wire bonds to retain them.

[UGHBRACES]

Everybody i know that had braces as a teen, their teeth have shifted and they all has just regular braces. Fact is no matter what method was used, you NEED to wear your retainers to maintain stability.

[classII]

All sounds like nothing a 'kinder gentler' ortho would ever say, unless they're selling extractions.

It's not a technique, its nothing more than self-ligitating brackets, coupled with less strength or whatever is required with self ligitating brackets.

1mm expansion. The jaw bone is a set piece. If your collapsed arch, (with overjet) is as you describe, you teeth have moved or grown from what would be the normal arch and drifted inwards to meet your lower teeth. Reversing the process 1mm or more via braces Damon or otherwise has to do with your jaw bone itself.

It's complicated but, the gist of the info your ortho gave you to pass onto us here, is unsound and 100% non-professional..

Just sayin'

[Cowgirl99]

My overjet is from an ortho redoing ortho. I already had ortho and I'm a class II and it should never have been redone. I already had 4 premolars removed and wisdom teeth extracted. So when I was redone I was left with an overjet which everyone in my situation would have been left it. You cannot redo relapsed teeth in my situation.

I asked about expanding the arch and he told me you're not suppose to go beyond 1 MM ...it you do you can cause serious problems.

Are there studies years later on Damon technique. The brackets are nothing. Any brackets can do it. He said you cannot expand the arch too much or you get into big trouble.

Why is what he said unprofessional? I would like to hear from dentists on this.

[ayvecs]

cowgirl,

i think the issue that people have with what you wrote is your ortho said "damon brackets are fine, but the technique itself is garbage."

it's true the damon system is just like any kind of brace system that is used to correcting teeth, only difference is that it is self ligating compared to the traditional bracket system.

depending on the person's teeth and jaw structure they will probably achieve the same results with either the self-ligating systems out there or the traditional bracket system. the one thing that i read on this board that determines a good outcome irregardless of the brace system used is how good the ortho is. if you have a great ortho it doesn't matter which system he/she uses, you should end up with great results.

i don't see anything wrong with bonded retainers. after spending how much ever thousands of money, it serves as an extra insurance to help prevent relapse. i've read of a few people on this board who have relapsed and wished that there ortho had put on a bonded retainer. but as the previous poster said, retainer wear is very very important in order to prevent relapse. you don't wear your retainer and you will be back to that original smile you had prior to the braces, plain and simple.

[Cowgirl99]

The problem with wired retainers are that they cause decay after wearing them for long periods of time. Of course, each person is different. I know some people who worked as dental assts. that had them, had their teeth cleaned monthly to avoid decay.

I also have been told you shouldn't wear a wire retainer forever. Again, I'm unsure about that. But I do know that you can get decay from a wire retainer. It must be kept super clean.

But that's not the problem. It's pushing the roots out too much and causing root problems and making a bite unstable that I'm concerned about with Damon.

[UGHBRACES]

I would go for more consults from different Ortho's.

[theKurp]

So don't get the Damons. From the tone of your posts you're not looking for information that might conflict with what your ortho is telling you, but rather information that will concur with your ortho's bias against Damons.

If you trust your ortho then go along with what he says. Otherwise, there's a plethora of information on the Internet from which you can base your own opinion - assuming you can keep an open mind.

[sisi]

Cowgirl

You asked for studies/research on Damon braces. This is the webpage from the Damon site listing studies on self-ligating braces.

http://www.damonbraces.com/research.php

I can't vouch for any of the studies - but it may get you started.

FWIW, I trust my ortho totally and she does all types of brackets. She advised me to go with self-ligating Damons because I need to widen my arches slightly to make room for crowded teeth. I do not need extractions (despite being advised 6 years ago by a different ortho that I did). I was happy to go with her advice.

[Cowgirl99]

I was told that DAMON has never published a study in the dental journals.

I would love to see one. Anyone's own study isn't very valid. I would think in all this time that they have been out, that there should be published studies in Dental Journals.

[cvn]

I was told that DAMON has never published a study in the dental journals.

I would love to see one. Anyone's own study isn't very valid. I would think in all this time that they have been out, that there should be published studies in Dental Journals.

A 15 second search on pubmed showed 150 articles on self ligating brackets.

The damon system and release of substance p in gingival crevicular fluid during orthodontic tooth movement in adults.

Forces produced by different nonconventional bracket or ligature systems during alignment of apically displaced teeth.

And so on and so forth, many having to do with the benefits and drawbacks of self ligating versus conventional brackets. Do yourself a favor next time and at least do some fast research before randomly spouting off on internet forums with e-conspiracy theories and e-rage...at least then you can cite stuff to support whatever point you're trying to get across and make a much more intelligent argument for or against a point.

[cvn]

I'd also like to point out, since I can't edit, that the vast majority of the articles listed under research on the damon page seem to be in peer reviewed journals by a wide variety of authors.

For example:

Now in its 94th year, the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics is a leading orthodontic resource. It is the official publication of the American Association of Orthodontists, its constituent societies, the American Board of Orthodontics, and the College of Diplomates of the ABO. Each month, AJO-DO readers have access to original peer-reviewed research reports and clinical articles that examine all phases of orthodontic treatment. Coverage includes diagnostic procedures, bracket and archwire materials, appliances, extraction and impaction concerns, esthetics, orthognathic surgery, TMJ disorders, treatment timing, imaging techniques, and much more. The AJO-DO also publishes an annual Product Resource Guide.

If you don't know what that means, before the article is accepted for publishing, it is checked for specific criteria by a group of the author's peers. The criteria are strict in order to maintain the integrity of the journal, and this is taken very seriously. The reviewers are anonymous to the author and generally highly regarded in the field and the article is not published until it meets criteria. Generally an author has to rewrite an article a few times before the reviewers accept it.

Of course damon will be more apt to put articles on this page that exhibit their product in a positive light, but it is highly erroneous to assume that because articles are referenced on that website, that the damon people have made up those results. Take some initiative and look these articles up yourself so you can read them in full. If you are in college or have a kid in college, you can get free access to most journals, no problem.

[crazybeautiful]

The issue here seems to be with non-surgical expansion, not braces. In which case you can't blame Damons for how the expansion turns out because you're working non-skeletally to start with so it's always going to have some affect on your roots, etc. That's why non-surgical expansions only work when you need a minimal expansion

As for retainers- any bite is unstable without the use a a retainer after treatment isn't it? Don't know about the use of fixed retainers vs hawleys, etc- but a retainer is a retainer. If it was that bad what dentist or orthodontist would use them? I think they'd notice