Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi guys,

Wow its been a while since I've posted here. I have had my braces (linguals on top, ceramics on bottom) on for about a year and a half now. I'm finding lately I'm becoming very worried and concerned about my midline in particular. I originally had a midline discrepancy before I commenced treatment.

My ortho told me that originally in the consult that he was going to move my bottom teeth to the right to help line up the midline. But during treatment he didn't do that but rather he moved my bottom teeth to the left instead! I had space in my teeth after using a coil spring etc. I don't know why? I asked him if my midline will be lined up later down the track, but now I am told that he won't be able to fix my midline I am really disappointed and feeling depressed lately about it. I planning on telling him again I'm not happy as I'm paying $$$. Whilst my overbite is almost corrected my midline is terrible.

My midline is waaay off by a tooth! I am concerned how this will affect my bite and teeth in the future. Has anyone else had their ortho tell them they can't fix the midline?

Every single picture I seen of people after braces, their midline is lined up or almost perfect! Why can't it be the same for me???

Post braces my midline is off by about half a bottom tooth. It doesn't seem to affect my bite. My ortho gave me the option of having an extraction plus more time in braces to fix it. I decided it wasn't worth it and it doesn't bother me at all.

I'm not sure that anyone notices but yourself when your midline is off. I look at my teeth more than ever with the braces on, but then I don't care about my midline, so my opinion may not be one that you are interested in. Ask him why he can't fix it. It may be something skeletal. Doctors of all varieties seem to gloss over things that they don't think they we will understand.

Definitely bring it up with your ortho and ask for an explanation. It may be a choice of midline off, bite correct or bite off, midline correct. Sometimes you can't have both. Honestly if that is the case, you want to go with the former. Your midline being off will not be noticed by anyone but you.

Hm, well my midline is off on both top and bottom and I'm heading towards the end of my treatment. I only have spaces on the top left to close, and none on the bottom. My ortho is going to use TADS to move both the top and bottom teeth to fix the midline.

So, I'm assuming that even though my bottoms don't have spaces, that Tads will help move everything over. i'm wondering why this isn't an option for you?? Maybe you can ask your ortho and report back what he says?

Hi guys thanks for responding. From the looks of it (after my recent adjustment a few days ago) it seems he will start work on lining up my midline at my next appointment. I didn't have to ask he saw that my bite was way off as my mouth was closing towards the left. I am now wearing an elastic on the right side to help move my bite to the right abit.

I am glad he said he will look at my midline, I was stressing and over-reacting thinking my bite and midline was just only going to get worse and be left like that. Normally my ortho is very good. I will just have to learn to trust my ortho and realise he will give me the best smile possible. Phew....

My midline is taking forever to fix i'm all done besides the midline! my ortho is fixing it with elastics.

Jewles wrote:My midline is taking forever to fix i'm all done besides the midline! my ortho is fixing it with elastics.

I think my midline is pretty much the only thing left too (there is some minor leveling and also some small gaps, minor stuff). How long has your ortho been trying to work on your midline? For me, it's been about 2 months, and I have to say I don't see a lot of change. It's really frustrating b/c I can't stand that my midline is off, and I really worry that he won't be able to fix it. I honestly still don't understand how they can shift your midline over w/o lots of gaps in your mouth.

Do you have gaps left in your mouth? My bottom has almost no gap, and he's trying to shift both top AND bottom for me.. it's too much in one direction, at least 2-3 mms. I don't know how it's going to shift!

Also, what elastic configuration do you have?? Are you trying to shift both top and bottom?