I am 29 years old I have a 7mm anterior open bite. I have had it since I was a kid, I think it was at least partially caused by tongue thrust as I had a tongue crib at age 10. I did get a few consultations when I was 16 and one ortho proposed surgery, while another said he could do it non surgically; anyways I decided not to proceed at that time.
Fast forward 13 years and I am reconsidering treatment. I had a consultation a few days ago and not surprisingly the ortho said I have a severe skeletal open bite and recommended surgery. When I indicated that I was not thrilled about having surgery, he said he could try to correct the occlusion by intruding the molars via TAD’s, but he has not tried this before himself and is unsure if it will work.
From what I have read the surgery is a fairly invasive procedure, I think I would rather live with my open bite than submit to that procedure. I would be willing to try the TAD option, but from what I have read it is a relatively new procedure, thus few orthos have experience with it. I do have an appointment for a consultation with the other ortho (I live in a sparsely populated area, so there are only two orthodontist offices in town), but I will be surprised if he has had much experience with the TAD method. Is it a good idea to let an ortho who has never attempted to correct an open bite with TAD’s try on me? Is it prudent to attempt a treatment such as this given its uncertain outcome? Any advice will be greatly appreciated thanks.
Open bite what to do?
Moderator: bbsadmin
Re: Open bite what to do?
Hello! 
I am currently in treatment to intrude my molars using TADs. My experience has been great thus far. My open bite has closed approximately 1 mm per month, though sometimes a little less than that, but has gone exactly as planned.
My orthodontist does have experience using TADs to close an open bite, so that did make me feel more at ease choosing to go the non-surgical route. You will have to weigh the pros and cons between surgical and non-surgical, and decide if you trust your orthodontist to use a relatively new method.
Personally, I did not even want to consider surgery, and I could not be happier (so far) with the treatment that I chose.
You can click on "My Story" in my signature to see photos and read my experiences to date. Perhaps reading another person's point of view may help.
Good luck with whatever choice you make! Hope to hear back from you with your decision!
I am currently in treatment to intrude my molars using TADs. My experience has been great thus far. My open bite has closed approximately 1 mm per month, though sometimes a little less than that, but has gone exactly as planned. My orthodontist does have experience using TADs to close an open bite, so that did make me feel more at ease choosing to go the non-surgical route. You will have to weigh the pros and cons between surgical and non-surgical, and decide if you trust your orthodontist to use a relatively new method.
Personally, I did not even want to consider surgery, and I could not be happier (so far) with the treatment that I chose.
You can click on "My Story" in my signature to see photos and read my experiences to date. Perhaps reading another person's point of view may help.
Good luck with whatever choice you make! Hope to hear back from you with your decision!
Re: Open bite what to do?
Hey!speedy wrote:I am 29 years old I have a 7mm anterior open bite. I have had it since I was a kid, I think it was at least partially caused by tongue thrust as I had a tongue crib at age 10. I did get a few consultations when I was 16 and one ortho proposed surgery, while another said he could do it non surgically; anyways I decided not to proceed at that time.
I actually have an open bite caused by tongue thrusting. I actually still have the habit and I am at the start of my second treatment. This time I have decided to proceed with surgery. the reason I have chosen the surgery is that after about 9 years since my last braces and extractions occurred, my open bite is causing severe problems. I have neck pain and headaches every day. My jaw clicks every time I open it, its causing a lot of speech issues. Theres a bunch of other things I wrote about it on my blog http://openbiteblog.blogspot.com
Like you I was not thrilled about having to consider surgery, so I didn't do it. After watching a ton of videos of peoples progression through surgery and seeing many blogs and the final results, I am so sick of my open bite that I don't care what it takes anymore. I've talked to a lot of people who have also chosen to go the non surgical route, but I have been told that unfortunately it wont give me a proper closed overbite. Goodluck and if you can achieve a proper closed bite without surgery, then that would be great.
Re: Open bite what to do?
STOP. Definitely make sure whoever puts you TAD's in, that they know what they are doing.
I don't know where you are from but in England we have a thing called NICE guidelines on these TAD's.
They are an invasive interventional procedure and I only found out that after mine were put in the wrong place during surgery and then taken out again and two were then placed lower down by my old ortho, that I should have been given an information sheet and should have been told about the risks of these - of which there are many. (NICE IPG 238 understanding nice guidelines). I found this information too late. Have a look as it is quite informative.
Do some research - a good place to start is "Who places mini-screws" (Journal of clinical orthodontics) JCO online 2008. There are a couple of webpages on this and one of them contains lots of orthodontists opinions on who should place them and by using what methods.
Good Luck.
I don't know where you are from but in England we have a thing called NICE guidelines on these TAD's.
They are an invasive interventional procedure and I only found out that after mine were put in the wrong place during surgery and then taken out again and two were then placed lower down by my old ortho, that I should have been given an information sheet and should have been told about the risks of these - of which there are many. (NICE IPG 238 understanding nice guidelines). I found this information too late. Have a look as it is quite informative.
Do some research - a good place to start is "Who places mini-screws" (Journal of clinical orthodontics) JCO online 2008. There are a couple of webpages on this and one of them contains lots of orthodontists opinions on who should place them and by using what methods.
Good Luck.
No Regrets Just Lessons Learned
"What can we do to prevent this from happening again"?
"What can we do to prevent this from happening again"?
Re: Open bite what to do?
Thanks for the advise everyone. Trossi, do you think all the pain and headachs you have been having is the result of your previous orthodontic work? or is it likely a result of your open bite? The reason I ask is that my open bite curently causes me no ill effects other than reduced fuctionality. I wonder if treatment wheather surgical or non surgical is likely to cause other longterm problems.
Re: Open bite what to do?
The headaches and pain didn't start until a few years ago, the thing is, I have a tongue thrust that is causing my to continuously open bite my and move my jaws out of alignment. My new orthodontist thinks this is why its happening. My old orthodontist never even looked for the reason as to why my bite was open, so it wasnt corrected back then. Part of my process now will be speech therapy to correct this issue and prevent a relapse which is probably what happened when i hate the braces before. I never had an actual closed bite though. Just make sure that the underlying problem is corrected as well. Now my only option is surgery but it will only last long term if I also correct this issue.speedy wrote:Thanks for the advise everyone. Trossi, do you think all the pain and headachs you have been having is the result of your previous orthodontic work? or is it likely a result of your open bite? The reason I ask is that my open bite curently causes me no ill effects other than reduced fuctionality. I wonder if treatment wheather surgical or non surgical is likely to cause other longterm problems.
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openbite23
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- Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:11 am
Re: Open bite what to do?
I went to the dentist today to try to find out what they can do with my open bite, but my insurance do not cover anything except a cleaning. How much will surgery cost?
Re: Open bite what to do?
[quote="speedy"]I am 29 years old I have a 7mm anterior open bite. I have had it since I was a kid, I think it was at least partially caused by tongue thrust as I had a tongue crib at age 10. I did get a few consultations when I was 16 and one ortho proposed surgery, while another said he could do it non surgically; anyways I decided not to proceed at that time.
Fast forward 13 years and I am reconsidering treatment. I had a consultation a few days ago and not surprisingly the ortho said I have a severe skeletal open bite and recommended surgery. When I indicated that I was not thrilled about having surgery, he said he could try to correct the occlusion by intruding the molars via TAD’s, but he has not tried this before himself and is unsure if it will work.
From what I have read the surgery is a fairly invasive procedure, I think I would rather live with my open bite than submit to that procedure. I would be willing to try the TAD option, but from what I have read it is a relatively new procedure, thus few orthos have experience with it. I do have an appointment for a consultation with the other ortho (I live in a sparsely populated area, so there are only two orthodontist offices in town), but I will be surprised if he has had much experience with the TAD method. Is it a good idea to let an ortho who has never attempted to correct an open bite with TAD’s try on me? Is it prudent to attempt a treatment such as this given its uncertain outcome? Any advice will be greatly appreciated thanks.[/quote]
TAD stands for Temporary Anchorage Device which is just a mini implant inserted into your alveolar bone. It is a very easy procedure. I dont know where you get this fear but it is very very simple. General dentists complete sucessfully more invasive implant procedures and 80% of the times there is no failure.
TAD is used as an anchor to mechanically force teeth into a specific direction when there are no available options. TAD will also speed up the process of ortho so nothing to fear in my opinion. Placing a TAD requires just an xray and its usually placed in between teeth where there is no nerves.
You should worry about effectiveness of this method not placing the implant. Discuss with your orthodontist the reason why he wants to use a TAD and whats the difference between using a mini implant or just using brackets. I am sure he will say its a better aproach because it will help with the treatment.
Keep in mind that diastemas in adults are not easy, and usually they are caused by incisor frenulum. If thats the case then you will require fenectomy before any orthodontic treatment.
Fast forward 13 years and I am reconsidering treatment. I had a consultation a few days ago and not surprisingly the ortho said I have a severe skeletal open bite and recommended surgery. When I indicated that I was not thrilled about having surgery, he said he could try to correct the occlusion by intruding the molars via TAD’s, but he has not tried this before himself and is unsure if it will work.
From what I have read the surgery is a fairly invasive procedure, I think I would rather live with my open bite than submit to that procedure. I would be willing to try the TAD option, but from what I have read it is a relatively new procedure, thus few orthos have experience with it. I do have an appointment for a consultation with the other ortho (I live in a sparsely populated area, so there are only two orthodontist offices in town), but I will be surprised if he has had much experience with the TAD method. Is it a good idea to let an ortho who has never attempted to correct an open bite with TAD’s try on me? Is it prudent to attempt a treatment such as this given its uncertain outcome? Any advice will be greatly appreciated thanks.[/quote]
TAD stands for Temporary Anchorage Device which is just a mini implant inserted into your alveolar bone. It is a very easy procedure. I dont know where you get this fear but it is very very simple. General dentists complete sucessfully more invasive implant procedures and 80% of the times there is no failure.
TAD is used as an anchor to mechanically force teeth into a specific direction when there are no available options. TAD will also speed up the process of ortho so nothing to fear in my opinion. Placing a TAD requires just an xray and its usually placed in between teeth where there is no nerves.
You should worry about effectiveness of this method not placing the implant. Discuss with your orthodontist the reason why he wants to use a TAD and whats the difference between using a mini implant or just using brackets. I am sure he will say its a better aproach because it will help with the treatment.
Keep in mind that diastemas in adults are not easy, and usually they are caused by incisor frenulum. If thats the case then you will require fenectomy before any orthodontic treatment.
Re: Open bite what to do?
So speedy did you happen to do it or no ? Any updates ?