Metal Mouth Message Board

Last January I had 4 teeth extracted: baby lower left and right first premolars, adult upper right first premolar, and baby upper left first premolar. The only gap that has closed is my adult tooth. The other spaces are still pretty large and it's been over a year. How long did it take for your gaps to close? My braces were tentatively scheduled to come off this October (would be 24 months of treatment time) but now I feel looking at these gaps it will be at least another year.

7 months i think?

i doubled the elastics.

About 6 months. Once they took the power chain off, a space opened up again a bit, so they had to put it back on.

Don't worry, I'm coming up to a year myself and the gaps are only about half way closed, I'm confident my ortho could stick a power chain on and close them in months but my front teeth would be too far back into my mouth, whereas I think he's going for the method of letting the back teeth move forward.

wow, i didn't realise they would take that long.

kennyandrew85 wrote:Don't worry, I'm coming up to a year myself and the gaps are only about half way closed, I'm confident my ortho could stick a power chain on and close them in months but my front teeth would be too far back into my mouth, whereas I think he's going for the method of letting the back teeth move forward.

That's what I am doing, too, and just at a year. How is yours coming along? Did moving the back teeth forward result in any caving in of the cheek area? I worried about this.

Thanks for your replies...I have power chains on and my orthodontist put buttons on the backs of my lower molars so he could attach another powerchain there so I have 2 for each gap and the movement still isn't as rapid as I thought it would be. maxhammer, what is this caving of the cheek area you mentioned? I've read about sunken in cheeks from extractions before but how common is it?

christa wrote:maxhammer, what is this caving of the cheek area you mentioned? I've read about sunken in cheeks from extractions before but how common is it?

I don't know how common it is or what causes it. My guess would be bone loss or just moving the back teeth up so far that they don't support the cheek anymore. I'd like someone to explain why it occurs, though. There is a lot orthos don't tell you before you pull teeth, and I'm not sure if it's because they don't know, are purposely withholding info, or that most patients just don't notice changes.

It took over a year for my extraction gap to close.

I'm 8 months into my orthodontist just pulling my canines back...she still has to pull back all my front teeth as well :/

I'm at 11 months and my first premolar gaps are probably a little more than halfway closed.

I am almost 3 years in and still waiting for my last extraction gap to close :)

maxhammer wrote:

kennyandrew85 wrote:Don't worry, I'm coming up to a year myself and the gaps are only about half way closed, I'm confident my ortho could stick a power chain on and close them in months but my front teeth would be too far back into my mouth, whereas I think he's going for the method of letting the back teeth move forward.

That's what I am doing, too, and just at a year. How is yours coming along? Did moving the back teeth forward result in any caving in of the cheek area? I worried about this.

So far, no dents in my cheeks or weird shape to my face. I think it's quite uncommon for this to happen and a lot of it is just scaremongering by certain self ligating bracket companies who promise to offer extraction-free braces. Which we all know is impossible in a lot of cases regardless of whether a ligature is used or a bracket with a door on it.

Wow, first post. 11 months in for me. Canines were moved to close extraction gaps, and that took about 9 months. Now they are moving the front teeth back with closing loops in the archwires. Top teeth are already together (no gaps) and bottom teeth have some time to go (using a smaller wire for the bottom teeth because of the way they are being pulled back).

I had a lower incisor pulled, and with a power chain the gap was halfway closed in about a month. It opened up a little when my ortho took the chain off at 6 weeks, but I am now 5 months in and it is almost closed - about a 1-2mm gap which nobody can see anyways. It's been that way for maybe a month or two, so I assume it is closing much slower now and will gradually keep moving until I am done.