Metal Mouth Message Board

My previously short lateral incisors are now pulled down to the appropriate length. They are not even with the central incisors but are proportionately where they should be. However, I am now unhappy w/my uneven gum line & the amount of gum shown about the lateral incisors.

I thought maybe they could do some laser gum contouring, but I don't know. I've heard yes & no. How hard is it to push the laterals back up a little bit? I think I'd be happy w/a compromise & push them back up about half of what they were.

I don't know if that makes sense.

I'm also going to be dealing with small black triangles between the central and lateral incisors.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm pretty down about this.

Hi Pati,

I have also had laterals pulled down to the same length as my central incisors. I'm not sure whether it is an improvement or not. I imagine that by repositioning the brackets on your laterals it should be quite easy to push them back up a bit.

I think this and the black triangle and gum line issues are all pretty common and your ortho should be able to sort them out if you raise them with him/her.

Good luck!

Jem

I thought in the top arch at least, centrals were supposed to be a little longer (1-3mm maybe?) than the laterals. Is that wrong?

I have the same concerns. I've always had shorter laterals compared to my front teeth. Now they're the same length. To me it looks very unnatural, like I have false teeth. I told my ortho and he did bring the front teeth down a smidge, but now there's a lot more gum showing. Sorry I have no advice (other than to express your concerns to your ortho), but I can empathize