Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi everyone, I haven't been around in a while but I posted here a couple years ago. I had some molars extracted to fix major crowding etc.

A few weeks ago I was told I was going to get my braces off, finally, after nearly 3 years. The front teeth were all aligned and fit together well. Yay, right? Actually I was shocked because I still couldn't bite together at the back on my left side. This has been a problem throughout treatment and I've been wearing elastics of varying configurations for it on and off since the start of this year without much progress. I really wanted everything to be over but I wasn't happy with leaving my bite like that. So 2 weeks ago my orthodontist cut the top wire off behind my canines (now I only have a short wire at the front) and had me wear a couple of triangle elastics on the left molars.

The elastics and the lack of wire in the brackets made the back teeth come together pretty quickly. I was really happy with that. Then a week ago a gap opened up between the upper left canine and premolar. I went back to the orthodontist and he put a wire tie between them to pull them together. A day after that a gap opened up in the same place on right side, and my front teeth stopped fitting together well anymore because the lowers are hitting against the inside of the uppers making it hard to bite down. My upper right canine had also moved out of alignment.

I went back again yesterday and after a long time poking and prodding he said the lower front teeth were prematurely contacting the uppers and pushing them out of alignment and I would need interproximal reduction on the lower teeth to make everything fit. I don't see how this can be right! My ortho didn't even anticipate anything like this. I've had massive extractions so it's not because there's a lack of room. They've been in a good position for over a year and I've had an overjet for most of my treatment but suddenly in a week it's gone? I really don't want my lower teeth pulled in any more. It's not like they're flared out at all. I wish my upper arch could go back the way it was before the wire was cut. We talked about it and I've got a couple of weeks to decide if we do the interproximal reduction. Now I've got the short wire on top and a few more wire ties. This morning I can barely chew because everything contacts wrongly. Why is this happening now?

I'm glad I didn't get them off yet because obviously things aren't stable but this is so exhausting. Has anyone else come to a point like this, where you've done about everything you can and things still aren't right? What should I do? My orthodontist explained things really well but he doesn't seem very good at predicting what my teeth are going to do. Is it common to do interproximal reduction even after extraction? (I'm so glad this forum exists, I don't know anyone else that would even know what those words mean lol). Does it look like I need it?

That sounds rough.

I'm no expert, but I definitely think you should get the full archwire back on. Without either a wire or a retainer things won't hold in place for very long. How old are you? It's possible that you have very dense bone and things just aren't going to move as much as you would like them to. Do you have complete faith in your orthodontist? Have they treated patients with similar issues to you with successful results? If not, it might pay to get a second opinion.

I've heard of getting an interproximal reduction after an extraction, sometimes it just depends on the shape of your tooth. Maybe your ortho believes it will make things line up just a little bit nicer.
Best of luck with everything.

I guess I'm a little confused about how he expects IPR to help this situation. IPR is between teeth, not on the fronts of lowers where the brackets are attached, or on the backs of the uppers. How is grinding down between teeth going to bring back overjet?

Why not put the wire back on all the teeth, the way it was before they got messed up? Now that you're happy with the back ones, this should be doable, and then you can finagle everything in the front just right and get it the way it was.

It does give concern for long term stability of the bite, I will admit.

Please, I'm no ortho, just my two cents.

I don't know why he can't put the wire back on. He did say that this probably would have happened anyway once I got a retainer and they settled (though he didn't expect it before he cut the wire?). Maybe it's not worth it?

He wants to do the IPR so he can pull the bottom teeth closer together and angle them further back away from the uppers. Which is something I don't want.

I'm 29. They were pretty stable before the wire was cut. Apart from the back teeth both arches have been the same for months. But once the molars were pulled together I guess it just wasn't stable. Having a good bite was my number 1 concern going into this. Before I got braces the only things I was warned about were my midline might not be perfect and my bite would would change a little with the retainer. They didn't say anything like this would happen. But then again I have awful teeth so I can't expect much.

I don't have complete faith in my orthodontist. He doesn't seem to remember things between appointments, he forgets when he's said to wear elastics, he forgot I hadn't had an x-ray and then said I didn't need one, and he didn't see my teeth in the beginning. He's not the same one who I started treatment with, although it is the same practice. I don't have the time and money to find another ortho though. I hate being a difficult patient