Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all,

I've had surgery to correct my bite, but now my top teeth hit the bottom brackets. I feel that the brackets on the bottom teeth are placed too high, however, my ortho indicated that she thought it would be fixed by putting some elastics further back. What do you think?

I think I would take my ortho's guidance since she has the training and experience.

djspeece wrote:I think I would take my ortho's guidance since she has the training and experience.

Of course, I'm not about to start moving brackets on my own. Just looking for other opinions - it's not like an ortho has never made a mistake!

I feel the same way about my top teeth brackets! I feel mine are placed too high, but like the previous poster said, there is definitely a method to their madness... trust them. If not, you can always get a second professional opinion. Do you see them when you smile? Unfortunately for me, my top teeth show in the worst way possible with my brackets.

Your ortho placed your braces in the spot they did for a reason. If your upper teeth now hit your lower brackets they can install small rubber bumpers on the lower brackets. It's like a clear, fat ligature. I had them for a couple of months in the very beginning while they were opening my deep bite. As soon as they cleared they were removed. Best day ever as they were annoying. But you deal, you know?

djspeece wrote:I think I would take my ortho's guidance since she has the training and experience.

That's not how it works around here!

petebite wrote:Hi all,

I've had surgery to correct my bite, but now my top teeth hit the bottom brackets. I feel that the brackets on the bottom teeth are placed too high, however, my ortho indicated that she thought it would be fixed by putting some elastics further back. What do you think?

Mine do the same. It's probably not an issue.

SingleJawMelb wrote:

djspeece wrote:I think I would take my ortho's guidance since she has the training and experience.

That's not how it works around here!

Haha, right? I hate when people get rude over others asking for our opinions. It's simple, if they want their orthodontist's opinion, they'll ask the orthodontist. The perspectives are different, and that makes for well-rounded insight. Keep the questions coming.

sneed1o1 wrote:

SingleJawMelb wrote:

djspeece wrote:I think I would take my ortho's guidance since she has the training and experience.

That's not how it works around here!

Haha, right? I hate when people get rude over others asking for our opinions. It's simple, if they want their orthodontist's opinion, they'll ask the orthodontist. The perspectives are different, and that makes for well-rounded insight. Keep the questions coming.

No I'm actually agreeing with Djspeece. No one on this board has the ability to give you better information than your orthos. All we can do is give a bit of guidance, calm your fears, ultimately your ortho is probably right.

I wondered too about the positioning of some of my brackets- front bottoms seemed really high, like you feel. Plus a couple at a strange angle that really didn't seem to relate to how I wanted my teeth to move. And one that popped off got put on in a different place.
But orthodontistry should apparently be called magic.
Stick with it!
If there is an issue with teeth biting on brackets get that sorted with bite blocks or similar, as you will end up biting brackets off (and potentially damaging teeth).
But your ortho is taking a all sorts of current and future movements in all sorts of directions into account. Trust them. X

Again, it's always good to get more than one opinion. As stated, everyone obviously has different perspectives, whether professionally or between peers. I've seen two different periodontist telling me two completely different things, both professional. I don't blame OP for branching out. There's no ONE right way to achieve results.

The elastics that you are using should help extrude the posterior teeth. This will allow the back teeth to start to contact first, with less force on the anterior teeth. Your right lower canine also looks quite pointed, so at the end of treatment it might not be a bad idea to smooth out the biting surface if that is the area that is in premature contact. Hope that helps!

My ortho put some buildups behind my front teeth to keep my uppers from contacting the braces on the bottom. As others have said, placement of the brackets is critical to getting a positive outcome.