Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi everybody. I hope everybody is fine. I remarked the last months that my tongue is slightly hurt. I asked my orthodontist about this problem and this is, without any doubt, the result of the 4 premolar extraction treatment. The reduction of both the arches width has also created a reduction of the tongue room. I talked about this during the treatment, the orthodontist worked well to limit this side effect and explained that my tongue would retract itself too. But as my arches had been reduced of 8 millimeters my tongue is not able to follow. It was not evident just after debracing and has become obvious with time. What I had to do exactly? I really like how I look now and reject completly a new treatment. The orthodontist suggested me a tongue reeducation. Some advices? Thank you.

Do you have a scalloped tongue, or sleep apnea? I would think twice about getting a tongue reduction surgery. It is way more invasive than moving teeth and depending on what you are hoping to achieve, it may be abit of an overkill. Some side effects of this surgery (depending which part of the tongue is being cut) are altered sense of taste, speech problems, and death. Perhaps consult an ENT specialist opinion on this?

Re-education, as in speech therapy or reduction as in surgery. The latter would seem extreme, and as assertively points out, I would really think about the possible consequences.

Maybe you could ask your ortho for a Retainer with a tongue crib to help retrain your tongue, and wear it as much as possible. At the very least it could help reduce the damage to your treatment.

assertives wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 10:36 pm Do you have a scalloped tongue, or sleep apnea? I would think twice about getting a tongue reduction surgery. It is way more invasive than moving teeth and depending on what you are hoping to achieve, it may be abit of an overkill. Some side effects of this surgery (depending which part of the tongue is being cut) are altered sense of taste, speech problems, and death. Perhaps consult an ENT specialist opinion on this?

LOL Not tongue reduction but rEeducAtion, don't worry LOL

No, I don't have sleep apnea at all. In fact, the treatment helped me to correct some bad breathing habits. The room is limit, nothing severe at all. I think I'll make only some tongue exercices and all will be okay

Gia wrote: ↑Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:20 pm Re-education, as in speech therapy or reduction as in surgery. The latter would seem extreme, and as assertively points out, I would really think about the possible consequences.

Reeducation as in speech therapy. Reduction has never been dealt with.

I'm afraid you may never be able to fully reeducate your tongue in a smaller mouth... I myself have seen my arches narrow down a little (not sure how much really, but may find out in a couple of hours at my new ortho when I go in for retreatment options). The fact is, I developed a small speech problem and it just won't go away. And it's been 6 months since debracing... I'm very aware of it but I just can't get my tongue to properly articulate certain sounds, no matter how much I consciously try to do it. Your problem was one of my concerns with extractions, and one that I repeatedly raised with my idiot former ortho, but she couldn't care less, it seems.