Metal Mouth Message Board

I started with an edge to edge bite. Since April 23 (so about 10 weeks now), I’ve had class III elastics running from upper back molars to lower canines to pull all lower teeth back and all uppers forward. Now I have a crazy overjet, like 5mm or more, causing my upper lip to be sticking out! It’s hard to close my lips together too.

My next appointment is July 30, 4 weeks away. Do you thu k it’s ok for me to call and ask to move it up or to at least make sure my teeth aren’t moving too fast? Or is it normal to overcorrect an edge to edge bite like this because they know it will relapse a bit?

It’s stressing me out to have this ugly protruding upper lip now!

To compare, see the underbite I had on April 23, day 1 of the elastics. So much overjet now!!

That is amazing movement for just 10 weeks! Perhaps your teeth moved faster than anticipated, or perhaps your ortho wanted to over-correct, anticipating some relapse. Either way I'd give them a call and express your concerns.

All the Best,

Jethro

I'm told that intentional overcorrection is very common with overjet/underbite, as orthos expect less than 100% of the correction of jaw position to last long term. There's probably nothing to worry about!

To close the loop on this, YES my teeth were overcorrected!

Apparently, they do not assume that people will wear their rubber bands correctly (I think she said 60% of people don't wear them?!) and build in lots of extra time between appointments for elastics to work. Because I wore mine religiously, they moved a lot more than they expected.

The ortho showed me my original photos from last December and pointed out that my crossbite and underbite are completely fixed now. The good news - I am way ahead of schedule and should finish earlier than my 16-month estimate! The bad news is that my top front teeth have really flared out and need to be brought straight up and down again. That will fix my upper "duck lip" situation.

My top 6 teeth now have this clear band stretching across them below the brackets to help pull them back. I'm VERY nervous about the staining of this band and the tooth area under it - it is resting directly on my teeth... But no more class III rubber bands, for obvious reasons.

I go back in four weeks to check how my upper teeth are moving back. Once they're in place, it will just be a matter of settling my bite.

Lesson learned - I should have called for an earlier appointment a month ago and I might have saved my front teeth some movement!

Sometimes a little overcorrection is not a bad thing because it is a way to reach the results you wanted with more stability. That was what arrived to me but in my case the upper teeth have been moved slightly too far back. Usually wearing for a month elastics on the opposite configuration you used to have will perfect your bite and debracing won't be far at all.