Metal Mouth Message Board

Yesterday I went in for what I thought would be a routine adjustment and my ortho said "I need to make a little more space up top around your laterals so I've going to slenderize a couple of teeth and put in coils." What??? (Doesn't slenderize sound so...gentle? kinda like beginner's yoga or something? Ha!)

The slenderizing was awful! Shaving teeth with a drill-like sounding instrument is not gentle - the grinding sound was making me sweat like crazy! But if I thought that was bad...the coils are worse - its a tightly wound spring on my wire in two different places, put there so that the spaces he opened up will not close but boy, the pressure is awful. I'm sure it will go away eventually but right now...ouch! It hurt to brush my teeth last night.

All that being said, though, I have to admit that I was excited that we were doing something else other than the usual change the ligs and get a new wire - it always feels like progress when they do something out of the ordinary, doesn't it?

I am sorry to hear about your expirience with slenderize. I had that done, but it was really ok, didn't feel any thing, even my ortho said it doesn't hurt- and that what it was. next time ask him to do it slowly (without machine)

I just had my lower teeth slenderized a few days ago and it was not exactly easy. the shaving itself did not hurt, it was the assistant who used some sort of tool to push down my gums so they wouldn't be shaved along with the tooth. Ouch! I guess i should be happy with the powechain he put on, rather than the coils. They sound very painful! Hang in there!

I just had an adjustment 2 days ago. I feel your pain, literally. My ortho put two springs on my bottom braces to relieve the crowding. I can't tell if the coils are causing me more pain because all my teeth hurt, even my molars. My ortho also put a rectangular wire along my top brace. So achy I must admit that today the pain was not as bad as yesterday. I hope you are feeling better soon.

I just had my coil (spring) taken off and a bracket put on a tooth that was behind the rest. I feel your pain. I also had some slenderizing done too.

Atleast your ortho informed you of what he was doing! I just got my adjustment done and he just asked the assistant to hand him something and he started sanding away on my teeth. Ooouuch, I feel your pain also!! It was not a pleasant experience, not that I expect any of them to be great. I like to be informed of any problems with my progress and what he is going to do about it, but it is kind of hard to ask a question with someone's finger in your mouth. I am just very glad that it is over.

I just had my front two teeth slendarized on Monday evening. He informed me at my last visit that it would be done. But before he started, I saw what was in his hand, so asked him what he was going to do. He was quite willing to explain it to me. He even stopped part way to ask if I was feeling anything. (Maybe it was the look on my face? I don't know). Anyway it went well. I have to admit the spring the assitant put across my front four teeth did it's job overnight! I woke up to some sore front teeth. It is now Wednesday evening and they feel much better.

Does slenderize mean make the teeth smaller like this:

l l to this l l

or is it to shave off the front of the tooth? Or something else? That was really hard to explain!

machenzie it is like your first example: The orthodontist took what looked like a dremal tool with a flat sanding blade on it and went up between my two front teeth. Had I only needed a little bit done, he probably would have done it by hand - I saw him do it by hand on a patient who had Invisalign.

It didn't hurt at all - in fact I didn't feel anything. He also evened up the bottom of my one tooth. You can see in the avatar that it is longer than it's mate.

Attagirl2,
did you originally have a space between your 2 front teeth that allowed the sanding tool to get into position to work?
I'm considering having my teeth shaved to avoid any more extractions, but my teeth are very close together with no spaces at all. Do you know how / if that can work? Thanks!

braces-at-50

My teeth are crowded and I had a power chain put on at my last adjustment to make room to have my teeth slederized during my next adjustment. My power chain is only on the top right side to pull my two front teeth apart so my Ortho can get the tool in between my teeth next appointment. So in my case yes he had to make room to slenderrize my teeth.

Thanks for the info mtb_nwbraces. That sounds much better than the horrible methods I was imagining. I'll suggest slenderizing as an option to my new ortho. My two upper front teeth are also what I want slenderized.

It sounds as if your ortho will do that between the 2 front teeth instead of the outer edge. I can make some guesses as to why that is, but did they explain why there? That area of my gums is very sensitive, so it seems as if it would potentially hurt more there.