Metal Mouth Message Board

Subject: Average Time frame in braces?
Hi Guys,

My name is Simone and im 21 from Australia. I have had braces since sept 20th, almost three months!

My teeth weren't too bad in the first place, but like many of you seem to be (from reading your messages) i am a perfectionist!

What i am wondering is how long people have had braces?

My ortho said 18-24months, but people who i have talken to say that they tell everyone that!

Some people ive spoken with have had braces 11months, one year... but then i have known others to have braces for 4years or so.

So im hoping i have them off by next september... so please tell me what you think the avg time frame is?

and what can/does speed up the process without effecting the end result

_________________
Braces on September 20th 05.

I don't have my braces on yet, but my ortho said 24-30 months. When I first met him, I really grilled him about time. I said everyone I knew ended up wearing their braces longer than they were initially told. My ortho said a few things in response:
1) that the two year mark is kind of magical...things just really seem to shape up around 24 months for most people
2) that if it took longer than the time quoted, then he didn't do his job because his estimation would have been off
3) getting braced is a process. He said there's no "end point" but rather you just continue to get better over the course of many years, even after braces. I will only be in this location for another 30-33 months tops (I'm a grad student and will have to leave by then because I'll be out of funding and classes) so I was concerned about time. He told me that he might be able to take the braces off earlier if necessary, depending on how my teeth looked and how I felt about my own progress at that time.

I hope that helps. I have no idea if this will ultimately ring true, but I felt he was honest about it, so I feel okay about his answers at this point.

I'm not typical but I'll only have to have mine on about 6-8 months. I only have one tooth to move, no bite problems, no crowding, none impacted. Just one that came in behind a baby tooth.

(Somehow I feel that it will still be longer though.)

It depends on how much moving you have to have done, but remember. YOU may have thought there wasn't much wrong, but you are also not an orthodontist. He can see things that you cannot.

I think they say the average is around 1-3 years for most people

but there are cases where it goes over. *cough cough cough*

Eve

Mine said if I'm very lucky, 12 months for the uppers, but probably at least 18 months for the lowers.

However although my uppers aren't that unneven individually, one side has a lot of movement to make (kind of concave->convex). So I'm prepared - rather miserably - for a longer wait.

To be honest I could live with one set for longer, it's both I hate.

This question has been consuming my thoughts as well. Last week the molar bands were installed. I get a 2-week "adjustment" period and then the rest of the kit will be installed.

Ortho told me "two to two-and-a-half years" - maybe that is just some standard thing to say. My situation seems simpler than many others, and in fact the ortho described it quite simply. No jaw expansion, no surgery, no tooth extractions, plenty of space in the jaw. Close up some gaps and straighten out the ones the flare out and turn a couple that have rotated slightly.

2.5 years sounds awfully long - I'll be over 50 by the time I'm done! But the tech did tell me confidentially that it would probably be shorter. I think she was hinting that the ortho prefers to estimate over rather than under, so the patient won't be disappointed if it's not done fast. So I'll just have to see how the teeth start moving, and get a sense of whether I'll actually luck out and have only 1.5 years.

However, I have taken the ortho at her word and am willing to accept 2.5 years if that is what it takes.

The good news is, I'm adjusted to the bands and they don't hurt and I've learned to use the wax properly. Yay, me!

You've learned how to use the wax properly? I have not yet learned, I think. Care to pass on some advice on the matter?

I've been told 18-24 months. They were pretty sure it would only be 1 1/2 years, though, but said I should count on 2 years so I wouldn't be disappointed if it went over the 1 1/2.
My ortho has said a couple of times since that my progress is good, so I'm hoping for the shorter time

My ortho told me a year and a half but I was really upset because that meant they wouldn't be off by the time I get senior pictures, so she said I could come every 4 weeks instead of 6 and have them off in around a year.

I didn't know you can get braces adjusted at a shorter time! Hey mackenzie, are your teeth still moving properly even though their getting adjusted in 4 weeks instead of 6? I'm thinking about asking my ortho about getting them adjusted for every 5 weeks instead of 6.

I was told I would be in them for 30-36 months.
I go for my adjustments every 4 weeks. That's how its been since I had the top ones put on in July and the bottom in November.

I believe the average is around 18 months to 2 years. My treatment should take around 3-4 year but then again I am defnitely not average. My ortho says I am his most complicated case! Thats always what I wanted to hear right? Lately I've been going in every 3-4 weeks for adjustments but this time will be 5 because of vacation!

Good luck!

-Hannah




Top braces: 4/28/04
Bottom braces: 11/16/05

Thanks for your responses. I might ask my ortho if i can get my adjustments every 4 weeks too.. and see what he thinks? thanks mackenzie for that one

I girl i worked with, said when she was younger and had the elastic bands.. i have got then yet ( the ones that go from your top arch to bottom arch) and she you'll too double them up to speed up the process....i wonder if her ortho noticed? i dont know if that is a good idea, maybe not?

Although i would of loved to have braces at 14, i see the positives of doing it a little later, you have alot of people who have been here done that.
And i am definatly wearing my retainer once that braces come off, now i have braces all these people say, "simone, your got braces... i had them when i was 14 etc"
and some of them, their teeth have moved so much i didnt even realised they have orthodontics. (not meaning to be mean)

my ortho said 4-8 months for me....seems unusually short?? but at least another 8 months of retainer afterwards....and I'm only doing upper...maybe that is why?

Jenn17780 wrote:Hey mackenzie, are your teeth still moving properly even though their getting adjusted in 4 weeks instead of 6?

I think they are. Everything seems good, and I have never had any pain that has stopped me from eating anything I want.