Metal Mouth Message Board

As the title suggests Those of you who had SARPE, how long were you left with a gap in your teeth?

I can cope with the braces but I really don't think I can handle the idea of having a massive gap So I'm just wondering how long I would have to have it for.

I had my surgery Nov 26th, expanded by 7mm and my gap was about 6mm two weeks after surgery. I know this is weird, but I quite liked it, I knew I was never going to have a gap between my front teeth ever again so I just embraced it as a quirky look I had for a while (odd as Im not a particularly positive person day to day :p) My gap started to close immediately after the two weeks as I was braced 4 months prior to surgery and had a power chain put on, today my front teeth are touching with just a teeny gap at the "top" of the teeth. Having said all that, the idea of a gap never bothered me prior to surgery, my main concern was surgery related nausea

revelvia, have you found the mega SARPE thread yet? There's the whole range of experience there.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5144

Average time with gap is 3 to 4 months. Emphasis on "average"

sauerkraut wrote:revelvia, have you found the mega SARPE thread yet? There's the whole range of experience there.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5144

Average time with gap is 3 to 4 months. Emphasis on "average"

I have but thank you! I have been reading that thread but as the majority of topics are understandably about other things to do with it and living with the bizarre contraption, I thought I could get more specific answers here. But eeee, 3 - 4 months, I just don't think I could do that

Yeah, that thread can get a bit overwhelming! But there's quite a bit of talk about gaps in the more recent pages (95-ish onwards I believe) that you might want to look at. As for surviving 3 or 4 months with a gap, well, consider it short-term hardship for long-term gain. Hard to believe until you've gone through it yourself but it really isn't that bad .

it's been 3 months for me at this point, my gap was HUGE at 11mm, and it's close to 4mm now.

it's not really that big of an issue if you don't make it one. kind of irritating but whatever. worth it for the end result.

oh and for the record, my gap didn't close at ALL for almost the first two months (was expanding for almost a full month, no closure really in the first 3 weeks after) and from that point it's actually been pretty rapid.

if you need SARPE i say go for it. if you don't want to because you're afraid of a few months of change... then it's really only your loss, you're missing out on a beautiful smile for the rest of your life.

I had a HUGE gap after I finished expanding 2 weeks after SARPE (this was in September 2010). Starting in November (once my palate healed enough) my ortho put a powerchain across my front 4 teeth and as of my last adjustment (4 days ago on Friday) my front teeth are nearly together again, just BARELY a tiny space in between.

I had sarpe (6/09) and expanded to 10mm. I got my braces on (10/09) and my gap hasn't quite closed yet. I think in another month it should be fully closed.

I had SARPE in June 2010. My gap was huge (about a tooth and a half wide!) and did not close until about the end of August. My braces went on in early Sept. I only had a small gap by that point and it closed quickly thereafter. I too can echo the earlier comments that, once I was fully expanded, the gap did not begin to close for about a month and then moved quite rapidly.

i had about 20mm worth of expansion and did not have braces put on until 3 months after surgery- which was a week after I got my RPE out. Its now four months later and I still have about 16mm worth of gap My gap did not start to close at all until AFTER I got my braces and this power chain on

Oh, I'm so freaked out! Sorry to bump this old thread, but did anyone's ortho offer to make a false tooth to cover the gap? Mine told me that was possible (at my first consultation last week), but i don't know if it would be worth it or not. Guess I'll have to find out the specifics of my case.

It seems that the gap only lasts about a month for most people. There are lots of tutorials on youtube on how to hide the gap using wax, etc. Good luck

Welp, I couldn't find anyone who had their gap only last a month

Even the poster above, who had their gap immediately power-chained after expansion, took about 2 months to close. That's not including the time they had a gap while they were expanding (including that it would be 2.5 months).

It looks like in most cases the surgeon/ortho want to wait for the bone to heal a bit before they start closing the gap, so the 3-4 month average seems much more likely.

My gap is pretty massive. It was at about 12mm last I checked. (I expanded to 13mm and it took a month of turning to get there!) Wax didn't work because the gap is too big, but fortunately, my ortho's office made an impression of the space the day I stopped expanding, and had a false tooth ready for me two days later. It looks somewhat weird to me, but less weird than the gap.

With the gap, whenever I had to open my mouth to talk to a cashier or server, there would be this quick expression of shock, like they totally weren't expecting my Spencer's Halloween teeth I've got going on.

At least I'm not getting that reaction with the fake tooth. I'm supposed to go in every 2 wks to have it shaved down to keep enough room for my teeth to come together.

I had my upper archwire and a powerchain put in the same day as the fake tooth, so my gap is already starting to close. But, I know it's going to take a while! I've got just about twice the space to fill as the poster above, so I'm expecting anywhere from 2-4 months for it to close from this point. Maybe longer. I'll keep an eye on this thread, and post back when the gap is closed so future SARPE folks can have an idea of what they're getting into