I had braces when I was a teen, as was normal for my hometown in the midwest. Braces came off, teeth were 'perfect' and after many years, I still periodically wore my retainer to keep my teeth straight.
About 7 years ago, I started having jaw problems. My jaw locked open, my jaw locked closed. I've had 6 or so splints, seen a dozen doctors, about 1/2 being 'specialists'. I was in chronic severe pain with a closed bite and a mere 18mm opening to slide food in..oh, and I had a love of vicodin.
I had seen specialists who told me I was just depressed, specialists who made splints that caused excruciating pain and had arthrosentesis by a Surgeon who needed some nice pictures for a presentation on TMJ he was doing...at least he ordered an MRI first and diagnosed me with a displaced disc without reduction...or somesuch fancy diagnosis that at least made me feel like at least someone was listening to me about something being wrong in my jaw and that it wasn't imagined.
I finally found, by accident of his office being close to my new home, a specialist who acutally relieved my pain. It took 5 years to find this 'GOD' and I only required tylenol or ibuprofen a couple times a week for breakthrough pain. After a couple years of splint therapy treatment (my tomograms show my jaw joint to have a nice calcium deposit that makes it look like the head of a chicken and some serious errosion), he told me that I would need orthognathic surgery and that should fix my bite for good. Yippee!!..or so I thought.
I had a consultation with an orthognathic surgeon who said I was a great candidate for surgery and I just needed braces so they could band my mouth shut post-op.
I had the consultation with the orthodontist who said HE could fix me with braces and 'anchor screws'. Well, I had to have braces anyway, so why not go his way...at least I wouldn't have to have my bones sawed. I warned him that I could be a difficult patient because I need to be involved in my treatment.
Well, he said I could get ceramic on the bottom and lengual on the top. OK, I thought. Vanity is an issue only because I am a part time entertainer. Well, when I went in to get the braces installed, he said I needed metal since they will have to apply so much force it would likely crack the ceramic. Ok, I thought, noone sees my bottom teeth anyway.
I've been in for many adjustments and he never tells me what is going on. It began to make me very angry. My pain level for TMJ started getting really bad to the point were depression was setting in and my stomach was gettin eaten up from the amount of ibuprofen I was taking. I told him and he said let's wait till your jaw calms down before we continue treatment. I got a new perscription for vicodin from my internist and am able to tolerate the pain and treatment is continuing, but he does not discuss what is going on in my mouth! How am I supposed to know how much pain to tolerate if he doesn't tell me what is going on? How do I know if I am doing damage if he never says anything other than, well, we can slow down on treatment until you feel better.
He tells me to wear rubber bands, but they aggravate my jaw. He tells me not to wear them, then when I go back, he asks me why I am not wearing them. I am an adult. By day, I have a job as a scientist, I have two degrees, I need to know WHAT is being done in my mouth. 'moving teeth' is not an acceptable explaination.
I became non-compliant. He told me I need braces on my upper teeth and that lengual were not an option anymore. I asked him why I needed them, my teeth are straight. He said I need braces on my top teeth so he can move my bottom teeth...I need more explaination than that. I wear a splint..so my teeth won't be moving...if he is using my top teeth to move my bottom teeth, how is that going to protect my jaw joint? How is he going to conserve my joint space? I asked him what would happen if I didn't get braces on my top teeth. His reply "I would have to stop treatment" Seriously? That is all the explaination I got. So I consented to getting the spacers put in for the installation of the upper braces with the plan that I had a couple weeks to figure out what I was going to do.
This was over the christmas holiday and one evening I was so angry from thinking about the orthodontist that I removed my spacers. 2 rubber and 2 metal. The 2 metal were challenging. I eventually got in contact with the orthognathic surgeon who told me he wouldn't do the surgery since the orthodontist said he could move my teeth enough. He told me to continue treatment. I went to see my jaw 'GOD' and he told me that I needed to continue treatment and talk to the Othodontist since the orthodontist has such a great reputation. whatever. I went back to the Orthodontists office to get the spacers put back in...they didn't ask any questions, but seemed surprised that all 4 came out...and said they were going to make sure they weren't coming out again...took them a half hour to put them in...
Well, the ceramic uppers were installed today. The Orhodontist was polite to me, but didn't say much. I wonder if the other Drs had called him like they said they were going to. I was very polite and had taken a vicodin before going in so that I would be nice and mellow.
Then I went back to work and was looking up what I should not eat in order to not stain my braces (it has been like 15 years since I last had braces) and came upon this website. Suddenly I see this page describing the feelings typical for adult patients. Midlife Metal Mouth by Lynn Schneider. Suddenly I don't feel like crap for feeling hostility towards my Orthodontist and plan on speaking to him about this problem instead of bottling it up until I explode. Thankyou Lynn.
