Is it okay for me to 'guide' the ortho???

[maddiesmom]

I'm halfway (hopefully!) through my sentence with braces and recently, when I go into the office, I've been bringing 'problem areas' to the attention of the ortho when he asks if I have any questions. I'm not trying to run the treatment but I do have some concerns that I want to bring up. At the last few visits I put in some requests thinking that somewhere down the line they would be addressed. Well, they were addressed that very day! One issue is that a few teeth are shorter than they should be and I asked if, at some point, they would be lengthened. He took a close look, said I was right, changed the position of my wire (I guess) and literally just days later my teeth were being pulled downwards and are now almost exactly the length I wanted them. Same thing with another issue about a tooth being too far back (in my opinion)... he took a close look, said I was right and is now pulling it out a bit so it's in line with the other teeth.

So:
1. Did he NOT see these problems before?

2. Is it okay/appropriate for me to come to some visits and point out things I'd like to address or should I trust in 'the master plan'?

3. Is there a sequence of problems which should be addressed?

4. I am happy he is so responsive but I'm not sure if it's a good thing that he wasn't already working on these things? Or maybe I'm just being too hasty?

5. Does 'tag-teaming' a few issues per visit speed the treatment? In other words, the ortho said, "Your wish is my command!" jokingly but then said I would be having a few other adjustments and so I was likely to be sore having another but he was happy to oblige if I felt up to it. Bottom line: I'd prefer to have multiple things done even if it means being in some discomfort temporarily if it speeds treatment time. Any thoughts?

As always, thanks for your replies!

[dr.j]

As an orthodontist I would say that your questions are welcome. I would also say that you probably are not guiding the doctor in most cases. We always get questions about "is this tooth going to move here?" or "will this tooth move down?" most of the time the answer is yes and it is going to be addressed at a certain point of treatment. I would not be worried that your ortho did not "notice" stuff. He probably saw an instance where he could go ahead and do something to make you happy so he moved the teeth down. MOre often than not, I tell parents what I'm doing with the treatment and they get "info overload" and indicate that they did not know that orthodontics entailed so much. As professionals, it is our job to recognize the different types of parents/patients:

1) those that have no questions and just come in and maybe talk about football, child raising, the weather -anything but teeth
2)those that come in with a question and are pretty laid back
3) those that have sveral questions, suggestions, and usually I know they might need extra time to talk to me and the staff. MOre TLC if you will
I would continue on the way you are but I would wager that your ortho knows his stuff and will be successful in making you happy with the tx.

Dr.J