Metal Mouth Message Board

I had my upper 1st premolars and lower 2nd premolars extracted. How long will it take for these gaps to be closed?

I was told 1-2mm per month but I guess it depends on what you are using to close the gaps, closing loops, elastics, etc.

Henna_the_braceface wrote:I had my upper 1st premolars and lower 2nd premolars extracted. How long will it take for these gaps to be closed?

I had the opposite of you. I had my upper 2nd premolar and my bottom 1st premolar. Ive been braces for a month, and i think i see some movement in my top ones. not a whole lot but a little is something. i still need to get braces on my bottom.

ok thanks

I had all four 2nd premolars removed. I am now 21 months into treatment and the upper gaps are completely closed whilst my ortho has only recently (past four months) started to try and close the lowers. The lowers are much more stubborn than the uppers - something to do with the jaw bone I think - so after four months of concentrated efforts at closing them, there is still about a 1mm gap there. My ortho used a combination of heavy springs and elastics to close the gaps but it's very slow going.

Speak to your ortho, he/she may be concentrating on correcting other areas of your teeth before your gaps are closed...

Katy

Having a spring over each extraction gap, it took 6 months for my bicuspid gaps to close, and now I have gaps in the front on the sides instead. All of that will be fixed as my arches widen though.

Yes I have this really stubborn tooth which is not getting straight no matter what. He (my ortho) even made my next appointment 2 weeks earlier than usual because of that tooth. Maybe he's concentrating on that...