Metal Mouth Message Board

I get my braces on on 03nov05... Hence the username, I've always been self concious about my two front bugs bunny teeth. I've obsessed over photos of 'ideal' smiles and noticed a common bond – vertically, their shape takes on a rectangular form.

I feel my teeth take on a more triagular form. They’re big and long.. They start off narrow at the top and widen toward the bottom. I have a bimaxillary protrusion (whatever that means), class II, 5mm overjet, , 50% overbite, Max/mand crowding.

Here's my question. Is slenderizing an option for a purpose as vain as mine? I feel that my teeth are too wide and I'm afraid that once my overbite is fixed, my two front teeth will look more 'bucked' than they did when I started.

I want to know if it's possible to shave off a bit on either or both of the sides of my two front teeth? I don’t mind them being long as much as I mind them being W-I-D-E. Am I crazy?

Near the end of treatment the doc can hopefully bring better height to width proportionality. The thing is - is that your teeth really need to be wider on the edge than at the top by the gums. Triangular if you will. If they are wide and parallel sided they are not very amenable to disking. Sometimes a tooth mass discrepancy in the front can imply a slightly compromsied overbite/overjet if the teeth are not amenable to disking.

Dr.J

I thought my teeth were proportioned fine until I had my braces on for a year and a half or so. I've had slenderizing/filing done at least three times on different parts of my mouth. It started out that my front tooth was longer than the other and it had to be filed down. I also have teeth that are wider at the top. My two front teeth are aligned perfectly now but there is a small black triangle where they don't meet and there isn't any gum tissue to fill it. I had asked about filing some more to get rid of it, since that's what was done the first time it appeared. The original ortho I started with moved so the new one stated that if he were to file more it could pinch the gum in between the teeth. I've read other posts similar that people were upset that their teeth didn't meet the expectations they had beforehand due to the shape of their teeth. I didn't like having to wait for the shaping to take place. Your teeth have to be pretty straight before they can file, otherwise when they become straight the previous filing was off. I had the longer front tooth for over a year or so, I didn't think it was that bad until I saw pictures of myself, lol. Oh well, it ended up okay.

My front teeth are wider than they are long, too, but, I didn't want to mess with them. I figured its a cultural thing how slender we want them or whatever. I'm happy with mine, even though more slender teeth makes your face look long and slender. Ah well.

Wow, your teeth are beautiful!! I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Thanks guys... just trying to show original poster that square teeth CAN work...

Karen, actually the left one went up just a tad bit... nothing anyone else can tell, but I can. It's so little, though, that it doesnt bother me really, this time. It's at the most a mm shorter than it was, but its still longer than the teeth around it so it looks fine.