Unecessary Extractions?

[JenB]

Is it possible that my Ortho has unecessarily extracted 2 of my upper teeth to make room for crowding teeth? (no overbite/overjet issues). The reason I am asking is because I was suppose to be out of braces after two years (January 2005) and have now been in them for three years this month with no end in sight; also, my top gaps are not closing and I have a space between my two front teeth. it appears to me that there is too much room for movement! I asked my Ortho about closing loops to speed it up and she had a reason for not using them, I think it was that she felt it would cause my teeth to move inwards.

I am really panicking! I am so tired of being in braces at this point I could cry!

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!

Jen

[dr.j]

Got pics? I'm interested.

[JenB]

How do I post pics? anyone.......?

[Avarik]

Try going to http://imageshack.us/, and then uploading the picture to that site. Afterwords, copy and pase the part where it says "thumbnail for forums (1)."

[JenB]

Okay, I have no idea if I've done this right, but here goes....

[jennielee81]

Wow...3 years with extraction gaps? No overjet to pull back and fill them? Looks like the crowding is gone...

I for one interrested in hearing what Dr. J has to add.

[dr.j]

I am assuming upper exo's only? This does happen sometimes. Upper exo's only are good in upper crowding with/without overjet or overjet with/without crowding The requirement is that the canine relationship biting down should be CLASS 2. Which is tooth-on-top-of-a-tooth (picture the upper and lower canines point to point). Then with the upper bicuspid exo's the canines are retracted, the crowding is accessed and overjet can be attacked. It appears her bite is almost too good: no overjet to pull back and fill the gaps with. This is not to say uneccessary exo's. But they need to be closed by back teeth coming forward only. This is a tough order: power chains do not preferentially pull on back teeth more than front teeth. Thus the bite on the left canine is pulled back too far into class 3 and the upper midline has followed. It should work out ok but you may be in for a bit a of a haul in braces. Good luck.

Can you get side shot pics of your bite?
If you had lower exo's just ignore about all that I just posted!

dr.j

[JenB]

Wow! what great feedback! However, I did have two molars extracted from the bottom teeth as well! So what does that mean? I have thought of asking my ortho to just take the braces of and leave the gaps!!! I REALLY don't want to have to do this, but can't go another year with braces.

I took the best possible pictures I could, I hope they help! As you can see the bottom still has ample spaces as well!

Jen

[dr.j]

Well you are still class 2 on the right so that helps. Hard to really say if exo's were uneccessary. You just may have a type of bone metabolism that prevents the bone from breaking down and allowing tooth movement.

Good luck. Has your doc tried closing loops. You can really generate some force with those much more than chains which under go rapid force decay.

[Liza Bee]

I think it is understandably very difficult for an orthodontist to directly criticize the work of a fellow orthodontist. I know that my own orthodontist feels strongly that teeth should not be extracted except in some rare circumstances. He gets some beautiful results (www.gulfcoastorthodontics.com), his goal is a nice broad smile.

Ultimately, Jen, I think you will get a nice result, but I think you instinctively know that extracting teeth was not necessarily in your best interest. You are young, you've come this far... Hang in there! You will enjoy great teeth for so many years that this will be a distant memory one day.