Metal Mouth Message Board

I am new to the forum. I wanted to introduce myself and tell my story. I was a thumb sucker until the age of 12. That caused my arch to narrow and caused a bad cross bite and slightly gappy buck teeth. I had a RPE to correct my bite when I was 14. although I still had a slightly crooked mouth and gappy buck teeth.
My sibling had much, much worse teeth and our family scrimped for braces for her because she could not even chew. She emerged four years later a beautiful swan.
I always longed for the transformation that happened with my sister. I had enough money in my bank account as a teenager to pay for my own braces, but my parents would not let me. They thought I just wanted them for the novelty factor.
When I was an adult, I paid for my own treatment. I had four pre-molars pulled to correct my maxillofacial protrusion. In addition, they corrected a deep bite. I wore the braces for 4 years and was fitted with upper and lower hawley retainers. I did not have quite the dramatic duckling to swan transofrmation that occurred with my sister, but everyone commented on how much prettier I was. The day after I got them off, a stranger commented on how beautiful my teeth were. That was the one and only time.
I wore the retainer, but it could not prevent the deep bite from returning. As the deep bite returned, my lowers began hitting the back of the uppers, and began tipping the roots out. while the retainer held the lower part of the teeth in place.My teeth took on a tipped toward the palate look that I didn't really care for. I ignored it for the most part, until I was engaged in a conversation with co-workers about braces, and I mentioned that I had them. One of the co-workers looked at me in disbelief and said, "You'd never know." I began to study pictures, and began to realize how bad they looked.
I had some bonding done on them to improve the appearance two years ago, but they continue to shift. My dentist cannot bond them any more, and I cannot afford another round of braces, so, I am in the process of creating my own homemade orthodontic device as well as manipulating my upper hawley in an attempt to return my teeth to a more pleasing position. I will post my homemade appliance journey if any one cares to follow.

Very interesting! I'd love to see what you come up with!

Since you didn't mention it in you post, I have to ask: Have you discussed your concerns with your ortho? Even if some time has elapsed since your treatment, you are entitled to longterm results. Any ortho with integrity should recognize this. You may have to pay the cost for new retainers or other hardware, but it would be only a fraction of the cost of new treatment.

IMHO, making homemade modifications to orthodontic appliances is risky at best and could exacerbate your concerns. I wish you the best, and please keep us posted.

Well, I am about 30 days in. I have been wearing the hawley16 hours 4 days a week and 24 hours 3 days a week. I don"t wear it to work. I am pleased to say that my left central is back in line with the other teeth now, so it looks a lot better. The homemade "bite plate" that I fashioned out of boil and mold mouth guards, was not as sucessfull as I had hoped it would be. I have set that aside for now, and am trying another technique to intrude the deep bite on the centrals. I looped an elastic band around the bow of the hawley on one end, and fastened it to a small hole I drilled in the roof oof the hawley and fastened that with dental floss. The band goes from the bow and loops under one tooth and connects to the roof of the retainer providing upward force on the tooth. That is definetly working. I will do one tooth at a time with that. I will probably dust off the boil-n-bite mouth guard as a retention device for the intrusion, as the hawley will not retain the vertical force. That will conclude phase 1. I will post pics as soon as I get them uploaded to a host.