Andromeda's Braces Story

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#46 Post by **Neptune** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:23 pm

Hey Andromeda - the mouthguard sounds like a great solution, but make sure to run it by your orthodontist. What with the pressure you're feeling in your back teeth, I'd hate for you to find that you're unintentionally extruding teeth that shouldn't be.

#47 Post by **brika** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:34 pm

Ahh, I see what you're saying! That makes sense--that way they can shift the front row of teeth without affecting the back ones. I wonder why it's so hard to find info on how exactly the wire is activated, though!

I'm sorry to hear about all of the soreness. Hopefully it'll pass soon!

#48 Post by **Andromeda** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:45 am

Hi againbrace - thanks for the info, it was very helpful! And thanks for confirming my guess that my archwire is not actually trying to move my teeth yet. I hope what you say is true and that they will move fast once the wire is activated. I'll be interested to see what he does to get the wire activated to do its work since my teeth need to move forward and not back like yours.

In regards to treatment time, I just hope it doesnt get extended AGAIN. I was supposed to debrace the first week of April but he said its more like late May, early June now. That makes me miss my birthday, my hubbys birthday, and our wedding anniversary... but now I'm just hoping my hubby will get to see me brace free before he leaves for a 12 month deployment to Iraq this July...

#49 Post by ***melissa*** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:52 am

I just looked at the size of the elastics you have...holy crap, no wonder you're in so much pain! Those things are tiny! I can't imagine having to change those 3-4 times a day... it's hard enough trying to change the bigger ones.
I hope I don't ever have those 1/8" ones... can you imagine how painful THOSE would be?!?

#50 Post by **zoeandnimo** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:06 pm

Hi there - ok, I had to write because I just got elastics on and I am having a similar issue to yours. Suddenly it is so much work to pull my lower jaw back, and when I relax the lower teeth keep moving forward and slamming into my upper teeth. It is horrible!! So far i've had them two nights and both nights I've ended up taking them out halfway through the night. I kept waking up in so much pain I just couldn't keep them in.

Have you figured out if this is normal?? Is it getting any better for you after a few weeks??

#51 Post by **Andromeda** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:25 pm

zoeandnimo - well theres good and bad to what's happening for me.

The good thing is that I thought the jaw pain would never stop but it realy did. Its so odd but it doesn't hurt at all and I think my body just sort of *knows* to keep pulling my jaw back so now I don't have to think about it, it just happens naturally and fels no different than when the elastics are out.

The bad thing is that I already was starting to develop an underbite before elastics and these are making it worse. I now cannot physically move my lower jaw into a position where the lower teeth are behind the uppers in front. My ortho claims he will fix this with my wire tho...

I go back on Tuesday so Ill have more of an update then and will hopefully get some progress pics up so everyone can see what Im talking about.

#52 Post by **Andromeda** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 8:10 am

Wow I just spent forever posting on my adjustment yesterday and then accidentally closed out the window before I posted it

Here goes again...

Had an adjustment yesterday and couple things happened:

Ortho gave me new elastics configuration which is different from before and different on both sides of my mouth. I did mention my question about why I had classII elastics before with my underbite bc everyone on here was saying that they make underbites worse, and he didnt really say why I had them but he did confirm that it was not a mistake. So now I have classIII's on my right side so the exact opposite from before. I have a "swing" elastic on my left side which hooks to my lower first bicuspid, swings up over my top canine, and hooks down onto my lower canine.

I had gotten a new top wire last month with loops in it but I didnt see any movement. He said thats because it was just moving my roots. He changed it so now he said it will be moving the crowns (part of the tooth we can see) so I should be able to see progress. He cut the wire after my first molars so now my second molars are no longer in it. Then he took it out and bent it some more so we could get the front teeth to move forward and get rid of this underbite.

I have really noticed a huge change overnight! My top teeth are really starting to come forward and down, but since my elastics config. is different on both sides of the mouth, my smile is slanted now. The left front teeth are down a lot further than the right ones, but I'm sure he'll keep changing things up until both sides are even.

I was originally estimated debracing in April, then last month he said I had 10-12 weeks left. That was exactly 4 weeks ago. I asked again yesterday and he said 8-10 weeks!!! I was like, excuse me but it shoudl be 6-8 weeks because you said 10-12 last time, and he just said that we'd do the best we could. He said "I should be able to give you almost an exact date next time." I'm getting annoyed at his crummy estimates.

He wanted to see me in 4 weeks but the assistant was awesome and scheduled me to come back in 3. I go back on April 27. I think he said he'd be bending my archwire again, probably new elastics configuration, and he might have mentioned powerchains.

There was also another issue that came up, which I posted about in the Metal Mouth Forum here:
viewtopic.php?t=30447
Basically my top laterals aren't shaped right and he said I'll either need cosmetic bonding or have some IPR, or else when I'm all done I will have a "hole" or space that you can see through when I smile between my top laterals and canines on both sides.

If anyone wants to read the post for more details and offer up any advice, I'd be very appreciative. They booked me extra time at my next appointment to get the IPR done if that's what I choose, so I need to make my decision on what I want in the next 3 weeks.

Thanks!

#53 Post by **beth1966** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:18 am

[quote="Andromeda"]Ok so here are the pics - I took ones without my elastics so you can see the teeth better and then ones with the elastics. Sorry my teeth look kind of yucky bc I didn't brush before taking these...

Notice that the space between my two front teeth is pretty well closed - it closed in like 12 hours! Also notice the crazy hoops in my top archwire!

Hi! Are you still wearing the elastics? Are you able to speak with them in - I know I will need those eventually and I wonder how I can open my mouth enough to speak.

So you said to me on my post - that your top teeth never hit your bottoms so you were able to have the clear on bottom too. They look so close to hitting - but it never happens right? Just seems like a lot of orthos refuse to put the ceramics on bottom teeth - I wonder if that is just their general rule for all - even tho some (like us) could get away with it? You feel it is worth it to have ceramic on bottom right? Can you feel a difference between the metal innovation-r's on your back teeth vs. the inovation-c's on your front? I've heard some say the R's (metal inovations) are less bulky.

#54 Post by **Andromeda** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 11:13 am

Hi Beth, yes Im still wearing the elastics but in a different configuration than before. I can talk ok with them in tho at the beginning it was painful to do anything but after u get used to it, its not so bad. I didn't have a lisp or anything. These new ones are so tight on my right side that when I put fresh ones in I can't open my mouth at all. I have to talk with my teeth clenched. Then they get more stretched out and I can talk ok again.

Like I said I never had my teeth hit brackets. I don't forsee that being an issue. Its hard to say if I feel a difference in my back metal ones. If anything those are the most painful on my cheeks because they have the built in hooks for elastics wear and those hooks are pretty pokey. My ceramic front brackets have hooks too but they are flush in line with the rest of the bracket, they don't poke out. I don't know what front metal brackets would be like. I don't see too much of a size difference between my metals and ceramics either... the metals seem to cover most of my tooth just like the ceramics.

Looking back I don't think it mattered that I have ceramic on bottom bc everyone who meets me sees my braces right away. Kinda sucks but oh well.

Let me know if you have any more questions or need clarification on anything I said

#55 Post by **beth1966** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:26 pm

Thanks for the feedback and info! I'll probably go with the ceramic on bottom/front teeth too.

#56 Post by **Andromeda** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:32 pm

Alright finally have new pictures to show. I just took them today which is 4 days after my adjustment. Once again there are pics with and then without the elastics; I think the elastics configuration is good to see but they sort of block the shot of my bite so that's why I do both...

From the front (with elastics); that space between 2 front teeth came back

:

My right side which is now in classIII elastics:

My left side which is now in a "swing" elastic:

Notice how my top teeth slant down on my left side? You can tell the wire doesn't go straight across on top anymore. The teeth on my left are lower due to the fact that I'm wearing a different configuration of elastics on my left and the "swing' is pulling my teeth down where they should be. My right side wasn't ready for that yet.

You can see my canine and surrounding teeth are in much better position on this side as compared to my other side now.

The last picture is a good shot of my "hole' between the top lateral and canine that my ortho said won't go away due to the shape of my teeth and said I will either need bonding or IPR for. I don't know if it's really that big of a deal... I'd like to maybe wait and see how they turn out before deciding what to do but I don't know...

#57 Post by **danish** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 6:16 pm

looks good. It can't be long now..

Danish

#58 Post by **deuxsixquatre** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:30 pm

I don't get what you mean by slant down on the left side.

I'm not sure if you realised this but from your picture(front shot without elastics), your right(the picture's left) side is actually a flatter arch while the left side(picture's right) is sort of more linear. as in, I can see more of the teeth on your right side than on your left. so instead of a U arch that is symmetrical, i see more of a \_| kind of shape. Is that what you mean by the slant?

And it looks like the front gap has returned. Not trying to freak you out or anything like that.

A question, did your molars moved forward or something like that? Because the extraction gap has closed amazingly and it doesn't seemed like your top arch moved in a lot at all from the comparison pictures.

#59 Post by **Andromeda** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:36 pm

Hmm I don't think I see what you are saying about the arch. I think I understand what you're saying but I guess I don't really see it. The slant I was talking about is worse now so maybe my next pics will show it better. I don't really know how to explain it - I was basically just trying to say that I had an open bite on both sides and now my elastic has pulled my bite on the left closed a lot more vertically, so the top teeth are further down and the bottom teeth are further up on that side. I probably didn't explain it very well that time either, sorry

And yea I did realize that gap came back pretty quickly but my ortho assured me that once he starts to close my right side bite, it will close the gap as well. I think I might get powerchains next time as well but not sure. I go in this coming Monday so I'll do another update then.

What my ortho told me about my extraction gaps was that my molars would move forward a bit but mostly my first bicuspids would move back further and then that would create room finally to bring my canines down and put them in line with the rest of my teeth. They were raised up about a half tooth too high and pushed forward to begin with compared to the rest of teeth in my top arch, so there was no where for them to go until my first bicuspids moved back.

I never had an overbite/jet to begin with so I think you are right in saying my top arch hasn't moved too much. But I just barely had enough overlap in the front to start with and I apparently would have developed an overjet if not for the extractions once the canines came down. Some teeth on my right, especially my lateral, are not overlapping the lowers at all and so they need to be pushed forward a little still and then brought down.

Hope I answered your questions. I think it is really difficult to see some things just from pictures because they are not 3 dimensional but if you saw it in person, it would be easy to pick out.

#60 Post by **deuxsixquatre** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:47 pm

I went back and look at the pictures with the new explanations and I think I know what you're saying!

You're right about the slanted arch thing though. I was staring at the picture pretty hard and realised that it might just be the angle the picture was taken.

I really like your teeth, It's like just the right length. Not so long they look like fake veneers type of teeth but not short and gummy either.And everything looks good next to each other.