My story: bimax pro, crowding, lip incompetency, extractions

[amywithlingual]

Hello!

Braces have been a very emotional issue for me and I decided to share my story if anyone is interested in seeing the progress and also so that I can connect with people who are also braces for the long haul! I do have lingual on top and ceramic at bottom but will be switching soon to ceramic on top as well since the lisping bugs me. :p

So I have slight bimax protrusion, lip incompetency, and slight crowding on the bottom.

My chin always dimples when I close my mouth and that's always bugged me

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It's like I have an orange for a chin when I try to look serious haha!

Also my upper arch always seemed too big for my mouth... My teeth stick out a bit when I smile and the teeth go beyond my lips. One of my incisors cuts into my bottom lip every time I smile, so much so that I got a hematoma last year :/ my GP suggested braces to move it back a bit so it wouldn't be as irritating.

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My natural laughter smile is like this:
But I've learned to smile a fake smile for photos so that it looks better...

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But I want to be the real me and smile a real smile! And not have my mouth open all the time because my lips don't touch.
So I decided to take the plunge! When I had braces the first time as a teen, my ortho wanted to remove teeth but my parents wouldn't let them... After braces, I still had an overbite and I had to adapt the fake smile.

I am now 24 and went through a break up with my fiance so I decided it was time for a new me and new confidence in myself!

My first ortho consult suggested extractions after successfully guessing I used to have braces but opted out of extraction. But he didn't do lingual braces...so referred me to another ortho who did do lingual braces. This is my current ortho! He agreed with the first ortho's treatment plan. He said I could have straight teeth without extractions but my smile would still jut out a bit and I would still have lip incompetency... so I went ahead and got my premolars extracted ! Both he and my oral surgeon said there is no link to TMJ (and I am in grad school so naturally I reviewed all the primary literature comparing longitudinal studies between groups of people with or without extractions, and there was no significance).

Anyway, I apologize for not having better pics of the inside of my mouth but those will come soon
I just need to figure out how to angle it with my phone haha!

I am now in my first month of treatment and am both so excited to see the progress but also terrified of the posts I've seen on here about regretting extractions. My ortho assured me I would have enough tongue space even with retraction (since obviously my biggest fear now is TMJ and sleep apnea from all the scary google searches lol).

Ahhhhh I am so excited for my new smile but also so scared and anxious thinking "What have I done?"
For you extraction people out there, you're still alive and kicking right? Haha.

Anyway I am only one month in and 12 more months to go! Hurray!

Thank you for all of you who comment/message me/ give me support! It helps so much to know people are going through the same things I hope I can do the same for all of you!

[jsotang]

I feel like our cases are pretty similar! I'm supposed to get my braces sometime this month. My chin also dimples and looks like an orange peel because I have to push my bottom lip up to meet my top lip in order to close my mouth. When I relax my lips, my chin drops back into the position I assume it's supposed to be in and it looks normal (smooth and positioned lower)! And I've been stressing because I was also told that I'd need extractions and I've read things about sleep apnea, TMJ, not having enough room for the tongue, having a "dished-in" or sunken look.. My reason for wanting braces is primarily aesthetic - I'm not happy with my protrusive profile. My teeth aren't terribly crooked or anything and my bite is good, I just want everything to move in, you know?

I'd really love for you to keep us updated along your treatment! Can you share any pictures of your profile?

Also, did your extractions hurt? How many extractions did you get at a time? I'm scheduled to get 4 premolars removed 2 at a time, 2 weeks apart, but I was thinking of asking the dentist to get them all done at once. You know, to get it over with sooner ah, I don't know!

[amywithlingual]

I feel like our cases are pretty similar! I'm supposed to get my braces sometime this month. My chin also dimples and looks like an orange peel because I have to push my bottom lip up to meet my top lip in order to close my mouth. When I relax my lips, my chin drops back into the position I assume it's supposed to be in and it looks normal (smooth and positioned lower)! And I've been stressing because I was also told that I'd need extractions and I've read things about sleep apnea, TMJ, not having enough room for the tongue, having a "dished-in" or sunken look.. My reason for wanting braces is primarily aesthetic - I'm not happy with my protrusive profile. My teeth aren't terribly crooked or anything and my bite is good, I just want everything to move in, you know?

I'd really love for you to keep us updated along your treatment! Can you share any pictures of your profile?

Also, did your extractions hurt? How many extractions did you get at a time? I'm scheduled to get 4 premolars removed 2 at a time, 2 weeks apart, but I was thinking of asking the dentist to get them all done at once. You know, to get it over with sooner ah, I don't know!

Hello! Yeah I always felt self conscious about my lips being open...and having teeth that sort of jut out. My bite is good too... I went to my GP for a check up yesterday...asked her about sleep apnea and tongue sizes and she looked at mine and said it seemed "normal".

Here is my profile:

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I swing back and forth about whether or not I did the right thing...most days, I am very excited about my new smile! I don't think an ortho would take a case that was inherently dangerous. (Lawsuit?)

On other days, I worry about whether I will be the 1% who seem to have had a horrible outcome. I honestly don't think that all those horrible things happen to the majority of people or else there would be a huge uproar about it. I mean, vaccinations do not cause autism but you can google that and a million things come up. When you google the bicuspid removal, only this website, yahoo answers ortho TOOTH693 whatever comes up, and that Dr. Hang. You don't see anything in the studies or published anywhere. And you do see people on this website who've had it work for them!

Similarly dental implants are 90-95% successful...but if you google them, all you see are stories of failure and dangers associated. I think people who are successful in their treatment move on! You hear negative things from the people it affected negatively the most. Anyway, I'm ranting now :p

The extractions were a piece of cake! They didn't hurt at all, just gurgle with salt water. I did them all at once because I didn't want to eat soft food for a week TWO TIMES

Did you get a second opinion?

Keep me updated too! It helps to have somebody going through the same things

[jsotang]

I'm definitely going to ask to have all 4 removed at my appointment on Monday, then! I don't want to go through the hassle twice, either haha. Then I should be getting braced up no later than September 30th. Seems so far away! I wish it was sooner, but the ortho is all booked up until then.

I'm jealous that you only have 12 more months to go! My treatment plan is estimated to take 22-24 months :X

I did get a second opinion, and I told the orthodontist that my main concern was my profile and how much my mouth sticks out. She also said I'd need extractions and that, at most, braces would probably move my mouth in a few mm and that she couldn't, in good conscience, recommend that I get braces because my bite is good. She said that, if my concern was the little furrow on my chin (orange peel status), it would probably still be there after treatment. She said that a genioplasty would fix the chin thing. All this info got me pretty discouraged.. but, after I decided to go with my current ortho, he showed me a simulation of what my profile would look like after treatment and it was fantastttiicccc. I really hope I achieve those results!! It'd be a dream come true haha He also mentioned that, after treatment, I could get a genioplasty because my chin would be slightly weak, but I think I'd be happy with just the results he showed me, without a genioplasty. Because honestly they were magical. But now I'm babbling.

I'll let you know how extractions go! And when I get braced up I'm getting all metal, top and bottom :d

Oh! Did you have to have spacers before you got your braces? I feel like I would need them, because it doesn't look like there's any room between my molars, but the ortho hasn't said anything about them. It'd be such a letdown if I go in on the 30th expecting to come out with braces on, only to find out that I need spacers and will get braces at some later date! Bah

[amywithlingual]

I'm definitely going to ask to have all 4 removed at my appointment on Monday, then! I don't want to go through the hassle twice, either haha. Then I should be getting braced up no later than September 30th. Seems so far away! I wish it was sooner, but the ortho is all booked up until then.

I'm jealous that you only have 12 more months to go! My treatment plan is estimated to take 22-24 months :X

I did get a second opinion, and I told the orthodontist that my main concern was my profile and how much my mouth sticks out. She also said I'd need extractions and that, at most, braces would probably move my mouth in a few mm and that she couldn't, in good conscience, recommend that I get braces because my bite is good. She said that, if my concern was the little furrow on my chin (orange peel status), it would probably still be there after treatment. She said that a genioplasty would fix the chin thing. All this info got me pretty discouraged.. but, after I decided to go with my current ortho, he showed me a simulation of what my profile would look like after treatment and it was fantastttiicccc. I really hope I achieve those results!! It'd be a dream come true haha He also mentioned that, after treatment, I could get a genioplasty because my chin would be slightly weak, but I think I'd be happy with just the results he showed me, without a genioplasty. Because honestly they were magical. But now I'm babbling.

I'll let you know how extractions go! And when I get braced up I'm getting all metal, top and bottom :d

Oh! Did you have to have spacers before you got your braces? I feel like I would need them, because it doesn't look like there's any room between my molars, but the ortho hasn't said anything about them. It'd be such a letdown if I go in on the 30th expecting to come out with braces on, only to find out that I need spacers and will get braces at some later date! Bah

Mines only taking a year because my ortho uses Suresmile, a program that engineers the precise angles of the wires which reduces treatment time by up to 40% I believe! Genioplasty was suggested to me too... as well as jaw surgery! But both of those seem sort of intense. Well, if the shrunken profile thing is true (prominent nose and chin forming), we'll both get free genioplasties LOL

Wow you got to see a simulation??? That sounds high tech! I'm jealous! I'll just have to use the old fashioned method of wait and see
Why would your chin be weak after ortho work though?

Good luck on your extraction day! The 30th is soon, gurrrrrl! Eat all the hard crunchy foods you can haha.
I'm 3 weeks in my first month of treatment and already have had 1mm of gap closure without any powerchains or elastics (I'm on my first wire!) so I hope progress is as fast for you too!

The one downside I have to admit is I am losing track of what my original bite feels like and what feels "normal" to me when I rest my teeth on each other. I know people say you settle into your new bite eventually after your teeth are done moving, but it feels so strange to me as of now!

I did not get spacers and was wondering why I didn't, actually. I never asked my ortho because I didn't want to remind him in case he forgot LOL

Lastly, my ortho is doing 50/50 retraction of front teeth and pulling of molars forward. I believe all the disaster cases that scared us were mostly retraction heavy. I hope my arch won't narrow too much then, with the molars helping out. At least that's what I tell myself :l

Are you in school/uni or just working while you are braced?

[jsotang]

I'm in uni and so the money for braces is a tricky thing.

My ortho wants to achieve maximum retraction and pull my front teeth the entire space back :X I'm actually getting two mini screws placed on each side on top for this. Fingers crossed I don't wind up one of the disaster cases :X

I had 2 teeth extracted today (you were right, it didn't hurt at aaaall!), but the dentist said it was really hard getting them out (I was lying there for like half an hour while he struggled), so he referred me to an oral surgeon to remove the other 2... I made an appointment with that place for Thursday. And they charge 3-4x more to remove teeth. Sigh. Hopefully it won't put me over my braces budget! Man, there are so many obstacles even before the braces get put on D: Just gotta keep telling myself it'll be worth it. I hope my progress is as fast as yours, too!!

[WinTheDay]

Did it significantly change your profile for the better?