It's Been a Long Time Coming (aka Fixing My Posterior Open Bite)

[Ali]

Like many adults, I had braces as a teenager, and although I stopped wearing my retainers in my 20s, my teeth stayed pretty straight...but here I am wearing braces again.

In order to keep this short and sweet, I'll try to write a tl;dr version of my story so that I don't need to add a tl;dr. I've suffered from TMJ pain for years—I was a clencher—and July of 2016, I finally went to the orofacial pain clinic at the local dental school, because my dentist recommended it, and I was pretty tired of hurting all the time. The pain clinic is great, because they are both holistic and conservative in their treatment. The first goals were to break the pain cycle and teach me techniques to make me aware of stressors on my body. The clinic also suggested a sleep study; it turns out I have sleep apnea and was prescribed an oral sleep appliance. Through all these appointments, I still had facial pain, but I was reassured that there was nothing wrong with the TM joints themselves.

When I first went to the clinic, I stated that I couldn't bring my teeth into occlusion without it feeling like my joints were jutting too far into the socket, but they didn't seem to pick up on that. I just figured that it was a muscular thing that would settle down as long as I relaxed and chilled out a bit. A couple of months after getting the sleep appliance, I mentioned my bite to the good folks at the orofacial pain clinic again, so they started to pay attention to that. They checked my occlusion. They adjusted my bite guard (I'd had one for a few years, to protect my teeth from the clenching at night), and told me to wear it when I felt the need to bring my teeth together (which sounds like clenching, but there's a difference.)

This went on for a few more months with me checking in every so often, and finally, they told me that their recommendation was braces to fix my posterior open bite. So what I thought was my muscles keeping my teeth from fitting together is actually kind of the opposite: my teeth don't fit together, and my muscles are doing everything possible to keep my front teeth from banging into each other, and that's what's causing my pain. It took 14 months of working with the orofacial pain clinic to get to that diagnosis, and I'm okay with it.

So, braces it is. It turns out I also have a crossbite. The orthodontist plans to flare out my upper teeth to fix the crossbite and open bite, and (WE HOPE) let my muscles settle down. I've had braces for two months now, and I still have the chronic facial pain. I can't remember what an absence of pain feels like. My next appointment is January 3rd.

Also...because I got braces, I had to give up the sleep appliance for the apnea (there's $1750 I'll never get back), so I am using a CPAP machine, and I actually PREFER it. I thought I'd hate it, but it was pretty easy to get used to.

[25BracedGirl]

Hey Ali I'm kind of going through the same thing...getting braced to fix my crossbite that causes me TMJ pain.
You are "lucky" that it doesn't affect other parts of your body...right now my neck and upper back are my biggest problems, I learned how to relax my jaw by myself by keeping my teeth apart a bit and let my jaw be comfortable and that instantly makes pain in the face go away but unfortunately not the one in the neck...but I think my neck hurts because my previous dentist messed up my bite and that made my head slightly tilt to the side (You can read what happened to me in my post "My Story Until Now..I would love reassurance"). Let's hope that braces fixes all of our problems.
Good luck

[Ali]

Hey Ali I'm kind of going through the same thing...getting braced to fix my crossbite that causes me TMJ pain.
You are "lucky" that it doesn't affect other parts of your body...right now my neck and upper back are my biggest problems, I learned how to relax my jaw by myself by keeping my teeth apart a bit and let my jaw be comfortable and that instantly makes pain in the face go away but unfortunately not the one in the neck...but I think my neck hurts because my previous dentist messed up my bite and that made my head slightly tilt to the side (You can read what happened to me in my post "My Story Until Now..I would love reassurance"). Let's hope that braces fixes all of our problems.
Good luck

Ohhhh, I have lots of tension in my neck and upper back as well. I try to get regular massages, and I just bought a plastic massage hook so that I can work on the knots by myself.

Good luck to you as well...here's hoping we both get straightened out!

[25BracedGirl]

I'm sorry that you have neck pain but that Makes me feel a Little better...it means that crossbite and malocclusion can do these crazy stuff to our body, before going through it myself I never would have belived it.

[Ali]

Yes, it's pretty crazy how our bodies hold and manifest tension and pain.

[Ali]

OK, errbody, I posted some progress photos on Flickr.

Here's the album. I take a photo every week, but don't want to post every photo. At the end I'm going to string all the photos in a time-lapse video (she said, with the best intentions to actually do it...).

Happy New Year to all!

[Ali]

I had my second adjustment today...got a new rectangular .014 x .025 Ni-Ti wire on top. Shew, I can really feel it! My next adjustment is on Valentine's Day, and they'll upgrade the lower wire to this type then.

Otherwise, the orthodontist said everything's looking good. Yay!

[EmilyTravels]

I had my second adjustment today...got a new rectangular .014 x .025 Ni-Ti wire on top. Shew, I can really feel it! My next adjustment is on Valentine's Day, and they'll upgrade the lower wire to this type then.

This is interesting to me, and I wish I knew more about how the ortho decides which wires to use when. I have just the opposite configuration from you: I was upgraded to a rectangular wire (not sure of gauge) on the bottom arch at my last appointment, while my upper arch remains a round wire. My bottom teeth have moved a lot more than my uppers since I got my braces just over four months ago. I will be interested to see what he does next time. Every time I've gone for an adjustment, I've had both wires changed, and this last time, I got elastics. I am happy about that because they are already helping my bite!

My next appt. is Jan 29 (last one was Dec. 11th). This is the longest time between appointments for me since getting braces.

[Ali]

This is interesting to me, and I wish I knew more about how the ortho decides which wires to use when. I have just the opposite configuration from you: I was upgraded to a rectangular wire (not sure of gauge) on the bottom arch at my last appointment, while my upper arch remains a round wire. My bottom teeth have moved a lot more than my uppers since I got my braces just over four months ago. I will be interested to see what he does next time. Every time I've gone for an adjustment, I've had both wires changed, and this last time, I got elastics. I am happy about that because they are already helping my bite!

My next appt. is Jan 29 (last one was Dec. 11th). This is the longest time between appointments for me since getting braces.

I got my braces on October 12th, and was scheduled for my first adjustment on November 15th, BUT! My husband also had braces to align some teeth before getting an implant, so when he went for a retainer check on November 8th, I tagged along for funsies (our orthodontist is also a tall, cool drink of water, but I digress). While I was there, they offered to move up my appointment and check me then, so I agreed, and they changed both wires at that time. The orthodontist said he wanted to see me in eight weeks, which translated to january 3rd. I have to say, that was the longest eight weeks of my life (the last two months of my first pregnancy excepted). Anyway, I did a little googling when I got home, and found this handy guide to the wires used in the Damon system. If I recall correctly, you also have self-ligating brackets? Oh! Also, I listened to the ortho tell the assistant which wire to put in! That's how I knew what to google!

This time around, the assistant told me the new wire might affect me right from the start, and she wasn't wrong. I felt the pressure as soon as she put the wire in certain brackets. And the orthodontist said he'll see me in six to eight weeks, and my next appointment is on Valentine's Day, so I'm glad it's only six weeks this time. When I had braces as a teenager, I went every four weeks! I know things have changed since then, but I am so much more interested in/curious about the process this time around!

[EmilyTravels]

Thanks for the link re. the wires. I will check it out! I am a geek about things like that. I actually did hear the ortho tell the tech. which gauge wires to use, but by the time I wrote this post, I'd forgotten. Seems like the bottom rectangular was 20x25 and top round was 18, but don't quote me on that. I do also have self-ligating brackets. I also felt the rectangular wire from the very start. Owie. But it calmed down rather quickly. The addition of elastics made me sorer this time than the wire change, but since it's been nearly a month now, everything is completely fine now.

I am looking forward to my next appointment on Jan. 29, even though I know it will be painful as always...just glad to be moving forward!

[Ali]

Thanks for the link re. the wires. I will check it out! I am a geek about things like that. I actually did hear the ortho tell the tech. which gauge wires to use, but by the time I wrote this post, I'd forgotten. Seems like the bottom rectangular was 20x25 and top round was 18, but don't quote me on that. I do also have self-ligating brackets. I also felt the rectangular wire from the very start. Owie. But it calmed down rather quickly. The addition of elastics made me sorer this time than the wire change, but since it's been nearly a month now, everything is completely fine now.

I am looking forward to my next appointment on Jan. 29, even though I know it will be painful as always...just glad to be moving forward!

I'm still pretty sore, six days later. It's just part of the process, I suppose! And the soreness in my teeth distracts me from the chronic facial pain, so there's that!