Metal Mouth Message Board

well, here is my story as i begin my journey into orthodontia for the third, and hopefully final, time. i am 28, well very soon to be 29. so i guess my braces were an early birthday present i finished medical school almost two years ago and am doing my residency training in michigan, usa with my wife and two golden retrievers.

my first brush with orthodontics was when i was 10 years old, at which time i had two upper premolars, and one lower left premolar extracted (inretrospect they probably should have been left in place).

when i was 12 i had full metal braces, which i would wear for almost three years to the day, an impacted left upper canine that would not come into place and was ultimatlly extracted. when the braces came off i was left with midlines off in opposite directions (missing two right uppers, and one left lower), bottom to the left, top to the right, and a very tight clearance between the backs of my top incisors and the fronts of my lower incisors, but things looked pretty good .

i got an upper retainer which i wore religiously for a year , and then at night, and finally quit wearing it when i went off to college.

fast forward a few years and my lowers began to crowd and began to contact the backs of my upper incisors. by the time i was 26 it was very uncomfortable and causing my upper incisors to flare out .

my first attempt at fixing things was with a spring aligner type retainer on the bottom. that did not help much i wont go into the red white and ble aligner system.

i gave up for about a year, as i had moved, but my bite really kept bothering me, and my teeth were getting more crooked.

my second failed attempt was with invisalign. i settled on the top invisalign provider int he state, and we agreed on a treatment plan. unfortunatlly between that agreement and the time my aligners were ordered that orthodontist changed the treatment plan. the result was not good. my upper arch ended up looking pretty straight (you can see from my webshots link) but my lower arch was a disasster, with my lower midline being thrown off more, worsening my posterior open bite, and doing nothing for the contact between my upper/lower incisors.

as aresult i stopped treatment 1/2 way through and changed orthodontists- i never liked the old ones personality anyways, and he became very confrontational when i brought up my concerns .

my new ortho is great. super nice, extremely accomodating, always happy to answer questions. also his office is beautiful and the staff is fantastic. his feeling is that i was probably not a great candidate for invisalign in the first place because of my bite issues.

my current diagnosis:
1. upper and lower teeth pitched back
2. bilateral bite discrepancy (class 3 left, clas 2 right)
3. deep overbite
4. significant midline discrepancy
5. fremitus on upper incisors (my front teeth bang together when i bite)
6. small upper incisors

treatment plan:
1. upper/lower braces (16-20 months), with bite turbos
2. elastic wear
3. upper/lower retainers for life (which, yes, i will wear )

well that is my story so far
chris
my dogs

thanks KK. yes it has been quite a journey, and hopefully this is the final leg. in retrospect i wish that i had gone with traditional braces when i first started having issues, but i think at that time i was not ready to wear braces again. i really hated them the first time, as i was one of the first people i knew to get them and at that time not ever kid in the world got braces.

who knows maybe i needed to do retainers and then invisalign to get myself ready to make the tranistion to braces.

PS ... your wife and you have an awesome looking family ... they are really gorgeous!

thanks, they are great dogs, and go everywhere with us. they are pretty much our kids, much to the dismay of our parents who would like some "real' grandkids. lol!!!

wwell i thought i should add a desription of my banding experience, hardware, and some pics.

i took the day off that i got my braces, not that i really needed to buti figured if you are going to take a half day what the heck take the whole thing. i had been pretty nervous the week before, lots of butterflys, but i knew this was the right thing to do, and was sick of my terrible bite problems and jaw fatigue.

the night before however, i was not at all nervous and slept like a baby. that was a bit surprising to me. i guess i was just finally ready to get going.

i had a big breakfast, brushed and flossed thuroughly ( i had a cleaning the week before) looked down at the time and realized i was going to be late (lol i am always late). my appointment was at 1020, and i ran in the office door at 1020. i had planned to be a little early to get the final paperwork done, and give my down payment (i had arranged everything else over the phone to this point).

i got all that stuff out of the way, but realized that my heart was racing and i was a bit nervous again. before i had a chance to sit down and relax the assistant called me back. so no time to be nervous anyways i suppose...

BANDING PART II
the assistant led me to the chair. she had everything all laid out and ready to go, and unfortuanatally i saw the bite turbos, i had thought we were doing the molar buildups, but i guess the ortho changed his mind. luckily i also noticed she had all metal brackets (top and bottom) so i was able to remind her that we had agreed to try cermamic brackets up top. she went and got the other brackets ( iwas really glad that i did nto need to reschedule) and we got moving again.

first she cleaned my teeth, and then had me go to the sink, rinse, and brush again with water.

next she attached the molar tubes/brackets. i was relieved that i was not getting molar bands. i had those with my first time in braces and was not crazy about them i was thus also able to escape spacers

once all four molar tubes were on she had my rinse and brush again prior to placing the brackets. in went the lip retractors, and she placed all the top and bottom brackets at once, the ortho came over positioned the brackets andthe assistant shined the blue light on them, checked that they were stable, removed the retractor and sent me to brush and rinse.

i was a little shocked when i looked in the mirror, but overall i did not think they looked bad, and knew they would look better with the archwire.

next she placed the archwires, which dont go into the farthest back molar tubes. a pretty small wire and asked me what color ligs i wanted. i opted for clear up top, and then decide on navy blue for the bottom. she thought that was pretty cool, and was excited. i guess not many adults will do color. i think ill go bright blue next time. work my wasy up to red or yellow

last was the bite turbos, which the ortho placed himself to keep my from hitting the lower brackets with my uppers because of my deep bite.

the whole thing took less than an hour, probably 15 minutes with the lip retractors, and no pain.

she gave me a little care bag, with wax, dental mirror, tooth brush, floss threaders, travel tooth brush, interdental brush and so on. gave me a quick run down on care and feeding of braces and i was done.

set up my follow up appointment for a new archwire in 5 weeks (3/02/06) and went home.

they called later in the day to make sure i was doing ok, and to see if i had any questions, which i thought was very nice.

so overall, not a bad experience. kind of exciting. but i cant wait to get rid of those turbos

Hey Chris,

Well I'm sorry that another one of us has joined the invisalign to braces club but at least know everything will get taken care of for good! Gotta love that prospect! Good luck and keep us posted!

invisagirl, yeah it stinks that the invisalign did not work, but i think that first ortho was kind of a quack, or at the cery least a jerk! lol.

according to my new ortho, who i trust very much, invisalign was not a good option to correct my complaints and problems. and he did not understand what the old ortho was really hoping to accomplish when he looked at that treatmetn plan.

i am happy i am finally in these braces and getting things fixed for good ( i hope )

Your dogs are absolutely beautiful - what kind are they?

Also what are the metal bits on the back of your front teeth, are they the bite turbos?

It must take a huge amount of courage and dedication to go through as much treatment as you have, I wish you the very best of luck.

well, i can talk about my dogs all day they are both golden retrievers, but they are what is known as a field golden. that is they are bred as working dogs, and they tend to be leaner, more muscular, energetic(and redde than most goldens you see around. we love 'em, and spend lots of time with them. they have brought home lots of ribbons, and each have several titles to their names. but the neatest part is that they aree certified pet therapy dogs, and vistit the local hospitals and nursing homes. ( i could go on lol)

those are bite turbos, they are pretty irritating but i am starting to get used to things, my tongue no longer hurts, and my speech is getting better.

it has been a long road, but i really think i am with an ortho now that will give me the best possible result. i just wish that i had never wasted time with invisalign. i was not a good candidate, and i wish that ortho had been straight with me, before i wasted almost a year

anyways thanks for the well wishes, and good luck to you.
chris

thought after 10 days.

after being braced it took 5-6 hours before i started to get sore, with maximum soreness on the 2nd and 3rd days, and by day 6 or 7 my teeth were really not sore. everyones pain tolerance is differnt but oveall it was not too bad.

my speech is still not right, i have trouble with "s" and "f" sounds. i tend to lisp the "s's" and whistle the "f's". if i slow down i can get those words out perfectly, but it takes a concious effort. the brackets them selves i think is what causes the difficulty with F, but it is the bite turbos that reek havoc on those S words.

i have not had any wire poking problems, and my wires do not go to my rear most molars, but my molar bracket/tubes have chewed up my cheeks pretty good. unfortunatally i really cant get wax to stay put there too well for some reason, so i am just kind of suffering through and hoping things will toughen up a bit as time goes by

i really dont mind the braces overall. i dont think they look too bad, and i actually kind of like the mix of ceramic and metal and am glad i went with this choice. so far i have only gotten good comments, and when i ran into my dental hygenist who knew i was getting braces, she thought i was wearing an upper retainer.

i have not stained my clear ligs, and i have eaten some very red sauces.

i hate the bite turbos and cannot wait to get rid of them. i hope this happens, but i fear i may have them for my whole treatment. they are hard on my tongue and make speech tough. that said i have gotten used to them some, and they are more bearable.

just my thoughts so far

chris

oops

well i hope everything goes well with the periodontist and you can get things on the road. i think the waiting is the worst part. once i made the decision to get braces (again) i just wanted to get things moving.

keep us updated
chris

Hi!

Glad to hear that you are pretty happy so far (except for having to wear the bite turbos) with how things are going. It is good to hear that you are happy with the system you chose (I am getting the same) and that after about a week most of the major discomfort subsided.

I am getting braces for the second time this coming Wednesday, so I'll be right behind you in terms of adjusting.

Best of luck with your treatment!

sorry to hear you are becoming another second timer. seems lile there are more and more of us out there.

yup, i am very happy with the ceramic metal mix. and yes i hate bite tubos. why are you going into treatment again?
good luck keep us updated

chris

Hi,

I'm going back into treatment to correct relapse--my bite is pretty good but I have a lot of forward upper and lower crowding. When I look at pre-brace photos of me as a kid, I feel lucky that the majority of the work that needed to be done is behind me (I have a journal here if you want to read more and see my current pre-brace photos).