Braces before or after SARPE

[K Willie]

Hey all. Its me again. Here with another question that probably wont change a thing. I was looking over some old post on the SARPE subject and I saw a conversation between my good friends Chicago29 and Sauerkraut. Chicago asked if there was a reason that some people had their braces before the surgery and some didnt. Sauerkraut responded that it may have something to do with age and how that impacts bone healing. I am 47 and I am going to have the RPE and braces (upper and lower) prior to surgery on March 26th. I am too tired to read thru all the post for the answer so, please leave a post if you have some info.

Thanks K Willie.

[chicago29]

I really don't think there is a universal answer to this one. Now, with some hindsight, and in speaking with my Oral Surgeon, it is preference of the orthodontist. My OS clearly told me he could care less if I get braces before or after, but do know if you have them on before the surgery, you will go without an archwire for a period while you are healing from the surgery.

In most cases where crowding is the issue (which I would venture to say is most SARPE cases) it probably makes sense to put them on afterwards, as you need the space created by the SARPE before it is feasible to move the teeth around.

There also may be situations where orthodontic tooth movement is necessary to prepare FOR the surgery. For example, if your front teeth had their roots tilted in towards each other and there was no room to make the surgical cut, the orthodontist may need to place brackets to get the roots to diverge.

Bottom line...it is up to how your orthodontist wants to handle your case and it depends on your situation.

[sauerkraut]

I just had to go and look that up because it sounded like such a strange thing for me to have said!

Assuming I've found the right place, I think the discussion then was about how long people had waited for braces after SARPE (rather than whether they went on before or after). My ortho wanted expansion complete and the bone re-formed over the gap before he put brackets on. Presumably that's simply his way of working and what was appropriate for my case.

The speculation about age was simply me wondering if when you're older the bone takes longer to grow back to fill the SARPE-created gap. Which was perhaps why I had to wait a bit longer. But which doesn't address why some orthos prefer to have patients braced up before SARPE and others wait until after. Like chicago29 says, that more likely comes down to one's individual treatment plan.

Sorry if I've confused anyone !

[crazybeautiful]

I had braces put on 6 months after SARPE when I had the expander removed (I think... my timelines will be at the bottom of my post, anyway). I was 17 when I had it, so age in that case wasn't the issue

I think generally people have braces after, because as chicago said, SARPE is a common treatment for crowding- and nothing can be done about that until the jaw is big enough to align the teeth!

[K Willie]

Thanks to all three of yall. I guess I can find out next Monday when they are putting my braces and expander on. The only reason I can see is they want me to be used to everything I am going to have in my mouth. I guess that is the way I would want things if they asked me any way. The way I look at it is, Monday I will have braces and the expander, then the 26th I have the surgery. The 27th and the 28th should be the two worst days of the whole ordeal. I would rather have to deal with everything at the same time. SURGERY, EXPANDER, BRACES, SWELLING, HEADACHE and on and on. Hopefully after a week or so I will be on the long road to a decent smile. Thanks, K Willie

[K Willie]

Thanks to all three of yall. I guess I can find out next Monday when they are putting my braces and expander on. The only reason I can see is they want me to be used to everything I am going to have in my mouth. I guess that is the way I would want things if they asked me any way. The way I look at it is, Monday I will have braces and the expander, then the 26th I have the surgery. The 27th and the 28th should be the two worst days of the whole ordeal. I would rather have to deal with everything at the same time. SURGERY, EXPANDER, BRACES, SWELLING, HEADACHE and on and on. Hopefully after a week or so I will be on the long road to a decent smile. Thanks, K Willie

[uncleezno]

Just thought I would throw in my two cents - I'm getting SARPE on my upper jaw, not because there's crowding, but because it's too narrow. Aesthetically, my teeth look fine, but because my upper jaw is narrower than my lower jaw, my teeth don't sit perfectly and the upper teeth are getting ground down. So not everybody gets SARPE for crowding.

[crazybeautiful]

The whole purpose of SARPE is to expand a narrow jaw. The general side-effect of a narrow jaw is bad teeth placement (whether that be crowding or issues with wearing of the teeth). The two rather go hand in hand.

[K Willie]

Thanks Crazybeautifula and uncleezno. I think you both are right. I have both issues. Slight crowding and a narrow palate. Not enough corwding to have overlapping teet but they are not straight either. The main reason for the axpansion in my case is that my teeth hit right on top of each other. The Ortho said the roots of my teeth look great but, I am weraing my teeth flat. I will probably have to look into some other forms of cosmetic dentistry to finish the process once everything is where it needs to be. Thanks again. Yall have been great.

[Minerva]

Hello,

Can the person decide on whether to have Sarpe or not

after having braces for a while , or does the decision need

to be made first?

[DrBlur]

I'm sure you could decide, but it may also depend on your orthodontist. I had my braces on for about 6 months before I had SARPE (my ortho started to straighten some teeth on my lower jaw a bit and neatened everything out up top before the surgery) but when I was having issues with my insurance company (which is why I had the braces so long before surgery) my ortho told me that if I couldn't get the surgery, he'd remove the braces because he couldn't treat my problems without it. Luckily everything went off smoothly, but I think there are more factors involved than just whether you decide to have it done or not.

[Dentina]

they put braces on my me 3 months before my SARPE, this is because I had crazy snaggly teeth, so im guessing they had to even it all out. my upper canines were also very high up so they had to pull them down