Lau's Story

[lau]

update for month 8: no changes from last month. I go to the next adjustment on June 21 before my 2 week vacay-

In the picture below I have added my smiles in 2005, 2007 and 2011 to compare to what i look like now. I think the ortho definitely improved by bottom teeth except my bite is a Class I but the top looks like i had it 6 years ago- i will ask him about IPR for both bottom and top to see if we can center the midline a little bit and align my bite a bit

[Noni]

Hi Lau ,, what a magnificent improvement the braces have done to your teeth.
Your upper arch looks so different .

Are you on elastics at the moment ? Doesn't that have to fix the midline !

Hope we will see your 2012 smile before end of the year Your teeth are nicely aligned

[lau]

Hey Noni-
thanks for dropping by and for your positive comments- they are much appreciated!

your comment about the elastics is spot on, this is what i thought too- the problem is that i have overcrowding. also i am missing a tooth on my left side (it was taken out when i was 11, i know can you believe!!??) now that my teeth are straight the shifted midline is more noticeable. I had fair warning by my ortho whom when i started, wanted to remove 3 teeth ( (1 top right, 2 bottom each side), which i didnt want to do but I never thought i would end up with a 5 mm shift- 3 mm I'd be ok.
I will ask again in my adjustment this Thursday if i can do IPR, the problem is that it takes some time for the gaps to close - as you know- and right now i'd be finished more or less in 4 months, versus the IPR would require idk ~8 months to close, so I am not 100% sure what to do. I do know I will not get braces a 2nd time around so- i need to think about it carefully.

[jem]

Hello Lau,

Sorry to hear you have this dilemma over your midline. How crazy of your dentist to extract a tooth at one side without either balancing it up at the other side or doing something to preserve the gap to be filled in due course with a bridge/implant etc.

You have made such great progress and your teeth are now looking so beautifully aligned that it must be difficult to know what to do.

For what it is worth, I would opt to go for the IPR to get the midline as good as possible. You have already gone through the toughest part of deciding to get braces and then getting used to them and showing them to the world. It is not a huge extra period of time to have them and you need to balance this against the risk of being dissatisfied after you have got them off and wondering what if?

You have a great attitude and a lot of support on this board from people you have been so kind to.

Good luck with whatever decision you take.

Jem

[lau]

Thanks Jem!! The removal of the tooth happened when i was 11, the ortho at that time said to my mom the overcrowding would be solved but after 25 years it is now a problem.
My current ortho always wanted to center the midline but i was fine with it being a bit off, but now that i see what 5 mm mean i am not satisfied. As you say, i am already 8 months in this so i better get them right now.

Thanks so much for the support and for taking the time to read.

How is your treatment going?

[jem]

Hello Lau,

Glad to hear you will get the work done on your mid line.

I am about 5.5 months in now and feel like I have finally been making progress over the last few weeks. My left canine is untwisting nicely at last. The chain I had to close the gap between my centrals is now making them start to cross and one of my bracket doors is partially opening on its own, but when I contacted my ortho's office, she said that overcorrection with a chain is a common issue and easily sorted and that my faulty bracket would be replaced at my adjustment next week. I am still in a round profile wire but hope to get a rectangular one next week as my alignment is much improved. Assuming I follow the normal Damon wire sequence,I will have at least one more adjustment after next week's, so will be at least at the top end of my 6-9 month estimate before I am de-braced. But that is still not very long and I will be happy if it takes longer to get the best result.

Jem

[Noni]

Sorry to know about the lost tooth but Its good that you thought about it before having your tooth extracted .


You should do IPR instead , and your ortho should figure a solution for you just bring it up again in your next appointment .and yes i beleive as posted up there you should get an implant to balance your teeth.

They already look good

Good luck

[Chaplains Assistant]

Lau,

My midline is shifted 5mm to the left and like you I was missing a tooth that the Army pulled on my left bottom side. The ortho in his wisdom pulled an upper left tooth and thought that he'd just line my teeth up with that. Well I am not happy with that much of a shift either. But i am almost 23 months in on a 24 month sentence. I am so mad and he hasn't even suggested doing IPR on my teeth. He did tell me that he couldn't pull 2 teeth on the right to change this because he wasn't sure that he'd be able to close the gap since he'd have to move 10 teeth to the right. Talk about POd. good luck and don't let your ortho do what mine has done to me.

I will forever hate my smile in photos now and he told me in the beginning that my midline would be off a little and 5mm is not a little.

[lau]

Ok quick update: i went to the adjustment and talked to the ortho. Even showed her my pics from 5 years ago to show her how my midline has moved now that my teeth are straight. My dental assistant was super nice he said they want me to be happy with the results so i had the IPR done top and bottom. I was shaking because of the gaps, i could feel around with my tongue. They did say that it will take long as opposed to being done in 3 months - which is so hard on me. I'll post pics soon. Wish me the best i need support-

[jem]

Hello Lau,

Glad the adjustment went well. I am sure your gaps from the IPR will close quickly with powerchains. I look forward to seeing your progress over the coming weeks.

I have had 2 sessions of IPR so far and did not find the experience at all bad. My top midline is shifted about 2-3mm to the left of where it should be and I am also short of space at the left side for my protruding lateral to move back into the arch. My powerchain spans only my centrals and has closed the space between them created by IPR. But that has just left spaces between each central and lateral which my left lateral has yet to exploit. I have my 4th adjustment next Wednesday and hope that my ortho will place a powerchain to get my central teeth sliding across to the right, leaving space for my left lateral to slide back into my arch and coincidentally improving my midline.

Jem

[Noni]

Glad to know you had the IPR , wish the gaps will close too soon.

You are not there by your self , we are all going through the up and down of the braces journey .Wish you all the luck.
Waiting to see some pics.

[lau]

hey there, fellow metal mouths- just got back from my 2 week vacation, I've been very lazy and didnt floss. I am being such a rebel!
anyway so here is my belated 9 month pic with the new gaps and powerchains (first ones so far), supposedly they need to do more IPR still but they did quite a bit. They did both top and bottom, bottom to improve my bite (as mentioned I am missing a teeth on top).

I keep telling myself i got to trust my ortho and be positive that it all work out at the end, but it has proven to be hard so far. any one out there feel the same?

[jem]

Hello Lau,

Your smile continues to look good. It is hard to see IPR gaps in photos, but I think I can spot a gap between your lower centrals. On which teeth did you have IPR on the top? I had a 3rd session of IPR at my last adjustment 2 weeks ago. I am quite used to it now and it does not bother me. My ortho seems to like to go for making space between my centrals but also took some off between right central and lateral.

I now have a powerchain which takes in my right lateral as well as both central incisors. This has effected a small move to the right with a resultant gap between my left central and lateral which is what was needed. Whether the left lateral will move into that gap is another matter. I don't see how it could resist the chunkier rectangular archwire I am now sporting, but I don't see any movement as yet. I cannot see the powerchains in your pictures. Which teeth do they connect?

I also do not have the inclination to have brightly coloured powerchains. Mine is clear and I am doing my best to keep it that way. However, I may go for a curry on my birthday since there is only a weekend and one working day after that before my next adjustment and it might be amusing to have a bright yellow powerchain just for a couple of days.

All the best

Jem

[lau]

Hey braces world,
I cannot believe that it has been 10 months already. so here goes my photo update. still wearing the elastics V shape to close the bottom ipr gaps. So far i only had one IPR session on 4 teeth which was 8 weeks ago, most has closed up. the one on top is very noticeable but the ortho wants to close them one by one. here it is

[jem]

Hi there Lau!

Your teeth are looking really good. You have made such great progress in 10 months.

Jem