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I'm back Still have my braces. I'm about 16 months now I think. My ortho is still working on a few things. I've been wearing elastics for a few months now. They're a pain in the you-know-what!
My bite feels pretty good. I'm mainly wanting the one tooth to the left of the fronts to move in and stop protruding. It's been like that since the beginning.
Hopefully just a few more months and I'll be done!
I have the SAME issue with the same tooth! It extruded really quickly early on in treatment and has been sticking out ever since. They repositioned the bracket twice and it did nothing. Finally now it has moved a bit, but only because they're starting to put bends in the finishing wire. Hope yours gets straightened out soon!
•Braces placed August 14, 2014
•Deband November 11, 2015
•Permanent retainer top and bottom
•Essix retainers top and bottom 16 hr/day for a year and then nightly afterwards.
I'm back. I'm 23 months now with no end in sight. When I look back at my pictures from 16 months, my teeth were much straighter and I was happier with them than I am now. I should have been done months ago but they repositioned 4 brackets on my upper fronts and everything got much worse after that. Now they're saying they'll fix everything with bends (which they have been saying since march of 2015. ) Also, ever since march, they have been telling me that every visit is just to see if I'm done yet. So they do that for nearly a ****ing year?! I am so fed up and frustrated. I spent an extra $1000 on acceledent to speed up my estimated 2 year treatment. But here I am at 2 years and still months to go. What a waste of money. I've brought up my frustration with the ortho and he just said "it would have taken 3 years without acceledent" which is BS because he told me 2 years treatment time up front then talked me into the acceledent to shorten it.
7 months ago, all that really needed to be done was straightening out 2 front teeth and everything would have looked perfect to me. Now, all 4 fronts are worse and more crooked than before which I'm afraid is going to take many more months for them to fix. I'm so ****ing over it.
Hey, i just read your journey. That sucks so bad! Is it on paper what your estimated treament time is? I'm getting metal braces top and bottom next month and i'm also going to use acceledent. You deserve a refund, that's ridiculous. Good luck to you, i hope it gets better.
Hi, firstly, what brilliant photos, how did you get such good clear images? I have been taking regular photos for a year more than you and they aren't a fraction as good as yours! Sorry that things are taking longer than you hoped. I think your teeth are starting to look really good but can see why your ortho feels more work needs to be done to get your bite right. There have been a number of clinical trials / reviews that claim to evidence that Acceledent speeds up treatment and there have been others that dispute these claims. I think professionally the jury is still out on this one so I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't lived up to the claims made.
My original treatment estimate was around 18 months, I'm now approaching 33 months. I fully trust my ortho and accept that treatment times are difficult to predict, especially in adults and that he is doing the best he can. Personally I don't mind the extra few months but this is something you are going to need to come to terms with and probably highlights an issue of trust with your ortho. Maybe have a good chat about where you are now, where you would like to be when you finish and discuss what needs to happen to get you there. It looks like you have come a long way already so keep at it, the end result will be worth the extra time.
Once again, after another adjustment, my 4 front upper teeth are even more crooked. I seriously feel like he's just guessing at this point. It's not even one step forward, two steps back anymore. It's just two steps back. Every time I think the end is in sight, my teeth get more crooked. My brackets on the four upper fronts have been repositioned at least 4 different times that I can remember. The last time they were repositioned was because there were so many bends in the wire, he couldn't put anymore. So he repositioned all the brackets to be able to put a straight wire in and finish things with a few small bends. Now there are a ton of bends in the wire again and things keep getting worse each visit. At the last 2 visits, he has said "I think we've done about everything we can do." He says my bite is perfect...which I agree with. It's only the front teeth that are crooked. And of course those are the most important ones as they're the only ones you see when smiling.
I'm going to call another ortho tomorrow to ask what I should do.
It doesn't look that bad in pictures due to the angle but the fronts aren't even close to straight and he can't seem to get them there.
Edited to add: notice the front tooth to the right is slightly chipped on the bottom. That's because I bite down on the bracket on my lower tooth. He told me he can't do anything about them hitting and it will just have to stay that way until we're done.
Hey Kevin - It sucks being that frustrated! fwiw, overall I think that anyone seeing you smile unbraced would think you had a killer smile...but we are always our own worst critics.
My thoughts on what you pointed out:
- Yeah, the one lateral is a bit higher and I would have considered that an easy fix to extrude, but perhaps it's intentional because of root length concern or other. Regardless, that issue might be easily remedied with a bit of composite to finish off the aesthetics. Pretty common for chips, short teeth, narrow pegs, etc.
- Regarding the big ones, the line between them looks pretty straight, so it may be a bit of an optical illusion that they're pointing in due to the shape of each tooth. Your natural tooth shape is a little rounded on the outside. Looks fine to me, but if it's bothering you, ask what they think about the shape and if a tiny bit of contouring/reshaping might help.
- Regarding the "protruding" one, some of the same as above. Hard to tell on photo, but it might be more of a tooth shape issue. If you take a photo of your upper arch looking up from below, check to see how the edge of that tooth lines up with its neighbors. If it's in alignment, those laterals might be a bit oval in shape and causing it to look like the edges are out. Instead (and again) maybe your natural tooth shape just needs a bit of finishing composite or contouring to get the look that you want that is not happening naturally.
Good luck! I'm confident you'll get everything where it should be, but in the meantime it's looking very good!
IOB, thanks for the kind words. I know I'm my own worst critic but I also know I deserve the smile I want after spending $5,000 and over 2 years of my time.
Here are some pics from different angles to illustrate my point. Regarding the protruding lateral incisor: when I compare it to the incisor on the other side, its protruding further out and its also not turned in as much as the other. The two middle are most definitely tilted in towards each other and my ortho agrees they are. That's why he put more bends in to try to fix it but they're just getting worse again.
In this picture, it appears that lateral incisor on the left (its on the left in this picture but is my right lateral) is not protruding but it's rotated and that's why one edge is sticking out. The opposite one is perfectly in line.
Your teeth are looking great, but I can see the points you are making and you might as well get them sorted before your braces come off.
Your lateral incisor is twisted because the bracket is not placed in the centre of the tooth. And on the other lateral, it is too low on the tooth ( unless there is a root problem with that tooth as has already been mentioned).Similarly, the brackets on your centrals are not quite straight, hence the teeth at slight angles to each other. I would have thought it would be easier for your ortho to remove and replace the brackets on your front four teeth than to try to make adjustments by bending the archwire. You might have to go back to a smaller archwire as I did when I had brackets removed and replaced in different positions.
Good luck,
Jem
Sectional brace with Damon clear brackets fitted to front 6 upper teeth 3 January 2012
Brackets added to premolars 2 April 2012
Estimated treatment time originally 6-9 months. Brace removed on 22 July 2013 after 18 months and 19 days
Now enjoying bonded upper retainer plus part time essix/hawley( I have both)
I would have thought it would be easier for your ortho to remove and replace the brackets on your front four teeth than to try to make adjustments by bending the archwire. You might have to go back to a smaller archwire as I did when I had brackets removed and replaced in different positions.
Good luck,
Jem
That is the part that frustrates me more than anything. The brackets have been repositioned at least 4 different times on my 4 front teeth at various times throughout treatment. The last time was in November. He repositioned all 4 upper fronts because he had so many bends in the wire attempting to straighten things out that he couldn't do anymore. Now after the repositioning, they're even more crooked than before and he's trying to fix things with bends AGAIN. I don't understand why they couldn't get it right the first time they were put on and especially after the fourth time.
Sorry Kevin. I don't suppose I helped by telling you what you already know. Is there another orthodontist in the same practice? A second opinion might help-ideally within the same practice if possible but otherwise I would go for an external second opinion. You appear to be tantalisingly close to finishing and I'm sure a few final tweaks will be worth a bit of extra time. I also went some way over my (albeit short) estimate but looking back it was well worth it.
All the best,
Jem
Sectional brace with Damon clear brackets fitted to front 6 upper teeth 3 January 2012
Brackets added to premolars 2 April 2012
Estimated treatment time originally 6-9 months. Brace removed on 22 July 2013 after 18 months and 19 days
Now enjoying bonded upper retainer plus part time essix/hawley( I have both)
Alright, it's been a week since my last adjustment. Once again, my ortho tried to convince me that everything is as good as it gets. I was getting the feeling that he just wanted me to stop taking up his time since my braces have been paid off for a few months now. He wasn't interested in finishing my treatment properly. He wanted me to accept "good enough." I told him how upset I've been and that they told me a year ago I was almost done and that they've repositioned the same brackets 4 different times since then. Once I made it very clear that I'm not accepting "good enough," he said he could put a few more bends in and agreed that the problems I pointed out do exist.
A few days after the adjustment, I noticed the upper left tooth was straightening out vertically but the upper right was getting worse and the right incisor that's protruding was protruding even more. Yesterday, I realized it was because the wire was not fully engaged in the upper right tooth, rendering the latest bend in the wire useless. I got an emergency appt this morning to have it fixed. They had to give it a fair amount of force but was able to get the wire in and tie it in. It put a lot of pressure on those two teeth because they moved out of place a bit without the wire engaged. Since those teeth feel really "loose," the pressure of the wire moved them enough to see a difference right away. The incisor is moving in where it should be and the upper right is straightening out. It opened a small gap between the two front teeth but I'm not concerned with that. That can be closed up pretty quickly. I think I might finally be close to done after my next appt now that he got the bends right.
My upper right tooth has started to protude out now. I called the ortho and went in and he put some more bends in and said its definitely protruding and shouldn't be. Then the assistant told me we need to finish my treatment otherwise they will have to start charging me by the month since I'm over my 24 month estimated treatment time. Which is bs because they told me 24 months without acceledent and up to half the time with it so I shelled out an extra $1000 for it. The only reason I'm still in treatment so long is because the doctor doesn't give each patient enough time and individual care to do things right. Why else would the same 4 teeth need the brackets repositioned 4 different times. Then they want to threaten to charge me more if I don't accept "good enough." It's not like I'm still in treatment because I miss appointments and don't wear elastics like I'm supposed to. I adhere to my treatment religiously because I want them off.
This started out to great and sounds like a nightmare now. Not that it is any help, but your teeth are lovely. But they were lovely 4 months in. Not that I know anything about orthodontics, and I am only 1 WEEK into braces, but this seems crazy. I'm sorry.
I'm at the end of my patience. Today, they told me they're going to start charging me $150 a month until I'm done because I'm at month 25 of my estimated 24 months. I asked them if I'm still in treatment because I haven't followed treatment or missed appointments. They said no. I asked if I'm still in treatment because the doctor thinks I'm done but I don't. She said no, the dr does not think I'm done yet. I asked if they give a refund if you finish early. Of course, the answer was no. It's their fault I'm still in treatment. They couldn't position the brackets correctly on the upper 4 front teeth the first time so they had to do it again over a year later. And since then, those same 4 teeth have had the brackets repositioned 2 more times! And they still can't get it right. That's clearly not my fault that I'm still in treatment but they still want to charge me by the month.
I called another ortho and have a consult on tuesday. This whole thing has turned into one giant problem. I wish I never got braces. I can't believe this. Like I said, every appointment is one step forward, two steps back.
Still have my braces. I'm about 16 months now I think. My ortho is still working on a few things. I've been wearing elastics for a few months now. They're a pain in the you-know-what!
