BraceFace2o1o's Story

[Noni]

How long did you wear the elastics for , until you felt your molars are meeting and your bite is getting better?

[BraceFace2o1o]

How long did you wear the elastics for , until you felt your molars are meeting and your bite is getting better?

It was about 2 weeks so not long at all. Maybe that's why I notice things don't feel as good when I stop wearing them because 2 weeks isn't long enough to keep things in place

[BraceFace2o1o]

I have been in my lower braces 20 months today. My uppers will have been on 23 months in about 10 ish days... where has the time gone.

I have been told to stop wearing the elastics for now but to start wearing them again if I feel things going back. The thing is, I had my elastics out yesterday for about 4 hours and noticed my bite didn't feel as good anymore so I think I need to continue wearing them or at least at night anyway. My bite might also feel off because I had a wire change and a bracket repositioned and it could be 'messing' things up before they go back to normal again. I do notice my bite always feels horrid after a wire change/adjustment.

I'm really not sure whether these will be off before the end of the year, it would be cool if we're all done by then but no big deal if we're not.

[jem]

Hello BF2010,

How is it going?

Jem

[BraceFace2o1o]

Hello BF2010,

How is it going?

Jem

Hi Jem,

I'm still in braces and I am not sure when I'm going to be finished but it shouldn't be much longer really. I would probably have been debraced already but it's me holding things up because I want some minor things changed (I've just got to bring them up with my ortho first ) otherwise I will have these taken off feeling unhappy and I do not want that at all after paying all this money.

I hope everything is going ok with your treatment

[jem]

H BF2010

I am also nearly finished but like you have a minor niggle. I have one tooth ( left lateral) which is still slightly out of place. My ortho moved the bracket again on that tooth plus the one my right canine at my last adjustment and put me in a smaller wire. She said she would give me a thicker wire at the next adjustment and suggested we are coming towards the end of my treatment. She implied that this would be the case even if my left lateral is still not fully retracted. Whilst I will be happy to be finished and my teeth overall are much improved, I don't want to be anything less than thrilled when my brace comes off.

I only have brackets on my front 8 teeth for limited treatment which was estimated to be finished in 6-9 months. I have consequently not paid much for my treatment and am conscious that my ortho will not be making any money out of my case if it goes on much longer. I really like my ortho but I think I am going to have to have a frank discussion with her as to whether we will finish soon because it is clinically impossible to get any further improvement or whether it is because I am taking more chair time and materials than I have paid for. If it is the latter I may have to discuss offering her additional fees to persist with my case.

I hope your remaining issues are resolved soon. I look forward to seeing your post-debanding pics soon.

Jem

[BraceFace2o1o]

That's a coincidence because one of my minor niggles is one of my lateral incisors too, I just want it rotated slightly as I feel it's not in line with the others. I would also like another tooth very slightly rotated. I also have some gaps that have reopened up along the side of my mouth. Although I want all of these things corrected there's just no way I'm willing to be left with gaps when they have previously been successfully closed, it's been done before so I know it can be done again. All these things should take no longer than 8 weeks to correct.

She implied that this would be the case even if my left lateral is still not fully retracted. Whilst I will be happy to be finished and my teeth overall are much improved, I don't want to be anything less than thrilled when my brace comes off.

I know exactly how you feel jem. Regardless of how much you have/n't paid you're still a customer and deserve to be leaving braces off and happy.

I have consequently not paid much for my treatment and am conscious that my ortho will not be making any money out of my case if it goes on much longer. I really like my ortho but I think I am going to have to have a frank discussion with her as to whether we will finish soon because it is clinically impossible to get any further improvement or whether it is because I am taking more chair time and materials than I have paid for.

I have thought this about my ortho too (that I am now paid up and also gone over my max est treatment time so it is time to say all done even if I'm not 100% happy with every thing). I don't think that in a bad way, it's probably just me being paranoid. I do like my ortho but I just wish he was the type to ask his patients how they are feeling about their treatment even though he thinks it's time to finished and remove the braces, I wish even more that he would ask them what they dislike (if anything) about their teeth and then discuss it with them if it's something that can be corrected or if it's impossible and why. I think it may be a case of the staff there looking at my before pics and seeing major improvement compared to now so the braces should come off, yes there is a huge improvement I'm not denying that but one simply cannot expect me to not have an opinion my own teeth, after all they are my teeth. I also only want to do this once and never again so want it done as best as possible now while the braces are still on.

At the office I go to the majority of the patients are children who are getting their treatment for free. Maybe I should remind them that I am an adult and I have paid full price for my treatment. I paid them to supply me a service and I expect to feel satisfied when I am all done, I would feel just the same if I took my car in to a mechanic to be fixed etc. In my opinion any company, even if it does deal mainly with children/free patients, should not expect a fully paying adult not to have an opinion on how their treatment is going. I want to be able to discuss my issues and get them worked on without me always thinking I'm being a pain in the butt or that I'm strange because all the other patients don't have an opinion they just grunt here and there and don't really care about their brace or their teeth. I feel like so many months have been wasted because I've been too shy to speak up and get things moving. Like I have said, I like my ortho and all the staff are very friendly but I think with how picky I am I maybe should have gone to an office that deals mainly with adults that pay for their treatment - they would surely be used to them having an opinion and being 'picky'. Maybe I just worry too much and should have brought all this up months ago and they would have been ok with my requests for some minor tweaks. I'm definitely going to be doing it soon though, me being shy and worrying about speaking up cannot continue. I am already 2 months over my max estimated treatment time and I want to get the ball rolling and finally get the braces off feeling happy.

If it is the latter I may have to discuss offering her additional fees to persist with my case.

I think this is a good idea. Definitely discuss it with her and see what her response is. If it means paying extra fees and you'll then be debraced fully satisfied I think it will be worth it. I would be willing to do the same for my own peace of mind.

Sorry to have gone on and on and on and for replying so late, I do not visit the forum as often nowadays.

I hope you get to discuss things with your ortho and that you can finish your treatment feeling satisfied all that could be done was done.

[jem]

BF 2010,

Thank you so much for your thorough and thoughtful reply.

As mentioned in my other reply to you, my appointment has been postponed until next week.

At my age and running my own professional business I should not have any problem being assertive with my ortho. I welcome questions/challenges from my own clients and have no reason to believe my ortho is not the same. Nevertheless, I am still nervous about pressing my ortho about my left lateral when she is the expert and has done a pretty good job for me overall and seems to be saying she is happy with where we are.

I will let you know how I get on. When is your next adjustment?

Jem

[BraceFace2o1o]

I understand Jem. Sometimes I feel like I sound as if I am trying to tell him his job and worry I may offend. My ortho has also done a good job overall but I guess we're all the most critical of our own teeth and not other peoples.

I look forward to reading how you get on at your appointment. My next appointment is next month but if we still have snow I may have to cancel and rearrange because of the route there can be very bad... it look slike it's starting to go slowly so should be ok.

I will keep you updated on what happens at my next appointment. Hopefully I get to go ahead and can get things moving. Cannot wait to finally get a debrace date once I'm happy with everything.

[Kipepeo]

Is it ok to use the term niggles in the U.S.? Because i have some.

[BraceFace2o1o]

I am going to start using this word at my orthos. My mind always goes blank and I think I end up confusing everying at the office

[Kipepeo]

Someone actually used the term "niggling question" here at work today. I almost busted out laughing. (Sorry to wander so far off topic!)

[BraceFace2o1o]

As I have previously mentioned, possibly 100's of times, I keep thinking my upper centrals are sitting more like this \ \/ / rather than like this | | |. The thing is, earlier I found an older photo of my teeth and used a program to rotate the centrals to be more like | | | ... but it made them look like this / | \ hmm. So that surely means it's more to do with the shape of my centrals that's causing the problem - the inner edges (not sure what one would actually call the edges, but they make up the midline) are slanted slightly like \/ rather than straight down |
Also I think the fact that the triangular piece of gum that comes down between each tooth has slightly receded so I have a black triangle there is not really helping. If the gum hadn't receded I think I wouldn't even be seeing them like I have been.

Sooooo currently I am considering not mentioning my centrals at my next appointment but then again knowing me I will probably change my mind by then!

Studying the photo really hard I can sort of see that my left (your right in a photo) central looks a little more slanted than my right central so in the editing program I rotated my left central ever so slightly but left the right central how it is. Here is a comparson (left pic is my teeth normally and unedited and the right pic is the one edited with my left central slightly rotated):

....

I uploaded in black and white because it shows the edges of my teeth a lot better than in color.
Looking at the two pictures I can definitely see a difference when I study it, shame my mom can't! she refuses to see any difference between the two pictures but maybe I see it easily because they are my teeth.

The thing is, if I had to choose between the two I would pick the photo on the right (edited one) - but is it worth it enough to bring it up with my ortho and possibly confuse him? I mean if my mom can't see it maybe no one else will and I'll just look like a totally crazy and picky patient.
Also I used a free software to rotate that tooth so there is no way I can guarantee that my central/s will look exactly as they do in the edited photo in real life if my orth rotates the left central. Argh I really don't know what to do! . One minute I'm like nah don't worry about it it's so minimal just don't bother and then the next I'm questioning myself and assuming if I don't bring it up with my ortho I'll kick myself once debraced thinking "if only I got my ortho to rotate my left central slightly". I know I am being a perfectionist which is stupid because I didn't start out with perfect teeth in the first place.

[jem]

Hi BF,

It is only a slight difference, but I can see it. I imagine your ortho could achieve that change with only a slight movement of the bracket or bend in the archwire. Certainly there is no harm in asking.

With regard to black triangle, what shows in the photo is infinitesimal, but, again, why not ask your ortho? My ortho got rid of the black triangle between my centrals ( much bigger than yours) by doing some IPR then closing the gap with a powerchain. I needed the IPR anyway to make some space, so the IPR achieved both objectives.

Best of luck whatever you get done. You are so very nearly there.

I suspect when we get our braces off, it becomes easier to see the full picture and minor niggles fade away.

Jem

[BraceFace2o1o]

Hey Jem,

I am glad you could see it, now I don't feel like I am going crazy. Yes I definitely think a slight movement of the bracket or bend would do the trick so not anything major

The black triangle is slightly bigger than it is in the pic because the rectangle thick archwire is covering most of it. I don't really like it but I think I can live with it. I did ask my ortho about my triangles (one in the photo above and another one) but he said he would need to remove too much enamel to remove my triangles and because I already had IPR done on those teeth earlier on in treatment to create room he wasn't willing to do anymore.

I suspect when we get our braces off, it becomes easier to see the full picture and minor niggles fade away.

Oh yes I really do hope so

Once these few tweaks have been seen to I am determined to have these off by no later than June this year. COME ON let's do this!