Metal Mouth Message Board

Very true - my answer applied to the USA.

Licensed means they graduated from an accredited program and meet state requirements for licensure. Board certified means they went a step beyond, including passing a comprehensive written exam, completing an oral examination in front of examiners, and presenting records from completed cases that ar...

Kev,

In this thread from April 2012

http://www.archwired.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=42055

you said you just got your braces off. Yet in the above post you said they were removed at 13-14. Were you retreated? Have you discussed your jaw issues with your orthodontist?

A couple of questions: 1) What are your restorative plans? Jason is correct in that there is wear on the upper right incisor - are you having a bridge for the missing tooth, which would also retore the edge of your upper right front tooth, or are you planning on an implant? It's certainly affecting ...

If surgery is truly indicated and the changes you're seeing aren't the result of ordinary aging, facial type, etc then you WANT lots of overjet before the procedure. The more overjet you have the further the lower jaw can be advanced. It's not uncommon for surgery patients to look worse during presu...

I will say as an orthodontist working with some pretty picky restorative dentists, most of my referring dentists are more concerned about how the front teeth relate than the fit of the back teeth. Why? It's a concept called protected occlusion. If the jaw worked like an absolute hinge - moving strai...

I PM'd you yesterday. The message is still unopened in your inbox.

A deep bite is synonymous with deep overbite, but NOT Class II malocclusion. The bite can be looked at in 3 dimensions: 1) Vertical (Up-and-down) - Openbite, deepbite, etc 2) Anteroposterior (Front-to-back) diagnosed from the molars and/or canine relationship- ex Class II (which can lead to overjet,...

Looking at your profile from a previous post I completely agree with your orthodontist. I would not want to retract your incisors as you have a very nice profile, so (based on the information provided - no teeth pictures) it looks like implants are the right decision.

It depends on how far the midline is off. If it's just a mm or two most patients would say definitely not! If it really bothers the patient or is quite noticable then perhaps, assuming the extraction won't detorque the lower incisors or have adverse profile consequences. Every case is different and ...

It can - and has - been done, but it certainly requires a lot of consideration, time, and expense on your end. The first thing you would need to do is see an orthodontist to determine if it makes sense for you. Here are some things to consider 1) Because upper teeth were extracted, you likely have w...

Depending on the angle of your teeth, archwires can certainly broaden the smile and reduce those "tunnels" (called buccal corridors if you want to get technical with your orthodontist!). Key word is "reduce" - depending on jaw size, tooth angulation, etc they can't always be completely eliminated - ...

Studies I've seen show no correlation between premolar extraction and TMD or bone loss. In fact NOT extracting in patients where it's warranted (and I'm certainly not saying it's warranted in this situation) would seem to have a much more deleterious effect on bone (overexpansion) or TMD (improper f...

It really depends on where the deep bite is coming from. Most commonly it's from an exagerrated curve of Spee in the lower arch (the arch isn't level - lower front teeth swoop up under upper front teeth). In this case leveling that curve through a "relative intrusion" with braces - intruding the low...

This is still a topic of debate; there was just a point-counterpoint published about six months ago in the AJO/DO (the official journal of the AAO) debating the issue. Suffice to say there is not one good answer! If the palate is severely constricted, the molars are tipped towards the cheek, an incr...