Second time around, just 8 months after first...

[pcspinheiro]

Looking at the modifications I made, I may have exaggerated the proportions a little in the second figure, but it's just so you get the point.

[Teslathecat]

Hopefully things are going well for you pcspinheiro. My ortho wanted to take my braces off 9 months ago, but I just wasn't happy with how my teeth looked. My upper 4 had had slanting inward angle, result of over retraction to close extraction gap. I also didn't like my overbite at the time. We tried to flare out the teeth a bit, but so far, no dice. I'm basically giving up on it since gaps will just open up each time teeth were flared out. However, the one thing I definitely wanted to fix was intruding my upper a bit to reduce the gummy appearance from teeth being pulled down to fix a very slight open bite at the beginning. I guess my ortho was finally fed up with me asking for intrusion each appointment and just did what I asked for. Just keep reminding your ortho of what you want. Best of luck.

[pcspinheiro]

Thanks Teslathecat.
actually, this was my first appointment to get the braces and I immediately noticed what she had done with the placement of the brackets, and how the teeth would end. One of the reasons for getting braces again (beyond closing the extraction gap) was to correct the stupid things done to my smile. The smile actually corrected itself with the relapse that occurred between debracing from the first ortho and rebracing last week (and it looked nice, natural), but the teeth were also crooked again... this ortho was going to ruin again the good things that came with relapse, so I just opened the self ligating brackets and put the wire under them to stop them from pulling down my lateral incisors to the same tip as the canines and centrals. Then, I went in 2 days later because of a molar that was getting a premature contact and told the ortho about this, said this was not what we talked about and that I wanted those two brackets moved a little to keep my natural smile. She was visibly upset about it, blablabla about the rules, but it's my smile and I won't have a second time! She eventually agreed on doing it and I really don't see the big deal about it; we agreed on trying a quick fix to my problems, which included closing the extraction gap as best as possible (and I told her it's not her fault if it ends less well, I know and don't care) and fixing my smile, all while messing the least possible with my teeth. My TMD flared up again a little due to teeth moving and making me bite differently, but it stabilized again so I hope I can see this through.

[Teslathecat]

I have to keep telling myself to not let the ortho dictate how my teeth should look. In my case, I understand that I'm supposed to have a light overbite, but as she admitted the other day, my teeth have room for an extra 1mm or so worth of intrusion, it's not much, but to me it is worth it. At the end of the day, we have to live with our teeth, not the ortho. I'm glad she finally agreed to do the intrusion for me though. I was prepared to just walk away if she refused again. I think it will work out for you since you know exactly what you want and can express it. Fingers crossed we'll be done with this soon enough :).

[EmilyTravels]

Did you try going to an orthodontist who does Smile Arc Protection? If I am reading you right, it sounds like that is what you want:

https://theartofbraces.com/Smile-Arc-Protection

[pcspinheiro]

Thanks EmilyTravels, but actually that's not at all what I want. In fact, I rather dislike the smile on the left, looks so plastic and fake. I already have quite a large overbite so extruding my upper teeth is a no go (even though its clearly caused by overextrusion of the lower teeth, something this ortho easily realized whereas my former ortho was dead set on making my upper teeth - and smile - disappear by intruding the uppers...). What I don't want is the plastic smile where all front teeth are leveled by their tips, particularly in my case where the teeth have large differences in crown size. I basically want that these differences are reflected in size differences at the tip, not the gum line. At least partially, otherwise I will get bunny teeth. After all the talks about this, the ortho glued the brackets at the same distance from the tips of the front 6 teeth (though she claims that the lateral incisors were at a full 0.5 mm! higher than the rest), which would inevitably result in having a flat smile line... I think the images I uploaded are pretty clear (though canines are not there): canines and central incisors are larger (in my case at least), so they should "stick out from the crowd " by a visible bit.