Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all,

first, to those who want some background to what I will tell you now, this is what happened previously :

viewtopic.php?t=16421&start=0

At that point, I really didn't know what to do. I am now seeing ortho 3, but still have some contact
with ortho 2. He admitted before that things didn't work as he planned and hoped, but he is very
caring about how things go on. He asked to see him when I told what happened at ortho 3, or better
what did not happen. He said my bite was now worse than some months ago. There is indeed settling,
but not in a good way. My overjet is now about 4 mm with upper front teeth slanting inwards a bit.
If they would have a nice flare outwards, I think the overjet would be about 5 maybe 6 mm. The open
bite is now about 4 mm too. We agreed to meet again when I see again ortho 3 and the jaw surgeon,
which is planned for the end of March.

I said my Essix retainers don't work. My front teeth are shifting very much, even with wearing the
Essix retainers a lot. I asked and he agreed to have made for me some kind of Hawley. This is it :



You can clearly see a lingual spring that can move my laterals again to where they should be.
My god, that retainer was snapping in very tightly when I placed it the first times. But now, after
about a day, it sits quite comfortable and seems to do its job well. Only issue, due to this built in
spring, it is very bulky in the front, and gives a giant lisp.



It is a lot more obvious that I wear a retainer now, when compared to the Essix retainers, but I think
it will do a much better job. And now I wait ... until the end of March.

Best of luck for the March consult Clo, I know this has been quite a journey so far...we're all hoping for a happy ending.

Clo- If I didn't know your story and just looked at your teeth in a picture I would think you have the most lovely teeth. I really want to know how you keep them soooooooo white! What's your secret? Do you drink coffee at all? Ok, relative to your new retainer, looks like that should hold things more securely for you. Looking forward to hearing about your next visit with the surgeon. Good luck.

I'm still keeping you in my prayers, Clo! I have to agree with Smile2006. If I didn't know of all the horrible occlusion problems you have, I'd look at your photo and think what beautiful teeth you have. Here's hoping one day soon you'll have beautiful teeth and healthy occlusion!

Chris

Thanks all !

Only some days I am wearing this retainer and I feel very comfortable in it. It gives such a nice support
to my teeth that they feel very good right now. Only taking it out or putting it back in hurts quite a bit.
Yep, Mr. Hawley invented a very good retention device. If only they could build in some anti-lisp thingy.

@Denise : when you wrote "you have an enterage of veterans here on the board", and after what I
wrote, it looks as if I am just starting my journey. Like when I write about this appointment with the
surgeon. But no, I am not a newbie here, but almost the oldest veteran here. Yep, had ortho 1 work
on my case for 22 months, ortho 2 trying to correct all things that went wrong, took him 8 months,
now seeing a third ortho and this oral surgeon next month, and in the mean time I am wearing this
retainer. It is like I am now in between 2 treatments. At least when ortho 3 and the surgeon do have
a solution for my bad bite. So, I have a long orthodontic history now, maybe I better change my name
in something like Clo_v2.0.

@smile2006 : sooooooo white ? The combination of cleaning very well with a whitening toothpaste and
taking the pics with a flash light . Hihi, only a lil cheating.

@KK : yes, there is a tiny bit of movement, only because I try so hard. We tend to speak here
in terms of like cutting through frozen butter. Not sure if that can be said in English that way, but it
expresses well how it goes right now. I admit I am scared about next month. If they say they can't
do anything to correct my bite, then this will be the final end of my treatment.

I am just wondering which one of your problems ia more difficult to fix?
In my opinion openbite is more annoying and difficult to fix.
I have had overjet of 6 mm all my life and I did not really have any problems. It was my deepbite that caused problems and I had to look for orthodontic treatment. I don't think my ortho can fix my overjet fully, but that is ok for me. I don't want exractions.

Good luck!

Eeeck, sorry Denise, that I didn't get that right.

@platinum : yes, I think too that closing an open bite is more difficult. Because moving teeth using
braces has a lot to do with action and reaction. And having anchor points. So, to close my bite, they
need to intrude all my back teeth. And that can only be done by surgery of the (upper) jaw (lifting the
back of the upper jaw). Or by placing micro screws to intrude all back teeth that are then in a very heavy
archwire. I spoke about this last option to my second ortho and he said this is possible, but that he doesn't
have the skills to do this. It is not easy to do this, and it needs a lot of extra corrections to prevent that the
back teeth tip.

Still thinking of you Clo, and I am keeping everything crossed that they will have good news for you at your appointment in March.

Lisa xxx

Hi Clo!

Here's hoping that March brings you good news from the new "team" of professionals that will correct your bite.