feeling frustrated

[msw]

Hello, everyone. I was braced on Halloween, so today/tomorrow is my 5-month anniversary. I'm in Damons to correct a 60% deep bite, slight crowding, and misaligned midlines. I was (and still am) also rocking the front tooth in the middle of the face (directly under the nose) look, a-la Tom Cruise -- I know, HOT.

I've been feeling kind of down lately about what I believe to be very slow progress. I guess what frustrates me the most is that I'm *STILL* in round wires. The ortho had planned to move me from .018 round wires to the rectangular wires at my last appointment in mid-February, but after evaluating my progress, bumped me up to .020 wires for 6 weeks... .020! And let me just say, these .020 suckers have been AWFUL.

I know each case is different, but I've been tracking my progress according to the standard Damon treatment protocol for class II cases (http://www.ormco.com/downloads/training ... 061009.pdf), and am disappointed that I'm not in phase 2 by now.

I'm also frustrated that I haven't noticed any improvement in my bite. As far as I can tell, my bite hasn't really opened much at all.

I'm also noticing new gaps and spaces between my teeth, but I guess that's a sign that the braces are working and my teeth are moving? About two weeks ago I noticed that my front teeth were no longer touching, and this morning I noticed that a black triangle has formed.

The first couple months in braces were pretty exciting, but now I'm feeling like everything has sloooooowwwwed down significantly, and I'm worried that the slowness will mean an extended treatment time. My sentence was 18 months, but who knows. My next appointment is Wednesday; hopefully the ortho will move me into the next phase.

Did anyone else ever get frustrated by a lack of progress? I guess I could just really use some encouragement today.

[msw]

Here's a picture of my progress at 5 months. My teeth are straight, but my smile just seems so dadgum wonky still. My ortho never mentioned surgery, so I'm hoping that elastics alone will correct the alignment.

(I'm sorry the pic is so big. I uploaded using photo bucket, and I don't know how to make it smaller!)

[nikkibabie19]

Do u hav an earlier picture?
Sometimes looking at the wire itself shows movement as apposed to looking directly at the teeth for changes.

The wire may look straighter over time.

[msw]

Here are some more pictures. My day 0 picture is on top, and 5-month picture on bottom. The ortho noticed at my last appt. that the glue had stained (I live in SC and am a tea drinker), so I'm scheduled to get polished at my next appt. Hopefully that will get rid of some of the yellow....

The wire is definitely straighter, but my mouth as a whole is still so misaligned (slanted arches), and I haven't noticed a whole lot of change with that at all.

[Gerib]

I'm in sc too. I understand tea and coffee stains. Maybe you need to sit down with your ortho, but you have great improvement looking at your wires.

[Anna5]

Hello!

I wouldn't worry if I were you, you are only 5 months in, so there is still heaps of progress possible in the coming months. And to me, your teeth already look very nice. I don't think your arches are very slanted, it is not obvious. And you have already made a lot of progress. Sometimes progress goes fast, sometimes slow, but you are moving forward all the time. So if I were you, I wouldn't worry, I am sure your teeth will turn out great!

[kids041]

I too am being treated for mild crowding on the bottom, a deep bite and just general lining up of teeth. I have read somewhere that fixing the bite takes the longest.
I have been in full braces for almost 8 months and the ortho is still working on straightening my teeth. He has not even started working on fixing my bite. He says that first you must align and level the teeth as much as possible, THEN start with the bite and the major (but not super visible things).
I was in round tiny wires for almost 7 months on the bottom teeth! I was in despair that I would EVER move up to bigger wires- that there would be any progress to be seen...They moved me up to a larger round wire, the bracket popped off the rotated tooth when they tried to wire tie it to the archwire.... they moved me back down to the smaller wire.... <sigh>....My last apt (earlier this month) I finally got a square/rectangle wire on the bottom! It took considerable force/pushing on my 2 rotated teeth to get them to engage in the archwire. It was quite painful with the amount of pushing that they needed to do, and required freezing spray on the wire, as well as two people to do it, and tie the wire ties on those 2 teeth....
I have seen progress since then on one (read ONE) side... but not the other.... <double sigh>.. I am worried that the tooth will not be rotated enough to put the reverse curve wire on the bottom that is planned for the end of April. I want to start getting my bite fixed!!! I have molar buildups to keep me from biting down on the bottom front brackets since my bite is still deep. I am just so impatient!!!

The moral of my long winded story is... I can TOTALLY relate to how your feeling. I tell myself that I am paying a highly skilled person to do work for me, and he MUST know what he is doing (even tho I can't see it). I just try to take one day at a time, and not dwell on (to me) looks like NO progress!! Or at least super slow progress.
I do have to say- I was given a sentence for 24-30 months so I guess I am still "on track". I don't expect at this rate of movement that I will be done early- so I am just sitting back for the long haul!

Keep your chin up!! IT will get there...
Braces are a marathon, not a sprint..... (my mantra!!!)

[nikkibabie19]

I see a great deal of changes looking at ur wires. Plus as someone said. You're only 5months in. Plus some changes u feel more than u see. Like ur bite gets better and teeth that never touch before started to touch.