No improvement after 2 years in braces

[luberry]

Hi all,

I was hoping to get your opinions on this - I've spent nearly 2 years in braces (estimated time was 14-16 months) as my orthodontist wants to work on details. However I haven't seen much change in the past year, and I can't afford to have braces on for much longer. In fact, when comparing my current pictures to before braces, there are areas that actually look worse. I didn't have major issues when I started, it was mostly to correct some minor issues with crowding, overjet, and front teeth protrusion. While the crowding and protrusion has definitely improved, the relationship between my teeth seem off? I feel like my smile is somewhat slanted and the lateral/canine teeth on the right side looks like they're barely touching when I bite down. You can see in one of my after pics that when my mouth is slightly open, the right side is more open than the left. there's My ortho says that all my teeth are in good alignment, but then why are these gaps between the top and bottom teeth existing, especially when I didn't have them before? Am I just obsessing or is there a real issue I need to press further with my ortho?

Thank you!

Before pics: (front) https://imgur.com/VRhRkuz (right side) https://imgur.com/Gzp8qNM
After pics: (front, bite) https://imgur.com/SavoXaw (front, slightly open) https://imgur.com/4bRGCVo (right) https://imgur.com/svYeFTD

[assertives]

I actually thought your before pictures was the after photo.

If your teeth didn't need much work to begin with, it's normal to not be able to see big improvements.

As your ortho moves your front teeth back to fix your overbite, your previous bite relationship will change too, so it's normal to see issues that you didn't have previously in the work-in-progress stage.

I think alignment wise, your teeth look to be in a good alignment as your ortho mentioned. What you are concerned about is your bite I think. Which actually takes longer to fix than aligning the teeth. My alignment issues were sorted out in less than 6 months, progress after that was slow.

Unless your ortho said your teeth are ready for the braces to come off, I wouldn't worry. But if he hasn't said they are ready, he's probably working on the bite. Anyhow, you could talk to him about it if it's bothering you.

[luberry]

I am expecting to have them off soon, in the next month or so. I've been waiting for it to work out as part of the process, but is it normal to still see this level of bite discrepancy so close to debracing? It just feels like my left side Is more ahead of the bottom teeth, both in terms of vertical height and projection, and I don't know if that's normal. Would just hate to be worse off than I started especially since I thought it would be a minor adjustment :(

[assertives]

If your ortho thinks they are ready to be debraced and the issue clearly bothers you, I think you should bring it up to him and ask him what's his plan to fix it.

[Ziggy]

I would definitely bring your concerns to your ortho, but in my case I felt my gaps were never going to close up, then, towards the end of my treatment things started to move a lot.

[Bracingmyself901]

I don't see how any more treatment in braces will fix your issues (gap-y relationship between some teeth). The issue is the shape of your teeth. They are not "hollywood" perfect, so naturally you have gaps (which personally I think they look fine).

But if they are not fine for YOU then your next course of action is to do some teeth cosmetic bonding (example attached), to fill in the gaps and make your teeth a shape that you so desire. Have a chat with your dentist about it!

[luberry]

[quote="Bracingmyself901"]I don't see how any more treatment in braces will fix your issues (gap-y relationship between some teeth). The issue is the shape of your teeth. They are not "hollywood" perfect, so naturally you have gaps (which personally I think they look fine).

But if they are not fine for YOU then your next course of action is to do some teeth cosmetic bonding (example attached), to fill in the gaps and make your teeth a shape that you so desire. Have a chat with your dentist about it![/quote]

If the issue is just with the shape of the teeth I'm honestly fine with it at this point. It's just that I didn't have these gaps before which it was why it was concerning, since I didn't feel like I started ortho with these issues. I guess I'll have to chat with my ortho and if it is as you said maybe it's time to leave it alone! I feel like I've spent way too much time in braces for a minor change. Thanks!