Will my send journey be swifter?

[pcspinheiro]

So, after serious problems with my first ortho (unneeded extractions, forced smile aesthetics, incompetence in closing extraction gap and, above all, complete inability to listen) I debraced but will have to go on braces again to fix the extraction gap on one side and the ugly smile she put on my face. Luckily, the relapse I already observed in just 2 months without braces or retention partially fixed the ugly smile issue, but it also caused the main problem I had to relapse, which was a rotated and retracted upper central incisor. I'ts actually funny how i can feel my teeth aching on some occasions, like if getting a new, thicker wire! Now, since this relapse without external forces happened is just 2 months, should I expect that the ortho can fix this misalignment in a similar amount of time, by starting with thicker wires and going through them quicker? I don't want to go again through an almost 2 year alignment phase where nothing seemed to ever happen (because it didn't!). I'll definitely talk to my new ortho about hasting things a little, withing reason and physiological limits, this topic is mostly for discussion. All I need and want is to close this gap acceptably and fix my bite (which is of because now my canines conflict) and smile, that's it! I think I already made this very clear to the new ortho, but one never knows...

[wendydong]

can u go on invisalign instead of braces? isn't invisalign good at closing gaps?

[pcspinheiro]

No, I don't think you can close a 6 mm gap with invisalign nor bring my incisors down to a normal smile (they were intruded and all leveled by their tips). Plus, I really don't care about having braces and I'm sure invisalign would take longer, if it was even possible, let alone the much higher cost. I already paid for a full 2 year treatment that left me way worse than I started, I don't want to go and splash even more cash to fix the idiocies of my previous ortho (that in all fairness should pay to fix whatever she messed up, including an implant, if that's the best or only option for me, to replace the missing tooth).

[Mpkh]

Alignment is mainly done with the initial thin wire, not thick ones. The thicker wires are for doing minor tweaks and setting the roots. As well, orthodontists won’t start patients off on a thick wire—your teeth has to align itself first and “get used” to wearing braces again.

Second time in braces can vary in duration—it could be longer or shorter than the first round, or the same duration as the first. It really depends on what needs to be done and how fast or slow your teeth responds to treatment.

[assertives]

I recently read a post on an ortho's blog regarding elastics wear and he mentioned that relapse usually happens at a rate 3 times faster compared to the rate of improvement. I'm not sure if that "principle" would apply to teeth relapsing and "retreatment" in general, but I guess it's safe to assume that your 2nd time treatment may not necessarily be the same or faster than your first. Also, another thing to consider would be that your treatment goals this time around is not the same as your first, so the approach would probably be different as well depending on what needs done.

[pcspinheiro]

Sorry that I missed this post... You're right, my treatment goals are not the same, but my mindset is the same (ie, move teeth as little as possible and leave them alone if possible) and now I'm sure about what I need and want done, and I won't be talked or lied into doing what I don't want. I already made this point to my new ortho, but the darn next appointment is still 1 month away, as I was dealing with the TMJ problems. Funnily enough, after getting an MRI that did not explain my unilateral symptoms, as both sides suffers from the same disc dislocation, I started researching into it on my own and realized that the problem is positional. I already had this idea but it has been confounded by the likely possibility of trauma when I extracted a lower 3rd molar. What I'm now pretty sure happened was that when I wore the darn anterior bite plane and elastics to extrude my molars (6 months wear, 2 months to relapse) my right side extruded a little more because I seem to chew more with my left side. On topo of that, since the teeth tilted inward, more so in the bottom, I could not get a good bite position where teeth contacted "properly" on both sides. This led to slight slant on my mandible and to resting my teeth on the left side, since the tooth contact "slipped" toward this side. Upon this realization while "experimenting" with my teeth, I consciously started to rest my bite on the opposite (right) side and putting some mild pressure on it whenever I remembered. And guess what?, my symptoms are reduced and my the teeth forced each other into better bilateral contact, so my bite doesn't rest as much on only one side. I just really hope my new ortho understands what I want and really need and sticks to that, accepting it will not be perfect, just enough.

Relapse was WAY faster than the work done with by the ortho. I debraced at the end of July, and in less than 5 months my teeth had shifted to almost their original positions (except for the one I should not have extracted, which is still sitting in a landfill somewhere...). Actually, within 3 months they had already shifted massively.