Detailing means polishing? 10 mos to go...

[Hollywoodsmile]

Hi!

So I was finally able to start the treatment back in Feb 2021.
I had a little overbite but my main problem were my molars, they were destroyed and the pulp nearly exposed, therefore the volume was flatter and lower and the molars were breaking. In order to get them redone dentist suggested I would get resin molars, straighten my teeth and then finally get the molar veneers.

I got clear braces and it has been 14 months now. I don't see a bug change or anything significant and today the ortho told me that we will start detailing, meaning she is polishing some borders and details. Is this normal? These are my teeth, good teeth and I don't want to get them reduced or touched at all, why would they shave off some teeth? Is this normal or am I freaking out?? Just doesn't seem normal I have 10 more months to go. Any advice or experience?

[djspeece]

You are probably freaking out a little bit, lol, but that's part of the orthodontic package, included at no extra cost. Your orthodontist sounds a lot like mine, who I think was excellent. Very detail oriented, hoping for the perfect or near-perfect result. I would think of it more like "fine-tuning." Maybe she is doing it because of the greater exposure now that teeth have shifted a bit and she can work on them more easily. Mine did the same thing, even buzzing the lower borders of a couple of teeth that had a slight ripple in them (hard to describe, and I was just accustomed to it -- but it was a huge improvement. I joked and said that if I had realized that my smile would have improved so much with that little bit of shaving I could have save myself a lot of angst with braces. He joked and said something like "Well Dan that's why I do it at the very end, just for people like you." He had a great sense of humor.
There's a "sticky" post at the top of the list here that documents a time-lapse from beginning to end of some guy's braces journey. I forget how many pictures he took, but it is dramatic. Many of us don't feel much progress (mine was measured in the number of times I had to relearn how to chew food due to shifting teeth -- but they certainly did not seem to appear any different.) If your ortho took pictures/x-rays at the start of your treatment you may want to ask her to share them with you and she can review your progress.
Best of luck to you! Sounds like you are approaching the finish line!