Metal Mouth Message Board

Hello, everyone! Hope all is well. I'm so glad I found this community. So I'll try to make my story short: I had braces as a kid. Treatment wasn't particularly successful mainly because I was a terrible patient. Around age 21-22 I got braces again. I had crowding of my lower teeth.

My orthodontist at the time extracted the bottom two premolars and put me on regular braces. The crowding was quickly fixed. She wanted to take out my upper two premolars and put braces on top at that point but I didn't allow her to do that because by that point I was traumatized. She said she needed to do that to close the space in the bottom and also to fix an overbite issue that developed after the lower braces did their job. Anyhow, the spaces never closed. I went to the dentist the other day to talk about it (I'm now 32 years old). My main issue was closing the gap and also my lower teeth have shifted a little bit but it's not really noticeable. I really started talking about it because of concerns about my health (the gaps could lead to bone loss) and not so much because of cosmetic reasons.

Anyway, the orthodontists (plural) told me I have a class II malocclusion and they said my case was complex because of the extractions I had. Apparently this is not the way to go nowadays.

The first ortho wanted the upper premolars out and do regular braces. That option was out.

I went and talked to another guy who basically gave the the following options in order of preference:

1) Take two premolars and do regular braces. Like I said above, this is not an option for me.
2) Take my two upper wisdom teeth and put on carriere distalizers to fix the malocclusion and after 4-5 months move me into invisalign.
3) No extractions and put TADS in the lower jaw to move the molars forward and close that space. However, he said that this won't fix the overbite and there's risk of making it worse.

Although I'm not excited about extractions, I'm leaning towards option two. Any of you had experiences with this combo? I haven't been able to find much information on this set up or the experience with distalizers alone. I'm very concerned about having an unsightly gap for too long after the distalizers come off and I also don't know how uncomfortable they are.

Treatment plan is two years long.

I'm so stressed out about this because I've had so many traumatic experiences with braces in the past. Any thoughts on use of distalizers, invisalign, or even better, both?

Thank you!

Congrats on going in for another journey into orthodontics!

There are a number of ways to align the teeth and some doctors like to use a distalizer and Invisalign instead of elastics and Invisalign. At the end of the day it is going to depend on what your treating orthodontist is comfortable with. It may be a good idea for you to ask to see some of their previous results using this technique to make yourself feel more at ease. Hope that helps!

[quote="DrJasonKTam"]Congrats on going in for another journey into orthodontics!

There are a number of ways to align the teeth and some doctors like to use a distalizer and Invisalign instead of elastics and Invisalign. At the end of the day it is going to depend on what your treating orthodontist is comfortable with. It may be a good idea for you to ask to see some of their previous results using this technique to make yourself feel more at ease. Hope that helps![/quote]

Thank you, Dr. Tam! It does help. Do you think it is mandatory to have those extractions done? I'm also worried about my final bite if I only get the wisdom teeth removed (my lower premolars were removed years ago). He didn't seem uncomfortable with this but I was wondering if this is not going to result in an uneven bite. Granted I'm the one that told him that I don't want to have my upper premolars taken out (his favorite option was taking them out).

Once again, thank you!

ElJefe wrote:

DrJasonKTam wrote:Congrats on going in for another journey into orthodontics!

There are a number of ways to align the teeth and some doctors like to use a distalizer and Invisalign instead of elastics and Invisalign. At the end of the day it is going to depend on what your treating orthodontist is comfortable with. It may be a good idea for you to ask to see some of their previous results using this technique to make yourself feel more at ease. Hope that helps!

Thank you, Dr. Tam! It does help. Do you think it is mandatory to have those extractions done? I'm also worried about my final bite if I only get the wisdom teeth removed (my lower premolars were removed years ago). He didn't seem uncomfortable with this but I was wondering if this is not going to result in an uneven bite. Granted I'm the one that told him that I don't want to have my upper premolars taken out (his favorite option was taking them out).

Once again, thank you!

It's a tough to recommend anything here unfortunately because extractions might make the teeth look good but there also has to be a consideration of the facial profile changes that might occur with removal of teeth. Sometimes the problem isn't that the upper is too far forward, but that the lower is too far in. In those cases, moving the top to hit the bottom teeth may have a negative effect on the facial appearance. Best to discuss this with your doctor .

[quote="DrJasonKTam"][quote="ElJefe"][quote="DrJasonKTam"]Congrats on going in for another journey into orthodontics!

There are a number of ways to align the teeth and some doctors like to use a distalizer and Invisalign instead of elastics and Invisalign. At the end of the day it is going to depend on what your treating orthodontist is comfortable with. It may be a good idea for you to ask to see some of their previous results using this technique to make yourself feel more at ease. Hope that helps![/quote]

Thank you, Dr. Tam! It does help. Do you think it is mandatory to have those extractions done? I'm also worried about my final bite if I only get the wisdom teeth removed (my lower premolars were removed years ago). He didn't seem uncomfortable with this but I was wondering if this is not going to result in an uneven bite. Granted I'm the one that told him that I don't want to have my upper premolars taken out (his favorite option was taking them out).

Once again, thank you![/quote]

It's a tough to recommend anything here unfortunately because extractions might make the teeth look good but there also has to be a consideration of the facial profile changes that might occur with removal of teeth. Sometimes the problem isn't that the upper is too far forward, but that the lower is too far in. In those cases, moving the top to hit the bottom teeth may have a negative effect on the facial appearance. Best to discuss this with your doctor .[/quote]

I understand. Thank you very much! BTW, I decided to get all of my wisdom teeth removed in one sweep. It hasn't been as uncomfortable as I thought. Hopefully my distalizer/invisaling experience will be similar.

Once again, I appreciate your input.

I got all of my wisdom teeth out. Distalizer is in and it makes my teeth super sore. I have only been doing this for a day. I hope the journey is worth it!

I'm wearing my first aligner!

How was the carrière? Was it painful or just about the same discomfort as braces/Invisalign? Was it visible?

I'm considering a similar carrière motion 3 on the right then Invisalign!

[quote=Meowmeowbeans2 post_id=503623 time=1532518288 user_id=32242]
How was the carrière? Was it painful or just about the same discomfort as braces/Invisalign? Was it visible?

I'm considering a similar carrière motion 3 on the right then Invisalign!
[/quote]

Well, I guess I'm a little late here! The carriere was not painful. As far as comfort, it was somewhere in between braces and invisalign. It was DEFINITELY visible.

I'm now wearing invisalign alone. The carrier did create a huge gap in my front teeth but it is not visible as long as I wear invisalign. Of course, the plan is to close those gaps in a more favorable position.

Can't wait to be done with this!