Braces at 51 - The second time?

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ellipse
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 31, 2018 7:26 pm

Braces at 51 - The second time?

#1 Post by ellipse »

I am a 51 year old male from Germany, living now in the middle of the USA.

My first orthodontic treatment happened when I was about 13 years old.
I had to wear for 18 hours per day an activator as removable appliance
to treat my "overbite". Of course, I hated it since I never was able to speak clearly
with the bulky appliance and I seem not to have managed
to wear the appliance the required 18 hours. I also developed the theory that
braces are only useful for cosmetic reasons - but my teeth looked ok for me.
When the orthodontist came finally up two years later with the idea that my
unerupted four 3rd molars need to be extracted, I told my
parents that this was a break of contract I had with them: treatment
only with no tooth extractions. This was the end of my first
orthodontic journey. I still hate this orthodontists for
never telling me his full treatment plan from the beginning.
Maybe he has done so to my parents, but they jointly decided
not to inform me in detail. After this traumatic experience,
I avoided any dentist office for the next 27 years.

The next event happened when I was about 32 years old: One upper
3rd molar partially erupted, but there was only a temporary
irritation.

Maybe six years ago, the dentist of my oldest son recommended
orthodontic treatment for him. There are only two orthodontists
in a radius of 50 miles, which restricts our choices. I completely
hated what the first orthodontist suggested: a bulky fixed appliance
just for waiting until all baby teeth are gone. Anyway, my son refused
this plan, too. I finally decided that my son was ready for orthodontic treatment
since it was impossible for his 2nd upper premolars to errupt
because they are blocked by other teeth. So I went with him to the
other orthodontist in town and he is now in braces since three months.
(Only 16 hours between initial consultation and bonding of the brackets;
I thought he should not have too much time to think about the idea
of getting braces...)

Back to myself, I realized five years ago that my lower jaw
is asymmetric and I have to shift it to the side for biting.
I also developed the theory that my migraine headache which
I have since 16 years are possibly related to this. Unfortunately
there seem to be only anecdotal evidence for supporting this
relationship.

I finally taught to the orthodontists of my son and scheduled an
record appointment. The orthodontist believes that orthodontic
treatment could be of benefit for me. He suggested invisalign or
clear braces. I will have an appointment with him next week
when he will tell me his treatment plan(s).

In the meantime, I had a chance to look at the photos of my record
appointment which are posted on a webpage. I can see at least five
problems:

1) Mild to moderate overjet.
2) Moderate overbite resulting in a deep bite.
3) Mild crowding in upper and lower jaws.
4) Class I on one side but class II on the other side resulting
in a "class II division 1 subdivision case".
5) The partially erupted upper 3rd molar pushed the second molar
1-2 mm further out and this in turn intruded the lower 2nd molar
and moved the tooth out of line.

Obviously, it is now finally the time to extract the bad 3rd molar.
It seems one standard treatment option is to extract 4 first premolars
to deal with the asymmetry and the other problems, but I believe
the orthodontist is not a fan of this. To use only elastics on the other
hand seems not to result in any stable treatment result and also
leads to too much unwanted extrusion of the teeth. I do not like
the idea of invisalign where it is not possible to modify the
treatment plan in the middle if something doesn't work out as planned.

Ok, this is maybe enough for a first posting.

laukonis
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2018 4:53 am

Re: Braces at 51 - The second time?

#2 Post by laukonis »

I just went to ortho...he plans to run a second invisalign scan after the first 40 weeks of retainers and see what invisalign can do...at week 40 they only plan to have made teeth straight with a slight underbite..my ortho is very experienced with invisalign and i think he can run as many scans as possible...other orthos may have to pay for each individual scan..

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