28 years old and in Damon Braces - see my progress!

[LittleSern]

I had another thread but wanted to start a new one.

I've been in Clear Damon braces on my uppers and lowers since March 21st. I'm treating an overbite and deep bite that caused TMJ issues as well as a gummy smile sine the four front teeth moved downward and were completely covering my lower teeth.

So far the journey has been pleasant - I don't feel a lot of discomfort even after wire changes. I think I have a high pain tolerance because I know a few people who had the same braces as me who had more pain than me. Usually I feel no sensitivity 1 or 2 days after each wire change, and even at that it's minor.

I'm most excited about reducing the gummy smile that has always made me self conscious. I also have noticed some improvement in my profile. If you're interested, here are some pics of before and about 7 months later!

I'm happy with the increase in symmetry. Keep in mind that in the 7 month shots you won't see a wire - I'm also missing 3 brackets that were being repositioned. The pics were just taken in the middle of all that (they had to be retaken because the originals were too blurry).

Lowers:



Uppers:



Smiling:



Profile:

[ItsFreyja]

Beautiful progress! How deep is your bite now?

[LittleSern]

I still have bite turbos on my back molars but they have worn down quite a bit. I have no idea the position they would be if the bite turbos came off but I think the front teeth are moving up and the bottom teeth may have moved down a little. I'll see if I can post some more photos soon!

[LittleSern]

So it's been almost 10 months since I had my braces put on. On December 4th I had my first reverse curve wire put in. I was expecting it to hurt, but I didn't feel really any discomfort at all. That's been the trend with my braces experience so I'll consider myself lucky.

Due to my overbite, my top front teeth were angled in pretty significantly (I think like 20 degrees inward), and the braces up to now hadn't really improved the situation much. My ortho said the reverse curve (RC) wire would really help to pull them out and up and he was right. I noticed significant changes in that regard. Now my front teeth are no longer angled inward (maybe just a little). Since my overbite is still present, that means that I have a pretty significant gap between my upper and lower teeth. You can't tell from the front (It's not an open bite), but I can stick the tip of my tongue through it. Now it's just a waiting game with the elastics to pull my upper teeth back to fix the bite!

Another thing is now that teeth aren't angled inward, I can see that one of the front teeth is lower than the other. My ortho doesn't want to fix that until we are done with the RC wire since he doesn't want to interupt that process. I imagine he'll fix it later with either a wire bend or a bracket repositioning.

Another note on the RC wire is that they can tend to flatten the smile arc. I expressed my concern about this to my ortho and he reassured me that he would be keeping a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't compromise my smile arc. I went back for another appt 4 weeks after the RC wire first went in for him to check on it, and he said my smile arc looks okay. The only thing they did during that appt was replace the power chains. No wire changes so I will have the RC wire in for another 4 weeks... my next appt is on Jan 29th.

Lastly, I've been feeling a bit more concerned about my face changes since braces were put on. I have experienced the same thing that many others on this board have with facial thinning and cheekbone protrusion. I think I look a bit older than my age now. I saw an old friend that I hadn't seen since before the braces the other day and she said I look "disturbingly thin" in my face. I haven't lost any weight. Not sure why she would say that to me, but it kind of confirms my fears. My sister also has braces on and she has also experienced some facial thinning but she already had a really round face so it benefited her. I already had a very angular thin face, so now I just think I look older.

Pics to come in another post.

[LittleSern]

Before and at 10 months





Side View Before and at 10 months

[LittleSern]

A few more recent candid shots

[ItsFreyja]

Wow, it's dramatic how much your uppers have uprighted -- what great progress!

[Akametal]

Amazing results. The change in your profile is significant.

[aspiromusings]

Looking awesome mate!

[LittleSern]

Thanks for your kind words! It's been about 3 months since my last update. As planned, my reverse curve wire was removed on January 29th and I'm really happy with the results. My smile is significantly less gummy than before and there was a part of me that didn't think it would be possible!

After the RC wire was removed, I had a significant amount of extra space between my front teeth and also between my canines and laterals. My ortho thought I still needed my teeth to angle out a bit more, so the next wire that went in that I was wearing up until yesterday's wire change was one that has torque in the front to keep angling my teeth outward. I don't remember what it was called, but I remember hearing the words "hyperelastic" and "set wire".

Yesterday I had that taken out and a TMA 19x25 wire put in (this one without that angulation) because my ortho is trying to close up the remaining spaces, which I believe are mostly between the canines and laterals. He also increased the strength of the powerchain to help with this process - they called them "E link" powerchains. Definitely the most painful powerchain they put on, but it only hurt during application and I had no pain afterwards. Seriously.. I think my braces experience is uncommon because I really haven't experienced much discomfort with them during the entire treatment.

I'll be back in 3 weeks to take facial photos again so that we can assess how everything looks not just with my teeth but also how they look with the rest of my face. I'm a little bit concerned about the face changes that fixing my overbite is resulting in - my lower lip definitely comes forward more and I'm not sure I really want it to move any farther than it already has. I think there is also some bracket repositioning that has to happen, but I guess we will see! Latest pictures to come in a subsequent post!

[LittleSern]

Top:Right before reverse curve archwire was put in
Bottom: 2 months after they were taken out





Top: Before braces
Middle: before reverse curve wire
Bottom: after reverse curve wire

[natnat]

Thanks for sharing. Fantastic progress! It's amazing how orthos are able to change your teeth so much, great work so far

[Tiche]

Nice progress

[tartanhabit]

Great progress. Your profile looks great - fuller lips - win! My teeth were tipped in too. I've had a friend tell me my face looks fuller which is really what I'd expect because there's more structure (teeth) to support the soft tissue of the face.

[demarcheesy]

Thanks for posting this! It's giving me renewed hope!