If you have finished with your orthodontic treatment and are wearing retainers (or will be soon), this is a special place to connect with others in your (enviable) situation. Ask a question or make a comment about life post-braces.
THe only thing is my lower teeth are not perfectly aligned. I asked my ortho about this last time and he said 'normally I wouldn't bother, but for you of course..."
So he repositioned the bracket and it did improve things, but they are still slightly misaligned. Am I expecting too much that they are 100% straight?
What about the retained? Can this reposition the tooth at all?
to each his or her own. I knew that I was not going to get the 100% perfect smile without jaw surgery which for the size of correction was just not worth it (even the surgeon said so.) I also knew I was doing this first and foremost for oral health not my looks. So the midline is not perfect but the bite has been nicely corrected. Everything looks good and feels great. I say job done. You will have to make your own determination.
Its very rare to see people with teeth looking like the "dental model" that you often see on top of a dentist/orthodontist desk.Depending on how wide your arch is,shape of each tooth and things like that , you may not get 100% results but 98-99% was more than I could have dreamed of. I know if I would have told him that I was not happy that he would deffinately have kept me in braces for another few months to try and get things as perfect as possible. He fixed my bite tremendously,not perfect but its damn close lol. He also never promised that I would have absolutely perfect teeth/smile...He said the improvement will be more than you expected.
I do think it's also a personal choice if you are not satisfied. Talk to your ortho to see if he has any options to try and tweak this pesky tooth that's concerning you.
I agree with Gennel, 100% perfect is rare and even then I think it probably comes with some cosmetic tweaking like veeners or bonding after the braces come off.
I was told by my Ortho that I would still have the tiny gap on the top between my bicuspid and incisor which has never bothered me at all because it's just a matter of my teeth not being smack up against each other, not really a gap. He did say that it might not bother me now but it might later after all my teeth were straight because that usually when people get extra picky. I'll have to wait and see.
I think your teeth look fantastic.
**Brace Day was September 22 - Ouch!**
**Member of the AW TADA club**
How funny is this, my lower arch looks very similar to yours - mine was not perfectly aligned either apparently. I think in my case it may have been because one tooth would no longer move the direction it was trying to be pushed, so the one next to it had to stay 'a little off' as well. I am learning that this is just not an exact science, our ideas of 'straight' and our ortho's idea of 'straight' are not always matching.
I was debanded today upon the advice of my ortho, and I am absolutely ecstatic with the results. The slightly misaligned tooth, seems even less so without brackets for some reason.
I have posted an update in the Naked Tooth section showing my before and after pics.
