Amanda6 wrote:Your problems with your orthodontist sound similar to problems I had with mine, and mine was doing functional orthodontics to treat my TMJ dysfunction, which is supposed to be taking the skeletal alignments into consideration. I also heard stuff like I haven't finished yet, or I'll do that bit later, and I got to the end of treatment, and it never happened. I also heard in answer to some of my questions that, arches don't always expand equally, and it's not an exact science. These responses should have been clues that I needed to go elsewhere and find another orthodontist. There are some who can expand arches more equally. My upper arch wasn't expanded out enough on my right side, and too much on my left side, so I ended up with a posterior crossbite, on my right canines and molars, and my skeletal midlines were 3mm off when I bite.
The problem is there were no agreed or clearly explained orthodontic objectives, all my treatment plan said was 'orthodontics', and the only verbal explanation I had about what the treatment was to achieve, was to expand my upper arch to create space for my tongue, so it seems that anything can be considered a finished treatment.
When the dentist decided he had finished, I went to another dentist who has improved my posterior crossbite by doing unilateral upper arch expansion. He also explained clearly what he was doing, and answered my questions with proper dental answers.
This is what worries me to no end. I do not want to reach the end of my treatment, and all these problems left unfixed. This treatment isn't cheap by any means and i plan on getting the most out of it, however, my orthodontist isn't a huge help when it comes down to explaining the things he does and why he does them. The moment i walked into his office, i immediately voice my concerns to him about my uneven arches and my upper jaw being slightly positioned onto my left side. He said he would take care of it, however, it's been almost 9 months and my upper jaw is has gotten worse since i started treatment, so much so, that i am bitting my left cheek when i bite to eat & this doesn't happen with my right side.
So any advice on how i should talk to my doctor so i can actually get him to listen to me? Should i mention this treatment plan or "objectives"?
OldBikerBag wrote:Well, it is normal. Everybody is uneven from right to left.
However.
I don't know what your expected term of treatment is, but it appears you're not done yet. It looks to me like he concentrated on moving your front incisors into the places they belong. Molars really don'y take a lot of coaxing to move. If your course of treatment is supposed to be two years, I wouldn't be getting upset until much closer to the end...say, three months or so and those teeth are still very misaligned.
I am eight months in now. I am in "finishing" wires. My overjet is all but gone. My front teeth line up well together, although my lower right second incisor is still rotated slightly. I've been bugging my ortho about it, but he tells me we're not going after that one just yet.
I have had as much as a 3mm gap between my top front incisors, put there by treatment...and closed within two weeks of wearing a powerchain. I have a huge gap between my rearmost right lower molar and the molar to the front of it. I suspect it will be fixed after I'm done with elastics, which should be the next "tightening."
There is still a lot of work to do in my mouth, but I'm past the halfway point. I can see a dramatic difference since the beginning of my treatment. I see changes almost every day.
Look at the pics you posted in your opening statement of this thread and compare them to the ones you just posted. Looks pretty good to me.
My expected term is a year and a half according to my doc. And i honestly wouldn't know what to tell you on what he's concentrated on because it doesn't make any sense to me. Obviously, my individual teeth look straighter, but the overall scheme of jaw is very distorted.
As to my pics, the only difference i see is that the left canine has been pushed in and my lower incisors have been pushed out. But like you said, there's still some time left in the treatment so im gonna have to give him a break, however, i also don't want to reach the point of no return.
I know how frustrated can it be when your ortho don't talk much about it. Mine don't and I think he screwing up my teeth but my arch is pretty nice now.
