New Posts

Hallo!
ich gratuliere Dir zu Deiner Entscheidung. Bin schon gespannt, wie es Dir damit gehen wird.

LG

Nach längerer Zeit mit herausnehmbaren Zahnspangen habe ich mich jetzt tatsächlich getraut und bekomme nächste Woche, am 18.02., meine feste Zahnspange eingesetzt.
Wer an einen Austausch/Fragen/Erfahrungen/Bilderdokumentatio usw. interessiert ist, kann mich gerne anschreiben, z.B. hier als pm.

When I got my removables as a kid they made them in house so it was all really fast - probably all farmed out to labs now though.

That sounds pretty cool

Thanks. I'm from Germany. Guess I can call myself lucky in my quest for removable braces being from a country where at least children are still somewhat regularly treated with them.

That's pretty cool, good luck with your braces!
Where are you from?

Yesterday was my record-taking appointment. It didn't involve the orthodontist at all. Instead, the assistant prepared and handled everything. First, both a panoramic and a side-view radiograph were taken. Afterwards she photographed my side profile in addition my teeth from the front. The last thing to do where the impressions of both jaws. Luckily I didn't have any problems with that. The impression material went back into my mouth quite a lot, so far that I couldn't have my tongue not touch it. However, I didn't really need to gag. It wasn't necessarily comfortable, but it also didn't bother me significantly compared to what I've read pretty much everywhere else. While my impressions were taken, another patient next to me was lucky (or unfortunate?) enough to get a lower lip bumper installed. After my impressions, I was already finished, in fact quite a lot quicker than I expected. I have another appointment in 3 weeks to get presented and discuss the treatment plan. If (or rather once) I accept, another set of impressions will be taken to create the braces from (the ones taken yesterday are for record-keeping and treatment evaluation only). I guess 3 weeks isn't anything unusual, but that time will probably feel like ages for me. I wonder how much time they'll need to create the appliances afterwards. How long did it take for you accepting the treatment plan to getting removable braces? So what time frame can I probably expect?

Hallo meine Lieben,

jetzt ist es schon über einen Monat her, dass ich meine Brackets bekommen habe. Bisher lief alles gut, ich hatte kaum Schmerzen. Am ehesten habe ich etwas nach ca. 3 Wochen gespürt. Anscheinend hatten da meine Zähne ihre Lockerungsübungen hinter sich.
Was ich bisher sagen kann: Im OK spüre ich am Meisten die 2er und 4er. Die Eckzähne und alle anderen sind sehr druckunempfindlich. Ähnliches im UK. Dort spüre ich jedoch auch leichte Druckschmerzen auf den 1ern, obwohl die nicht sehr schief stehen.
Was ich bisher bemerkt habe: die 1er und 2er unten sind etwas gerader geworden, ansonsten merke ich kaum Unterschiede zu vorher. Vielleicht im OK, dass die 1er und 2er sich von der Länge etwas angeglichen haben.
Beim Biss selbst habe ich bemerkt, dass trotz Aufbiss die 3er oben die 4er unten berühren. Die Eckzähne sind ja um einiges weiter heraussen als die 4er daneben, da merke ich aber optisch wenig Unterschied, dass der Draht gerader geworden wäre.
Andererseits wurde bei meinem letzten Reparaturtermin der Draht hinten gekürzt und jetzt steht er doch wieder etwa 1mm über. Da scheint sich doch etwas zu tun.

Soweit die Neuigkeiten von mir...
Alles Liebe!

Yesterday I had my consultation appointment with ortho2. I was slightly less nervous as expected. This appointment went more like what I expected most of them to go and be like. Their website stated that they use brackets, invisalign and removable braces for adults, which was confirmed when I called beforehand. The doctor himself is rather old, which should be a good indication for removable appliances.

The practice is located in a more expensive area and was pretty large. It felt more impersonal than the practice of ortho1, which was smaller and in general felt more individual. Upon being seated in a patient room, a female orthodontist explained to me that the older ortho will retire soon and thus won't take any more new patients. Instead, she'll be taking over the practice and handle all new patients.

When I was asked why I was there and answered that I'd like to have a few minor things fixed with removable non-invisalign braces, she already started to become quite dismissive. After taking a look into my mouth, she explained what was wrong with my teeth. Only some of the things I already knew about. Other things she noticed I still don't really agree with, but then again I'm not an orthodontist. After I added the things I'd like to get fixed, she stated that only brackets or invisalign will give me a satisfactory result. Removable plates won't be able to fix most things and she doesn't like using them. She only rarely uses them, for example when a single tooth relapses during / after retention. For me the only options would be fixed braces for 9-12 months or invisalign for 3-6 months.

Honestly, this was pretty much what I was expecting to happen during all of the consultation appoints, them looking at my teeth and stating that they only offer brackets or invisalign. Luckily, as I already had my offer from ortho1 with what I wanted, I quickly ended the appointment with ortho2.

Upon leaving the building, I instantly called ortho1 to accept their offer and start treatment with them. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be the record-taking appointment. After that 2 more appointments until I get removable braces, just as I wanted (hopefully)! So now there is no way back for me (or at least that's what I tell myself not to chicken out in the end )

An interesting thing is that I've been at 3 different orthos total so far (including the one 3 years ago) and all of them found and focused on pretty different problems of my teeth. I guess asking 3 people for their input will get you 4 different answers

I had my first consultation with ortho1 today morning. Before leaving the house I checked my blood pressure and pulse and they were completely through the roof! So much for wanting to stay calm…

The practice has an open treatment area with 3 chairs. I was led into a semi-private room with an open doorway to the open treatment area. Upon entering the room I instantly spotted 6 sets of appliance presentation model. Gladly, none of them was for invisalign Two had fixed brackets (one with metal ones and one with clear ones). Two more had removable plates and another one even a Bionator. The last one was for showing fixed retainers.

I stated from the very beginning that I'd like to have some smaller problems fixed with removable appliances which I only did at the end of the appointment 3 years ago. I'd like to think that this helped, but judging by the models I guess there really were only two options to begin with.
The orthodontist took a look at my teeth and pretty much found the same things I had collected over the years and want to get fixed. According to her, most things can be fixed with removable braces, albeit with a bit of difficulty. However, aligning my midline (2mm off) and fixing my wisdom teeth (which have enough space but are biting edge-to-edge not affecting my bite) can only be done with fixed braces and elastics (which I don't want).

The removable appliances she showed me are somewhat similar to Schwarz appliances. She said that my plates will probably with a few springs, screws and maybe other goodies. For my bruxism, she wants to apply a posterior bite plane to the lower appliance. She'll make the plane pretty thick, thicker than my night guard which has 2-3mm to relax my joint muscles. All in all she expects 1 year of treatment depending on how much I wear the braces (12h/d minimum).
For retention she showed me bonded retainers and stated that she always uses them on both jaws, usually on the front 4 or 6 teeth, sometimes even on 8. For my bruxism I'd additionally have a night guard for my lower jaw. I asked whether it'd be possible to use removable retainers instead. She wasn't really positive, stating that I'd need to wear them for the rest of my life as teeth will always shift to a certain degree and that fixed retainers are lower maintenance. I replied that I'll probably already wear the bruxism guard for the rest of my life, so it wouldn't really matter if I'd have one or two appliance in my mouth during the night. She didn't seem to positive, but also not fully negative about it.

If I go ahead with this ortho, there'll be a second appointment for record taking where they'll take two sets of molds (one for the record and one for appliance creation) and radiographs. In a third appointment she'll present the treatment plan. If I agree to still go forward with her, the braces will be fitted in a fourth appointment.


In the end, I'm already super stoked. This was a huge success as I got an offer containing just what I wanted and which I'll gladly accept. I still have a consultation tomorrow morning with a different ortho, so I'll se what they propose. But I can go into that more relaxed as I don't really "need" it anymore, already having a very good option.

I've just started my second try to get braces. First time (3 years ago) I went to an ortho my dentist recommended, but they would only have used brackets or invisalign, neither of which I'm interested in, so I chickened out. For a real treatment I'd rather like to have removable plates of some sort.

Now, 3 years later, my bruxism night guard starts to crack after 6 years of usage. I had the decision to get a new one or just try to go for braces again (as I don't want to pay hundreds for a new guard and then get braces, making my new guard not fit anymore anyway).

This time I searched online for orthos near me that treat adults using removable braces and found 7 whose websites stated that they do so. Those websites mention both invisalign and removable appliances separately. Judging from their website and location I called my top 3 a week ago. In that call I directly asked them if they used removable appliances which are not aligners like invisalign. That's when one of the practices said that they only use brackets or invisalign, leading to me ending the call quickly. The other two orthos do also use removable braces for adults and gave me initial consultation appointments for today and tomorrow respectively.

Since I got the appointments, I am super nervous and my whole body is just screaming "stress" all over the place. I think the last time my body reacted this strongly to stress was during the last weeks of my thesis. To those people having gone through the same thing, how do you handle your nerves building up before the appointment?!

I got a tongue crib about 6 months ago. It is the biggest most intrusive I have seen. It long almost touching my jaw when I close my mouth and not only ont he front as it us usual but all the way around from band to band. When I close my mouth u cannot touch any teeth with my tongue. I will have at least a year but most likely the full treatment about 3 years with the tongue crib and 2.5 with braces. My ortho won't even talk about getting it off for a year and she will evaluate, but she is adamant and everytime we talk she says she wants it for the duration. We will see, for I have made the decision to at least have all this year, it makes it easier for me to eventually maybe accept to have it for the duration. It is extremely uncomfortable but I got used to it in about 2 months. After dreading and avoiding it for years once I got it it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and now seeing the results just removing the constant pressure from the tongue as well as the reminder to put it where it should I am so happy to finally have done it.

My current retainers etc are somewhat out of date because I had a molar extracted some time ago.
Its not the back tooth but its the next one to it.
I have already asked the Braces shop if they can make a new retainer with a tooth on it. They say its no problem but I am just wondering if anyone else here has had an appliance made with an additional tooth on it?
If so, I wonder if its best to get the 'wrap around' style or a standard Hawley style.

They can make multiple appliances from one set of impressions, no problem. Either the make several casts from the same mold, reuse the casts, or duplicate the casts.

Shipping between Germany and the US is a headache at the moment, though. I shipped something in October: it went by sea (!) and took six weeks to get there. Problem ist that there are considerably fewer airliners crossing the pond, thus restricting cargo capacity. Unless you're willing to pay for courier service, of course.

--SC

Fuchtel, da hast Du vermutlich ein wahres Wort geschrieben...  ;D  Mit Prothesen-Haftcreme müsste es aber tatsächlich ganz gut klappen, mache ich auch mit Tiefziehschienen so, wenn ich Elastics tragen will. Essen würde ich trotzdem nicht damit.  :'(

--SC

Powerchains sind eine Option, die scheinen in D / EU aber nicht so oft zum Einsatz zu kommen wie Stateside. Gängiger bei uns ist, einen Bogen mit Loops (= Federn) einzusetzen, ggf. unterstützt durch Elastics. Das wurde bei mir vor 25 Jahren schon so gemacht und daran hat sich m.W. nicht so viel geändert.

Etwa so: https://www.scielo.br/img/revistas/dpjo/v21n2//2176-9451-dpjo-21-02-00115-gf13.jpg

--SC

Hallo meine Lieben,

heute gibts mal ein Update aus meinem persönlichen Umfeld. Einige Leute hier fragen ja nach den Reaktionen aus dem Umfeld. Deswegen wollte ich heute mal darüber schreiben.

Vorgestern ist mir am Nachhauseweg ein Bekannter über den Weg gelaufen. Ich hab mit ihm ein bisschen geredet, wie es ihm geht, wie es mir so geht usw. Er hat mich auf meine Spange nicht angesprochen.

Gestern habe ich beim Einkaufen zufällig zwei Bekannte getroffen. Der erste hatte telefoniert und mich gar nicht wahrgenommen, mit dem zweiten habe ich auch längere Zeit gesprochen. Er hat ganz sicher meine Spange wahrgenommen, aber nichts gesagt.

Heute in der Firma hat mein Abteilungsleiter gemeint, er hätte mein neues Whatsapp-Foto gesehen und mich gefragt, ob ich jetzt Brackets trage. Hab ihm dann etwas von meiner Intention erzählt. Er meinte nur, das ist sicher ganz schön teuer, seine Kinder würden auch bald eine bekommen. Der Kollege, der im gleichen Büro sitzt, meinte nur, ihm wäre nichts aufgefallen, was ich aber nicht glaube, da ich öfter recht nahe stand und mit ihm geredet habe.

Somit würde ich sagen, es gibt drei Gruppen von Menschen.
1. die Wissbegierigen, die einen aktiv ansprechen
2. die Feiglinge, die nicht nicht trauen etwas zu sagen oder sich dezent zurückhalten
3. die Uninteressierten, denen das egal ist oder gar nichts merken.

Nachtrag:
Ich hatte ganz vergessen, dass ich durch Zufall mit 2 fremden Leuten zum Reden gekommen bin. Das eine war eine ältere Dame, die ich auf Glatteis am Gehweg hingewiesen habe. Sie hat sich sehr bei mir bedankt. Und das andere war eine junge Frau am Fahrrad, die am Streusplit ausgerutscht ist und der ich geholfen habe, ihre Papierrollen zusammenzusammeln. Auch sie war sehr dankbar, dass ich mich um sie gekümmert habe.

In diesem Sinne, schönen Nachmittag
joerider

Hi Orio,

Wie geht es dir mit deiner Spange?
Magst du mal wieder ein Update posten?

At one time I had an fixed upper expander with springs pushing on the back of my front teeth, the expander was connected to a reverse pull headgear, the style that outline your face and lower metal braces. I was a terrible patient

Hallo meine Lieben,

habe meinen Reparaturtermin wieder hinter mich gebracht. Das ganze hat ca. 10 Minuten gedauert. Jetzt ist wieder alles, wo es sein soll. Die Assistentin hat mich sogar gefragt, ob ein Draht nicht sticht, den ich noch gar nicht gespürt habe, und diesen gekürzt. Ansonsten war es unspektakulär.

Alles Gute euch allen!