Twin Block Brace Issues

[London1999]

Hi all.
At the age of about 9years old, my daughter was referred by her dentist to the hospital, as she had an overbite of 15mm, and was finding it difficult to eat and chew food properly. After a delay of about 18 months or so (they were waiting for her 'growth spurt' to start), she began, at the age of 12 to wear a twin block brace. She found it very difficult at first,and was very conscious of it, and I admit that even with me nagging, she didn't wear it all the time, as had been directed. (She probably had it one for about 18-20 hours of every 24 hour period)

She has had it for a year; going back every 2-3 months or so for checkups.
Today, her orthodontist, (a grumpy, rather unpleasant man that she doesn't much like!) has said that her although her overbite has improved to 5.5mm, that progress is too slow, that she is too old now (13 and a half) and he is referring her back to the senior orthodontist, who will probably say that they will abandon the treatment. They were going to do train track braces after the twin block, but he said they wouldn't work with her current level of overbite.

She has come home very upset, and I feel for her so much. She understands that she hasn't had them in constantly, but has just not been able to master eating with them in, so takes them out for meals, and doesn't always remember to put them straight back in. The consultant was quite rude to her today, and when she said she was wearing them for about 20 hours per day, he said that she wouldn't still have a lisp if that was the case.

He doesn't seem to have acknowledeged that it has reduced from a massive overbite of 15mm to 5.5mm now, in just about 12 months, and seems determine to stop her treatment.

Can he do this, if she really wants to continue with it? Is 13 1/2 years really too old for it to work? I am sure we were told at the start of treatment that the Twin block brace could only improve the bite by a maximum of 10mm; In which case it has pretty much covered what it can do.

If anyone has any experience of their kids using a brace like this, I'd very much like to hear their stories....

[Merrylegs]

Hmm. Dd (12) has also got twin blocks. Like your DD she can't eat with them in and when she takes them out sometimes forgets to put them back straight away. Also I know she takes them out at school a lot. My friend who is an orthodontist (but not ours) was telling her that the less you wear them the longer they would take to work obviously, but that they would work eventually.

I actually don't think she is wearing them enough tbh but they are such intrusive things it's really tough isn't it?

And DS's gf told me she had them also when she was younger and hated them and only wore them at night so instead of the 6 months it would have taken before she got train tracks it took a year. But they did treat her after a year, although she had to wear headgear also!

Is the treatment being done on the NHS? I wonder if his reluctance has anything to do with their funding cycles? Certainly 13 1/2 is not too old for orthodontic treatment to start per se.

It seems a shame that he is telling you all this now. I would hope that my orthodontist would give DD a heads up before we got to the end of the year as to whether the treatment was on course or not.