Has anyone had their teeth straightened with braces or those gum shield things?

[Mrstumbletap]

I have spoken to my dentist about it and he said there are 2 options, a six month fixed brace that's £4000, or a gum shield you have to wear for 12 hours a day for a year which £1000. The gum shield one requires them to file each side of every tooth down a bit to make room the teeth to move back into line.

Has anyone had any of these options? Or are there any more options?

AsMackerel said, the fast braces - in my case the Inman Aligmer, are not "permanent" in that after the treatment finishes, you have to wear a retainer for the rest of your life. My dentist has recommended a bonded wire to the back of the teeth to keep them in place one they are in position and a clear retainer (something like invisalign) to wear every night for the first 3 months then twice a week afterwards. Without a retainer the teeth will definitely move back to their original position. However, I think even after the fixed train track type a bonded retaining wire is needed to stop any movement.

how do your teeth know how they were moved? If you have fixed metal braces you don't need a retainer is that right?

I don't think invisalign is good for fixinng big problems. a snaggle tooth perhaps, that's the impression i got. that my bite (which seems ok to me) could not be fixed by mere invisalighn

I don't think it's as simple as that, Mags. Teeth have a tendency to shift towards the front of the mouth during the course of a lifetime (mesial drift) whichever brace you have, so I think it's usually advisable to have a retainer in either instance.

I assume the problem is that because the Invisalign/Six Month Smile type braces have only titled the teeth rather than repositioned them, there is only so much a retainer can do to stop them tilting back again. The actual spacing of the teeth hasn't changed.

I'm not a dentist or orthodontist though!

I was told that no matter what type of brace is used, a retainer is necessary as teeth move over your lifetime. More so if they have been recently fixed

Yeah I was under the impression that a retainer is always needed after braces - someone I work with has dreadful teeth, almost all of the front teeth are crooked & overlapping, and I was shocked to find out she had braces as a teenager.

Yeh, apparently if wisdom teeth come down after the teeth have been straightened, it can all go to pot. Before my dd got her braces on, she had a tooth out on either side top and bottom and it felt really counter intuitive to me to be pulling out 4 healthy teeth, but her teeth look good now, no gaps. But the orthodontist told me, it's evolution, we all have more teeth than we need because apes had bigger jaw lines!

Invisalign and six month smile don't work the same way. 6 month smile doesn't fix your bite and is really a cosmetic quick fix, but invisalign moves the teeth as a fixed brace would and corrects your bite. I had invisalign and wore the aligners for 13 months. I now have to wear a Vivera retainer ar night to keep them from moving. I woud definitely recommend invisalign, it was hassle free & it was great that I could take the aligners out if I needed to e.g meetings, special occasions. I had to have a couple of teeth filed but although that initially created a bigger gap, by the end of the treatment my teeth had moved to fill them.

Here are my before & after pics!

Such helpful posts, and people posting photos is great. I think I'm leaning toward the Inman aligned that I can take out and then the fixed wire behind the teeth after treatment. But I am trying to get an appointment on Friday to see what they think.

Some research on google showed me that you can get the brace completely behind your teeth so it's invisible, but looks like it's only available in London.

Anyone had the behind teeth brace I think it's called social 6 or something like that?

I had the Inman Aligner. I thought it was great - very quick and easy to take out and put in. It does give you a very obvious lisp however. You also need to wear it for around 20 hours a day for a quick result (though towards the end I was wearing it more like 16 hours a day). My teeth were straightened in 10 weeks. I found wearing it far less embarrassing than I though I would (probably because I tried to wear it with confidence and not care what people thought!). However I didn't wear it when I was meeting customers etc.

Good luck! If your dentist thinks it will work for you then I highly recommend it. I was also very tempted by Invisalign but in the end the prospect of fixing my teeth in only a couple of months swung it for me.

I agree with Daniel. I had the invisalign and have been very happy with it. Made a big difference to my teeth and very noticeable. Also changed my face shape slightly.
Had them in for a total of 12 months ( last three months was just to fix them). I have a retainer which is should wear at night and this is important.
When i was having it done few people noticed they were in ( usually had to be told) and I could see the improvement every month.
My teeth would have gotten progressively worse with age ( my mums once lovely straight teeth are terrible now and it really affects her) so i was delighted to get it done even though i was in my forties!

Marking my place and reading these comments with great interest as I am thinking about going through a straightening procedure. I have very crooked teeth and a v shaped palate which my dentist says he could turn into a u shape and straighten my teeth within 12-18 months at a cost of £2-3k. This would be a huge outlay for me but I have longed to have it done so I am thinking of taking the plunge if he can work out an affordable payment plan. At the time of writing I don't know which system he would use or what form the braces would take.

I had ceramic train tracks - they looked awful, made my teeth look rotten and yellow. I wish Id gone for Invisalign.

The result was good but my retainers broke so my teeth have jiggled about a fair bit in the 8 years since I got rid of them.

Yeah, I had done 6-months braces from Discovery Dental in Ajax a few years back before my marriage. I couldn't wait for long because I was getting married soon. So, my dentist advised me to do six-month braces ( www.discoverydental.com/dental-services/six-month-braces/ ), that could fix my problem within a period of six months. I only had a little gap between my two front teeth. That was rectified, and I was totally happy with the experience.

Anyone had the behind teeth brace I think it's called social 6 or something like that?

Behind the teeth braces are called lingual braces. I am approaching half way through my treatment and have buccal ( visible - cheek side as opposed to tongue side) braces.

I was offered lingual braces but didn't choose them because

• they are considerably slower moving
• they cut your tongue up (exaggeration - but are more mouth irritant)
• cause short term speech impediment
• are more expensive

really the only benefit is you can't see them so for me that didn't out weigh length of treatment.

Honestly, I HATE my braces. I feel completely repulsive and am resigned to being single for the whole time of my treatment but I am glad I've committed to it and am focussed on the end result. I can't imagine kissing anyone while I have them on or anyone wanting to kiss me.

I hate them but I don't regret them.

I'm not a dentist but as I'm told if you want a stable result, fixed braces are a better option unless you have a very simple case. I saw a few othodontists who specialised in different methods before I decided - shop around - speak to Inman aligner specialists, classic mulit -discipline orthos and invisalign specialists.

For teeth filing (which is called interproximal enamel reduction) if you are freaked out about it get your hygenist to use a stain removing interproximal strip on you - a polishing/stain removing strip for use between the teeth. It's a similar feeling so you can see how it is.

Im 4 months into 2.5 years of fixed braces!

One other thing - I have "invisble" brackets with a white wire. I agree with PP who says she thought made her teeth look yellow. I have adopted a "don't mention the braces" policy and it has amazed me how few people have noticed them and how long it has taken.

One work collegue I speak to every day. after about 2 months we were speaking face on and she suddenly said "OMG do you have braces?" It had taken her 2 month to notice.

I expect it may depend on how visible your teeth are when you talk - my point was that the "I'm so ugly with braces" is probably largely in my head as I have concrete evidence that several people haven't noticed for several weeks/months.

One more thing - check out

www.archwired.com/

which is a site for adult orthodontic braces. I lived on this site for the first few weeks and devoured all the threads about living with braces.

It has some good general info pages if you go to the "Start here" section.

I'm getting fixed braces on my bottom set this time next month, going to have them in probably 8-12 months. I'm hoping that's a worse-case scenario timescale but sure you don't know. Costing me £1,700 including the fixed retainer and tooth whitening (although I might skip that- worried about damaging the enamel).

Thanks for the info about the mesial drift. I'm getting mine sorted now as the lower tooth right at the front is being pushed forward and out by the ones behind. A lot of my friends and family think it's a very small unnoticeable flaw and that I'm being vain. They don't believe me when I say it's definitely got much worse in the last two years (I'm 27). I just don't want it to get to the point where it's like a snaggletooth and really starting to get me down before I fix it.