So first off, the old adage of being careful of what you wish for rang true for me. Remember how stoked I was to not have to wear those posterior box elastics continuously anymore? Well, I don't exactly prefer night time wear over continuous wear, as I've (sadly) discovered. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty damn freeing to not have to worry about elastics during the day, but damn...I don't know what is it this time around, but I've just been having a lot of trouble hooking the elastic into its configuration on the right molars. Kind of like when I first got put on them. Yesterday I spent ten minutes just hooking and rehooking the elastic into a box configuration that would stay on my right molars. Today I seem to have better luck and only spend a few minutes on it....the frustrating thing is, I don't even know what I'm doing right or wrong when hooking the elastic. I'm using the same technique as before...and sometime the elastic will stay, and sometime, it won't. Also, the pressure from the elastics seem to be...intensified a bit when it's just night time wear. I guess the elastics have to bring my teeth together from a day of them not being in elastics. So there's that.
The gaps from the IPR haven't really closed yet, and I don't really see the powerchain pushing my front two teeth back, but again, it's not even been a week since my appointment, so I'll have to just have patience and wait.
Went to the dentist yesterday for a routine cleaning and check up...and while the dental hygienist pronounce my oral hygiene excellent (barely any plaque, according to him.), the X-Rays taken show that I have root resorption. And not like an insignificant amount either. About 1/3 of the root is gone, when compared to the X-Rays taken last year. The dentist is concerned, and encouraged me to speak to the orthodontist when I next have an appointment.....to be honest, I'm going to phone in the morning and get it clarify with the orthodontist office on whether or not they want me in sooner than my August appointment with regards to this finding. My dental office is going to send my orthodontic office a copy of my X-Rays, so hopefully I won't need to do another one at the orthodontist.
Now I've been googling root resorption up, and basically it's when your roots get shortened. Orthodontic work is a contributing factor, but so is trauma, genetics, and hormones. I've read that what I have--1/3 of the root affected--is considered to be moderately severe. I also read that teeth are okay with 50% of the root gone. I also read that the portion of the root closest to your gums and crown is more important that the apical part...and that apical root loss is not as severe as root loss closer to the crown. There's definitely no cure to this, and roots won't grow back. There are different treatment options for root resorption, going from treatment termination, to just pausing for a bit with a passive wire.
Obviously, I'm not an orthodontist so I wouldn't know what to do, but this is...concerning, nonetheless. My dentist told me that while it's common for roots to get shorter during orthodontic treatments, she is still concerned about the amount of root that got absorbed. She didn't seem too...urgent about me speaking to the orthodontist about it (I don't know why she can't or won't speak to him herself), but I"m still going to make a call to the orthodontist office tomorrow, just to be sure.
If worse comes to worse, I'll just have the braces taken off. Definitely won't be the way I'd want them to be off, but honestly, if I have to have to them off due to root resorption, then I will. And...really, my teeth are pretty much straight, and my bite is pretty much there, so I won't exactly be loosing out a lot of stuff if I do have to stop. Beside the only thing that we're working is bringing in the protruded upper central incisors...but if I were to take the braces off, I'd be okay with my teeth. They won't be perfect, but they'll be good. And well, I never was aiming for a Hollywood smile anyway. I just wanted my teeth straightened out, and I mostly have that.
So we'll see where this takes me.
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| Week 67 |
Oh man, bummer! Root resorption is one of my biggest fears too, and as it can become more likely the older we are, I think that's one of the reasons my orthodontist gave me only a one year "sentence", even though it won't be a perfect result. It's easy to start hoping for protection once we get started on this braces journey, but I am going to be pretty firm with him if he tries to go much past the 1 year mark, because I am terrified about root resorption. I really hope you can get some answers soon.
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