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I've known of this forum for over 5 years now, and I've consciously improving my posture for over 3 years.
I'm 20 years old now, and I do not appreciate any major changes in my jaws and teeth (I gained some facial width, but that could mainly be attributed to puberty).
I believe the single thing that has stopped my progress is a crossbite I have on my left second premolar with my left bicuspid.
I went to a SmileShop to get a 3D scan done and to see the simulated new smile I would potentially get after the treatment.
I will let the pictures speak for themselves (click on them to see the GIF).
Upper jaw:
Lower jaw:
I think I'm not picky if I say that I found these results very dissapointing. They fixed some crowdedness in the bottom front, and some spaces in the top front. What's more, the crossbite, which is the reason I wanted the treatment in the first place, is not even fixed!
Basically, they only worried about the esthetics.
Conclusion: Either they propose another simulation with the fixed crossbite, or I will probably go with braces or myobraces.
Yo
@fousey You cannot expect a comprehensive orthodontic treatment by a direct-to-consumer service like Smile Direct. They will not touch any structural issues but only move teeth minimally to make them look overall straight, regardless of occlusion.
Interestingly, I noticed that your left second premolar is rotated by 180°. That may be the culprit of your suboptimal occlusion in that area. It will be hard to de-rotate that. If you have a narrow maxilla, you can consider some major expansion, which will give all the teeth some extra room. A camouflage solution would be to get a crown on that tooth that will result in a better occlusion.
You cannot expect a comprehensive orthodontic treatment by a direct-to-consumer service like Smile Direct. They will not touch any structural issues but only move teeth minimally to make them look overall straight, regardless of occlusion.
They told me they could fix it very easily and in just 4 months, I guess I got my hopes up for naught.
That may be the culprit of your suboptimal occlusion in that area.
However, she said that it's not a problem because of the symmetry of that tooth specifically (rotated 180º looks and works almost the same way). I would need braces for under a year and around $2000 (which is even cheaper than the SmileDirect treatment).
Now that you mention it, It could be that the rotation caused the maloccluison (crossbite), but that doesn't mean you would need to de-rotate it to fix the crossbite (due to the symmetry).
Yo
Smile Direct messed me up... but I'm glad because it's how I discovered all of this. Using these braces flared up TMD badly and I had to stop using it, that's what led me to addressing the underlying issues of malocclusion. I also have a crossbite.
Thanks for your input, @vplatt !
Can I ask you what is your crossbite, and how you solved it (or how you're trying to)?
Yo
@fosuey I have a bilateral, posterior crossbite, more pronounced on the right. I am about to start Homeoblock and osteopathic cranial manipulations, along with myofunctional therapy and PT. I think crossbite almost always means the upper palate is narrow.
@fosuey I wish I could get my money back from Smile Direct, because using braces with the situation in my mouth will predictably worsen TMD (I was told this by a reputable orthodontist after the fact), rendering Smile Direct useless bc the amount of pain I was in made it impossible to continue. That was a good thing bc it would've made the situation in my mouth worse overall.
I think crossbite almost always means the upper palate is narrow.
For sure, my palate is narrow as you can see in the pictures.
I bought some knock off myobraces from Amazon, but the pain was unbearable and I couldn't get myself to put them on for more than two hours.
I'm starting to think that the only solution for my problem is traditional orthodoncy, which is not ideal, but if it has to be done then...
I'm sorry to hear about the TMD and the pain, hope all the procedures go smoothly.
Yo
@fosuey why don't you do palate expansion instead of traditional orthodontics for adults? you mean like braces?
I've thought about it, but the price is too much for me. I cope hope that I can get palatal expansion naturally through mewing since I'm still relatively young (20).
Yo