I hope I'm using the terminology correctly. But I was wondering if you would be willing to share not only the arch width of your 1st molars (the generally accepted intermolar width), but also your 2nd and 3rd if you still have your 3rd, or if they've erupted. Have you had any extractions? If so, what teeth?
Here are mine:
I haven't had any expansion, but I've seen visible improvement in a year, and I was curious if the 2nd and 3rd intermolar widths had anything to do with that.
I've pondered it before, but haven't really pursued any answers -- I keep wondering if the fact that I had teeth extractions and my molars moved up meant that the way I think about my intermolar width needs to change, too. How, I'm not sure. But if we were able to pool our experiences, there might be a trend that's helpful somehow.
It seems reasonable to me that your posterior teeth have shifted forward to fill in the gaps from the your bicuspid extractions. I'm not sure they would have shifted a full tooth length forward, but it's likely the width between your second molars is closer to the position in the arch where the first intermolar width is typically taken. The standard values for assessing a narrow intermolar width are averages anyway, so individual cases may differ. It's probably best to just feel how challenging it is to correctly position your tongue to decide if an appliance would be helpful. For example:
Intermolar widths act as a guide and definitely having a very narrow one is not helpful but it’s value is pointless if it’s above 38ish.
I had a little boy who recently attended with a width of 45. Many will say damn that is great. But he in fact needed much more for his skeletal shape and teeth size. So he is undergoing expansion . So everything is variable in your physiology.
I just took some inexact measurements with a tailor's tape. My first molars look to be a little over 39mm apart and my second molars look to be a little over 42mm apart (this is after about 6mm of expansion). For reference, my second bicuspids look to be a little over 34mm apart. My wisdom teeth are all removed but I haven't had any other extractions.
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