Monday, March 19, 2007
Superchains AND Powerchains
...And some Elsevier articles that really have me convinced that the braces are a bad plan.
I know the orthodontist doesn't believe I've been wearing rubber bands because my teeth are not moving. Today he had the assistant put "superchains" on the left side (with the largest gap) underneath the wire, and then a "powerchain" all the way across the brackets on my top teeth from port to prow to starboard. My mouth feels uncomfortably tight and this cannot possibly be good. I've been looking at some journal articles today, and one showed a couple of case studies of people on bisphosphonates who, even though they did experience some very slow tooth movement (one lady had braces for 30 months instead of the projected 18-24), it was mostly from tooth tipping, and not because the roots were actually moving.
I need to ask to have these things taken off. I will be disappointed to have gaps left in my teeth, but at least they look better than they did before they reached this level of straightening. Maybe at some point I will be off the Zometa long enough for dental work of this kind to make sense (maybe...but doubtful: bisphosphonates have a very long half-life and I'm sure Lita/Dr. Hayes won't just take me off Zometa), but right now I think it's a lot of pain and anguish for negligible (or poor) results, with added risk of osteonecrosis.
Do I wait until my next orthodontist appointment? Should I ask Lita about this again next Tuesday? I don't really know how to bring this up with the orthodontist. I gave him Lita's number; I'm not sure he ever called. I'm not sure he's up on his research about this issue. I'm not sure he wants to hear a patient talking about "the literature." Maybe I should just go in and demand to have retainers because I'm done.
I really wanted my teeth fixed. Oh well.
I know the orthodontist doesn't believe I've been wearing rubber bands because my teeth are not moving. Today he had the assistant put "superchains" on the left side (with the largest gap) underneath the wire, and then a "powerchain" all the way across the brackets on my top teeth from port to prow to starboard. My mouth feels uncomfortably tight and this cannot possibly be good. I've been looking at some journal articles today, and one showed a couple of case studies of people on bisphosphonates who, even though they did experience some very slow tooth movement (one lady had braces for 30 months instead of the projected 18-24), it was mostly from tooth tipping, and not because the roots were actually moving.
I need to ask to have these things taken off. I will be disappointed to have gaps left in my teeth, but at least they look better than they did before they reached this level of straightening. Maybe at some point I will be off the Zometa long enough for dental work of this kind to make sense (maybe...but doubtful: bisphosphonates have a very long half-life and I'm sure Lita/Dr. Hayes won't just take me off Zometa), but right now I think it's a lot of pain and anguish for negligible (or poor) results, with added risk of osteonecrosis.
Do I wait until my next orthodontist appointment? Should I ask Lita about this again next Tuesday? I don't really know how to bring this up with the orthodontist. I gave him Lita's number; I'm not sure he ever called. I'm not sure he's up on his research about this issue. I'm not sure he wants to hear a patient talking about "the literature." Maybe I should just go in and demand to have retainers because I'm done.
I really wanted my teeth fixed. Oh well.
Labels: braces, Dr. Hayes, Lita, Zometa
