I'm on my ninth year of orthodontic work, so let's talk about it.

I'm on my ninth year of orthodontic work, so let's talk about it. This is what my teeth look like before anything. So then from middle school to high school, I had braces for about three years, and I'll insert a photo of what it looked like after I got my braces off. After I got my braces off, I wore my retainers literally every single night. But I didn't like the way my teeth looked because my upper teeth had, like, this overjet or flare, I guess. I don't know what the technical term of it is, but. But just, like, had a flare that wasn't really there before. I hated how it looked from the side, and I never wanted to show my profile and open my mouth that big. Also, it looks like the midline wasn't really aligned either. I brought up these concerns to my orthodontist and he basically said that I needed jaw surgery if I wanted to fix all of those concerns. I don't really wanna do that option. I was like, is there any other way we can get rid of that overjet? And then he said we could also remove four teeth, like my premolars, and bring everything in. Because I guess, like, I had overcrowding. He just did not share that much information me, I wasn't really aware of things. He kinda made the choice for me to not bring this up to me sooner like, while we're doing the whole all braces stuff. It was kind of annoying that I had to bring this up years later after I got the braces off. And at that point I didn't really know what to think of it. I didn't really know the negative consequences of a more retractive procedure rather than a more like, expensive procedure. And so I said, sure, let's do whatever it takes, cause at this point it sounds like there is a solution. So we go ahead and remove the four premolars. And he also offered to do it with Invisalign because he recognised that he had some faults with the way he did my braces from the get go. So he like felt bad, and didn't want us to, like, sue him, I guess. I don't know. So then he comped my Invisalign and so I was in Invisalign doing kind of a drastic transformation to remove four teeth and then retract everything inwards. And I was in that for about five years. It did retract everything in and we made significant progress with it. And I'm kind of grateful that I didn't have to wear braces during the whole time. But it was very, very slow. Then my side profile looks more straight and, like, perpendicular to the ground and the overjet and the flare is fixed. But then it brought on a new problem where my bite in the back was just open. Like my top row and bottom row in my back, just like, were not touching back here. So then I couldn't chew in the back. I could only chew with like, my front teeth. At this point, I'm like, okay, I'm like 24 now, and I still have Invisalign and I wanna get engaged soon. I'm like, when is this gonna be fixed? Because I can't have Invisalign indefinitely till my wedding. So I looked into braces to really fix up that bite in the back. And also learned that the retractive work I did could be prone to me getting sleep apnea. I started freaking out. Looked into airway orthodontics and all this. All these things. I decided to halt my Invisalign procedure after 5 years cause you have to renew it after 5 years and pay a whole another lab fee if it goes beyond five years. So I decided to get braces and really fix up that open bite in the back. And also being able to talk to more orthodontists and get like second, third, fourth, fifth opinions. I literally spoke to like 10 different orthodontists for this next round of getting my braces, cause I was like, I'm not getting my braces through the first guy again. I learned a lot of things, and they spoke to me with a lot more, I don't know, trust and scientific knowledge. And I learned that I had a class 3 malocclusion, and that's kind of why I have the overjet or like, flaring look. And it's also very common for minorities to have that kind of bite. What my first orthodontist did was basically try to mask that malocclusion, and that's why I had that, like, overjet flare thing. But, yeah, apparently I have a top jaw that's, like, maybe like this big, and then my bottom jaw is, like, this big, so they don't, like, line up perfectly and something like that. So I also had a crossbite in the back that's also not good for me. I learned, like, I had a lot of things, and I was like, wait, I feel like more research has just been done on this now, and there's new orthodontic procedures that can be utilised for different treatments. And I just, like, didn't have that back then. Also, it was very interesting that I met with several orthodontists that some chose not to treat my crossbite and some did. Some people were like, let me just fix your open bite in the back by wearing elastics, and that'll be it. But I went with an orthodontist that ended up wanting to target the crossbite where, um, basically, my top row was, like, sitting on the inside of my bottom row. So it was like sitting like this when your top row should always be, like, kind of over the edge of your bottom row teeth. And he basically said, you cannot treat the open bite in the back without treating for the crossbite. So I ended up going with him. So my treatment's been a bit longer. It's like, projected to take 18 months, and I'm about at 12 or 13 months now, so. And I'm, like, very scared at my chances of sleep apnea still, though, because of the fact that I did have four teeth removed. And that reduces your airways to your nose, because it all starts from how much space your jaw has up here to then flow into your nose or something like that. Sleep apnea is so scary. And there's definitely, like, more than just cosmetic reasons for getting braces and orthodontic work. It's your health, too, bro. Also, I found out later that there are new methods now where you don't have to just mask a malocclusion and cross bite by doing what my previous orthodontists did. Like, you can do it in a way that you didn't have to remove four extra teeth. And removing those four extra teeth was, I don't know, probably quite detrimental. Like, the most detrimental thing I probably could have done to my, like, airway system. But hopefully it's fine. My teeth are looking good now. Like, the crossbite is definitely fixed, and I can definitely chew with my back teeth again. The top row and bottom row actually touch again, look at my teeth now. It's touching the top of my arm, touching on both sides. And you can see that the top row is slightly over the bottom row on both sides, so yay. the bangs Are coming out tonight. Okay, thanks for listening. Let me know if you have any similar experience.