I'm using the photos of these two ladies to illustrate a point.Look at Kidman's upper teeth, then look at Jolie's. See any difference?
Ms. Kidman's upper teeth are more "tipped in", while Ms. Jolie's seem more expanded and wider.
Where am I going with this? Well - the short version? I've asked my ortho to tip in my upper front teeth, and she's doing that with the upper retainer, which I picked up today.
The long version? I'm missing an incisor on the bottom. It simply never came out. This means, simply put, that my upper teeth have a wider circumference over all, and my ortho and OS have had to compensate for the missing bottom incisor (7 mm). As a result, there's a slightly bigger space between my upper and lower front teeth (the upper "OVER" bottom part) than "ideal". It bothers me a little bit, because it feels as though my bite isn't as tight as it should/could be. When I asked my ortho about it two weeks ago, she said she could "tip in" the upper teeth with the retainer if I wanted to. After some consideration, I discussed it with her during my retainer appointment this morning. She said it wouldn't alter my jaw or facial structure, and that it's purely a matter of preference. So we agreed to proceed.
She shaved off a total of 2 mm from my upper teeth (horizontally), then bent the retainer in all the right places and made it sit lower across my upper teeth than usual (to tip them in). We'll see!
I don't like the retainer too much - who does? It slurs my speech, and makes me gag a little. But, it just takes some getting used to....
I'm very, very happy with the results of my surgery and orthodontics work overall - and THANKS for all your comments and encouragements, folks. This is merely fine tuning. Too bad it won't make me look like either of the ladies you see here (sigh), but it WILL minimize the gap and create a tighter bite. :)
Time for bed - and I gotta pop the retainer back in. Oy!
