Teeth Shifting After Treatment Checklist 2017

Orthodontic treatment has come a long way over the years. You can now expect to have the straightest, most beautiful smile possible with a little work. However, the one thing that we have not found is a permanent solution to crooked or misaligned teeth. After undergoing treatment and doing everything right, it is frustrating to realize that your teeth are shifting back to their original place.

Your newly straightened smile should last for many years. However, it is common for people to notice some tooth movement after their appliances come off. Fortunately, you have several options from which you can choose to stop it from happening based upon your specific oral health needs.

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How Do Teeth Move When They Are Not Loose?

The feeling of your teeth shifting around in your mouth is unsettling. However, it is no cause for serious concern. As long as you do not have a history of diagnosed gum disease and have not received an injury to your mouth. To calm your fears, it is important to realize that teeth are not permanently fixed in one place in your jawbone as many people think. Instead, they are held within their sockets by ligaments and gum tissue that help them stay in one spot.

With pressure, however, those ligaments can stretch and allow your teeth to move slightly. This is how your braces worked to give you that beautiful smile. Without your orthodontic appliances there applying force, you may find that your teeth try to move back to where they were from the very beginning. This is why you may hear your orthodontist call the time after you get your appliances off as the retainment period.

Why Are My Teeth Shifting Immediately After My Braces Were Removed?

The majority of orthodontic patients are given a retainer to wear immediately after their brackets and wires are removed. This is because your body has a good memory, and your teeth may prefer to be in their original places. Wearing your retainer for longer allows your body time to develop a new memory of where the teeth should stay. Often, people who fail to wear their retainer as prescribed will discover that their teeth are moving out of place. Simply returning to the originally prescribed amount of time to wear the retainer will stop this from happening.

For younger children and teens, this is often the most common reason for teeth beginning to shift. It is, therefore, important to make sure that your teen is being honest about how long they wear their appliance at night. It is also possible for your teeth to move slightly and it is okay. For this reason, you must have a professional examine your teeth to tell the difference between normal and abnormal teeth movement after you have entered the retainment phase of your treatment.

What Causes Tooth Movement Years After Orthodontic Treatment?

Time takes its toll on everybody’s body, and your teeth are no exception to the rule. Just like your skin may start to sag and your hair will thin, teeth have a funny way of shifting out of place. There are some things that increase the risk of your teeth moving years after your treatment, and these include the following:

A history of smoking
Blunt force trauma to the mouth
Nighttime tooth grinding
Oral habits such as thumb sucking or tongue thrusting
Failing to wear your retainer as prescribed
Dental treatments such as extractions

For some people, the retainment period lasts a lifetime. You might be asked to wear your retainer every night for the rest of your life. Other people may only be required to wear it for a couple of months. Since everyone’s mouth responds to treatment differently, it is important to work with your orthodontic team to figure out what works best for you. It is also possible to preserve your smile by avoiding those known risk factors for tooth movement such as developing gum disease or continuing bad habits such as smoking.

What Happens If I Do Nothing?

If your tooth movement is minimal or just occurred right after your braces came off, then your orthodontist may suggest taking a cautious approach by observing what happens over the next several weeks. Alternatively, they may give you options but you just don’t feel like going through all that work again.

It is never advisable to opt-out of using a treatment method that can help stop your teeth from shifting out of place since misaligned teeth lead to other problems such as difficulty chewing and jaw pain. Fortunately, you have simple options available such as Invisalign. This can keep your teeth from shifting out of place without detracting from your smile.

What Are My Options For Preserving My Smile?

The good news is that most people do not have to go through the full course of treatment again if the shifting teeth problem is caught early. This is because retainers and Invisalign plastic aligners were expertly designed to prevent tooth movement. This happens by applying just enough pressure to the ligaments and gum tissue to keep your teeth firmly in place. If you have waited too long to seek treatment, then you may need to wear your plastic aligners longer or your orthodontist may recommend an option such as placing a fixed retainer behind your teeth.

This tends to work best when the tooth movement is towards the front. Having to continue to wear a retainer or plastic aligners for many more months may seem daunting at first. However, this is a far better option than allowing your smile to go back to the way it was in the beginning.

No one wants to think that their teeth are going back to their crooked ways, and we know how to help you stop the natural process of teeth shifting back to their original place. When you see those telltale signs of movement in the mirror or notice a change in your bite, contact us at Gluck Orthodontics. We can find the best method for preserving your perfect smile.

Gluck Orthodontics
Hillsboro Village/Vanderbilt
2125 Blakemore Avenue
Nashville
TN 37212
Phone: 615 269 5903

Teeth Shifting After Treatment Checklist 2017

joelgluck

Dr. Joel Gluck has practiced orthodontics since 1983 when he opened his own office in Nashville. He earned his undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis, and his dental degree at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Gluck then completed an orthodontic specialty residency at the University of Michigan, one of the top five orthodontic training residencies in the country. He also wrote an original thesis and received a Master of Science degree.