Braces--teeth shifted

[owl27]

Hello--

I have a friend whose teenager had braces. About 6 months later, one of her front teeth shifted. My friend took her daughter back to the ortho but they said she didn't wear her retainer often enough. So my friend has no recourse? It's a shame. She asked me because something similar happened to me but it was after several years.I'm an adult-- teens are so self conscious...

I thought I'd ask if anyone knew about orthodontia and/or insurance. My friend actually got new dental insurance but they told her since her daughter already had braces, she has met the lifetime max. Is this true, even though it was on a different insurance plan?

It stinks when someone makes an effort at improvement and then things like this happen.

[HouseKitten]

If she didn't wear her retainers as often as they said she should then they're right, she really has no viable complaint. I had braces when I was younger and having to clean and wear retainers every night used to be sooo much effort (and you don't really think about the long-term when you're 13) so my bottom teeth have shifted somewhat and one of my top teeth sticks out slightly. If she didn't follow the instructions then she only has herself to blame unfortunately.

 

As for the insurance - since braces are normally only a once in a lifetime thing, I'd imagine that's why they have the policy, and I think they're within their rights to set whatever criteria they want. Perhaps the reason they have that policy is because needing a second set of braces implies that you didn't take good enough aftercare of them the first time (with the retainers etc) and so can't be trusted to do it properly the next time, which means they'd have to keep paying out for treatment.

 

Are you in the UK? A lot of clinics will do braces privately. Also, once she's older there's a treatment called Invisalign which is good for people who've had their teeth shift after braces, which uses clear retainers to move them back. It is however quite expensive.

[owl27]

Thanks. No my friend lives in the US. It's totally possible her daughter didn't wear her retainers enough. But I was surprised they would shift after 6 mos. Thanks again for the info.

[ur02111222]

Well, I think she should try to get the retainers on. It will be really uncomfortable, but if she starts wearing them all the time, the tooth may shift back.

 

I think retainers are sort of a life time commitment, only you don't need to wear them as much the longer it's been since you've had braces. I barely wear mine, but occasionally I pop the top one in. I also have a permanent lower retainer. Maybe she should consider a permanent one?

 

At the very least, she can have new retainers made that will keep her teeth from shifting any farther than they already have.

[GoneCrazy]

At my buttom teeth were i got that little bar behind the teeth one of the teeth have kinda shifted abit not really big but things like those happen. One of the ladies that work at ortho office she didn't wear her retainer and now she had to get braces again. Same thing happened to my friend didn't wear his and now his teeth have shifted. As for me i've been through hell and back with my teeth 3yrs with braces i'm doing whatever the dr. says, hopefully next month i will go from wearing my retainer 24/7 to just nights

[owl27]

Thanks all. I will share this with my friend. We did a little searching online and read that teeth have a natural tendency to try to pull back to the original position. So I suppose people who didn't have very crooked teeth to begin with can get away with not wearing their retainer. But if you had very crowded teeth, it seems you really need to make sure you wear it ALL the time.