• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

terrible anteriors problem

P

petrel

Junior member
Joined
Mar 24, 2009
Messages
2
Hello Dentists,

I have had TMJ problems since my twenties, which I believe were due to my toingue muscles and mandible being trapped. Now that I can see a way to resolution, I have a problem that I do not understand what has been recommended to me, and I am suspicious and lost.

Let me explain. I am 39 years old now, and in my late teens I had ortho to correct an overjet, resulting in the TMj problems. These were not too bad, but recently also I had an implant placed in my no.8 tooth, and the anteriors adjacent were crowned. The result of the thicker anteriors is that my tongue is protesting it's lack of "operating" space. I can now tell this was my TMJ problem all along, in that my tongue and mandible had "retreated" away from the maxilla anteriors. My mandible had been trapped, and my tongue was flaccid or dormant, and I was not swallowing to relieve the stresses.

However the same specialist who has helped me see this (after many others who offered me appliances and restorations) is proposing a kind of appliance/orthpedics to move my maxilla forward slightly. This would then be followed by a reverse face-mask to bring the maxilliary molars forward, in order to catch up. I checked to make sure, and yes of course this is not orthodontics in the normal sense, due to the implant making that impossible. He says that his appliance will move the maxilla (or pre-maxilla - is there a surture to open - I know a maxilla can be widened this way - in fact mine is also too narrow, and he proposes to expand it with the same appliance).

The basic question is, can he actually move the maxilla forward with appliances ?

When I ask this, please understand that my tongue problem is 'occupying', I seem to have a tongue too long for the maxilla, which he disgnosed as severely underdeveloped.

I believe his diagnosis was excellent, compared to others who sold me on corwns, etc, and it has helped eliminate my TMJ - but at the expense of this terrible tongue problem.

Thank You so much for your assistance...if I can resolve this problem, even by surgery, I will have such a quality of life imrpovement, right now it is almost zero :mad:

regards....................Petrel
 
At age 39, I would be very impressed if that reverse pull head gear would be able to move the maxilla anywhere. Are you certain that you understood the treatment your dentist is proposing? Maybe he's trying to do something else with it? I'm not an orthodontist, and I don't do orthodontics, but that's a new one to me. We did learn some basic ortho principles back in dental school, but I've never heard of moving the maxilla (*without surgery) like that at your age. Maybe I just haven't kept up with the latest ortho developments. :confused:
 
Last edited:
Thank you Z for your honest answer. It is what I feared, it seems very dubious. :redface:

If anyone else can help, I would certainly listen.

Thanks in Advance.
 
It might be possible to drift the upper anterior teeth forward a bit with fixed appliances and headgear, but I can't see any way to physically move the maxilla at your age.

Unless surgery is involved that is?
 
Back
Top