You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For….. Rebecca’s Story

How many sets of braces are necessary to permanently align someone’s teeth?  Theoretically one set should do it.  Some orthodontists spread that out over two phases of childhood.

Unfortunately, we all know people who had braces as a child and again as an adult.  What’s that all about?    And what would you think about a 32 year old adult who has had two sets of braces along with jaw surgery to correct her buck teeth?  And then she notices that her teeth are jutting forward again, so she is considering a third set of braces!  There is something wrong with this picture!!! 

Here is Rebecca’s story….

As a child, Rebecca had all the classic precursors for a tongue thrust.   She was bottle fed until age 3.  She sucked her thumb until age 6.

She was fitted with her first set of braces at age 14 which included a rigorous regime of wearing head gear at night and elastics during the day.  Those braces came off at age 16, and Rebecca continued to wear her retainer at night. 

By age 23, her teeth had pushed back out into their original position. Rebecca consulted a different orthodontist.  This time, she didn’t want any regression.  She was determined to find the best orthodontist around.  She went to the orthodontist for the stars.  She paid top dollar for the orthodontist she assumed was the best one money could buy. After he evaluated Rebecca’s condition, he recommended jaw surgery.  He would break Rebecca’s jaw to correct her Class II misalignment and overjet (the upper teeth jut too far forward in front of the lower teeth).  He would bring her lower jaw (mandible) forward and place titanium screws in her jaw to secure her new alignment.  This would require a hospital stay followed by a 6-week liquid diet.

Rebecca bought it!  After all, this orthodontist had worked on some of Hollywood’s leading men and women.

She followed her orthodontist’s recommendations to the tee and wore braces for the second time for about a year throughout the process. Her teeth were straight and her jaw aligned perfectly post-surgery and braces. She thought it was a true success…the permanent solution to her problem!

Now fast forward to 2010 when Rebecca is 30.  Her teeth are ONCE AGAIN back to where they started before braces.

She is sitting at her computer, AGAIN searching for an orthodontist to help her.  She found Dr. Yoshikane, an orthodontist in Encinitas.

Dr. Yoshikane listened to Rebecca’s story and recommended that she pursue orofacial myology.  Her new orthodontist wisely told Rebecca that she didn’t feel comfortable starting a new treatment plan to correct her teeth until Rebecca fixed her unhealthy oral resting posture and tongue thrust.  Dr. Yoshikane knew that Rebecca’s tongue thrust would reposition her teeth yet again.

Rebecca took that message to heart, but it took her two more years to do something about it. Spring of 2012 is when she found us! She googled professionals who treat tongue thrust and up popped our website.  Rebecca’s solution had begun!

We scheduled Rebecca for her initial evaluation.  She entered our practice with caution after experiencing failure and failure with a slew of previous professionals.

As I get face to face with Rebecca, I notice her engaging smile that reflects her inner happiness.  But her teeth are clearly out of alignment; her two upper front incisors buck out at least 3 – 4 millimeters in front of her lower incisors and there is an opening between her upper and lower teeth.  A normal bite is defined by a slight protrusion of the upper incisors (about 1 millimeter), and upper front teeth that slightly overlap the lower front teeth. Don’t forget, Rebecca has already had jaw surgery and two sets of braces to correct this condition. 

To make matters worse, Rebecca was also suffering from jaw pain.  She described her symptoms like this; she had pain in her jaw after extended chewing accompanied by a crunching sound in her jaw joints.  She had ringing in her ears and intermittent dizziness as well.  After all these years, Rebecca had developed a disorder in her TMJ (temporomandibular joint).  This can be a debilitating condition that causes chronic pain in the head, neck and jaw and sometimes travels down the back as well.  Rebecca had many of the symptoms!

Our evaluation revealed that Rebecca was an open-mouth breather; day and night she breathed through her mouth with her lips apart.  She also chewed with open lips, which led to noisy eating and  embarrassment when sharing meals with family and friends.

Rebecca also presented with a severely unhealthy tongue resting posture; her tongue rested habitually against her upper teeth, and she swallowed by pushing her tongue between her upper and lower incisors. With her tongue resting against her teeth, Rebecca was not keeping her tongue in “speech-ready” position, so she spoke with her tongue against her teeth,  which caused a speech disorder known as a frontal lisp.

Not only that, Rebecca was aging prematurely!   Her lips were always open, so the force of gravity was pulling on her chin and neck muscles, giving her the appearance of a double chin.  Her open lips were also pulling down her eyelids, giving her eyes a drowsy, lackluster expression.

She asked what she could do to get started and scheduled her first visit for the following week.

We taught Rebecca lip exercises to relax her retracted upper lip and enable her to sit for extended periods with her lips closed.  We taught Rebecca tongue exercises to strengthen her back tongue muscles so she could suction her entire tongue to her palate.

Rebecca is also learning to swallow food and beverages using the correct technique.  She started with little sips of water and can now down an entire glass without harming her teeth.  She learned to eat meltable foods (like applesauce and yogurt) and then moved onto finger foods, sandwiches and, finally, entire meals.

We haven’t worked on Rebecca’s lisp.  There is no need!  She is correcting her own lisp by keeping her tongue back behind her teeth where it belongs.

And the jaw pain has diminished!  There have been weeks when there was no pain at all.

Rebecca has about 5 more visits before we cut the strings and dismiss her from treatment.  But, she is well on her way to a healthy oral resting posture for life.  This time, when she gets her braces, her teeth will stay put.  And she will speak without a lisp and live without tongue thrust-induced jaw pain for life!

It’s amazing what can happen when you treat the cause of the problem instead of just treating the symptoms themselves.

If you know someone like Rebecca who has been suffering from jaw pain or dental relapse, call us at 858.509.1131. 

It is never too early or too late to begin.

If you know a child who has open mouth breathing, speech problems and/or a tongue thrust swallow, address these issues early, before they contribute to more severe health issues involving the respiratory system, TMJ disorders, insomnia, sleep apnea and even high blood pressure.