Case Study: Ayr

This young lady came to our office with the chief complaint that she did not like the way that her front teeth stuck out and sought a second opinion on how to rectify the issue. The first opinion she received was to remove two upper bicuspid teeth and retract the front teeth. I told her that I did not like this option because it would eliminate the support for her upper lip thereby virtually eliminating the upper lip profile.

She was happy to learn that we could retract the upper teeth without removing any teeth by using skeletal anchors. Treatment progressed rapidly, and we were able to retract her upper incisors while maintaining just the right angulation for upper lip support in a little over eighteen months without removing any teeth. The patient and her parents were beyond happy.

What made this case so challenging is the amount of protrusion in the upper dental arch coupled with the severe spacing of the teeth. Often when closing this much space, the posterior teeth tend to shift forward so that they no longer fit together properly with the opposing dental arch. We were able to successfully control the position of the posterior teeth holding them in their position with skeletal anchorage while retracting the front teeth.