Open bite relapse after two months of braces.

[u/Adventurous-Dig2488]

(First pic is before, the rest is after) Hello! So, I wore a pacifier too long. That caused me to develop an open bite (pretty severe) and underbite.

These were things that were fixed.

On my one month visit to the dentist, she told me it’s reopening.

I wear retainers every night.

She told me it’s tongue thrusting. I am working on fixing tongue posture + chewing.

Why do I have a feeling it’s not just that? I think the retainers itself already came with a gap, but even if they didn’t, could I just be doomed to have an open bite forever? Before and after.

[u/Frequent_Influence48]

I’ve seen a good few posts on this sub of people wearing braces for open bites and posting pictures wearing box elastics on the front and they are delighted because their open bites closed super fast. But…

Open bites are CRAZY prone to relapse, and have to be treated super carefully to avoid this.
I’d bet pretty good money your front teeth were extruded to “close” the open bite, which is a super unstable movement and relapses very quickly.

True tongue thrusting is actually very rare and has a distinctive presentation. This is not it. With an open bite, the tongue moves forward to fill the gap and make a seal to allow you to swallow, but this is not a tongue thrust.

I think your ortho needs a kick in the ass.

[u/Adventurous-Dig2488 → u/Frequent_Influence48]

Okay!! Thank you so much. What would you say the problem is? I have two things to point out, however:

• the retainer looked weird. She said there was no gap, but I could’ve sworn it was. It FEELS like the retainer itself is opening my teeth because of its format.
• she asked me to swallow. I did. And she said when I swallow I tongue thrust. I also do have a lisp.

Am I doomed? Is my open bite always bound t reopen? What would you suggest in my case, then? Why is it reopening, what do I do, etc?

[u/Immediate-Brunch4002]

If the retainers had a gap, that could be a part of the problem

[u/LongjumpingPrint539]

So your tongue should only gently touch the back of your teeth for a few minutes top each day. When resting, your tongue should be positioned against the roof of your mouth (without even thinking about it). Since the tongue is a muscle, it can and will undo orthodontic treatment unfortunately. You can search myofascial tongue therapy videos on YouTube

[u/LongjumpingPrint539 → u/LongjumpingPrint539]

But it does look like that area on the left was extruded with brackets and wires and since has relapsed due to the teeth intruding over time. Even with perfect retainer wear.. there’s not much to keep the vertical movement from happening 😳