I noticed this morning that the tooth next to my top front tooth has shifted backwards. Now it is not even with my front tooth like it is compared to my other canine and front tooth (that have the metal behind it). The one that is shifting is the canine WITHOUT the metal behind it pushing it forward. Now when I smile, looking at both my canines straight on, they look disproportionate and my bottom lip even covers a little bit of the canine when I smile compared to the other one that has the metal behind it.
Hi Taylor, the tooth without the metal spring is your lateral incisor (not canine, just for the sake that we are referring to the same tooth). We have been closed for the holiday so I have to go by memory regarding left or right, I’m thinking left. Two of the pics are mirror images so the problem tooth “switches sides”!
I’ll refer it as the lateral without the spring. It’s actually the only one NOT moving. It just appears that it is (relative movement). When you started with the appliance, it looked as though this lateral was in the best position so we use that as a marker of your initial smile. Without full braces, it’s hard to move whole dental arches so to keep track of the natural smile line we avoid moving the tooth of best position. When I see you in the office, we will decide if we should also move this forward and up like the rest because it suits your lip position better or relax the others from overcorrection.
We can do this on that next appliance (clear aligner) so it doesn’t mean prolonging the wire appliance (which I’m sure you were worried about)!
If I saw a pic of you biting I would be able to tell you now. But don’t worry, it’s not hard to even out this “stray tooth” as fast as it appeared to go awry. See you soon! – Dr Lance