Root resorption from orthodontics

[ODog]

I’m partway through this Mike Mew interview with evolutionary biologist Brett Weinstein: https://youtu.be/JYpPu-NrYSI who had recently suffered root resorption in some teeth and needed implants put in their place, probably from aggressive childhood orthodontics.

Mike Mew took it a little further and said it’s not aggressive orthodontics that causes resorption, it’s orthodontics in general - putting braces on sometimes teeth AT ALL will cause this problem down the line.

I did a year of braces pre-op before my jaw surgery; I am now 16 months post-op and am still in braces and will be be until the end of the year at the minimum,, which will nearly be 2 years in braces AFTER MY JAW SURGERY.

So my question is, clearly my teeth needed aggressive movement post-op to make up for a s**tty bite result from my jaw surgery, so am I going to be at major risk of losing my teeth down the line?

Who here believe this risk of resorption from braces is real.

[Post bimax]

If this were the case we would see way higher numbers of dental implants considering how many people get braces, and the correlation would be much more discernible.

It's likely the case that braces are not good for your roots in general.  They're definitely not good for your gums.  I have probably 4-5 years combined of braces in my lifetime so far (with another year to come) and I definitely have significant gum recession on my lower incisors/canines.  The question is whether orthodontic treatment is worth the tradeoff considering the alternatives.  Obviously this is case-by-case, but in general, orthodontic treatment is almost definitely an improvement over being left untreated.  Maybe out in the ether there exists some method of orthodontics that is superior to modern ortho.  It just hasn't been discovered and/or borne out in the scientific literature yet.

I'm not saying Mew is or isn't credible.  Maybe he's right about some things.  As with all science, medicine typically progresses "one death at a time" as paradigms are displaced.

So yes, you're probably more at risk of root resorption than if you never had braces or had them for a shorter time.  But it's probably not to the extent that Mew makes it out to be.

[ODog]

If this were the case we would see way higher numbers of dental implants considering how many people get braces, and the correlation would be much more discernible.

It's likely the case that braces are not good for your roots in general.  They're definitely not good for your gums.  I have probably 4-5 years combined of braces in my lifetime so far (with another year to come) and I definitely have significant gum recession on my lower incisors/canines.  The question is whether orthodontic treatment is worth the tradeoff considering the alternatives.  Obviously this is case-by-case, but in general, orthodontic treatment is almost definitely an improvement over being left untreated.  Maybe out in the ether there exists some method of orthodontics that is superior to modern ortho.  It just hasn't been discovered and/or borne out in the scientific literature yet.

I'm not saying Mew is or isn't credible.  Maybe he's right about some things.  As with all science, medicine typically progresses "one death at a time" as paradigms are displaced.

So yes, you're probably more at risk of root resorption than if you never had braces or had them for a shorter time.  But it's probably not to the extent that Mew makes it out to be.

Fair enough, I just worry about aggressively pulling down on that one side of my upper teeth to close the open bite; I even just had a slight CCW-rotated relapse of my upper teeth when we adjusted my wires to bring that posterior segment down, it did so but rotated my front incisors upward, leading to less than ideal tooth show that was finally achieved after a year of post-op elastics and orthodontics. He is now saying I’ll need a retainer behind the upper teeth to hold that segment down into place. Not sure if I want to do this.

As a side note, I think I’m leading toward the MSE device to expand my maxilla to fit correctly over my lower arch. It actually expands the upper jaw. I have the bad result of a tongue that was brought too far toward per unit of maxilla expansion, and this had led to a tongue that feels crowded, hence why my tongue rests between my arches at rest. Just intolerable. It’s crazy I have to do this when my surgeon had my upper jaw in his hands in 3 segments, and he failed to give me the widening and tongue space that I truly needed.

[kavan]

Not to opine on any one person's specific situation. But in general braces work on the principle of osteoCLAST vs osteoBLAST activity in the ALVEOLAR bone;the bone holding the teeth and surrounding the roots. When a directional force is exerted on the alveolar bone, that part of the bone breaks down and resorbs which allows MOVEMENT of the teeth and the space left on the other side of the directional force FILLS IN with NEW bone. If that process didn't happen, the teeth would not move and be held in place. That's a different process than external root resorption.