Post
by JayC » Mon May 02, 2011 5:23 am
I answered other.....although the official count is 24 teeth....12 top, 12 bottom.
Mom and Dad each had a specific tooth that never came in.....and I am missing each of those (in that they never showed up!)
I had signifigant overbite/buck-teeth and got braces in I think 4th grade, so around age 9. I think I was full metal mouth until just before entering high school Continued to wear less than full braces through some of high school (removable retainers, elastics, and cemented appliances between 2 bottom teeth.
As part of getting braces, I had lots of teeth pulled. Some were baby teeth, some were permanent teeth.......
At the end of high school, I had oral surgery for extraction (and they really had to dig!) of all 4 wisdom teeth. There was NO room for them to descend at all. Funny thing is, not all of my sibs had all 4 wisdoms, even the ones with room in their jaw.
I have had a sleep doc mention that my tongue is too big for my mouth. Perhaps it is more that my jaw is too short front to back to accomodate all the needed goods. Not so sure that I actually have a "big" tongue!
As far as I can tell, from the outside one would not know that I have all this going on (or not going on!) in my mouth. The display of teeth when I smile, the size of teeth, the facial profile of the jaw line are all fine.......
An interesting thought is that as part of not worsening my overbite, the orthodontist taught me to stop pressing the tip of my tongue against my front teeth. He explained how to rest the tongue tip naturally on the roof of my mouth.........maybe that is in part why I don't generally mouth breath with my CPAP therapy! I learned to keep my mouth closed without clenching my jaw or grinding my teeth....
J