I've never had cavities in my life. I got braces when I was 13-15 and removed I think when i was 16. I'm 22 now. my first check up after my braces were removed my dentist said that the rings (for lack of a better word) that the orthodontist put on my top left and top right teeth cracked my teeth and I would probably get cavities so he filled them. within my next 2 appts my ONLY cavities were there. I've never had any other cavities elsewhere. I feel that this is malpractice on part of the orthodontist. Can I do anything about it?
Sorry if this isnt the right place but i have no other option and I'm clueless
Deep breath time here.
First off, ANY dental "hardware" (i.e. orthodontic bands, fillings, crowns, etc, etc, etc) is a mechanical object that you are placing in an environment that is moist 24/7, is regularly being thermocycled, and is being "crashed" into every time your opposing tooth contacts that mechanical object in your mouth. Then on top of that it's up to you the patient to keep that mechanical object for the 99.99% of the time that your NOT in a dental office. Just like a mechanical object in say ones car, things do wear out/break over time as a result of
NORMAL wear and tear the vast majority of the time.
In the case of orthodontic bands, having been in practice now almost 15 years, I have literally seen hundreds of post orthodontic treatment patients coming back to my office, and while the vast majority of the time after ortho treatment is done, there isn't any "work" for me to do, it is far from uncommon that there is work that I will have to do on a few teeth(I'd say about 25-30% time there's atleast 1 tooth that I see that needs some type of post ortho tx work). The cement under a band/bracket can and does break/breakdown due to the "normal" mouth conditions that I mentioned previously and if and when that happens, one can see decay occur. As for the cracks that your dentist mentioned that were noticed on your teeth, well if you look closely at essentially every single natural tooth in your head, you'll see many small stress cracks that occur naturally from regular biting and grinding motions and forces. The vast majority of stress cracks won't need to be treated, and frankly if a dentist restores every single stress crack that they see clinically, this profession would IMHO being doing far more dentistry than is needed. There is certainly a subjective factor in what a dentist feels based on his/her own clinical experience and the findings infront of them about what constitutes a crack that does and doesn't need restorative attention, but to say that the orthodontic treatment was the sole cause of things is more than likely not the case. There are plenty of times when everything is done to "text book" standards and still there will be a final result that isn't the typical one, but ends up happening plain and simply due to the multitude of variables that is everyday life.
