gum loss?

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I am almost 6 months into braces, still walking the line between surgery and

orthodontic

correction (I have a mild class-III, which may or may not be correctable with

orthodontics

alone). Right now I'm into heavy elastics which we're going to give another

month to see if

they fix anything.

However, after going to my dentist for a cleaning, I was shocked---really

shocked---by

the fact that the gums on my lower front teeth have really receded since getting

braces. (I

have actual bands around the lower front teeth because I have lingual

" reminders "

mounted to them to stop me from a tongue thrust). The dentist showed me " before

and

after " pictures and in the last 6 months I have lost several millimeters of gum.

It's like

there's a huge gap between my lower teeth at the bottom of the teeth.

The dentist said that I am doing an exceptional job cleaning my teeth, and in

fact he's

never seen somebody with braces with no plaque between their bands. I brush my

teeth

after every meal, before I go to bed, and when I wake up (so 5x day). I floss

at least once a

day, and I use Listerine twice a day...so what's going on?

My dentist said that gum loss often goes along with braces; is this true? My

teeth are

straight and I had orthodontics before (10 years ago) with no issues...I'm

really scared.

Thanks,