Dr. Snyder in Braces

Dr. Snyder has been debanded! His treatment lasted 8 months. Dr. Snyder's temporary build-ups have made quite a difference and his smile sure looks nice!

Here are Dr. Snyder's final buccal photos taken on 1/25/2007. Dr. Snyder's teeth have settled and his bite is looking great!

These are the before and after photos of Dr. Snyder's smile. The first one was taken on 2/15/2006. One month after his braces came off, we took more photos. The second center photo was taken on 1/25/2007. Pay close attention to the size of Dr. Snyder's upper anterior teeth.

These pictures were also taken on 11/21/2006. They just give another look at how Dr. Snyders teeth fit together.

This is an update center photo of Dr. Snyder taken 11/21/2006. He is getting closer and closer to getting his braces off. As you look at the midline you'll notice that the midline is off just a bit, but the rest of Dr.'s teeth are starting to fit together beautifully. Once the fit is done and we take his braces off he will be getting Veneers on the upper anterior teeth. At the moment he has build-ups on so that when aligning the teeth he can get the best fit so that his veneers look good. He is quit pleased with the appearance of his teeth especially since his braces have been on for only 8 months.

This is Tracey placing Dr. Snyders braces on. I just wanted to show everybody what it looks like when we place the brackets on indirectly. Traceys fingers are holding the tray of brackets in his mouth that he had premeasured on the stone models of his teeth, so we could make the tray holding the brackets . First we polish the teeth, then we prepare each tooth of the arch we are working on with a blue gel that sits for 1 minute. While the teeth are being prepared we place an adhesive material on the brackets that are in the tray then we rinse the gel off of each individual tooth and then dry the teeth. After all that is done we place another adhesive material on the teeth and this allows the bonding material on the back of the brackets to stick to the teeth. Once all those steps are complete we place the tray in the mouth and hold it for 3 minutes. The last step that is completed with the tray being in the mouth is we cut the tray in half (right in the middle of the brackets where the slot is) and peel it off. This is how Dr. Snyder was able to get all his brackets on without holding a mirror up and try to measure each individual tooth in his mouth. That sounds pretty hard and time consuming, doesn't it?

After 5 months in his Suresmile wires and springs to create space Dr. Snyder was ready for his build-ups. Dr. Mark Nelson from Rosemount, MN had Dr. Snyder come in with his top wire out. The build-ups were able to be done with the braces still on. Dr. Nelson just worked around the braces and used bonding material to make Dr. Snyders teeth the appropriate size. To the left is a photo taken of Dr. Snyder before his braces went on and to the right is a photo with his braces on and the build-ups placed. Dr. Snyders future perfect smile is really starting to come along nicely.

These are the doctors teeth just after the braces were placed and he was scanned for 3-D imaging…Now he will begin planning on the new positions of his teeth by utilizing the 3-D software created by Suresmile to virtually move his teeth….note all the tools at his disposal to optimize his final tooth positions…









With a simple click he can remove his braces from the virtual image…









With another click of his mouse he can measure the widths of all of the teeth and determine the ratio of tooth widths that will best fit with the lower teeth

With the zoom feature he can look close to the areas in need of decision making

once close to a final decision on the best fit he can compare his pretreatment braces positions (left) with his post treatment targeted positions (right)

Once he decides on a final set up of his teeth he has a virtual wire made to the final tooth positions (right screen). All this information is sent to the main office in Texas where the Robot will bend and manipulate the Dr.'s wires. This wire is a special wire made from material that is soft, it changes its properties upon cooling and warming of the wire, and it has shape memory…the wire is virtually superimposed on the original teeth on the left…Dr. Snyder can superimpose the wire to his orig inal teeth (left screen) note the displacements required to move his teeth to their final positions…

close up view of the displacements required to move his teeth in the very “crooked” area of his mouth

Dr. Snyder can virtually look at the wire from any direction…once he is happy with the set up and the wire he orders the robot to construct the wire to these precise dimensions…the wire is placed and away we go

Dr. Snyder can virtually look at the wire from any direction…once he is happy with the set up and the wire he orders the robot to construct the wire to these precise dimensions…the wire is placed and away we go

Here is the robotically bent wire inserted on 3/9/06…note the springs present to begin ideal alignment of the upper anteriors for eventual build ups..

The accurate 3-D images of Dr. Snyder's teeth are digitally scanned photos made possible by Suresmile.



These are Dr. Snyder’s teeth before treatment. Note that the midlines are off and his upper front teeth are small with spaces.













His models are made and his braces are ready to be put on. Note that when we made plaster models to evaluate his bite there is more to the problem than meets the eye…his lower jaw can assume more than one position where the side teeth do not fit very well in this position….this multiple jaw position permitted the drift of the midlines, the shift of the midline, and contributed to the spacing in the upper.

Note that the lower front teeth are also quite worn due to this bite issue.









Again there is more present than meets the eye…note how small the lateral incisor truly is and the rotation of the premolar due to the bite permitting tooth drift over time.






The wear on the lower teeth is likely due to his strong eastern European facial type…strong chin/strong lower jaw. With strong lower jaw and a bite jaw permitted to assume multiple positions he doesn’t have a true home for his bite, especially if he grinds or clenches teeth at night. With strong jaws and bite without a true home the tiny lower teeth can get hammered over time and even wear down to little nubs.


The SureSmile software permits this view which superimposed the exact 3-D replica of his teeth over the side X-Ray. This shows the other important problem as to why he is straightening his teeth….his strong lower jaw is due to genetics and in his case this facial type also has strong lip muscles…these lip muscles are a tight band in front of his upper front teeth. The muscles have uprighted or pulled back the upper front teeth putting them in harms way for the wear seen on the previous images.