This patient felt that the orthodontic treatment she had as an adolescent, which included the removal of four permanent teeth, made her lips thinner and her face “sunken in”. She refused to smile and avoided the camera for years. After searching the internet, she found Dr. Hang and he re-opened her extraction spaces. She used to run lipstick over the border of her lips to make them appear fuller. Now she loves her lips. After her braces were removed in adolescence, a pain developed in her forehead. After Dr. Hang re-opened her extraction spaces it went away and has not returned.
Many patients feel that their faces have been caved in by the retractive orthodontics they had in adolescence. This woman was eager to reverse the effects of the retraction because she wanted a better smile and a profile that did not look “sunken in”. As a professional singer she was elated when, during the treatment to re-open her spaces, she got her high voice range back. After her treatment she also told us that a 20 year pattern of neck pain (which she had never associated with her teeth) was gone.
