Edit: Did not expect this to get so many responses. I’m currently several months into Invisalign so have been super fascinated by teeth stuff and was just curious if there was a surgical way to do it, even if it meant way more money, time, and risk. Thank you to everyone who answered!
In: Biology
One thing that many of the comments do not mention is that each tooth root is tightly surrounded by bone (alveolar bone). To quickly move teeth, this alveolar bone would need to be completely reshaped by getting rid of some bone, and adding new bone where the tooth root used to be. By applying slow, steady pressure, the body can partially remodel the alveolar bone itself. It is important to note that after moving the teeth, the alveolar bone does not remodel perfectly, which is why people often need to where retainers to prevent their teeth from moving back to their original position.
My dad had a tumor in his jaw removed in the past couple years and jaw surgery is not something you want to go into lightly/without good reason.
After surgery his jaw was in pain for months after.
Could not eat solid foods for several weeks. And even then could not eat chewy or hard foods for several weeks after that.
Had to relearn how to SWALLOW.
Had to relearn how to talk normally. Was very hard to understand for a few months after the surgery.
Not typical, but they removed bone from one of his leg bones to replace the bone they had to cut out of his jaw. His leg pain was very intense he said.
100% recovery was not expected for him until after 1-2 years.
In my dad’s case he had to drive to make several visits to the specialist surgeon who was nearly 7 hours and a state away. This was before and after the surgery.
That’s just the surface level stuff I’m aware of.
Jaw surgery is wildly painful. Like way more than you think. Aligners are unconfortable at best compared to it. Ive had both and would wear invisalign for the rest of my life before another jaw procedure.
OP never had surgery before I guess haha.
Listen, every time you cut open the body, ESPECIALLY in a hospital, you run the risk of introducing countless diseases and bacteria into your body. No surgery is without some pretty serious complications.
Compare that too braces that generally tend to just be an inconvenience
I had it done in addition to braces. Years long process would not recommend. I’m sure they have better techniques now but I also ended up with a bit of nerve damage. Lower lip is a bit tingly for life.
teeth don’t move like that. Teeth are in a socket in the bone, and you need gradual orthodontic movement to align them, which can take months to years. You can’t do “surgery” to align the teeth because there’s no gradual movement, you would have to remodel the bone, and bone movement is extremely slow. Jaw surgery is only to fix how your bite down with your top and bottom jaw, not the individual teeth,
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