Meet Dr. Sherman, The Orthodontist

Meet Dr. Sherman, The Orthodontist

Two days after my 52nd birthday I found myself sitting in the dental chair at Dr. Sherman's office. Dr. Sherman has a well-established orthodontist office on Bluebonnet in Baton Rouge, a main thoroughfare just 15 minutes from my house and not far off my travels to and from work.  The distance from my house or LSU where I work is a critical consideration for ALL my daily adventures given the enormous traffic issues in Baton Rouge.

Similar to Dr. LaCour's office, Dr. Sherman's office is friendly, organized, aesthetically pleasing, and most of all professional.  I was greeted by two very nice young ladies who work the front reception desk - both have beautiful teeth and cheerful smiles.  My appointment began promptly which I much appreciated given my tight schedule, yet the appointment took about 2 1/2 hours - but the assistants kept me very busy during that time taking a complete dental history, along with taking a full set of pictures and X-Rays.  My initial introduction to Dr. Sherman did not happen until after all the evaluation measures were collected and put together for "us" to review together.

Once all the facts, images, and information were ready for evaluation and discussion Dr. Sherman's assistant, Poppy invited me into a very nice room with a large monitor on the wall connected to a computer. Poppy and I visited for a few minutes until Dr. Sherman joined us.  Dr. Sherman is an attractive 60+ year old man with a gentle hand shake and a sincere presence. He began our meeting by asking questions about my dental history and the struggles I've been having with cracking teeth. Then Dr. Sherman asked Poppy to show the images (x-rays and pictures) on the monitor so that he and I could review them and discuss them. He looked at each image carefully and explained what he saw and asked me to compare it to how I feel when I bite or chew.  Once we discussed all the images Dr. Sherman began a physical examination.  He examined my face, jawline, movement of my jaws, lips, mouth, smile, teeth, and then my bite and chewing patterns.  

After about 20 minutes of completing a physical examination and reviewing my jaw bone structure in the x-rays he said.......

"Let's see, How old are you?"  ~ Dr. Sherman

"I just turned 52." ~ Me

"Hummm if you were under 50, I would recommend jaw surgery to properly align your jaws and bite.  But over 50 years old we will need to look at other options." ~ Dr. Sherman

In my head...."WHAT!!!!! NO WAY, I'M NOT HAVING JAW SURGERY!"

Then the discussion began. Dr. Sherman explained using the images for support and demonstrating his evaluation by moving my mouth - I'm only biting/chewing on 4 teeth. These four molars are a combination of crowns and my teeth.  My other teeth never touch and that is causing the four teeth to continue to crack and break along with chipping the sides of the surrounding teeth.  Reviewing my previous dental records and images (over the past 20 years) my teeth have shifted and a whole host of issues have resulted - including a dynamic minimally functioning bite.

Dr. Sherman explained, the best option for my age is to use braces to move my teeth into a better position. And to install MAPS Attachments to pull my upper back teeth back into the gum line so my front teeth will meet and work properly. The process will take about 18 months followed by 6 months of wearing a retainer.