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YES. Not only will it make your orthodontic work take longer but the treatment won't even work. If you have been sucking your thumb for 17 years you can't possibly fix your orthodontic problems with braces alone. In fact, the thumb sucking problem should have been addressed BEFORE orthodontic treatment started. By continuing to suck your thumb you are doing severe damage to your upper arch which affects the shape and position of your lower arch. It also adversely affects your nasal airway and quite possibly your retroglossal airway as well. It is also probable that you are adversely affecting your TMJ also. You MUST stop the thumb habit. It won't be easy to quit a habit you have been involved with for 17 years but there are appliances you can wear that make thumb sucking extremely unpleasurable.Good luck!
You orthodotic treatment should have never been started until the problem of thumb sucking had been addressed and dealt with. Until you get help for this habit, orthodotnics will not work!
I would absolutely get orthodontic treatment again, only this time I would have it done correctly. The first time you had braces you may have ended up with straight teeth, but you never addressed the much more serious (and aesthetically important) issue of your jaw to jaw discrepancy problem....
While the answer is "yes", you should know that the durability will be in question. Also, the space may be closed, but the size and shape of the teeth will be out of proportion. It may be worth having a cosmetic dentist make a diagnostic wax up and create a temporary or "trial smile"...
I have an orthodontic practice that sees about 25-30% adults. A large percentage of those patients are people who had braces already as children and thought that they no longer needed a retainer after several years. There was a large study done at the University of Washington that...
