A Stubborn Canine

[Eleni]

The Issue:
Eruption of an Impacted Upper Right Canine
Slight bottom crowding


Background Story
On Feb 14, 2003 I woke up to quite a peculiar feeling in the roof of my mouth. In between packing for a trip, I ran to the bathroom, pushed a mirror back there and to my utter shock saw the tip of a tooth had broken through my palate. You see, even though I was 29 years old, I still had one baby tooth left, my right upper canine, and even though past dentists had told me a tooth was up there, they all told me to leave it alone, it probably wouldn’t come down, unless they did it surgically.

After months (try like 8, denial, who me?) of me ignoring this tooth slowly descending, I broke down one day after a bad headache and went to see my dentist. He referred me to an ortho - who ended up being an old college classmate of mine. Go figure. I received two ortho consultations that day, went home and was still in denial over the whole braces unanimous recommendation.


Bonding Day
Let’s fast forward to July 2004, the month I got my upper ceramic braces. I walked in to the orthos office completely resigned to the fact that it had to get done and I had dragged my feet long enough. I walked in cold, not the least bit prepared. I hadn’t found this site or read anything on braces!

On a Friday - My braces went on with a simple arch wire – this was to be for one month to get my mouth and teeth used to the new appliances. A metal button was also bonded to the tip of the erupted tooth. The thing I hated the most was the lips/mouth stretcher. I really think my gums were bruised by that thing! Impressions: the braces felt huge, the pressure was surreal, my mouth ached and I cried when I got home and saw myself in the mirror. Somehow I managed to eat, leave the house to go to a basketball game, and get back to living during that first weekend.


Adjustment #1 – August 2004, 4 weeks later. I got a new heavier arch wire. A loop was added to the wire and a string was tied from the wire to the button on the erupted tooth. Forces are meant to help bring it closer in position behind the baby tooth. The new archwire caused major pressure, but thank goodness overall soreness only lasted for three days. The string did not play nicely with my cheek, so I learned the joys of using wax.

Adjustment #2 – September 2004, 4 weeks later. Teeth have shifted and feel "loose". The spaces will be needed to fit the larger permanent canine. I got new clear ligs and a fresh string. The ortho claims the tooth has moved a few millimeters closer behind the baby tooth. I have noticed that the baby tooth is sticking out farther than it had before, but it still is not any looser – man, it doesn’t want to leave! When the doc reties the string, thankfully this time it’s in a place that isn’t rubbing my cheek raw and I go on my merry way.

Adjustment #3 – October 2004, 3 weeks later – ortho is going to a convention so he had to take me early. I get an arch wire with a different bend in it this time. But as he is putting it in, the bracket on the emerging tooth pops off. He can’t add a new bracket until I stop bleeding, so I’m regulated to the waiting room while he takes the next patient. When I’m up at bat again, the button is re-bonded, the wire is in place…and “what the hell did he put in my mouthâ€

[Clo]

The ortho claims the tooth has moved a few meters closer behind the baby tooth

Oh dear Eleni, and that in 4 weeks time !
You set the world record teeth shifting.
Lol !
No seriously, I do appreciate it very much when people do the effort to
tell step by step what is happening. First hand experience is always the
best. Thank you very much !

Good luck on your very interesting journey !
How bad new appliances always are in the beginning, I am sure you
will adapt somehow very soon.

Clo.

[Eleni]

Thanks for catching that! Somehow the "milli" portion never made it. I've heard of tall tales, but that would have been ridiculous. I'm just happy it’s moved, period.

I’m also glad for this portion of the board as I don’t think I would have written the experience down otherwise.

I really appreciate when others post their pictures since a picture communicates so much more. I’m hoping to post more pictures later to show how a naturally descending canine looks to contrast the pictures I’ve seen of ones exposed via surgery.

[Eleni]

Deleted ramblings.

[Dodger(UK)]

Interesting reading Eleni

[Eleni]

Update - Adjustment 4 entry added above

[Eleni]

Update - the Conference and Extraction entries added

[Kristine]

Argh! - the morning of my company holiday party - holiday cheer my a**. Bah humbug - Yeah, I know, I'm such a baby. To be continued.

Will there at least be an open bar? That should lessen the pain.

[Eleni]

Will there at least be an open bar? That should lessen the pain.

As I was chosen to organize this year's holiday party, YES of course there is!!! Hors d'oeuvres, buffet (complete with soft food and vegetarian options), choice of desserts, dancing and full bar!!!! The day may begin a bit painful/awkward, but gosh darn it, it's going to end in full party mode.

[Eleni]

Added grainy-you-can-barely-make-out-the-image pictures.

[joplin]

Thanks for keeping us posted on your progress! Seems like a slow process, how are you handling it? I'm still bouncing between options about what to do with my impacted canines (yes, both of them). I'm not sure I'm equipped with the nerves it obviously takes to wait for years for the hiding cuspids to show up on the arch

[Eleni]

Thanks for keeping us posted on your progress! Seems like a slow process, how are you handling it? I'm still bouncing between options about what to do with my impacted canines (yes, both of them). I'm not sure I'm equipped with the nerves it obviously takes to wait for years for the hiding cuspids to show up on the arch

"Patience is a virtue" needs to be stitched on a pillowcase and handed to every new brace wearer on their first visit to the ortho office!

I'm alright, and thank you for asking.
When I get a chance and jump onto the board, yours is always one of the stories I search out to see how things are going. You have a lot to think about. And YOU ARE equipped with the nerves to handle it. You've handled so much already! The best advice I ever got on making a decision - "In the end the choice you make is the right - because - YOU - made it based on all the information you had at the time. No turning back, no ifs, ands, or buts. You did your best in that moment, so it had to be the right one."

There are actually so many other things in my life right now needing all my concentration that my orthodontics has fallen to the end of my list of things to fret about. But I'm painfully reminded of it when I forget I have that wire loop thing and hit it by accident with my lower canine when I talk or eat and all of a sudden pain shoots up my palate.

The wire loop exerting force on my descending tooth has made it impossible for me to close my mouth completely since it was put on in October. Sleeping and eating has been a new experience for 3 months now. I know the adult palate is thicker, but this is ridiculous - 2 years for a tooth to come down and it’s still not done!

I’m resigned to the fact that biology takes its bloody own time to do things, and I can’t rush didilly. Both my consults told me to save the healthy tooth first and foremost, and the rest of the aggravation would be worth it when I’m eighty. Both were also upset that my parents or youth dentist didn’t do something about it when I was younger. Lesson learned – I’m going to take a very keen interest in my future children’s teeth knowing what I know now.

For those who left the situation alone - my ortho said for some patients the canine's never showed up and layed dormant in the palate all their lives. For others the process of a tooth braking through began in their 40s or 50s. Mine just happend in late 20s.

Joplin, do you have to remove them? Is it your fear that they will start coming down at some point and you'll have to do this all again? From what I saw in the x-ray they did look to be in a good position, similar to my x-ray. Since the baby tooth was extracted, the tooth has come down quicker and closer in line. If I'd known that, I would have had it pulled sooner and thrown vanity out the window. If you need to talk it out more on the board to help you reach your decision, do it! We are all here waiting to be your sounding board.

[joplin]

Thank you, Eleni, for your nice post! I'm touched to hear you've been watching me so closely

Most of the time I feel like an alien with all these hazards to go with my treatment while other people just sail on from adjustment to adjustment, never having to worry about teeth that need to be dug up or out of their jaw bone at who knows what cost to their other teeth
Sometimes I'm jealous of their fortune, sometimes I get desperately mad at mine and want to throw things around... or walk away from the whole situation, if that was possible. Well, that's exactly what I did back in 1996 and now I'm not too proud of that. Could not make a decision then and now it's all back with a vengeance. Sometimes all this just makes me want to cry. This makes me question my capabilities of taking the most complicated and time consuming route.

You know, the expansion routine with surgery and all was supposed to open up the possibility to get those canines down without compromising other teeth. I put a lot of patience and expectation to that, and when that proved to be a non-successful experiment, taking us back to square one, I feel like my batteries are running low.

In the light of all the facts so far I'm leaning towards the canine removal option, but what my oral surgeon has to say remains to be heard on February 16th. I can not make any decisions before that anyway.

To answer your question about having to remove them:
I could even let them stay up there forever, and that's what I decided to do back in my even more vain 20´s. But as long as the canines are blocking the situation up thére we can not help my bad bite and align those rotated #2s. So the wearing out of my front teeth would continue with results I'm not willing to even think of. Pursueing orthodontics would make no sense until those canines are being done something about. It's a dead end, you see.

Only one thing crossed my mind the other day while talking to the ortho: this appliance I've had since Monday is also an expander of one sort, and is moving my molars outwards. That, in theory, could still alter the space situation on the upper arch (not that much though, said the ortho). Ortho thinks it would not be a stupid idea to wait a few months more and then see if those canines have taken any activity in the newly gained space they have around them. It would only mean postponing further treatment, remaining the status quo for a while. That is another challenge to my patience, but might pay off in time IF those stupid canines show some new activity. Like you were told: maybe, just maybe, they'd make an initiave to break through the bone to get some daylight after all, against all odds
I realize this probably is just as valid a theory as would be calling the Tooth Fairy for a consultation, but...

Sorry about the long babble and thank you for listening

[Evelyn]

Most of the time I feel like an alien with all these hazards to go with my treatment while other people just sail on from adjustment to adjustment, never having to worry about teeth that need to be dug up or out of their jaw bone at who knows what cost to their other teeth
Sometimes I'm jealous of their fortune, sometimes I get desperately mad at mine and want to throw things around... or walk away from the whole situation, if that was possible. Well, that's exactly what I did back in 1996 and now I'm not too proud of that. Could not make a decision then and now it's all back with a vengeance. Sometimes all this just makes me want to cry. This makes me question my capabilities of taking the most complicated and time consuming route. :

Oh Joplin I feel for you...I'm in the exact same position. It's been almost two years since I got my impacted canine surgeically exposed, and no sign of it yet. Meanwhile, my other teeth are all fine and are just waiting for it to come down, so they haven't moved at all. I, as well, sometimes get desperately mad at how easy it all seems to be for them...no tying wires to teeth about 6 feet up into the gums, pulling at the gums the whole time, no crackets falling off the impacted tooth and going in for surgery....AGAIN, no uncomfortable chain leading up into my gum, and most of al.....sweet PROGRESS! That's something I haven't seen in forever, as you can't see a tooth coming through the gums unless it's actually erupted, which mine hasn't.

Sometimes I just want to scream so bad and yank these off, as I've had them on for two and a half years now, which is WAY longer than planned. It just seems like I'm seeing NO progress whatsoever and I keep thinking, why did I even bother? Why did I go through those three surgeries, why do I put up with the pain that I go through every day when I play my clarinet, Why do I do it? All I can say is that, in the end, this had BETTER be worth it! Hang in there guys, if it's any help, the harder you work at your smile the more you will treasure it.

Sorry for ranting, but I'm really getting depressed about this whole situation.

Sigh, Eve

[joplin]

Evelyn, I'm sorry to hear it's taking so long for you. That sure must be frustrating What has your ortho said about the slow movement of the canine? Has it moved at all?
My latest x-rays indicate that my canines may be partly fused to the bone which means they can not be pulled down but need to be removed. I'm kinda sad to lose the opportunity to ever have real canines, but on the other hand that would probably mean a shorter treatment time.

Here´s a huge {{{{{{{{ HUG }}}}}}}} to you. I wish there was something more I could do to make you feel better. Hang in there though: one day you'll have that stubborn canine down where it should be and I'll envy you for having a perfect set