Has anyone had all premolars extracted? Opinions?

[lilone]

In my nightly nightmare sessions over whether to extract or not extract, I have decided that I really think it would help to know if there are others who have had first and second upper bicuspids extracted and to find out how they like it. If you have had both premolars behind your canines extracted (or know someone who has) can you please respond or message my inbox to let me know if you like the aesthetic result or regret it? To clarify more, this would mean you have your front teeth to canines and then just molars...no premolars. I have already had my second bicuspids out for ortho as a child and now they want to take the other ones due to relapse. If anyone has pictures of their smile "sans-premolars" that they would care to share, it would really be appreciated!

[caitlin1120]

I had both my top premolars and one of my lower premolars removed (along with all four wisdom teeth) before I got braces. Not the most pleasant experience of my life but SO worth it! I love the look of my teeth now and I know there is no way I could have gotten here had I been stubborn and tried to keep all of my teeth in my little mouth.

I'm new to posting pictures but here goes...

This is in my first few months, showing off my wonderful extraction gaps:



My smile as it was back then (note the overbite, no room for all of my teeth so they just kept jutting out and the bottom front ones were pushed inwards quite a bit)



Side view today, about 15 months later



Front view today. I should be getting them off next month and will have a bit of root canal work to do on one of my teeth, but other than that I've very happy about the result:



Hope that helps your decision! Best of luck with everything

[lilone]

Thanks so much for posting! I'm so glad to hear that it was worth the extractions! I think we are still different, though. For me, if I get the extractions I will have had 6 teeth removed from the top (4 bicuspids and two wisdom teeth) and four from the bottom (two bicuspids and two wisdoms). So my top teeth will have had two teeth taken out on each side between my canine and my molar. I think this will look funny when I smile since I have a wide smile. It will be my eye teeth and then full molar. I will only have 22 teeth if I do this.

It seems very rare to have no bicuspids at all. I haven't seen anyone with this situation so far but I'm hoping that I'm not the only one out there. I had moderate crowding both when I was younger and again now. I was never classified as severe so why might I need to have more teeth out then most people? Urg.

PS maybe I called them the wrong thing saying "premolar" in my title but I can't change it by the looks of things. What I mean is "bicuspids".

[chocomorsel]

Don't do it until you get multiple different consults. If you've already had a set of premolars extracted, may not be worth it to remove another set on the same jaw. Many orthodontists these days are doing non extraction ortho and I would get at least 3-4 different opinions. I have one set of premolars on my top extracted and I do see that my face is not as round or as full as it used to be which I miss, but I sure hope the result will be worth it. When I was a teen, I had all four of my wisdoms removed. I now have 26 teeth in my mouth. I had IPR done on my bottom jaw without any extractions and things are moving along nicely.

Consultations at least here in the US are usually free, so maybe find an ortho who's willing to try first without extractions then maybe later alter the plan if things aren't working out. But in my opinion, having both sets of your premolars out is too much.

I hope an orthodontist can give an opinion.

[chocomorsel]

P.S, bicuspids and premolars are the same thing. Just googled it.