IMPACTED CANINES CLUB

[UnevenJAG]

Thanks Siobhan, I appreciate that. All in all the worst part was waking up from the anaesthetic, I felt really sick and restless for hours after. So I guess the eating thing is just a minor annoyance in comparison.

[SandSnake]

Hello everyone! Ah i'm so glad to find a place where i can talk to others going through this ordeal.

I had my surgery back in April so right now it's just a waiting game for the tooth to be pulled down. I've been going once a month to tighten the chain and so far it seems to be moving at a decent pace. My orthodontist claims there's enough space for it to come down but I remain skeptical about that. But what do I know, right?

Two days ago the chain broke off while I was eating. My dentist won't be back from vacation until Tuesday so that's time i'm losing :(
Once he puts it back on, i'll see if i can take a picture and share. I just keep hoping that, like all of you, that this whole process won't take a really long time.

UnevenJAG, I feel your pain. My impacted tooth is at the roof of my mouth so I really couldn't eat anything but soup for at least 2 weeks. Not to mention the pain from the braces. I recommend rinsing your mouth with salt water to keep it from bleeding.

[UnevenJAG]

Thanks SandSnake, I've just passed a week post op, the chain is really bugging me today and I feel it pulling and it's quite uncomfortable, I go to the ortho next week to get the periodontal putty dressing removed, I'm hoping that doesn't hurt, I can't say I've heard that anyone else got the putty placed over the exposed tooth and bracket after surgery.
Glad to hear your tooth is moving at a good pace, I see some people say it could take a full year for it to be in place!
Another note SandSnake - my surgeon advised if my chain broke I could call him and he'd meet me at the ER, no cost obv as it's just reattaching the chain, not sure if this option is available to you, going to the ER and asking another doctor to reattach?

Anyway good luck

[alice1987]

UnevenJAG, I have putty over one of my canines too! I had my exposure surgery last Thursday 12th. One of my canines was left exposed and my ortho put a bracket on it and attached to my archwire with stretchy string (i think he could sense how scared i was that he was even touching the tooth one day after surgery!) The other is covered with putty, but that will be removed and bracketed at my follow-up surgeon appt in a few days.

I was feeling fine the first few days after surgery - soft foods and on pain medication, but now, 1 week after surgery I'm in a fair bit of pain trying to eat anything and woke up this morning to a bloody mouth and needed gauze to stop the bleeding from the canine that is covered up. Has anyone else experienced this a week after surgery? I'm a little concerned as i thought my mouth would have healed a lot more by now :(

[UnevenJAG]

Hey alice1987, my surgery was on Friday 13th and it's been a week now and I'm feeling the same way, it feels worse now. The chain moves and it hurts under the putty and just the area that the tooth was exposed (all under putty) is sore. I'm still taking codeine at least once a day.
My ortho checked is on Tuesday and he will also remove the putty (hope it doesn't hurt) so I'm hoping I can just wait till then, I don't fancy a trip to my GP unless it gets really bad as I went on Monday to get a medical note so I could take the week off work and recover (I work on the phones all day and that's not going to help with recovery).

Certainly not fun eating still, all food gets caught around the wire and then removing it can make my exposed area sore. I can't win lol, I've been rinsing with salty water 2 times a day so hopefully that's helping somewhat.

Sucks you have two at once, I feel for you!

[SandSnake]

Jag I should have mentioned that I did see my ortho on the day that the chain fell off. He said it would take about 40 minutes to re-attach everything and he didn't have the time to do it that day. It was late in the evening and there were at least 10 people in the waiting room. He did connect a wire from the tooth to my braces in the meantime but i'm not sure if that's doing much at all.

Here's a picture: http://i58.tinypic.com/w0mhys.jpg

Alice the only thing I experienced a week after surgery was the stitches dissolving on their own, which my surgeon had told me to expect. My mouth started bleeding because of it but I put a stop to it by rinsing with salt water. Didn't have any issues after that.

What I hated was the pain after getting my braces put in. I had to stick to soup for about two straight weeks because even eating something as soft as rice was too painful. So Jag if you haven't gotten your braces put in yet, sadly the pain is not over yet.

[UnevenJAG]

Oh damn, 40 minutes to reattach, that's sucks!

Ha yeah no braces yet, I'm really hoping the pain from them isn't as bad as the pain in the roof of my mouth. Is it uncomfortable like having spacers in? Cus that for me was painful, my teeth were sensitive for two weeks straight.

[UnevenJAG]

Just want to have a moan about how much the roof of my mouth is hurting EVERYTIME I eat, even soft food. All around the exposed tooth bloody kills. Only after I take codeine it calms down, it's been over a week since the surgery, I thought I'd be getting better not worse

I've had all 4 wisdom teeth out and they did not hurt anything like this.

I feel like the worlds biggest sook :'(

[alice1987]

UneverJAG, let us know how you go when the putty is removed. Mine is also being removed on Tuesday and I'm getting more and more worried about the pain that will follow. I can't imagine how bad it would be working phones with this going on. I feel ya pain buddy.

Sandsnake, I've had my braces for 4 months prior to canine exposure so thank god I'm used to that pain already!

[UnevenJAG]

Hi alice, will do. My surgeon says it wouldn't hurt when I had my pre-surgery consult, but I guess knowing how it feels in my mouth I think it may be uncomfortable. When I'm there on Tuesday I might ask my ortho how long the palatal arch wire thing will stay in my mouth for, I'm sure I'll get used to it but it so hard to eat with it there.

[millersgirl]

Had an adjustment yesterday. Kind of depressing. My tooth didn't move a full link in 6 weeks so they didn't really do anything. I asked to see the pano they took last time and tried to count the links my tooth still has to move. It's a lot. I made the comment, "omg this is going to take forever!" And the technician said, "well it's probably alright you have about two years left." Her comment stung. Of course I knew when I signed up that the ortho quoted me 30 months but I'm just over this missing tooth and giant gap they've created. I didn't think it would take more than six months to make some good progress but it's looking like that wont be the case. I hate this stupid tooth.

[Siobhan]

Hi Millersgirl, I'm sorry you're seeing progress and are feeling down about it. This impacted canine thing sucks with the waiting, etc. Since it'll take a little while before they need the space for the tooth, can you ask them to put something in the gap temporarily? Good luck.

[UnevenJAG]

Forgot to post an update, got the putty removed. Yeah it's not painful, but you sit in the ortho chair wincing because you think it will be as the area is still really sensitive and sore, but it was more inform table than anything. When he took it out it felt horrible, it felt like there was a HUGE hole in my mouth (there was essentially) but my tongue has kinda gotten used to the feeling of it and it doesn't feel as bad. I had to go bad to liquids for 2 days after so Tuesday and Wednesday, any food I ate would go straight into it and it was horrible. Doing better now, can eat thing that don't break up too much in my mouth like toast, can't eat muesli bars or anything though.
Such a damn pain! Looks like there is a lot of glue in my mouth I can't even see the exposed tooth to be honest.

millersgirl - that sucks, I'm sorry it put a downer on your feelings about the process, I've been told it can take up to 12 to get the exposed tooth where it should be. I guess I'm a bit like yourself, thinking it'll take no time at all, I guess we'll see. I won't stay too optimistic for an early finish for that tooth.

[SandSnake]

I know how you guys feel, it's frustrating and upsetting, especially when you have a big gap in your mouth. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have just gotten an implant instead.

My ortho said my tooth is not moving fast but it is moving faster than he expected it to. So....that's something?
He once again refused to give me an estimate of how long he thinks it will take. Just that the fastest he's seen it come down is 6 months and that was on a teenager (I am 29). So at this point i'm just lowering my expectations and giving myself a year.

[sparkpoetry]

Hey everyone! Hope I'm posting correctly here...

I'm a 27 year old female, new to the boards. Just had my consultation and decided on ceramic braces. I've known about this issue for quite sometime, but I haven't had the money to act upon it. Thus, I've spent years researching and hoping to one day find the best option and be able to afford it. Now that I have a full-time job it's finally happening :)

I have one impacted canine- ortho. says I need to get surgery to expose it. I'm a little worried about the cost of that and whether or not my insurance will help out. Based on my X-Ray, he was a little nervous about whether we could get it to come down and says if that's the case, we will look into getting an implant on that side. I was glad the priority was to keep my real tooth if possible. On the left side of my mouth my adult tooth did come down, but it's located behind the baby tooth that's still in place *ugh* At least it's there and it's a nice healthy tooth.

I also talked to the ortho. about how much gum tissue I have, and he says once we are done, he will refer me to someone to get some layered off to further improve the appearance of my smile.

Very excited and nervous! I get braced on the 23rd, so I will try and stay in touch here regarding progress with the impacted tooth issue.

They think about 2.5 years total treatment time- so we'll see!