IMPACTED CANINES CLUB

[bracesat41]

So braces went on Friday. 2 baby teeth pulled and thank goodness I was so frozen and didn't feel it. Still sucks having a mouth full of metal. Ugh.

[bracesat41]

So after canine exposure's...how much can you do the next day? Are you in so much pain you just want to take T3's and do nothing? I am a mom.. I can't sit around and do nothing. My son is going for his yellow belt test on Sunday and I really want (and for his sake, Need) to be there.

[Shelleyt]

Bracesat41- I had the same concern but by that evening I was out at dinner with friends, so assuming all goes well you should
Be fine

[bracesat41]

Bracesat41- I had the same concern but by that evening I was out at dinner with friends, so assuming all goes well you should
Be fine

OH that is reassuring! I hope that its that easy! Thanks Shellyt!

[bracesat41]

Ok today is the exposure day.

[bracesat41]

Ok today is the exposure day. I'm so scared ... and hungry and want coffee! Fasting from 12 am to basically 12pm. Not even a sip of water. Going to have if sedation. I'll post about my experience.

[bracesat41]

Ok they are done . Bleeding pretty bad still . It took about 1-1 1/2 hrs . Felt like 15 min with IV sedation. Will see how they heal and pray they come down .
The surgeon didn't seem too positive that they will ?! But the orthodontist said the opposite. I think I'll be positive and go with what the orthodontist said since he does the aftercare and chaining down and the surgeon who may see his patients at the exposure.

What are your experiences? Anyone NOT have their canines come down?

[chrroscoo]

Hi All-

I was recommended to this site by another individual with adult braces and after reading all these stories I thought I might share mine for anyone interested.

My right canine is impacted, I have known since I was young by my parents never had the money to fix it. When I turned 25 I decided to go for it and get my smile fixed.
I met with my dentist the end of November 2016, they referred me to their orthodontist and I had an appointment December 6, 2017. At my ortho appointment they went over what my expected plan for treatment was- essentially braces, surgery and then the timeline really would depend on my tooth and whether or not it wanted to move. If you are going into this process it really is a leap of faith and just be prepared to have patience. Anyways, I happened to get pretty lucky because my ortho had an opening that day and so I walked out of there with braces. It was very fast! I went with ceramic self-legating braces on top and eventually will have metal braces on the bottom.

My expectation was that as soon as I got braces I could have my surgery because my teeth were fairly straight and the ortho made it sound like this process was no big deal. I was wrong, turns out my teeth were way more crooked than I expected ha! So Over the next 5 months I went in for regular adjustments. For the first month and a half I had the standard niti archwire which was really flexible. I really didn’t notice too much pain or change in my teeth. By the second month they moved me up to a more durable arch wire and put a power chain on my front 4 teeth-I had a huge gap between my front teeth and the tooth right before the canine that needed to close before I could have surgery. After about my 4th adjustment I finally graduated up to an archwire that would be able to withstand my surgery and my ortho put in the referral. I also had power chains on all of my top teeth which really have made a difference.

My surgery was scheduled for April 18th at 8am, I was having my canine exposed and bonded and I decided to get all 4 of my wisdom teeth out (they were exposed but had a lot of gum around them which would cause me future problems). I paid extra to be under sedation because I was really scared to have the surgery. Overall the surgery went well, I woke up during and they had to turn my gas up so when I did wake up I was high as a kite and feeling great. The surgery was about an hour. My boyfriend drove me home and I passed out on the couch… the next thing I know is he is waking me up saying I need to take a pain pill. I honestly wasn’t in much pain but I recommend taking the medicine so you can rest and you don’t end up in pain later. I slept the majority of the day and in the afternoon my bleeding had stopped enough to where I could eat mash potatoes and pudding (I changed the gauze about every 2 hours). The only time I really was in pain was when the pills had worn off during the night. By the second day I pretty much was back to normal, I was still eating soft foods but wasn’t having any issues. About a week after the surgery I was eating mostly normal foods with just being careful. Your mouth will feel really weird, in my case the tooth was showing in the roof of my mouth. I had a gold chain attached to the tooth which went to my archwire.

Two weeks after my surgery (May 1st) I went back to my ortho. She wanted to move the exposed tooth back before bringing it into place because it was so close to the tooth before it that she was afraid it could cause damage. They attached a button to the first molar behind where the canine should be and an elastic to the exposed tooth. Tightening the elastic was painful but not horrible, and she actually cut the entire gold chain off (there is a small amount still attached but so far hasn’t been used at all). The most painful part of this whole process was the two weeks after my appointment because my tongue rubbing on the button. There were days I couldn’t even talk or eat because my tongue was so sore- I ended up buying a ton of wax on amazon and used it religiously. I would say about 3.5 weeks after I was finally able to stop using wax because my tongue finally got used to the appliances.
I just had my second adjustment post-surgery (June 6th). My tooth has actually moved a lot since pulling it back, at my last appointment the moved the button back one tooth so now the elastic is very long. I have actually seen movement in this last week since moving the button back. At my next appointment she said she will begin moving it forward. The tooth is just peeking out in the roof of my mouth so I don’t entirely know what to expect going forward. I am optimistic so hopefully will see some major movement in the next few months.

Even though I have only been in this process 7 months, there are a few words of advice: brush your teeth after every meal, all the crap in your mouth will make you more susceptible to swollen gums and decay. FLOSS! Omg it’s so hard and such a pain in the a** but do it. I bought a water pik on amazon which helps, it’s not substitute for flossing but it’s amazing what it gets out of your braces even after flossing. Finally, be patient… this isn’t an exact science and unfortunately there is no magic that can speed up the process. Take lots of pictures otherwise you won’t see the change! Hope my story helps prepare for at least the surgery and healing after… I can update based on my experience as time goes on.

[bracesat41]

[quote="chrroscoo"]Hi All-

I was recommended to this site by another individual with adult braces and after reading all these stories I thought I might share mine for anyone interested.
quote]

Thanks for the positive story. I'm hopeful that at least one of my 2 will come down. I am not healing as well as I would expect after the exposure surgery. I have been eating soft foods and being careful, but I'm concerned that one side may be infected. It has a white sort of film over the area. I called the Surgeon's office and he said that it was normal, but I could come to his office if I was concerned. I will wait a day and if still hurting more than not I will. Also a few people at my office (thank god I work at a dental supply company, so everyone is super excited for me!) said that my face on one side seemed a bit puffy. So will for sure go to see him tomorrow. I'm on antibiotics so I'm hoping that will help clear it up. But of course in my crazy mind I'm thinking I'm going to loose all my teeth and have a massive infection. I'm just concerned that it won't heal up.
Right now after 10 days in braces and this exposure surgery, I'm totally regretting doing this whole thing. I wish I just kept my baby teeth and just dealt with getting a set of dentures when I'm super old. This really sucks. I'm 41 as well, so makes it even more painful. I lived so long with the baby teeth, why bother now?! So not happy at all.

[chrroscoo]

bracesat41, sorry to hear you are so worried. The film forming I think is normal and is a sign that everything is clotting. I don't think you are going to get a horrible infection and lose all your teeth! I know it is scary, especially because you can't really see what is going on. Having braces put on so close to your surgery is intense, your mouth is going to take time to adjust to everything. Braces suck on their own let alone having surgery. Just be patient, worrying is going to cause unnecessary stress that isn't good for your healing. Just keep an eye on everything and keep things clean and you will be fine. It will be worth it once you are all done

[bracesat41]

What does the feeling of the canines moving feel like? I have this almost pressure feeling - or almost like a sinus pressure feeling. I'm a worry wart (if you haven't guessed that already) and worried that something to do with the roots of my teeth growing up in my sinsus or something wrong after the exposure surgery.

[bracesat41]

So I had the chains "activated" yesterday. I think he went easy on me and not pulling super hard because I'm still tender from the surgery. I go back in just over 3 weeks to engage them more. I really want these teeth to move. I'm so worried since I'm over 40 that they wont move at all. It is really disheartening that the Oral Surgeon seemed to think that it would be surprising if they did move and the Ortho was quite confident that they would. One tooth is in a good spot, and the other a bit on an angle. How long till your teeth moved? Anyone in their late 30's or 40's have success? I am seriously obsessed with my teeth and just want to know they are moving. I want to get a pano sooner than later to even know if they are moving a little bit. Here is my pano (I took a photo of it from a tv screen).
Also I had to use that mouth wash that stains your teeth after surgery! So my teeth were way whiter and now they are stained. Also, my gums are way puffier now after the surgery! Today (top), yesterday before change of Oband (middle) Day 1 (bottom). You can totally see the difference in the colour!
Anyone else on this journey right now?

[Alliscone]

So I am 22 years old, with 1 impacted canine and I work at an orthodontic practice so it is very weird to be the patient right now! I had my exposure a couple weeks ago under a local anesthetic, and it was the most traumatic experience ever, so if I could go back in time, I'd definitely go for a general or Iv sedation! Maybe I just had a bad experience. So today I've had the gold chain attached to some power chain which is attached to a TPA plate (basically a plate with a hook on the back) so we can move it away from the roots of my other front teeth before bringing it back in with braces later on. Excited to see where it all ends up! I must say generally speaking I've only see 1 case where a canine was ankylosed, so I'm fairly confident that it'll be fine for me :) it's a long road ahead of me ! I have delayed for years but decided this is it !!

[Shelleyt]

Alliscone I am jealous that you work at the orthos office! I would use that to my benefit to get my chain pulled more frequently! I have been on a "every 2 weeks" schedule since my exposure in late March but so far that hasn't been enough to get real movement. Only a few links have come up since then and the ortho even said those may have just been initial slack from the oral surgeon making sure the chain was long enough.

For everyone who is working through- how long do you feel pressure from the chain on your impacted tooth. I am worried because I never feel it. This last time they depressed the wire so that it would have room to keep pulling up longer than just the initial elastic tightness and I maybe felt pressure for 24 hours. Just worried my current configuration isn't doing enough to get that tooth up, and I paid the extra $500 for wilkidontics, so I don't want to "waste" the six months that procedure is supposed to assist the tooth in moving now that I am halfway through it.

[TinnyLinda]

I had an impacted canine that I tried to pull it down with no luck. Many years later (25) I went to another ortho who gave me 2 choices: try it again (make room for it, another surgery) with a good chance of it not coming as it had not come before; getting it extracted and either making room for an implant or using the premolar as a canine.
After 3 months of thinking a lot about it I opted for the second choice, as it was the only certain. Now I'm wearing braces to fix my midline and some crowding.
Can't wait to see how yours go. Good luck!