Metal Mouth Message Board

My lower teeth were relatively straight. Crowded but straight (strange enough); however, the ortho recommended I have an extra lower incisor removed. I am so self conscious about having this gap where the tooth used to be. I am a 30 year old woman who works with a lot of people all day long. How long till this gap closes? I wish he could've fixed my teeth without any extractions...

It depends, from my knowledge closing the extraction gap is the last phase of the treatment, so say if you had an 18month expected treatment time, your ortho would start trying to close the gap from month 12 onwards. Although, all cases are different and so are the ortho's treating them so he may have something else in mind, let him know your worry and ask about your treatment plan.

Hope this helps

Newmetal

Well I think once your ortho decides to close the gap, it doesnt take that much time at all, but the thing is this is probably the last thing he will do.
But really, I had extractions too and the whole thing is looking quite funky right now, but I think when people see you in braces, they don't expect you to have perfect teeth anyway.
Plus, if they do notice your gap, they will probably realise it is part of your treatment. So it is not like you have the whole I-dont-look-after-my-teeth-so-I-had-to-lose-one stigma.

I am having a hard time with it. I hope it closes on its on or at least a little bit. I had to have a one-on-one talk with God and who cares if I'm toothless right now!! Sad thing is, I am...around the people that know me I don't care because they love me anyways but being single and toothless at 30 is not fun.

It takes at least a year for it to close but after awhile you get used to it and since you're wearing braces, people know that there's a reason why you're missing teeth so not to worry. It doesn't look so bad as you think.

I had a lower extraction too and was told it (the gap) would be dealt with later in my treatment. I agree with the folks that said when people see you have braces, they assume it is part of the treatment, which it is.

Thanks for putting things into perspective for me. I guess cuz it's happening in my mouth I'm self conscious about it. I just had it removed yesterday so I miss the little guy! I've had him for 20 somethin years.

Kiwi, thanks for the blog link!! Perfect!

I'm curious. Did they decide to extract the lower incisor mid-treatment? The reason I ask, is because I was told that they would attempt to correct my crowding without any extractions, but that it may be necessary later on to extract a lower incisor. If this was the case for you, how long did your ortho attempt to relieve the crowding before deciding to extract?

Second Timer, my mistake but I didn't even question the recommendation and referral to have the lower incisor removed. I guess I should've but I just went and did it. to me there didn't seem to be too much crowding but I figured if he asked there must be a reason. I had an extra one. You should have four, I had five. I would suggest them at least trying to do it w/o extracting but if in the end they realize they have to treatment might take longer.

I don't know if extractions on permanent healthy teeth are necessary. I wish I would've got a 2nd opinion because to me it seems like there's TOO much room now.

Thanks for the reply. I wouldn't have questioned the decision to extract either since there was an extra incisor. Now you'll probably be able to get a nice midline where the space between the upper and lower centrals line up.

As to your original question about how much time it takes to close the gap, I suspect the gap will be closed early in the treatment vs later. In the first stage of treatment, they use light archwires that round out the arch. This means the incisors are aligned first and I bet that gap mostly goes away during that phase. People who have bicuspids extracted usually have to wait until the arch is rounded out first, then they start working on closing the gaps by retracting the front teeth with power chains or closing loops.

They told me that if they decide to extract a lower incisor in my case, that it will make the total treatment take about an additional 3 months. That makes me think it must take about 3 months to close the gap.

I was put on powerchains immediately to close the extraction gaps. Since I had crowding ,my ortho wanted to close the gaps to make space for my crowded teeth to get aligned. My gaps closed in about 2-3 months. My gaps were about 7mm. I still have a very small gap after all my top crowded teeth got aligned. My ortho will finish closing the tiny gap at the end of my treatment. Other things right now are a priority.


Gennel

The ortho asst said that the extractions had to heal first. My appt isn't until 1/17/07. I don't know why I have to wait for so long. I had the extractions this week.

It's funny. I've had a handful of people ask if I was going to get an implant where the gap is. I had to explain that the missing tooth was a very healthy permanent incisor that had to go in order to make room for my other teeth. Everyone seems so surprised that a healthy tooth would get removed.

I am mastering the smiling revealing only my upper teeth and talking with my hand over my mouth. People probably think I'm trying to cover up bad breath or something.

My gaps were all about 8mm, now the top ones have already closed to 6mm :0)

The only drawback is the constant taste of iron in my mouth!! Anybody else experience this?