Missing Teeth

[peaceandhope]

I have some missing teeth (recently) and am wondering how my ortho should be handling this.

She mentioned she will be "shaving" my four front teeth. I would think pulling one of the matching teeth from the other side to make room would make more sense.

I do have one molar that doesn't show in the picture, but the gap is one premolar and one molar. On the other side you can see a new filling I got today (repairing an old filling). The black spot on the side with the gap is where my teeth hit. That is why I lost the other two; My teeth hit head on with the one above them on that side.

[snaggletooth steve]

I have pretty much the same thing you have... except I'm missing both molars on the bottom on each side. I still have my wisdom teeth however. It depends on the ortho as to how things will be handled. I talked with four and only one wanted to remove any more teeth on the bottom. All of the others wanted to at least try to move the teeth around and avoid extractions.

Now I'm close to six months in braces. My teeth have been moving around fantastically and so far so good. The biggest problem you'll have is the arch wire going across that gap to the back molars. When you eat, that wire will pop out of the buccal tube and eventually probably break as mine has. We ended up leaving the one side broken until I get to the bigger wire. The downside is the last premolar (where the wire stops for now) has begun to rotate a bit. The told me that in June I'll be getting a new wire so the gap will be spanned. Not looking forward to that as eating becomes much more difficult.

[peaceandhope]

The problem is getting a second opinion is not an easy task.

My dental insurance is a DMO (like an HMO) so I have ONE options. She only comes to town once a week. If I wanted to see another doctor I would have to drive at least an hour away and would not be able to seek treatment from that person anyway (I can't continue to drive that for each adjustment).

This week I went in for my first adjustment. I had some issues and my midline up top (the start of this entire problem) was even worse. I now have wire on each tooth instead of a ligature. My top lip is hamburger all around. So, in other words I am starting from scratch. She said I WON'T be getting my lower braces on my next visit as planned and we will see after that.

Ugh.

[loulou123]

Hi there

firstly, sorry to hear your having some discomfort at the moment and hope it gets better very soon.



On the gap question i have a double gap at the bottom involving my 2nd and 3rd tooth from the back. Ive had my braces on 9months and up until about 8 weeks ago the archwire stopped before the gap, on my last adjustment now that the archwire is thicker the wire was run over the double gap and conected to the very back tooth after the gap. sure this feels abit weird to my tongue and ive got a metal cover over the part of the archwire bridging the gap which i can actually move with my tongue, but its not really any different than having the wire anywhere else.

Oh forgot to say im not allowed to eat on that side now in case i bend or snap the archwire, this is the only downside.

Hope that helps you out abit.

Louise

[peaceandhope]

I love the tums idea! I wish I had that tip decades ago.

Hydration - water tastes wierd to me now. It is like the metal taste is intensified. I drink bottled water mostly, and haven't changed brands so it isn't that. I have been ADDICTED to grapes. I slight crunch of the skin has been very soothing to my molars.

I have had the extrations for almost a year now, so I am already trained to only chew on the other side. I do try to force a few chops on that side once in while to exercise my jaw and provide pressure on the bones. The problem is since I got braces, my one molar no longer touches on that side, so my effort is futile.

When she told me I was keeping the same archwire I was dissapointed (no idea why I felt this way...)

It seems odd to me that orthos go so far out of their way to maintain the use of the archwire. Why would they plan a year ahead to use that same wire? I was just reading another post that said it was almost 2 years and the ortho had left ample wire at the end for expansion.

I also cannot find any posts about wire ties. Does anyone have experience on this? I have been bending them back as mentioned (using needlenose tweezers). Why do they use wires? Why did I have to have them on ALL my brackets (except one, so of course I said do it anyhow!).

THANKS!

[Chris]

I have some missing teeth (recently) and am wondering how my ortho should be handling this.

I had the same teeth missing. Had braces 2.5 years and now they are off. They had to anchor the 2nd molar to a screw placed behind it because otherwise it tipped forward. I just had the tooth root canaled because it eventually cracked from the pressure of being moved. MAKE SURE he puts some kind of space maintainer between the 2nd molar and your next tooth or it will tip. Also having teeth out for a long time like that may require you to get bone grafts in that area before implants. Have it done now before you get the braces off so that you can get those implants in right away after debanding if not sooner. Having those teeth missing was a major problem for me when it came time for elastics as the 2nd molar was the only anchor I had and it failed in pain. Remember the elastics part is to correct the bite alignment...major step. Good luck with your treatment.