Metal Mouth Message Board

Hey everyone!

I went to the Ortho last night for my monthly adjustment and had an interesting conversation with him. My upper teeth have moved enough now so we are about to start the process of pulling down the impacted canine, which is good news, of course; but I was under the impression that he was going to attach a wire from the impacted tooth to the arch wire on the upper jaw.

Last night, however, he told me that he was going to attach a rubber band from the impacted tooth to the arch wire on the lower jaw. And then he proceeded to tell me that because that’s a lot of force it can sometimes pull the lower teeth up so he was thinking about putting a small implant directly into the bone behind the lower teeth so he could attach the rubber band to that instead of the arch wire (he made it sound like a little eye-bolt).

This sounds a bit crazy to me. He chuckled when I told him that and said it’s fine, but I’m still a little freaked out. I know there are many different ways of pulling impacted teeth down into place, but I don’t remember anyone talking about using the lower jaw as an anchor – has anyone heard of (or experienced) this? I can just imagine the logistics of putting food into my mouth with a rubber band blocking the left side of my mouth.

I have to say that I have a new appreciation for everyone going through the journey of braces, we all must be super strong people. Or we’re crazy?
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I just had impacted canine exposure surgery and you know, your ortho's plan does sound a little strange to me. I know that for mine (and believe you me, it's impacted WAY up in there) my ortho is just going to hook the gold chain up to the arch wire and pull that sucker down by clipping a link off the chain every time i go in for an adjustment.
There be may be some kind of rubber band involved as well, but i can't recall her (my ortho) ever mentioning that...

BillyNPhoenix,

Your ortho's plan for bringing down your impacted canine does sound a little crazy to me too!

At the first adjustment after my impacted canine surgery (I had 2 impacted canines and an impacted bicuspid! ), my ortho started bringing the teeth down. He gave me 2 upper archwires. One was like an elastic thread and the other was a regular archwire. The first one he hooked up through the loops of the gold chainto pull down the teeth. It hurt like heck! It looked kind of odd too but it did work! Every adjustment he would cut another loop off and continue to bring the teeth down.

Discuss your options more with your ortho and let us know how it goes! Good luck!

~hAnnah

Hi Billy,

I currently have a mini implant in the roof of my mouth that my Ortho is using as anchorage to pull down my right impacted canine. They were able to get my left impacted canine - which I call LaVerne - down by first using the chain then using elastic thread.

Unfortunately, like your Ortho said using the archwire as anchorage can negatively affect other teeth. This happened to me. My upper front teeth started to flair out as the archwire tried and tried to get the left impacted tooth- which I call Shirley to move. She didn't move at all but the front teeth did, but not in a way you would want them to. (the front teeth have since gone back to their correct position)

Anyway, two exposure surgeries later and a mini screw implant and I am still waiting to see if Shirley will move.

From what I have read on this site, they seem to try the elastic thread first, then use other measures if it doesn't work. Maybe your impacted tooth is in such a position that he needs to pull it down using your bottom arch? It does make sence to me though trying this approach.

Good luck and I hope your tooth moves real fast for you.

Take Care,
Shawnie