Metal Mouth Message Board

hey guys, im 15. thinking bout doing braces sometime soon, as the dentists in my school actually recommended me to get them. well, i have an impacted canine on my right, thats on the upper jaw. also, on my bottom i have a pretty out left canine and a right canine that has grown behind my incisor and my first premolar. so its getting kinda annoying as it traps food in the center spacing.. am pretty curious how the procedure will go, am planning on getting braces probably in the next few months. havent told my parents bout this yet, as i wanna know how my buried canine and the canine thats behind gonna be treated along with braces. yes, im a guy and i hate dentists. anyone had the same thing done before? what was ur experience like? pain much? lol, sorry but i totally hate dental pain. like seriously, it scares the sesame outta me. thanks if u read!

Hi, Jrocker,

First, you should talk to your parents about this, because unless you are in very odd circumstances, they will probably be paying (a pretty penny) for your treatment. You need to find out if it's feasible, or if you can work out some kind of system with them for payment. The next thing to do is to visit several orthodontists. You will want to get 2 or 3 free consultations, and they will tell you what kind of treatment to expect. As far as the treatment, most people end up in braces for about 2 years. There is lots of information on the main archwired site about this:

http://archwired.com/Popular_Topics.htm

Braces are really not a big deal, I've found, especially at your age. Almost all my friends in high school were in braces (I live in the U.S., so it may be different elsewhere), and I'm 23 now and still not finding it weird at all. Most people don't even notice, or if they do, all they say is 'wow, you have braces' and that's it, or ask questions about how my treatment is going! It's a big step, and I wish I'd had the courage to take it when I was your age, but I think you will be happy once you get started. Good luck!

By the way, I wouldn't describe anything that's happened to me so far in treatment as painful. I would say "uncomfortable" at the worst, and simply "annoying" at times. You'll feel some discomfort now and then, but it's not sharp pain normally, just aching or irritation.

I also had an impacted canine (my #6 permament tooth is still hiding in my gums), my baby tooth is still there, hanging on for dear life. My mouth is currently too small for there to be enough space for them to pull that baby tooth and let the permanent one come down, so I just had braces put on my upper to create space. Later, they will extract the baby tooth (while my braces are still on), and then attach a tiny chain to that permanent tooth to pull it down into place.

My son who is 15 is currently wearing braces and had a similar problem. We had to take him to an oral surgeon who pulled his baby tooth and put a gold chain on the top of the canine down in his gum. It sounds much worse than it was. The gold chain was then attached to his braces and it helped pull the tooth up.

Although he's not thrilled to be in braces, I think he's glad he got his teeth straightened because they were pretty crooked. He was just told that he might get them off in March so I'm pretty excited for him.

I'm glad you're looking into it.