Metal Mouth Message Board

Okay, I have been on this board for over 2 years and have never posted any pictures but what the heck . . . Like a few others here, I have the ole impacted canine problem. My exposure surgery was done in May, 2004 and the ortho started trying to bring it down in July 2004 so this is the progress that it has made in a year . . . .

http://www.geocities.com/genabell2000/canine.html

As you will see, the canine has got to be rotated around and it has made some pretty good progress in the past few months with that regard. He has elastic string pulling it in two separate directions. There is a button on the front of the tooth and a little hook/loop thing on the back of the tooth. Patience is a virtue, I guess!!!!

Gena, could you host them on photobucket or imageshack? It seems Geocities is limiting how many people can view your website. THANKS-- I'm looking forward to seeing your progress!!!

Seems like it took forever for the "mousetrap" to pull the tooth down. Now the rotation is going pretty slow too. Hopefully things will start happening soon . . . .

Gena - Do you have any difficulty talking with the "mousetrap" in your mouth? Does it get in the way of your tongue at all?

Awesome Gena!!! Looks great, I'm also an impacted canine veteran and I know how loooooooong it takes for it to come in and it seems like there's absolutely no progress for months but then all of a sudden it pops in and it makes it all worth while. You're lucky, yours looks like it came down relatively quickly, moving it into position is a whole lot easier and easier to deal with because you can see the difference.

Thanks for the pics! Eve

Gena, good progress!!!! That's awesome!

I no longer have the mousetrap now. It is the wire contraption in the first picture that is sorta shaped like a "U". It was used to pull the tooth down. Now the elastic thread is pulling in both directions to try and twist it in the right direction---the front of the tooth was facing almost totally backward.

The elastic threads definitely affect my speech. He sorta left it up to me though. He said it would be a bit quicker this way but might affect my speech---I said go for it, I'll deal with the speech impediments. I had a bit plate when I first started treatment---these elastic threads are nowhere near as bad as the bite plate was.

Thanks for all the encouraging words from everybody. I'll take some more pics as I make some more progression.

Great pictures and great progress!!! I wish I had a good digital camera early on. My early picts are sooooo fuzzy.

gena wrote:Seems like it took forever for the "mousetrap" to pull the tooth down. Now the rotation is going pretty slow too. Hopefully things will start happening soon . . . .

Mousetrap is a good way of naming it. I kept call it a loop-thingy.

You are almost my impacted canine twin. Mine is coming down very similar to the way yours is. Wait until the tooth turns enough for it to get a bracket. You will definitely see progress then! Mine is still slightly rotated and tipped. Each month tweaks are made to the wire to correct it. And it still has a bit to come down further.

After the trying to close your mouth with mousetrap/button thing, I think the next hardest point is when your tooth is in the "inbetween" stage, where it has to bypass the bottom canine. For about a week or two those 2 teeth kept hitting each other, until the upper canine fully cleared it. Just uncomfortable those moments when you forgot and bit down quickly - ouch.

Best of luck and keep us posted!!!!

Gena -- thanks for the info. I was wondering about speech interference because I'm still in the earlier stages of bringing the impacted canine in and my orthodontist has tried a few things which I think might have worked well had they not gotten in the way of my tongue. I wonder if the mousetrap would work for me. My situation looks similar to yours, without the twisting maybe.

Eleni--it's good to know that I'm not the only one in the world with one coming in this way. I've seen lots of pictures on the web but none of them seem to match my situation. When I do finally get my bracket I'm sure I'm gonna be just giddy--that's a moment I've been waiting for--about a year and a half now. I'm sure you all will hear about it too--pictures and all--what a day it will be!!!

2thjewelry---I didn't have any problems at all with the mousetrap causing impediments. Maybe that's an option for you??? I don't really know how to ask orthos about certain ways of doing things---sometimes their egos may not be open to suggestions??? With the thread that's there now, I just had to retrain myself and treat the thread sorta like the palete of my mouth, weird, I know but it seems to work.

Good luck to all my fellow impacted canine buddies and keep us posted.

The Impacted Canine Club
Gena--proud member???????

Eleni---I forgot to ask---when the tooth does have to pass over the bottom ones, what happens--do you find yourself grinding them together sorta?? My ortho already had to build up some molar blocks on my bottom teeth because they was impeding the movement of the canine. So, the molar blocks have my bite a little screwed up too.

Kiwi-Karen---let us know how your appointment Friday goes . . .

Great progress!!!!

Gena Thats some awesome progress!
Congratulations! I too have impacted canines and they come down so slowly and painfully! I still have one up in my palate that my ortho has been pulling on for almost 9 months now! That mousetrap looks pretty painful and annoying!
Hopefully this will all be worth it in the end!
Good luck!

-Hannah

gena wrote:Eleni---I forgot to ask---when the tooth does have to pass over the bottom ones, what happens--do you find yourself grinding them together sorta?? My ortho already had to build up some molar blocks on my bottom teeth because they was impeding the movement of the canine. So, the molar blocks have my bite a little screwed up too.

Kiwi-Karen---let us know how your appointment Friday goes . . .

It cleared the bottom teeth almost without me noticing it! I was away in Europe for 4 months and didn't see my or any ortho the whole time. It cleared with no problems, but I suspect it has something to due with what length it was at the time.

I used to grind alot in the beginning, but after the whole mousetrap (i.e. second lower palate) and strings ordeal I have learned to keep my jaw, and thus my bite, VERY VERY relaxed. My lips are usually closed but my teeth don't really meet (lip balm is my best friend). I also mostly chew on the side opposite the descending canine. This isn't to say at times I didn't forget and knocked that tooth into something.

I escaped the molar blocks, I am guessing, because my canine wasn't brought fully down. The minute there was enough surface area on the tooth and a respectable amount of it was facing the archwire, my ortho slapped a bracket on it and attached it to the wire. This was June, it was exactly my one year mark in braces and of pulling on that tooth to come down.


It still isn't exactly in line, but as its cleared the buttom canine he is now pulling it down the rest of the way.

Keep us posted!!!!