Impacted Canines - Sugery, Is there hope?

[mellystarr]

Hey - I'm looking for some help & info - maybe someone can help me out. I joined around Nov 2005 when my FOUR impacted canines were discovered. But haven't posted because, well - nothing has changed.

Seriously, my baby teeth were pulled Dec 1, 2005. It's now March 2007 & my teeth have not moved one bit. I've just met with an oral surgeon this week to talk about "Expose and Bond" procedures. There are just a few questions I have. First, I'm 25 years old - apparently this is something you're supposed to have done when you're 12 - and the otho & oral surgeon have both mentioned there's a possibility my teeth have "fused" and won't budge. My other option is to have the teeth pulled completely & have artificial teeth put in.

Much as I don't relish the idea of being a 25 year old with false teeth - the truth of the matter is the expose & bond operation is EXPENSIVE!! It's going to eat all of my savings. Which means if the operation to bond & expose didn't work, I really could not afford a second operation to extract the following year - it'd be at least 2 years before I could afford it.

I know every case is different - but if anyone out there has had this done successfully or otherwise - or if you have the remotest idea about odds of success, can you share with me?

I'm going to have a serious talk with my ortho at my next appointment & try to level with him - but the truth is, he told me he thought I'd be out of braces in 18 months (HA! It'll be 18 months in June). I think he's giving me the "super optimistic" outlook instead of the realistic one.

Thanks -- Melissa

[mellystarr]

Thanks for the info. It's helpful to see that there are others out there who have had some success with this. I'm in the US (I came across a lot of posts from the UK) so I think "Expose & Bond" is just their description of the same procedure others have had.

It's hard to know what to do about trying to have the teeth moved in to place or just pulled. I'm getting started in a line of work where people care more about your appearance than they really should, so the gaps in my smile make me self-conscious & I've gotten some questions from colleagues.

Hopefully things will work out the way my docs suggest. Thanks for your help.

[happyendings]

When I was 13, x-rays from my dentist revealed that my 2 upper canines (teeth 6 & 11?) were impacted, I was then referred to an orthodontist. Aside from this issue, my teeth and jaws were cosmetically and otherwise adequate. Under orders from my orthodontists, I had surgery to attach a chain to each of my impacted canines, then the other end of the chain to the braces wire. I believe this is what you are referring to with the term "expose and bond." So, for about 4 years my orthodontist proceeded to pull on these canines, with out any success. In the process, he brought my 4 front teeth up and facing forward roughly 90 degrees from their natural position(I could stick my tongue out and bite as hard as i could and not bite my tongue) as opposed to bringing the other 2 down, he also brought the 2 canines over the roots of my front 4 teeth which completely deteriorated the roots and restricted my maxilla from properly growing. During this process, a chain came loose from one of the canines and I had to have the surgery again. Finally, after about 4 years, it was determined that my canines were not going to come down, so i had them extracted (3rd surgery). As a result of all this, I now have to have a leforte 1 surgery to bring my maxilla forward and down and have implants to replace all 4 of my front teeth that my orthodontist ruined as well as the 2 canines. I am now 18 and have to go through much more surgery. As you can see, I wish i would have just had them extracted from the begining but your situation may be different than mine. For a piece of mind, the "expose and bond" surgery is relatively painless and can be compared to getting wisdom teeth pulled.[/img]

[nimo]

I'm 26 and I only had one canine that never came down. On Feb. 7 of this year I had my canine exposed and bonded, and it's now almost all the way down.
This is a few days after the exposure and bonding:

And this was the picture I took yesterday:

I've heard lots of people say their tooth took anywhere from six months to a year to come down. But here I am, a little over a month later, my tooth almost right where it needs to be, and still on the move (before my last adjustment the wire attached to my canine had flattened all the way out so that it was completely parallel with the regular archwire). The dentist couldn't feel where the tooth was or anything, it was all the way up there. So really it all depends on the patient and what the ortho and dentist decide to do.

[polgara]

I just had my surgery on Tuesday, and the oral surgeon along with my orthodontist are hopefull that I can have my impacted canine brought down myself. I am hoping that this is the case. My only problem right now is that it hurts to smile. I go on Tuesday to see what the orthodontist wants to do with the tooth now. I do have this piece of advice though for any one undergoing oral surgery. If you are scared of having people putting their hands in your mouth have them do a "twilight" sedation. One moment I was being told that I would feel as if I was floating, and the next I was being told to bite down on the gauze. There was nothing to it.

[mellystarr]

yeah - my oral surgeon is going with intravenous anesthesia. I've never been sedated for anything before. I've never really had an operation for anything before. I'm very nervous about this whole process.

I'm thinking about waiting until May for my surgery - I have a week or two off from work/school then.

I read the earlier post where someone said it hurt to smile. Anything I should expect post-surgery?

Thanks for all your help guys!

[polgara]

It does hurt to smile, but it does get better. You also need to make sure that if you are getting braces that you put off getting them until just before the surgery.

[chlorine23]

Hey, how funny, I just had this done... kinda. I have 2 adult canines in the roof of my mouth and we're working on exposing and bonding them and bringing them down to replace the baby teeth that are still there. First of all, I'm getting braces to align my bite to hopefully correct some severe TMJ issue's I've got. So we decided I should also get those impacted teeth taken care of. I was told about the posibility of them being fused, and it not working, etc. But I was also told about the posibility of my baby teeth falling out and having to get fake teeth... which are even more expensive than the exposure and bond treatment. So I got this funky looking mouth piece put into my mouth, and the idea is I guess they're going to bond gold chains (my surgeon calls it my "mouth bling" haha) to the impacted teeth, and attach them to this mouth piece, slowly bringing them down.

So I went in last Thursday. They put me under and went to work. I guess they couldn't get anything to bond because of all the blood and stuff and whatever. They had to remove some bone that had grown around the teeth, but otherwise the exposure went ok. They put plugs up into the holes and I guess they are now turning me back over to my orthodontist in hopes of him being able to attach something after they move a bit. Apparently just making way for the teeth to move is supposed to just make them move. We'll see. Last night I noticed something white sticking out in front of one of the plugs. After brushing and rinsing it's still there. A tooth? Maybe. I go back on Wednesday to make sure everything is going ok, so I guess I'll know then.

Mine only cost me $2,400. Only, you say? Yeah, considering my 3 years of braces is going to cost me $7,200 I'm pretty psyched about it being only $2,400. Sad, isn't it? I left the baby teeth in for now, being as I'm 26 and not really wanting to walk around missing 2 front teeth. The diet afterwards sucks (liquids and soft foods only), but recovery doesn't seem too bad so far. My wisdom teeth removal was a lot worse. But I won't know how we're doing for a few days. I can check back then.

Hope that helped a bit.
Carrie