new here have question about unerupted canine

[OlaLibra]

Hi I'm new to the message boards and found this place very helpful. I had a couple of questions. I got my braces put on january 2004 and I still have them on now. The only thing that is delaying the removal of my braces (which should have happened december 2005) is an unerupted (impacted upper canine) that will not come down. It was exposed in April 2005 and luxated August 2005 (because it wouldn't move at all). Looking at my x-rays my tooth is somewhat laying on its side and when it was being luxated, the surgeon had to go through the lingual side (my tooth is basically buried in the palate (sp?) and took forever to get the bracket and gold chain on for exposure). But yeah it hasn't moved a single bit and now its April 2006, 1 whole year and my tooth hasn't moved from the position its been in. Any suggestions or ideas or comments. I really don't want to have to go through surgery again cause my insurance doesn't cover any of this stuff and my dentist says if it doesn't move I might have to have the tooth removed and an implant placed and I really don't want to go through the hassle of having an implant fixed because it was chiped or something. Any advice would be appreciated THANKS!

[OlaLibra]

Thanks so much for the advice. I've had all of my surgerys done under local anesthetic never been put to sleep. I'll talk to my dentist about it. But you mentioned something about having the dentist moving the rest of the teeth round to close the gap as an option. Is that possible and how do they go about doing that? Cause I'd rather have that than an implant. Once again thanks so much for the advice I really really appreciated it. I'll keep my fingers crossed also hopefully it starts to move before the summer

[Delag]

My daughter's canine is forming without a root and will most likely have to be pulled at a future date. Our OS and ortho have both told us that the back teeth can be pulled foward to fill in, but both of them said it does not look good and they don't do it in their practices.

[OlaLibra]

Thanks for the advice, my dentist said she was working on it till this summer and if all else fails then implant here i come but yeah i'll look into this moving teeth to close gap thing maybe it won't look that bad I'll keep you guys posted

[nero54]

You may want to stop pulling before you end up in a situation like mine. Probably your impacted tooth is ankylosed. Yesterday my braces came off...finally...after 8 1/4 painful years, 3 surgical exposures and 1 extraction. If your tooth has not moved in a year it is not likely going to without further surgical intervention. Even then there is no guarantee that will solve the problem. Most of my years in braces was spent undoing the damage of a bite that buckles under the pressure of pulling on a fused tooth. Luckily we were able to triumph over this unfortunate situation. But spare yourself and go for a more conservative option if you can.

[OlaLibra]

Thanks for all the advice. I've been a lil busy with school to reply. But a lil update: my canine still hasn't moved a single bit. My orthodontist thinks it may be that the bracket and goldchain was placed on the root of the tooth instead of the actually tooth (u know like near the tip of the tooth). See when i went in for surgery to expose the tooth it took the oral surgeon (make that 2 oral surgeons) to find my tooh and expose it cause it was deep in the palate. My orthodontist thinks that the surgeon may have put the bracket on anything they saw because it was difficult to find the tooth in the first place and that the place they put it may have been the root. She also said that since they probably put it on the root of the tooth (and looking at xray's the bracket is pretty high up) the chain she is pulling on is actually trying to pull the whole tooth down instead of actually pulling on the lower part of the tooth bringing the tip from the right to the left which would result in the tooth actually being exposed out of the gum (hope you guys understand trying to explain it as best as i can). So what she recommended i do was have another exposure done where the bracket is moved lower (near the tip of the tooth) and then she try to pull on it again. But she said after a few months if she sees no progress i might have to lose the tooth so hopefully the positioning of the bracket and goldchain is the problem and not it being ankylosed (sp?)
*crosses fingers*

[OlaLibra]

thanks lucy (you're always the person i can count on to reply first to my posts ) but yeah my tooh is laying horizontally and even after luxation it still is but not as bad so i guess this second exposure thing may hopefully help and yeah i've been going through this since aug 2005 so yeah almost a year but thanks for wishing me luck. And you too good luck with pesky 2 *crosses fingers for the both of us*