Extractions, nervous

[clh5086]

Hi everyone. I’m new. This is my first post here. I’ve had ceramic braces since November and was quoted 18 months. My orthodontist and I were on the same page the whole time: that my teeth would be straight but my bite wouldn’t be perfect without extractions, but at my age, 31, it wasn’t worth it to extract so we would go for “better” not perfect.

At my last adjustment the ortho decided to revisit the idea of extractions. He said I’ve been wearing elastics for 2 months now and there won’t be much more movement. So I need to decide whether to have 3 extractions (not 4 because I had an impacted molar taken out with my wisdom teeth at age 15) or to decide that I’m happy with my teeth being straight but my bite being off. He did an updated x-ray and told me it’s completely up to me. I’d have to have the braces on another year - year and a half, at no extra cost, to close the extraction gaps.

I have a 6mm overjet. I could not afford jaw surgery and I have no insurance. I’m not happy with my overjet but I am worried about the possibility of my face sinking in or looking ugly after extractions because I’ve been reading a lot online about it. Does anyone have any advice or personal stories about extractions?

Thank you!

[Nabba786r]

I have a 9mm overjet and my ortho has used Damon braces to correct that by widening my smile the braces will create space so the top teeth can be pulled back with elastics and bottom jaw move forward slightly I’m currently on my second week now. I did ask about extractions he advised he will only do them if really necessary

[marathon]

I'm getting my braces put on tomorrow and they expect extracting 3 teeth for me as well. I'm also pretty nervous about this. I'd gone to get a second opinion and they wanted to extract 4 teeth! The one I ended up choosing says 3 because my top midline is slightly off and they want to correct that by only taking out 1 on the top. Both orthodontists and the dentist say it's not really avoidable since my jaw is so small (even with wisdom teeth extracted a long time ago) and there's no room to straighten out my teeth otherwise. But it feels so scary and wrong to be removing 3 perfectly healthy teeth. Other than the crookedness my teeth are all really healthy...I only have 1 simple filling and otherwise never had a root canal, crowns, or anything like that.