Impacted Canine Extraction

[Manda]

On April 23rd, I will have my left impacted canine extracted. I am nervous and excited about this, its a big step that I've been waiting for for a long time.

So heres the scoop...
(Sorry for lack of terms)

I finally decided to get braces (on top only...mostly due to lack of funds, as well my bottoms are not that bad). When my permanent canines grew in, the one on the left grew in the roof of my mouth. It was never a problem, until I decided to get braces. My dentist determined that when my front teeth move, the roots of the front teeth will touch the impacted canine and I could lose a few front teeth. So, in a nut shell if I want braces, I need to get that canine removed.

I was given the option of general or local anestetic. I chose local due to the fact that I am not comfortable with general anestethic...too many risks, and I worry too much. lol Two weeks after the tooth is out I will be getting spacers, and then later (hopefully not too long after, from what I hear spacers are annoying) I will be getting my braces!!

The approximate cost of the extraction will be $400 CAD
...And my braces will be $1500 CAD
This is everything included, even my retainer that I will need afterwards I believe. I think thats pretty reasonable for a new smile that I'll be proud of.

I'll post an update after the extraction is done. In the meantime...good luck to everyone out there with braces/oral surgery! And thanks Lynn, for this new section of this great site!!

[joplin]

Hey, Manda! Thank you for sharing your story and above all good luck with your surgery! Let us know how it goes, will you?
BTW our friend Loop on this board had her impacted canines extracted a couple of weeks ago. You might like to check out her story in Our Braces Stories / Loop's Story unless you already have

[Manda]

Well today was the day I've been waiting months for. Finally got my left impacted canine extracted. I'm so glad to have it over with.

It went very well. I opted for local anestesia, however at one point during the procedure I wished I would have gone with general anestesia. It really wasn't that bad, just weird feeling and I am glad in the end I went with the local anestesia. I'm not going to lie, it was plain gross feeling at times.

If you don't like semi-gory details I would advise you to stop reading now. What I am about to say is sorta gross and I don't want to scare anyone off who may be having this procedure, but I wish I had had a better idea of what it was going to be like, so I am going to post my experience.

First the oral surgen numbed the gums on the outside of my teeth on the left, and then the roof of my mouth, which was the worst part of the numbing process. OUCH is all I can say...it was very uncomfortable. Next they took me into another room and sat me down. At this point they were ready to go on with the main procedure. I could feel him making an incision, but no pain at all...more like a poking sensation really. The worst part of it all was when he was cutting the bone. It felt disgusting, as I could feel a sort of vibration throughout my whole head and it sort of gave me a headache. (this was the point which I did not want to be there anymore lol) Then he took the tooth out, this took a few tries but he got it and it felt like the bone in my nose was going to come out with it. Again, no pain, just a gross feeling. It really wasn't that bad, I just have a weak stomach. Sorry if I grossed anyone out, but thought this info may be helpful to some people out there.

Afterwards, they told me to take ibuprofin, and if that wasn't strong enough, they gave me a prescription. Well, less than 2 hours later I was happy I got that prescription when the numbing wore off! It was throbing and burning and itching all at once. I popped some pills and shortly after I was totally fine.

The coolest thing of all about this procedure...and this may sound weird, but I have no stitches in the roof of my mouth. he basically peeled back the gums, then when he stitched it up, he stitched through to the outside of my teeth. I was worried about having all these stitches in my mouth, playing with them with my tongue and it hurting etc, but they're all underneeth my lip! lol I know, I'm a geek.

So thats about it...I would like to mention, my oral surgeon rocked!! Not only was he great at his job, but he joked around with me to keep me at ease the whole time.

Anyhoo, sorry for such a long post. Good luck Joplin with your surgery/braces in the future. Hope this has helped someone and not scared them off...I don't regret any of it, I'm glad I went through with it. My next step is spacers on May 10th, then braces on May 17th Woo hoo!!

[joplin]

Go, Manda! You did it! Congratulations and a BIG HUG
Thank you for your thorough report! Yes, it sounds gross but I still want to know what I'm being scared of exactly Anyway, they'll put me high on IV sedation for my surgery so hopefully I won't be "there" enough to realize all that is actually going on.
How are you feeling today? Everything OK? Will you be off work/school/activities for long? When are your stitches coming out?

Next stop Braceland for Manda, YAY!

[Manda]

Thanks Joplin
Well the first day was a lot of pain until I took my pain killers, but still had a little discomfort. The next day (Sunday) I was pretty much fine. I stopped taking my pain meds, but took some advil just in case the pain decided to come back. My front teeth feel like they have been kicked in, but is getting better. My mouth is tender, and sort of hurts when i swallow without thinking about it, as I tend to put my tongue on the roof of my mouth when I swallow, causing suction...ouch. But its not all that bad. However today I woke up to a swollen black eye. The soreness is about the same, just dull and gotta be careful of what I eat...I'm sticking to soft foods for now. Last night I had some toast, it was nice to chew again

Good luck with your surgery, you will do fine!
I can't wait for my braces to come on!!
Oh yeah...the oral surgeon didn't tell me to take time off work. I was going to go back today (Monday) but since i woke up to a black eye this am, I think I will take the day off. My ice pack is my best friend today

[joplin]

A black EYE?! That's something you would not expect, eh?

[Manda]

Yeah, really though! But when you think about it...everything is connected around there. When the oral surgeon was trying to extract the tooth, I could feel it all the way up to my forehead...no pain, just a pulling tight sensation. (talk about annoying!!) I put lots of makeup on my new black eye today and went to work anyway. My boyfriend said he could barely notice it, which made me feel a bit better.

[joplin]

Hey, Manda, do you mind if I ask what your ortho has planned to do with the fact that you only have one canine? Has he suggested a canine implant or is he just going to align your own teeth? How will that be done when there is an odd number of teeth? Just curious.

[Manda]

Joplin, I dont mind at all...ask away! My dentist is doing my braces, as it is much cheaper than going to an ortho. I am mainly concerned about the physical appearance of my teeth, so we are just going to make them straighter. Being unsymetrical is starting to bother me as i like to have things even, but I am trying to put that out of my mind. My dentist mentioned the possibility of an implant, but I'm not fond of the idea. My existing canine is a bit pointy, so he is going to shape it to look more like my other teeth, he said noone will notice. (unless someone like you or I sees my teeth...I find myself constantly examining other peoples teeth for canines or to see if they line up...over bite etc...im turning into such a geek! lol) I am going to get my boyfriend to take a picture of my teeth today and hopefully will have it up here to show you soon. I'm so glad I found your post, my teeth are very similar you yours...and loop's as well. I also had an expander when I was a teen, though I'm not sure what kind. It's funny, I never knew what its purpose was the entire time I had it. Only when I came on this board is when I figured it out. Guess I was too stubborn to listen as a teen. Anyway, gotta run.
We're on our way to beautiful teeth!

[Manda]

Well, here is what my smile currently looks like...I hesitated to post it, but here goes. Sorry, it's a bit blurry and the coloring is off...gotta get more practice with closeups. You can see on the right of this picture that I do not have a canine, and there are tiny stitches you can just barely see in between the gum of each tooth from my extraction. (sorta looks like I have something stuck between each tooth, as they are getting lose and hanging down now) I have noticed my two front teeth have shifted a lot since the extraction, which I was not expecting at all. They are much more crooked than they used to be. I guess that explains why my teeth felt like they were kicked in the first 2 days. They still feel a bit loose/sore but not nearly as bad.

I can't wait for my braces to get all this mess fixed up. My midline is way off, and you can see how the existing canine sticks out and is pointed. YUCK. I am not crazy about my bottoms, but for now I am going to concentrate on my tops as they are more important to me.

[joplin]

Thanks for posting the pic, Manda! I can see what you mean about the midline, but otherwise your teeth look quite nice to me.
If my memory serves me correctly you won't have to spend an eternity in braces? What was your dentist's estimation?
Your teeth feel loose and sensitive? I'm a little worried about that. Just a thought of loose teeth freaks me out, but you don't sound like you'd be too worried about it?

[Manda]

Hey Joplin! Well my dentist estimated 6 months in braces. He said depending on how my teeth move, it could be as little as 4 or as much as 8. So thats really not bad at all. I've prepared myself for 8 so I won't be let down. I think I told you, I will only be braced on the top, and if my memory serves me correct, I think my braces will only be on some of the top teeth, they won't be going all the way back. Not sure how that will work, but my dentist is very experienced, so I'm sure he knows what hes doing.

My teeth still feel a little sensitive and a little loose. By loose I mean I wouldn't want to bite into anything hard and chewy...I'm sure my teeth wouldn't come out, but they are almost numb feeling but not...its hard to describe. They are not extremely loose, but I can feel them move slightly when I wiggle them. With each day it improves slightly. I haven't been concerned about it until you mentioned it...I thought it was just a side effect of the extraction since there was so much pulling and tugging and wiggling to get that stubborn canine out. I could feel tension on all my other teeth on the left side when he was struggling to get it out. I will wait until Monday, and if its still the same I will visit my dentist about it, as my oral surgeon is 45 minutes away.

[Loop]

Hey Manda,

Thanks for posting your surgery experience. It was interesting to me because I was under general anaesthetic for mine so had no idea what they got up to to pull those canines out.

I can totally believe what you said about feeling the pull in the nose area. I could tell after my surgery my nose and all the way up to beneath my eyes were somehow affected by it - it's hard to explain but if I touched the skin beneath my eye, i could feel it having an affect on the area they removed the canine. I also had weird suction noises in my nose when I touched the area around my canines for a few days after the surgery - very strange!

Anyway it sounds like you healed up way faster than me! I was off work for a week and I definitely needed that time off.
Don't worry too much about those front teeth, I had the exact same feelings/experience as you and as you say it gets better each day. Now I feel they are strong enough to use to bite but I am being extra cautious as my surgeon told me to be careful for up to 2 months when biting into things.

[mommak8]

Hey Manda -

I am missing the other cainine - maybe we could trade! lol


I had mine pulled when I was 20 by a hack dentist. it was up high and in front of my other teeth so he just yanked it. I'd like to find him now . . .

As you can see, my midline is pretty bad, and I will be getting it corrected but it may never be absolutely perfect. I have a premolar extraction on the opposite side (right behind that pointy cainine-fang) and we will be sliding everything over with elastics hopefully to even it out. I will then be getting shaping as well to try to hide the assymetry.

Here I am 5 months into treatment

At least my pointy fang look is gone - it's a start!


K8

[Manda]

Your teeth look awesome Mommak8! I was wondering how mine would look with only one canine. If one didn't know any better, they would never notice your missing canine.

Mine will be getting some reshaping too so it will blend with the other teeth. I can't imagine how I will look without that nasty fang tooth...I've been hating it for as long as I can remember. As you can see, my midline is way off too, I think they are going to try elastics to fix that too, but I'm not sure it will ever be perfect. As long as my teeth turn out half as good as yours, I will be happy. I noticed your midline is off in the opposite direction as mine...you're missing the opposite canine...seems we have the same teeth, but opposite. lol Too funny!