IMPACTED CANINES CLUB

[Iam918]

@Iam918 thanks for posting a picture. From the pic do you have damon?

Once I get them on next step will be getting
my exposure and 2 impacted wisdom teeth out.

I honestly don't know, lol. I've never asked what type they were, just assumed normal metal braces. They did use some wire (which you can just make out on the top big tooth in the pic) on 2 or 3 of the front top/bottom brackets to, i assume, hold them on along with the ligs. From what I understand, perhaps incorrectly?, damon brackets don't need/use the wires.

Btw, GL on the surgery!

[tkna]

I am all braced up. It is not to bad yet. I probably will get my exposure done in august. Right now my ortho wants to create space for the right canine. When that happens I will probably be in a lot more pain.

[chrmares]

I am getting braces put on tomorrow. from what I read everyone has gotten the surgery after the braces. in my case I had the my tooth exposed about three weeks ago. the surgeon said i needed time to heal before getting the braces and this would be a less painful way to do it... did anyone else have their tooth exposed before getting braces?

[grohm]

heyy ya'll!

I just got braces 2 weeks ago and had my wisdom teeth, taken out yesterday! I also had to get my baby canine out and get the Gold chain! ooooh sparkly ;) I am 31 years old and am having a hard time coping with all of this...my friends have shunned me because of how jacked up my teeth look ;( I am soooooo THRILLED to have found this club, and am hoping you guys open your arms to me and my issues! My ortho told me it will only take about 5 years for the canine to come in and about 7 years of braces....not that bad when you think about it!! anyways I'm hoping to stay in touch with all you "crazyy canines" out there....lolzz

God bless you all XOXOXOXOX

love, Starla <3

[bashiera]

Count me in the club! I've had difficult teeth since I could recall my first extraction visit to the dentist. My other canine (the right) was having trouble coming down, so they pulled that baby, my left lower, and some baby pre-molars. Apparently my adult teeth just needed help growing in. Fast forward a few years and my lower right canine grew in...Right behind the baby one! The left canine never came down, I'm 18 now, and I had the right canine pulled along with my lower wisdom teeth back in May. My appointment for braces to bring down my left canine is next Wednesday (if it is impacted. It may just need the baby pulled to come down, but my dentist and ortho agreed it's best to pull, get braces, and bring it down rather than pull, wait and wait and wait and find out it's impacted.) I have mild crowding on the bottom and very mild spacing issues on the top, so my main reason for getting braced is this canine. I'm going to guess I'm getting braced (top only now) the 17th, then go to an oral surgeon for extraction, exposure, and chaining afterwards, attachment, then bottoms. Whew! That's a whole lot of work, I wonder if my poor mouth can handle it. I hope all turns out well for me and the rest of you going through this.

[lisa78]

I'm joining up. Canine teeth officially suck. BIG TIME.
I'm getting baby canine extracted on Monday *sob* as it's now wobbly and the permanent canine has FINALLY cut the gum (but in the gum just behind the baby tooth - Grrr) Only popped through 20 years too late (I'm 32)!!! Devastated about having to sport a big gap in my top arch while it's pulled down into place. Getting top ceramic braces. Hope it happens quickly. Have been searching for pics or stories from people going through the same but can't seem to find many photographs.

[LuckyLola]

Ask your ortho for a flipper (fake tooth) to cover the gap, if he/she doesn't have them talk with your dentist. My dentist did an excellent job and it looks like my real tooth.
I've tried to take photos but it's a very difficult angle to capture the canine behind my fake tooth.

[Danielle18]

It's been 5 months ago I seem to have made some progress. I had an ortho appointment on Friday where he recommended that I get an x-ray because my canine is coming in above my eye tooth (as we expected would happen). Although it is coming in above my other tooth, it IS coming in so I can't complain about that. Only 3 links left and 2 are already exposed Hoping for some better news in the next couple of months!

[~KMG~]

Since it has been a while since my last impacted canine update, I thought I would post. I guess I could say that a lot has happened since my last post.....One month into my exposure surgery and chain activation, the chain became detatched from my permanent tooth. Heartbreaking.....what we thought was movement, was of course, a false positive. Needless to say, I had to have the exposure surgery re-done and the chain re-attached. This time, I opted to do it without IV sedation, so I could see what "the other" perspective was....call me a baby, but if this chain comes loose again and I have to go through the re-exposure a third time, I will be doing the sedation again! Even with nitrous oxide to lighten the atmosphere, I kept passing out... My permanent canine is apparently buried deep in the palette bone, which had to be grinded away on the first surgery, so this was all a bit too much for me. Soooo, that occured at the beginning of June, and I had the chain reactivated 5 days after the re-exposure.

Fast forward to today, 3 months later, and things are going well. I had a pano taken about a month ago and it definitely showed movement. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that this continues! The area on my palette where the permanent canine is located is bulging, which is also a good sign. My ortho takes a different approach to exposure, as I have previously stated. I have a TPA with a spring attached from the TPA to the chain, so that there is a constant, gentle pull. It took about 2 months to get used to the TPA, but I am finally over that hump and I am no longer talking with a lisp....thank goodness!!! I still have a spring on my upper archwire to keep the space open for my my "big girl" tooth and the baby canine will not be pulled until the permanent is in position to come straight down. So, right now, I am starting to look goofy with a big gap, but I guess I am thankful that my baby tooth is still there right now, or it would look much worse! My upper arch is definitely in that "it looks worse before it looks better" stage of braces, as my midline is waaaay off from the spring and gap. It is all part of the process, so I don't let it bother me.

Here are some pics of the hot mess going on in my mouth!

Upper arch with the spring:


Upper arch- TPA:


Gentle pull- close-up:



I hope everyone in the club is showing progress and best of luck to you all that are ready to board this boat! It sure is heck is a long ride for me!

[mb67]

Hi all,

I am in the impacted canines club for sure... now to decide to do something about it now or not! I learned about this issue when I was 21.... and said no way, not doing braces now! Now I am 28 and wishing I had done them in my earlier 20's. The timeline my ortho gave me at my consult was 24 to 26 months in braces, which I know can change, and would have me do the exposure surgery before putting on braces. Has anyone else done it this way?

My issue with deciding whether to start now is the timing. I am not engaged now but likely would be in the next year to my boyfriend of 7 years. I will NOT wear braces on a wedding day, but with being together so long I don't think I want a long engagement! I know braces can be taken off for a wedding, but I won't know what stage in pulling forward the tooth would be in, which could leave me with a gap. Guess it would be ironic since I had a gap when I was 14 for my sister's wedding because I had just lost the other canine! Anyway, I know I could wait to start but I'm concerned about letting more time pass and potentially making the tooth more difficult to move. My teeth are straight, so the only problem with my teeth right now is the uneven effect of one permanent and one baby canine in there and a little bit of a crossbite, which I have lived with for all these years anyway.

How did you guys decide to make the leap and do this??

[LuckyLola]

My advice is to do it. Depending on what type of braces you get they may not be noticeable. I have lingual on the uppers and clear on the bottom. I've had the bottom braces on since Jan and two people recently told me they didn't know that I had them, one being my hairstylist.

You won't need to go with a gap, I have a pontic covering mine and it looks great, just like a real tooth. It was done by my dentist who is a perfectionist.
My impacted canine is almost all the way down and ready to go into it's place. It was a year in June since my exposure surgery. However, my tooth was sideways behind another tooth.

Good luck!

[mb67]

Is your pontic built into your braces? I'm not sure how those work. I'm scared of linguals and potential speech problems. I'm a nurse so I pretty much talk all day when at work.

[LuckyLola]

The pontic is attached via glue to the tooth next to the impacted canine. You would never know that's it's not real by looking at it. As I mentioned before, that was the work of my dentist.

I don't have any problems with my linguals. From the moment the were attached my speech was fine. I love them. I have heard of speech problems with bottom linguals.

[Madison814]

Hi everyone,
I am kinda new to this forum, but I saw this topic and decided to post. I had my first exposure of my impacted canine in april of 2009. Since then, I have had a total of 4 exposures. I completely trust my oral surgeon, as he is a family friend, but do not trust my orthodontist. Since my first exposure, about 2 and a half years ago, I have had to go to the orthodontist every other week. At last weeks appointment, the orthodontist felt that the tooth was now partially of fully ankylosed.
Is it possible that after so long it has just now became ankylosed?
I am trying to make an appointment with my oral surgeon to get his opinion on this. The orthodontist said he would give me another month, but if the tooth does not move significantly then he wants the tooth surgically removed. To me, I see it as just throwing about the 2 and a half years of work that has been done.


Any advice?!

[Lola89]

Hi, I also have an impacted left canine, however in my x ray it is just sitting there. Im 22 and my dentist has informed me that I will need braces to make space for the tooth to come down. does anyone know if they can come down on their own? or will i definitely need to have the chain attached? The impacted tooth is in the right position it is not sitting horizontally or behing any teeth. I have not yet seen an orthodontist, but have an appointment in a few weeks. I have had the baby canine extracted a few days ago as it was rotting away, so the dentist pulled it out. has anyone had anything similar??