Feeling discouraged about impacted canine tooth.

[leahmel]

Hello,

I am 29 years old and jsut not getting my bracketing and exposure surgery done for an impacted canine.
Right now I have a partial with a fake tooth on it that looks incredibly good/real. I get compliments often and I love my smile. I always have, but I need the braces/surgery to have my tooth come down.

I am SO nervous about how long this could take and walking around with a giant space in my mouth for who knows how long. I know it is vain, so be it. I have a job where I have to make presentations (and I am supposed to smile a lot), and I have a pretty good social life. Also, I am single and dating. This is just a blow to my self esteem! I just don't want to look funny and feel self concious. I am supposed to go to vegas and my 30th birthday are coming up right after the surgery.

Not sure what I am looking for here, I am just really not looking forward to this.

[wildpig]

If you like your smile before, it will even be better afterward. and you won't even need to deal with the partial anymore. Think of it that way.

Don't think braces will really impact your social life that much. It's only as much as your self conscious goes. So many adults nowaday have braces. Whoever you are dating highly unlikely to break up just because you have braces. They might be surprised if they didn't know about your partial, but then again honesty goes a long way a lot of times.

If you really think it will impact your work that much, talk to your boss about it. I doubt it will...

[leahmel]

I am fine with having braces. I have had them since June. It is the missing tooth that I am worried about. I don't mind having the braces one bit. I just look a lot better without a missing tooth. haha

[~KMG~]

Hi, I am in the same boat. 34 years old with an impacted canine, which is the underlying reason why I have braces. I wish I could tell you this is an easy process, but if you read the "Impacted Canines Club" thread, you will find out that in most cases, it is a slow and often frustrating process. I am going on almost 10 months of pulling and my impacted tooth is just now getting close to breaking through the skin. Since I was also worried about the gap, my ortho was okay with me keeping my baby tooth intact until she was certain that there was movement. Well, last week, I finally had to have it extracted, so I have a pretty sizeable gap now. Fortunately, when I go back to my ortho next week, she is going to put in a pontic, so I won't have to be self conscious about the gap for the remainder of the process. Who knows how much longer it is going to take before this tooth is in the correct position, so I will take all the help I can get!

Bottom line, impacted teeth suck.....plain and simple. However, every case is different, so eruption/placement timeframes will vary. Mine was apparently buried pretty deep in the bone of my palette, so I am not at all surprised that it is taking this long.

The pontic is a great option for your aesthetic concerns, so be sure to ask your ortho about it.

Best of luck to you!

[leahmel]

Thanks, KMG. My orthodontist seems to make it like there is nothing he can do to fill in the space while they are bringing it down. I will discuss it with him. They made me a pontic in the very beginning just incase my partial flipper wouldn't work with the braces, so I know they already have one made for me! He made it seem like it would not be possible.