Linguals, acceledent, and impacted canines (oh my!)

[Shelleyt]

I wasn't thinking I was going to post anything about my particular case over time, but It's been inspiring to see everyone else's progress on here so I thought I would contribute! I posted much of this in the impacted canine club thread, but I decided to start my own.

I had braces when I was in my teens but unfortunately due to some personal issues I did not complete treatment for my four impacted canines. My upper right baby tooth canine eventually came out and the tooth is only about 1/5 of the way out, though there's enough to get a bracket on there. I currently have bonding on that tooth for aesthetics, but keeping up with that is hard so it doesn't look great. One of my upper incisors has also rotated a bit, but uppers are mostly straight. The lower left canine is completely impacted and the tooth is very far below the gum line and slightly centered- not in a great position to come up. The bottom right tooth is still 1/2 the way in but very crooked. There's just not enough space down there! Also, my bite is slightly off center, favoring the right side, and is also slightly over.

I had the linguals (Harmony brand) put on yesterday. All went pretty smoothly and took about two hours. Not super pleasant but not the worst. The linguals are applied in a really cool way- it's like a rubbery retainer has all the brackets on it and then the ortho pressed them super hard onto your teeth. 10 mins later they peel the rubbery part off. Since then I have had some tension type pain, but not too bad, and my tongue is feeling a bit sore, though nothing like I imagined. The worst part has just been a)how weird it all feels and the molar build up that is messing up my usual bite (and making me unable to eat); and (b) the slight lisp. It is definitely there for t and s sounds! Everyone at work today definitely knew something was up, but no one seemed to notice it was braces. I do love that they are otherwise super hidden! You really have to show someone for them to know. However, I do hope the lisp goes away before too long.

Around the holidays I am going to have the lower left canine exposed and the baby tooth removed. I will also be using acceledent and having the wilckidontics procedure performed on the impacted tooth during the exposure procedure. Right now my total estimate is at about 24 months, but she predicts with the wilckidontics and acceledent, we could be looking at 14-15 months depending on how that tooth activates. The top will likely only take 6-8 months per her estimate, but maybe longer depending on how the bite lines up.

I've tried to attach a current photo here. Hopefully shows up. This is not my natural bite because I took this after the linguals were applied and there is a lot of molar build up opening my bite! I go back in 5 weeks. Stay tuned.

[Shelleyt]

Getting pretty excited- noticing a small gap around the sideways bottom tooth has started to open up, which is good because that tooth is not in the archwire yet until there is enough space there. I also think one of my upper teeth (the more straight incisor) has gotten worse, which is no fun but at least it is a sign of good things to come.

So far so good otherwise. Pain was gone within 48 hours. Bottom middle teeth felt strong pressure for about 24 hours more. No pressure or pain now, 5 days in. Speech is still pretty bad. It's not so much a lisp as it is a feeling that I am talking with a mouth full of marbles. It got halfway better by day 3 but has not improved since. I am not eating soft things or only liquid anymore, but still am being careful and can't eat a lot at once. I have used the acceledent every night as planned and hopefully it helps. I do think it helped get rid of the new braces pain!

[Lovespain5]

Your teeth look very nice. It's difficult to imagine that you have impacted canines! The bonding/false teeth hide completly this fact.
I've never tried Acceledent so I can't say which treatment is the better.

[Shelleyt]

Thank you! I hate the bonding on the top one because it has grown out a little bit since it was out on so that tooth feels unnaturally large. Can't wait to get it off once that tooth has come down

Unfortunately I have seen no movement since the tiny space appeared and even that may have been my mind playing tricks on me. I'm on day 22 so I know I'm being impatient, but I would have thought the acceledent and three weeks would have led to some movement- especially since the ortho said the initial small wires would cause the most change. Not going to ortho again for two weeks.

[Shelleyt]

Kind of boring adjustment today- I'm at exactly 5 weeks with no visible movement

The ortho got rid of the glue that was gluing 3/4 front teeth on the top and 4/4 on the bottom. That was a relief. She also filed down the bonding I have on the upper canine. Not so much because it has moved since I got braces, but moreso because it was too big when it was put on. No new wire but the old wires were kind of "replaced" differently from the way they were before. Lingual wires are robotic formed so they are specifically bent And I noticed a few of the bends are in different places. Next adjustment in 4 weeks. No bracket on the crooked, half impacted lower canine 8 hours post adjustment I definitely
Am feeling some pressure! Hoping for big movement this week

[iob]

A lot of movement started after the first adjustment for me. It sounds like they did the same thing re-engaging the wire at your appointment. Same wire but different placement. The ortho told me that they initially just place the wire in a space/slot behind one of the tie wings, just to ease it in. Then at the first adjustment they place it in the actual square slot that does all of the work. I definitely felt more pressure and started to see a lot of movement a few weeks after that first adjustment. It finally starts to feel worthwhile when you see obvious movement and start cycling through the wire sequence.

[Shelleyt]

This is so good to hear! Thank you.

Did you ever have your tongue getting caught in one specific place after an adjustment? Mine keeps getting caught in one of my front brackets. That never happened the past month but man is it painful when it happens. Mostly only when I eat or drink. Is it possible one of the "doors" didn't get closed? I can't figure out why one would be behaving that wY

[iob]

Did you ever have your tongue getting caught in one specific place after an adjustment?

Come to think of it, yes, except it happened at the start rather than after a later adjustment. I assumed it was because everything started off either rotated or crowded or not in the right spot and it caused uneven angles and spacing for the brackets and one spot in particular in which my tongue kept getting caught or pinched. Add that to the initial tongue soreness and it is a bit of an ouch.

Unfortunately, it did take a little while to stop. I wish I could tell you differently, and hopefully it's very temporary for you. It had nothing to do with toughening up the tongue, or I'm sure it would have stopped sooner. I think a few things just needed to line up a little better so that whatever angle or space was allowing the pinch could resolve itself. In the meantime, a bit of wax in that area usually prevented it. Good luck! Hope it doesn't last long.

[Shelleyt]

New wire on top and bottom. They actually weren't going to change the bottom yet because unfortunately movement has been almost non existent on the bottom, but decided to "go rogue" and use a normal, non-harmony formed wire with something called figure eights to try and force the lower teeth to make space. So unfortunately still no bracket on that super crooked lower canine. Top is starting to improve but I'm unfortunately in one of those "looks worse before it came I'll get Better" stages!

[cconant1833]

Hello! Fellow impacted canine checking in. I started treatment 3.5 years ago. My upper right adult canine was impacted. Unfortunately, it was not in a position conducive to coming down. Instead, I had the adult canine extracted by an oral surgeon, who said it was actually up near my naval cavity. We are going to preserve my baby tooth as long as possible as it still has a strong root. I was worried about how it looks smaller and that we are leaving space for an eventual implant in case I lose it, but I just found out that I'm going to get bonding done to make it look full sized. I am a little nervous after reading your bonding experience! I'm also nervous because my teeth have gotten pretty yellow with braces and I want to work on whitening them up - which now I'm worried will make the bonding color not match.

Anyway, I just wanted to say it is nice to read another impacted canine story! The club thread is too long for my short attention span to read through

[Shelleyt]

Don't be nervous about bonding! They can make it look great- mine was done in a rush and not intended to last that long but because of my previous fear of the dentist I didn't go back to get it fixed ever and it grew out with my tooth that has slowly grown in some. I actually am going to have some bonding done to even out my tooth length and deal with some fluorosis stains when I am done.

I am super nervous about my fully impacted tooth coming in after the exposure procedure because my other half impacted tooth is not cooperating thus far. Her goal was to have my other tooth fully in the arch before Christmas and it hasn't moved an inch so far and still doesn't have a bracket because it has stayed so rotated. However, since my last appointment a lot of space has opened up around the fully impacted tooth and now the baby tooth is super loose. Unfortunately, I'm not ready to have the procedure until my next wire change, which may not even be by my next appointment in two weeks. The loose tooth is causing a lot of pain so I called to see if I could go ahead and have the baby tooth pulled and then do the exposure in Jan or feb, but ortho advised me to wait as long as I can and that if it falls out it falls out. Unfortunately it's really bugging me!

[Shelleyt]

Ugh ugh ugh! Feeling the "worse before it is better" so bad right now! Making space is such a slow process and an unattractive one at that! But changes are changes and the end result is at worst 1.5 years away so I am still excited!

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Oh, yes, that gappy phase! Hated, hated, hated it! I think that was the peak of my self-consciousness. It was the only time that I wondered if I might actually prefer to have visible braces up front for a few months so people would know that the gap-toothed look was temporary, and they'd think "I totally understand the braces." Instead, it just looked like that was my permanent look unless you saw the other brackets on the side. Felt like a total rube. I may be the only one who couldn't wait for powerchains so that the gaps that had opened up front would close. Hang in there! It sucks, but it's temporary even if it feels like forever. May I suggest augmenting your diet with a lot of rice so that when it gets stuck in your linguals, it looks to others like the gaps have been filled with "white"?

[Shelleyt]

Haha I love it! I am going to stock up on rice now to conceal the gaps and have a convenient snack. Gaps are an interesting occurrence for me since my issue is not having space, but I am not too determined to complain since it is some sort of change and that's what I have been waiting on for 4 months!

[Shelleyt]

Movement has occurred. Now on wire 3/5 on top and apparently on pace to have the tops perfect by April or may which will only have been 7-8 months total. By then, they will decide if I get the top off or keep them on a bit longer if bite isn't perfect yet. My midline was perfect just two weeks ago and is now almost an entire tooth off, so it's crazy how quick that changes!!

Bottoms aren't quite as great and will take much longer, but there's been progress. All the space needed has been created and now the goal is to get my bottom half impacted tooth fully on the archwire and in place. It was too crooked for a bracket at my appointment, but they put a button on it and attached it to several other brAckets to help create enough surface area for a bracket. Hopefully that can happen next month. After that, I will schedule the extraction/exposure for the other canine.