Impacted Cainine

[missing_tooth]

Few questions before I get braces. I have an impacted cainine tooth, my x-ray pic below.

I visited one orthodontist and he expressed concern that it may be fused to the bone as I am 32 years old. How often are impacted teeth fused to the bone? How difficult of a proceedure is something like this? Most important, what are the risks? Can you have nerve damage or permandent numbness like when getting a tooth pulled. Could bringing it down cause any other oral problems? Anything else I should be aware of should I have something like this done?

Thanks

[Shawnie]

Hi Missing tooth

I am 44 and have two impacted canines. My Dr. wants to surgicaly expose them and bring them down. I haven't had a consult with the oral surgeon yet though. Would be interesting the know the ages of other people on this site who have had this done. I have heard the earlier the better. What I know of this procedure I have learned from this site. You should do a search, there are lots of us out there with this same problem.

Thanks to all of you who have posted info on this topic. You don't know how valuable it has been to me. I like to know what I'm getting into, and the info has been great, pictures and all!

[fyrelight]

I am 31... I had both mine successfully exposed recently. Best idea, since you already have the gap there, is to let the ortho TRY to bring it down. If it doesn't move, then you'll know its ankylosed (stuck to bone).

Nerves usually aren't a problem-- no numbness, etc. Only risk is if its in a bad place, it can hurt your other teeth coming down (dissolve some of the root, etc).

The procedure depends on the location of your tooth... if its near the buccal (cheek side) of your gums, they will expose it on that side. If it's on the lingual (tongue side) of your gums, they will expose it in your palate. I had mine done just with novacaine.

BTW, yours looks like its not too far up-- that's good! I'd just get it exposed and see if it moves. If it doesn't then you're in for an implant or bridge or gap closure. If it does, then you will have gained your canine!

[missing_tooth]

I'm having the braces treatment where by they are pulling them down. One has come down quite far in 4 months on it's own... the other hasn't moved at all. I had my 2nd adjustment yesterday and they put brackets on the canines with elasticated nylon thread attached to the coils, to try and get things moving some more.

Can you post a pic so I have an idea what something like that will look like?

BTW, yours looks like its not too far up-- that's good! I'd just get it exposed and see if it moves. If it doesn't then you're in for an implant or bridge or gap closure. If it does, then you will have gained your canine!

The ortho told me they first have to widen the gap to make room. Perhaps to help this tooth make the turn and come down? Gap closure? Don't see how that cane be done. I was also told my teeth are small for my jaw size, and that even with the tooth brought down he's going try and bring a couple of the back ones forward just a bit and even out some of the gaps in my teeth. Yikes.

[fyrelight]

Yeah, they always make a bit of extra room for it, then close it back after the tooth is down....


Here is the link to my website with pics: http://www.ourchurch.com/view/?pageID=164075

plus there are some links there to other websites.

Oh, and on the Oral Surgery section here in Archwired, there is also some more discussion on the matter.

[mellystarr]

Hello All. I was really glad to find this site.

I'm 25 yrs old and just discovered last month that all 4 of my canine teeth are impacted. I'm having the baby teeth extracted next week & having braces put on toward the end of the month. I guess if I didn't have the braces on, my teeth would shift in to the gap.

I'm kind of nervous about this whole thing. I guess the worst of it is that I'm getting married in about 6 months, and I have this horror of my wedding pictures with big gaps in my teeth.

I hate to sound like a kid here, but were any of you guys kind of depressed about the situation? Are the gaps noticeable? I think my orthodontist said they were going to wait for 6 months to see if there was any movement, and then they were going to force the exposure, but I might be wrong about that.

I dunno - I've never really been sensitive about my appearance, but I kind of feel a little bummed out about this. And I'm worried it's going to really hurt. My family seems to think I'm being superficial about the situation. Am I expecting the worst?

Thanks for all your help.

[fyrelight]

Ankylosed is when it has basically become part of the bone..... while I have read a few documents where they tried to bring ankylosed teeth down, they don't have much luck. They can't pull them down, as they won't stretch, etc, but they can unseat the tooth from its position (pull it, basically), then try to reattach it in another socket (like if you still had your baby canines, they could remove those and put your adult one where the baby nerve was and hope the nerve grows through that tooth).... most reports say it doesn't work, plus most of us don't have a fresh tooth socket still, so if its ankylosed, they usually just remove it, or in some cases, let it lie.

[fyrelight]

Melly, for the wedding, can you get your dentist do give you some false teeth in those gaps and attach them to the surrounding teeth? Someone on here had fake ones in their gaps for special occasions. You might also just give a "mona lisa" smile without showing your teeth...

[missing_tooth]

Ankylosed is when it has basically become part of the bone..... while I have read a few documents where they tried to bring ankylosed teeth down, they don't have much luck.

Please nooo..... don't talk about stuff like that. I got my oral surgeon appointment tomorrow, to give me a better idea. Then I'm off to get a second opinion from another ortho whom I was refered to by a coworker with amazing teeth.

I'm getting very very nervous about this.

[fyrelight]

Don't worry... they usually come down with a little orthodontic help! Most aren't ankylosed, but instead just didn't come down because they didn't have enough room. They can "sometimes" tell on x-rays--if the nerve canal is hardened and ankylosed -- but usually they just see if they are in a good place and then TRY to bring them down. If they won't move, they're ankylosed. If they move, you're good to go! Seriously, don't worry! Just let them try to bring them down!

[Manda]

Hi, I hope you are able to have your canine brought down.

I am 25 and my left upper canine was impacted. I ended up having it removed because it was fused to the bone. My dentist said there was a slight possibility that it could be brought down, but there wasn't a lot of room, so I would have to lose a tootheither way, so I opted to have it removed instead. Here is my experience if you are interested. viewtopic.php?t=3608