I recently was braced and during my consultation the ortho said I had a baby tooth which I already knew about. It's my lower right premolar. He said it was healthy and there was no need to pull it. My issue is that baby tooth is about twice as wide as the adult tooth on the other side. I just don't know how the ortho is going to make space for all my teeth and get them all straight.
They haven't put a bracket on the baby tooth either so I'm not sure how they intend on moving the teeth around it either. I asked the assistant last time I was in what the plan was and she was real non committal. Does anyone know what the usual procedure is for a situation like this?
I'm wondering if it would just be easier to pull that baby tooth out. There are pictures on my story at my link below if you need to see.

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Elizabeth
Getting top and bottom traditional metal braces and bite turbos
correcting crowding, overbite, and TMJ on 3/6/2012
Turbos Removed 8/14/2012





Click for my story

Weird that they kept it. Before I got my braces they pulled all my baby teeth. I still had 5 in there at the age of 24!

Wow 5 is a lot! And I thought I was special because I had 1... it's great finding others I have this in common with, though. As for me, they pulled my baby tooth, but it was closer to the front of my mouth (in my bottom row). My gums were also starting to recede from it. You should ask your orthodontist when you get the chance--he/she would know better than anybody else

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You're invited to my braces world.

I had two baby teeth til I was 30. One broke about a year ago and I had the rest of it pulled. I still have the other. Its right in the front. It needs to get pulled. I had an adjustment this morning and my ortho said he wanted to go ahead and pull it but I asked him if we could wait til June. I have a wedding coming up and I would rather have the baby tooth than the big old gap. He said it would be fine to wait so woohoo! Until reading this forum I never realized so many people have retained baby teeth.

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You need to ask the orthodontist; the assistant is just there to do exactly what the orthodontist tells him/her to do. The assistant is not involved in your treatment planning and likely has not the least clue what your orthodontist's long-term plans are.

I have one retained baby premolar too. At the start of my treatment the ortho said it might need to be removed to make space. But as time's gone on he's squeezed enough space that it looks like it won't need to be. Will find out next month. It's not bracketed, and as it leans in a little that means the wire runs over a bit of a gap which has been a bit problematic as it means eating has caused the wire to come out a couple of times. He now secures the wire to the back bracket differently and that doesn't happen. My dentist was surprised he hadn't taken it out, but I think she's quite 'interventionist' generally. In an ideal world it would probably make sense to get it taken out now but this would require oral surgery and an implant (£££). As it's healthy and not noticeable I'm ok with leaving it in. It will probably need to be taken out at some point but this could be years and years yet. Some people have baby teeth that last their whole adult life. I looked for information online about retained baby teeth -- couldn't find much but I got the impression that dentists often think it's best to leave them if they're not causing any problem. Obviously that's a bit different if you're getting braces but I think the general point still stands.