Tooth 180 degrees rotated

If your child is in any stage of orthodontic treatment, this is a place to connect with other parents in your situation. Please note: this is a forum for adults only -- kids may not post here!

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Hollysmom
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:22 pm

Tooth 180 degrees rotated

#1 Post by Hollysmom »

My daughter has endured 2 surgeries and over 40 months of braces. She had a baby canine tooth that was not coming out so we had it removed. A chain was put on the underlying tooth and it was pulled down. They told us that her braces would take 18 months. She expected them to come off in her sophomore year of high school.

Finally she was told that they would come off this summer. She will be a senior and we have been holding off on her senior photos for this so we were relieved that at long last she will be free. She has mentioned that something does not feel quite right, though.

We went in yesterday and were told 2 things which were upsetting. First is that she will be in braces another 4-5 months. This will make braces-free photos unlikely as they are due shortly. She has already gone to her prom in braces and is pretty upset. The second and more upsetting issue is that the canine tooth that has caused all the problems was pulled down and they accidentally put the brace on the back instead of the front.

During yesterday's exam, the bracket on her canine was removed and they noticed that the tooth is backwards. They said that her bone has grown around the tooth and they can not rotate it. Their plan is to leave it in backwards. They suggested that she go to a dentist and have the backside, which is now in the front, filled so that it looks normal...

Has anyone ever heard of something like this? The orthodontist was in the back room so all the news was delivered by the hygienist.

PineappleFish
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2014 5:56 am

Re: Tooth 180 degrees rotated

#2 Post by PineappleFish »

Sorry that your daughter is having a hard time and didn't get to feel as confident and as happy as she should have been at prom.

I have heard of molars being 180° rotated, that have been turned around using braces. This doesn't sound like an option to you, and I think the best thing to do would be to get a veneer over it if it look odd. Surely the orthodontist should have noticed this earlier?

If your daughter is really upset about having braces for senior portrait can you see if it can be arranged that she has her braces at the very least partially removed for the photo? I've heard of some people on here that got the top 6 or so brackets removed for weddings etc. then replaced within the week. That might be an option for you, although may have additional costs.

All the best for you and your daughter, sorry things are taking longer than expected.

Pleasechoose
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:55 pm

Re: Tooth 180 degrees rotated

#3 Post by Pleasechoose »


Smc36
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2016 2:31 pm

Re: Tooth 180 degrees rotated

#4 Post by Smc36 »

My daughter has just found your post after googling can you rotate a canine tooth

Her situation sounds identical to hollys. Impacted canines, surgery to attach gold chains, 2 years of pulling into position only to find out today that the right canine which has moved the most is actually rotated 180 degrees and the left is rotated approx 90 degrees

The advice of the orthodontist is now to remove both canines and close the gap. We are devastated. After 2 years and getting this far surely something can be done? Would be interested to see how your story ended?

Regards
Sam and Scarlett
England

missesfood
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:35 pm

Re: Tooth 180 degrees rotated

#5 Post by missesfood »

[quote="Smc36"]My daughter has just found your post after googling can you rotate a canine tooth

Her situation sounds identical to hollys. Impacted canines, surgery to attach gold chains, 2 years of pulling into position only to find out today that the right canine which has moved the most is actually rotated 180 degrees and the left is rotated approx 90 degrees

The advice of the orthodontist is now to remove both canines and close the gap. We are devastated. After 2 years and getting this far surely something can be done? Would be interested to see how your story ended?

Regards
Sam and Scarlett
England[/quote]

Hi Smc36,

I had the same impacted canine teeth with the surgery to attach chains and pull them down in my teens. They both came down facing backwards - my orthodontist rotated one of them but apparently never noticed that the other one was also backwards, and so it was never rotated.

No one was ever able to tell that one of them was backwards, not even myself for a few years. They don't look exactly the same, but somehow you can get away with a lot tooth-wise without anyone noticing (see: Tom Cruise's midline).

I recently got another set of braces on for jaw surgery (in my 20s now). My new orthodontist told me it would take way too long if I wanted to rotate the tooth, but not that it was impossible (just didn't fit into my surgery schedule). However in order to get all of my teeth to occlude correctly, the back of that canine had to be shaved down during surgery. After healing from surgery I don't plan to do anything else to the tooth cosmetically.

I admittedly don't know the first thing about ortho or dentistry, but almost every professional I talked to mentioned offhand how good it was that I did not remove those canine teeth despite having these difficulties with them. I think you need a second opinion, and I don't think extraction should be thrown around so nonchalantly. However rotating them may take a long long time. But once it's fixed it's two beautiful straight teeth for life - a few years fixing that isn't really so bad in the grand scheme of things.

SmileSooner
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2016 8:38 am

Re: Tooth 180 degrees rotated

#6 Post by SmileSooner »

Hello to all - I'm new here - an orthodontist and will add my two cents.

First of all, upper cuspids or eye teeth are the most common impacted tooth that we have to deal with. They have a long path to come down and there is ample opportunity for them to get off track.

It's almost always very worthwhile to do as much as you can to save them and bring them into position.

There are cases where the eye tooth is out of position and rotated severely. I can recall one case where we accepted the tooth being rotated 180 degrees - back to front. Less than ideal, but it can make good sense if it is not practical to rotate the tooth 180 degrees to make it normal. That will take a long time and not be particularly stable - it'll want to turn back. For my own child, I would leave it rotated and ask my restorative dentist friend how best to improve the look and function of the rotated tooth.

For the person with the rotated cuspids, I would keep them if at all possible - rotating an eye tooth 90 degrees is not that unusual, but it's going to take some time. And again I would accept the tooth that's rotated 180 degrees and restore it for cosmetics and function.

:D Disclaimer - I'm an orthodontist, but I'm not YOUR orthodontist - if you're my patient we should be talking in person to figure stuff out. I'm giving people the best advice I can based on the information I'm given in posts. I have over twenty five years of experience - two children of my own - and treated my son with braces. My daughter thinks her smile is gorgeous enough! There are many, many wonderful orthodontists out there, doing excellent work. And we all do things somewhat differently based on our education and experiences. I want to support everyone in any of my posts - dentists, orthodontists, patients and parents. I'm here to learn and teach to the best of my abilities. The situation that I am commenting on may NOT include details that would change my opinion and post. So I can only give you my opinion - and bottom line? Always speak to your orthodontist sincerely about questions you might have. Cheers!

BackwardsCanine
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2016 2:26 pm

Re: Tooth 180 degrees rotated

#7 Post by BackwardsCanine »

I have this exact problem and it is because of the carelessness of the professionals involved. Mine was impacted and brought down, but once braces were taken off, I suspected a problem and brought it to the attention of the orthodontist. It was denied that the tooth was actually backwards and instead was classified as "malformed". I resent being misled and lied to, and I know for certain that the tooth is not in the correct position; it's in my mouth, and I know the doctors are educated enough to know better. It is very difficult to eat and talk, and I don't go a day without noticing it and feeling suckered by the doctor. It's also caused significant emotional and mental turmoil. While I'm sure the orthodontist who replied to this post may believe it to be acceptable to work with the tooth and change the appearance, I don't subscribe to those ideas due to lack of functionality and overall negligence on the part of the orthodontist. I truly feel for those who experienced the same unfortunate result. Something must be done legally to prevent this type of malpractice and undesired result.

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