35 Years Old - Impacted K9's

[Bea]

Hello! What troopers you all are! I have being building up the confidence to go get me some braces! Both K9's are impacted, I have been wearing a flipper for the last 4+ years.

My fear is the gaps in my mouth, failure of my K9's to come down and living with braces. I know that's a horrible attitude and considering the teeth I've lived with for this long, it really shouldn't be that bad!!

So, I will receive a good cleaning this week and begin the process of finding an orthodontist that will hopefully be amazing! Glad to have found so many good people with good things to say!

I hope to be one of you soon, working towards a happy smile and cheering on the next one of us!

[emoticon1234]

You may have to get extractions if your canines don't have room to come down. Discuss this with your orthodontist when you start looking around. This will be an extra cost of around $1k if you have insurance, and I don't know the pricing if you don't.

[isthistaken]

You will be a great addition to the conversation, I like your attitude!

[Bea]

I have gaps there now, as my flipper probably has kept a decent size space, hopefully enough. More nervous about my k9's moving or not. I was told they would attempt to pull them down for 2-3 months, and if nothing happens, we'd go to plan b or c, implants or bridges. Thanks for the encouragement!

[sablequeenie]

Lucky you, you had flippers where the gaps are! I'm 23 years old and had an impacted canine as well, on my right side. I think you should definitely go through with getting braces; trust me, I had the EXACT same worries you do (self-conscious about a gap, worried the treatment wouldn't even work, etc), but what my ortho and dentist told me scared me more though; that if the teeth stay in your palate they could end up causing root damage to your other front teeth (eep!) That's obviously a much bigger problem to fix, so I went ahead and got braces to take care of my impacted tooth.

Since then I've had my retained baby canine extracted and thank God, the impacted one is now starting to emerge from the gum line. Typically they wait 2-3 months after putting on braces to do your extraction/exposure, then 2-3 months later, depending on your progress, they attach the exposed canine(s) to your braces with a bracket. That's pretty much where I'm at in my treatment process (ortho said my exposed canine should be getting a bracket at the end of next month *fingers crossed*, which will help to speed things along in getting it aligned with the other teeth.

It's not ideal for an adult to have braces, and even less so to have a gap, but in the long run I think it's going to be more than worth it. Really I blame myself for being too vain to go through with it in middle/high school

[Bea]

I hear you. Wish I would have done it when I was your age!!! I was told they can put fake teeth in the gaps? Do you have any info on that?

[sablequeenie]

In doing research beforehand, I did come across a case or two where they did give fake teeth to fill in the gaps, but I didn't have it or ask my ortho about doing that. I'm paying for my braces by myself (with some help from my mother's insurance) which is pretty pricey on its own, so I know I just couldn't afford another expense which would be for purely cosmetic purposes.

Plus, I imagine that after the exposure surgery, any ortho wouldn't want you to have a fake tooth in there at all since that might block the exposed canine(s) from growing in correctly...

[emoticon1234]

@Sable: Your canine has exposed itself at 7 months already? It's been a year since they attached a gold bracket to mine to draw it down from the gum and it still hasn't exposed itself yet...

[sablequeenie]

Yep, actually I guess you could say it was less time than that, considering I didn't even have my exposure surgery until December, so in actuality it's only been 4 months and the canine's starting to come down. Sorry to hear that yours is having slower progress. You can't see any part of the tooth at all and they still attached a bracket? My ortho didn't even want to attach a bracket until there was movement from the tooth with the gold chain...

[Ashybear]

I have an impacted canine that they are currently pulling down. I had the baby canine extracted, and braces put on 2 weeks later. It took about 3-4 months for me to feel the tooth coming through (it was way back in the palate), and now at 10 months they've put a bracket on it (not a clear one like the rest, but I think they called it a beg bracket.) The whole time I've had my braces on I've had the gap there with nothing to cover it. However, I'm not too self conscious as you can obviously see I'm having orthodontic work done, so I don't look like a hillbilly!

Good luck with your journey! There are lots of us out there with pesky, impacted canines!