So.. I have root resorption. Anyone else have it?

[LittleSern]

Yesterday, we took end of treatment x-rays as I am getting my braces off on Tuesday. I'm very excited to be getting my braces off. Unfortunately, upon looking at my x-rays, my ortho told me that it appears my front maxillary incisors and also one of the laterals have suffered from root resorption. He told me that it's rare and there isn't a way to predict if it will happen to one person over the other, and researching on google has pretty much jived with that.

The one thing I will say, though, is that he only took x-rays at the beginning of treatment and at 6 months. I'm currently at 24 months, and I think if he had taken x-rays in the past year he would have spotted it earlier.

I don't really know how bad it is (from what I remember looking at the x-rays it's not minor but it's not like my entire root is gone... maybe a few millimeters were lost?), but my ortho said I don't need to worry about my teeth falling out or anything (of course that's my ultimate worst fear). I google searched about root resorption and found that even people with severe resorption have not typically lost any teeth and it is found that after orthodontics are removed the resorption stops.

Has anyone else experienced root resorption and have you had any issues due to it? I'm kind of freaking out and catastrophizing over here even though I probably shouldn't.

[Jorge]

A little bit of root resorption is a common side effect of braces from everything I've read, what matters is the severity so if your dentist said it's fine it hopefully will remain so. My roots were going through resorption a few months back when my canine got ankylosed so I got a subluxation surgery that prevented further damage. Unfortunately roots can't grow back, so what this most likely means is that you need to use your retainer religiously as your teeth may not be able to handle the braces process again if you were to ever need retreatment.

[woollymammoth]

In the absolute worst case you will need to get some implants many years down the line. Implant technology is pretty great now (functionally indistinguishable from regular teeth), and who knows what we will have in a few decades, so I would say nothing to worry about.