23, surgery and two years in braces: Mango's story

[a020]

Hi everyone,

First of all I just wanted to say this seems like a great community, and I hope that I can share my story with you all. So I'm Mango (at least my pseudonym is), I'm 23 and I'm about to get braces. When I was a kid I wasn't taken to the dentist, so I have a whole bunch of problems that I've wanted to have fixed for years, but have only recently gotten the confidence (and money) to go ahead with it.

My main issues are as follows, and are all on the upper: two impacted canine teeth, retention of baby canines, protruding left lateral incisor, and one partially decayed molar.

The bottom has some crowding, but is easily fixed.

As I write I'm recovering from surgery. Part of my treatment plan was to have the two impacted canines extracted (they were in a poor position for alignment), and the baby canines/decayed molar removed. My ortho is going to bring forward my premolars into the canine position and align the protruding lateral incisor. I had the surgery Wednesday, and things really suck right now. I've got a lot of swelling, and the bruising is starting to come up. I keep waking up in the morning with toothache. But other than that, I'm feeling really positive because I'm finally doing something about it.

Picture of my teeth pre-surgery: http://www.anony.ws/image/kMZL

Every time I look at them I feel like crying, but I'm hoping that now the baby canine is gone the lateral incisor will align easily.

I'm getting my braces May 6th and having ceramic on top and metal on the bottom.

So, nice to meet you, and if anyone has any questions about surgery for impacted canines please let me know, it's not usual to take them out so I had a hard time getting hold of info pre-op, but Loop and Joplin's stories on here were a lot of help.

[28andbraced]

Welcome! I'm sorry you're in pain--hopefully your recovery progresses very quickly!

I am actually curious about the canine removal myself. I've got one impacted canine that is being brought in (since it started coming in by itself!), but had briefly considered seeing about pulling it instead. I opted not to do that, but am really interested in why that might be the best option for some cases (because sometimes it is!) and what it entails. Thanks for sharing, and good luck to you!

[saramwms]

I hope you are healing quickly!