Orthodontia

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 08:00:57 EST, "animzmirot"
wrote:
our orthodontist won't pull teeth until kids are at least thru
puberty, around 15 for boys. That's fine with me, but DS will be just about
to go to college then, and I'm a bit worried about him dealing with
orthodontia on his own.

I was a bit older than your son would be, but I started my orthodontic
work about 6 months before I started university. I continued at my
hometown dentist, sometimes taking an early bus home for an
appointment on a Friday afternoon, occasionally meeting him at his
home on a Saturday, then later he let me do some of the monthly
retainer adjustments myself, coming in to see him less frequently.

Looking back, I think that project would have gone somewhat better
with more patient advocacy, but I don't think my parents were any more
equipped for that than I was.

Louise

In ,
Rosalie B. wrote:

*I have an overbite and the dentist told my folks that since I could
*chew braces would be purely cosmetic. So I didn't get braces.
*Dentists now tell me that since I don't chew with the front teeth that
*the gums don't get exercised as much and therefore I am prone to
*periodontal problems.

Who here DOES chew with front teeth? Incisors aren't for chewing last I
checked...

*bite and I had to turn a little thing up next to her hard palette

Just for the record, it's "palate."

--
Hillary Israeli, VMD
Lafayette Hill/PA/USA/Earth
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is
too dark to read." --Groucho Marx

(Hillary Israeli) wrote:

In ,
Rosalie B. wrote:

*I have an overbite and the dentist told my folks that since I could
*chew braces would be purely cosmetic. So I didn't get braces.
*Dentists now tell me that since I don't chew with the front teeth that
*the gums don't get exercised as much and therefore I am prone to
*periodontal problems.

Who here DOES chew with front teeth? Incisors aren't for chewing last I
checked...

I know - it seems weird to me too. That's just what I was told, or
what I remember of what I was told. In any case, I do have crooked
teeth so that it is hard to floss between some of them, although I do
chew OK. And I also am having to have periodontal work done, having
finally agreed to believe a dentist about it because I respect his
opinions (which isn't always the case).

*bite and I had to turn a little thing up next to her hard palette

Just for the record, it's "palate."

OK - knew it didn't look right.

grandma Rosalie

Orthodontia has really changed in the last few years. All three of my
kids inherited my tiny jaw and palate, and my DHs big teeth , and have
needed work - and unlike when I was a kid, the work gets done at a much
younger age than it used to. My oldest is 13 and he's done completely
other than wearing a retainer at night, which beats the heck out of
being 16 and self conscious and having braces. Our youngest is not yet
7 and she's got a palate expanding retainer to make more room and to
fix a cross bite. Its amazing how well those things work - all three
kids had a similar cross bite, and the retainer alone fixed it, plus
created much more room for the upper teeth.

We have an actual orthodontis, and she's really state of the art (she's
in practice with her dad). She could explain exactly what our
children's teeth and jaws would do as they grew (complete with xrays,
frontal and profile photos, diagrams showing the angles and pattern of
grown, where the teeth were, how they would come in, casts of the teeth
etc. etc. and what the options were to fix the problems which were
brewing. It was kind of cool, since she could show us what our kids
would look like as adults (i.e. there are set growth patterns you can
predict based on facial types, so they can tell what their profile will
be).

Our middle kid needed some extractions of baby teeth, but that was
because the adult teeth weren't coming in directly underneath them. The
adult teeth essentially dissolve the roots of the baby teeth to make
them fall out, so if they aren't coming in in the right spot, the baby
teeth won't fall out, and you can end up with a mess (i.e. adult tooth
ends up in a crooked spot). They pulled out the baby tooth to encourage
the adult tooth to end up in the right spot, and yes, it did help a
lot.

Sounds to me like you need an othodonist who can walk you through WHY
certain things are being proposed.

Younger IS better than older when it comes to this stuff, since there
are things you can do to improve things as they grow that you can't do
as adults. If they had had palate expanding retainers (which have to be
used when a kid is quite young), they could have permanently made more
room for my upper teeth and I wouldn't have needed extractions for
permanent teeth (and even so, my teeth are really packed together).

We're very glad we were able to do it when kids were young, since it
was easier to do, and certainly less embarrassing and expensive than
doing it as teens (when trying to achieve the same effect would have
been much more difficult and costly).

Mary G.

It's rare these days for an orthodontist to recommend pulling teeth
out. Although it may uncrowd the jow temporarily, eventually the jaw
grows and you need those "extra" teeth in place.

I'd get a second opinion, and don't rush into matters.

I'll second that. When I was about 15, my orthodontist pulled some
permanent teeth to "make room". Then some of the permanent teeth that
should have replaced baby teeth never showed up (there was a family
history of this). My current dentist tells me that the roots aren't
going to last.

--
My real e-mail address is *aamci* *at* *optonline* *dot* *net*

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:07:59 EST, Scott
wrote:


DS has a pronounced overbite. We joke that he got my skull
and my wife's jaw, and they don't fit. So we've always known
that orthodontia is in our future with him. Monday he had
a consult at the dentist (who wierded the BH out -- so we'll
be getting a second opinion and any work done will be done
by someone else in town, but that's another thread on
following intuition), and he recommended work starting
immediately, including pulling two teeth. And probably
a night brace, and who knows what else...

Well, that seems pretty extreme to both of us, to do to
an almost-9-yo, and we have friends who had their son's
teeth (not all of them) pulled, and lived to regret it.

So I thought I'd ask people here who've had orthodontia
done on their kids -- what procedures did you have done,
at what age, are are there things they would have
done differently?

I had a weird shaped bite due to extended thumb sucking, the top teeth
on the right side of my mouth were pushed up and outwards. At 13 when
I had predominantly lost all my baby teeth I had braces put in. The
only teeth I had pulled were those baby teeth that hadn't fallen out
by themselves and already had adult teeth growing in behind them (from
memory there were 2 on one side and 3 on the other). The braces
stayed on for approx 14 months and then I was supposed to wear a plate
(I think you would call it a retainer, just a plastic piece that sits
in the palate with a metal band to go around the front of the teeth)
to stop the top teeth from shifting back out of place for about 6
months. It worked perfectly.


--
Cheryl
Mum to Shrimp (11 Mar 99), Thud (4 Oct 00)
and Mischief (30 Jul 02)

"Beth Kevles" wrote in message
...

It's rare these days for an orthodontist to recommend pulling teeth
out. Although it may uncrowd the jow temporarily, eventually the jaw
grows and you need those "extra" teeth in place.

I'd get a second opinion, and don't rush into matters.

As a kid, I had permanent teeth out, followed by braces. I still needed
my wisdom teeth out because there wasn't room for them to come it. At
age 36, it is still a pretty tight fit in my mouth.

I'd get the second opinion, but in my case taking the permanent teeth
out seems to have been a good thing.

Liz

Elizabeth King wrote:
"Beth Kevles" wrote in message
...


It's rare these days for an orthodontist to recommend pulling teeth
out. Although it may uncrowd the jow temporarily, eventually the jaw
grows and you need those "extra" teeth in place.

I'd get a second opinion, and don't rush into matters.


As a kid, I had permanent teeth out, followed by braces. I still needed
my wisdom teeth out because there wasn't room for them to come it. At
age 36, it is still a pretty tight fit in my mouth.

I'd get the second opinion, but in my case taking the permanent teeth
out seems to have been a good thing.

Liz



I THANK all of you for your words, they've been
comforting to read. I think our instinct to
wait and look elsewhere won't be harmful.

DD was just at the orthodontist today (7 AM!)-- she told
us THursday that one of her teeth broke off. It was
a baby molar that was filled, and had been loose, and you
could see part of a tooth where the tooth had been.

A trip to the dentist later, we learn that the tooth
just fell out and the one that's visible is the
permanent tooth DD was bummed 'cause it meant
she wouldn't miss any school.

The orthodontists also says DD needs braces, but that
he can't do anything for about 6 months with her
(she has 4 other loose teeth in addition to the
one that just fell out).

Scott DD 11 and DS 8+

In article ,
Elizabeth King wrote:



"Beth Kevles" wrote in message
...

It's rare these days for an orthodontist to recommend pulling teeth
out. Although it may uncrowd the jow temporarily, eventually the jaw
grows and you need those "extra" teeth in place.

I'd get a second opinion, and don't rush into matters.

As a kid, I had permanent teeth out, followed by braces. I still needed
my wisdom teeth out because there wasn't room for them to come it. At
age 36, it is still a pretty tight fit in my mouth.


Me too. In fact, my once orthodontically straightened bottom teeth are
now crooked again from the crowding.

My understanding is that palate-expanding approaches are now considered
a better solution to crowding than pulling out permanent teeth, but
I don't really "regret" having had them pulled.

--Robyn

I know that I am chiming in late here. If you trust your dentist,
getting a recommendation to an orthodontist from him/her is a good idea.
Another good resource is your child's friends.

My local dentist was a small town guy who didn't really see a need to do
referrals for anything. My parents didn't really care for dentists at
all. To make a long story short, I ended up with a pronounced overbite
that was complicated by my wisdom teeth (I think these are the 12 year
molars) coming in. The dentist said there was room, but those molars
put so much pressure on my upper and lower alignment, that one tooth
turned sideways, my eye teeth moved out of line and my front two teeth
overlapped. When I went to another dentist, he was appalled that the
dentist had not removed the molars in advance. He immediately scheduled
the removal of the molars and it helped a lot with mouth pain that I had
been having. The teeth relaxed somewhat, but there were still problems.
I was 18 by this time.

When I changed dentists, dentist number 3 recommended that I consult
with an orthodontist. He was concerned that my lower incisors were
erupting too high because of my overbite. The orthodontist that I saw
was very much like the one that Mary G described. At 21, he recommended
that we could do a cosmetic approach and just fix the alignment of the
upper teeth or we could take a overall approach and fix the bite and the
teeth. He did all of the molds and x-rays then sat down with us to
discuss them. He recommended getting started by straightening the teeth
out, then evaluating the need to pull teeth or adjust my lower jaw
later. After a year of straightening, he did the molds and math again
and recommended surgery. My overbite was 9 mm. I had orthognastic
surgery to extend my lower jaw at that point. This surgery is not as
common these days, but I had very good results with it. It has been
almost 10 years since the surgery. My teeth look quite nice and my pain
issues with chewing have been resolved.

I would not work with any orthodontist who cannot explain why they
suggest any approach or one who moves too fast toward any particular
solution without an explanation.

For anybody who has done braces before the last molars come in, you
might mention it at the next dental visit. It seems like it is becoming
more common to have second phase braces these days.

Karen G