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#11
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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 |
#12
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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 |
#13
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#14
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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. |
#15
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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* |
#16
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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) |
#17
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"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 |
#18
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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+ |
#19
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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 |
#20
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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 |
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