my daughter has been wearing a brace for two years
Q. Please can you give me some advice. My daughter, who will be 14 next month, has been wearing a brace (she calls a train track) for the past two years on her top teeth only. We went today to have a new retainer fitted. The brace was removed last month. At the beginning of her treatment, our orthodontist explained that he was going to fit a brace because her teeth were severely sticking out. The teeth affected were the second of her front four teeth (one on each side) and they protruded over her lip when she closed her mouth (like a vampire). However, the rest of her front teeth were still milk teeth apart from these front four. He said it was unusual for him to fit a brace to milk teeth but because my daughter was conscious of how her teeth looked he was happy for her to have the brace now. During out appointment today, our orthodontist seemed alarmed. He took an x-ray which revealed that my daughter has two teeth (one of which looked almost adult in size) growing horizontally towards each other in her gums above her front four teeth (one on each side). The orthodontist said these should have come down somewhere near the sides of her mouth (though I cannot see any room left where this teeth would have come down). He has asked us to come back tomorrow and said that we will need to see a consultant at a hospital. We are very worried. 1) Could this be due to the fact that the brace was fitted to milk teeth? 2) Should the orthodontist have picked this up earlier during our two years of treatment? 3) What should we expect to happen next? Thank you in advance for your advice.
A. The fact that your daughter has horizantally impacted teeth is probably nothing to with the braces. This is just they way they have formed. When you go to the hospital the consultant may try to expose the teeth and add brackets to them to move them down into the correct position. I am guessing that the teeth are the canines which are vital to the on going health of the functioning system. The hospital will do the best thing for your daughter and your orthodontist is doing the right thing by refereing her to the hospital. The teeth may have shown up x-rays that were previously taken but you have to ask your dentist to show you them so that you can look for yourself.If it had been picked up earlier, there was probably nothing that could be done at this age
I hope this helps
Kind regards
I hope this helps
Kind regards
I had that exact problem, at the hospital they attached two small gold chains to the two teeth in the gums and then attached these chains to the brace… every 6 weeks or so they put a different link of the chain attached to the brace – to gradually pull down the teeth in the gums. Well, one worked, and the other didn’t. One that worked is absolutely fine. One that didn’t then fused to jaw bone or something, had to have another operation to take it out and now I have to have an implant which sucks.
(I’ve had braces for 4 years now and I’m sure they’ve ruined my teeth completely – they put them on my bottom teeth and I’m sure I didn’t need them there for 4 years, they have weakened the roots of the top teeth – so now they can’t fix my bite which I’m conscious about and it’s just 4 years of ulcerated mouth, missing school and wasted time. So I would suggest you get your orthodontist to get a move on so that your daughter doesn’t have the same problem, 4 years really can’t be good for your teeth! And no one can tell me 4 years was necessary, it’s the result of having to wait longer than recommended between appointments and being passed on from orthodontist to orthodontists, as well as hospital waiting lists! Gah!)
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