To feel a little unsure about teeth out for braces?

[KyieveMii]

Firstly, I’m no expert so open to correction- it’s just a concern I have.

DS, 11, has my narrow jaw and palette. His teeth are crooked and his front two protrude. Orthodontics are needed to enable him to close his mouth easily/ keep teeth clean.

However the NHS orthodontist suggested removing 4 teeth. He already has a noticeabley small jaw. I worry than removing teeth and retracting the remaining ones will make it even worse cosmetically and possibly on a practical level. I see lovely wide American smiles, whereas his will curve in from his canines into a very narrow smile. Also his tongue space will be tiny.

I also worry about doing this now, at 11, when he’s late to puberty. His older brother and father developed much wider jaws at around age 15. Will teeth be gappy? Not match the jaw line? I’m missing lateral incisors so although we have the same jaw shape I can’t really compare how it looks.

my last worry is I lost two teeth, it doesn’t really matter because other teeth have almost filled the gap. If he loses teeth now then loses adult teeth will this be a disadvantage?

has anyone been through similar and can you tell me how it worked out? The orthodontist and her manner didn’t fill me with good faith, hence asking.

I don't have any knowledge of the tooth removal issue. Like you, I was taken aback when the orthodontist mentioned it as a possibility for my daughter, but luckily it wasn't necessary after all and she just had a fixed brace.

But I will say that my daughter found orthodontic treatment difficult and somewhat painful, and in retrospect I'm glad it didn't happen when she was ten, which would have been possible and which I was pushing for - I wanted to get it over with. She was 12.5 when it started, and she needed that extra maturity. Cleaning round the braces properly is hard work. There were some foods she couldn't eat for years while she had the braces on. Every six weeks when they were tightened, it hurt for a few days. She felt rather overwhelmed for the first four months or so, and I don't know that she would have coped any younger. So you might want to consider putting it off for a while.

And along similar lines, I'd suggest trying to time it so that your son doesn't have too much else going on in his life when he first gets the braces. For example, IMO it could be a bad idea to do it just as he's starting secondary school, or moving house, or anything major like that.

I was in a similar situation at a similar age and had 4 teeth removed before having braces in about 2000 or 2001. My teeth and smile look "fine" now but I definitely notice a difference to other people's smiles. Mine is short.. is that the right word? My arch is quite narrow now and when I smile there's not much of my top teeth that show and there are gaps at the side of my mouth and sometimes in photos you can see my molars in the back of my mouth. My top teeth stayed straight but my bottom front teeth have moved a little and I looked into getting invisalign a few years ago. I got quotes from 3 different orthodontic dentists and they all said that my jaw is so narrow now that the invisalign might not work and that nowadays they don't remove teeth for braces like they used to.

It's definitely not the end of the world and I'm happy with what my teeth are like overall but I was left to feel like those teeth probably didn't need to be removed so now I wonder "what if.." 😥I gather there have just been changes and advancements in techniques in orthodontics and teeth removal is not as standard as it used to be.

I think you'd be very reasonable to get a second opinion 🙂