Do DC really need teeth removed for braces?

[Iydrd]

does this not seem excessive? My DH had some teeth removed when he had braces and now he has gaps. dD due to have teeth removed for train tracks to be fitted on NHS. But when I got frustrated with the long wait I got a quote from
Invisalign and they didn’t need to remove
teeth even though she was a severe case. Can Invisalign really do a proper job or should I just suck it up and let her have teeth removed? She has a small jaw and an overbite. I’m just scared to allow the teeth removal to go ahead!

My dd had two teeth removed as did I when I was a teen, we have small mouths though and definitely no gaps. DDs teeth look amazing now.

Same here. Thankfully i have no gaps.
My daughter is 10 and has overcrowding but as other PP’s i don’t really want her having any teeth pulled out. Is there something i should investigate instead?

This has all been incredibly helpful- thank you all so much for your replies. I’m genuinely really grateful.

What’s interesting is that DH has a massive head but DD takes after me with a narrow face. So DH clearly didn’t need the removal for the overbite correction and it was just the 1980s standard. Sounds like things have moved on a bit and they will be looking at options, but it’s going to feel good to have the second opinion tomorrow as well. Thanks to you all!

In the 2000s the more common approach was teeth removal before braces. I think this approach is now outdated and they try to keep as many healthy teeth as possible. It would depend on your daughter's age as well as they can only expand the palate for younger children. I would definitely ask for a second opinion.

I didn't have teeth removed before having braces (early 90s) but then my wisdom teeth had nowhere to go and were impacted and I had to have all of them removed under GA. I always wondered if they'd removed some teeth rather than just moving mine about (and moving them back in my mouth to make space to bring my canines into line) if I'd then have avoided the subsequent surgery?

Same. I’ve got a gap like a witch which is widening. 4 lovely healthy teeth removed when I was 12

Sometimes, yes. It’s not done lightly because it often means a general anaesthetic

How old is your daughter? We had two teeth removed and it was distressing for us all, but went privately for braces and two years later her teeth are perfect. I don’t know if it’s necessary but there must be a reason Invisalign say they don’t need to.

Look into interceptive orthodontics. You’ll have to go private and it will depend how far through she is with gaining adult teeth, but my two started treatment at 9 and 11 respectively so worth exploring.

I think it's lazy dentistry to remove teeth.
My son has a lot of teeth. 4 years of braces after a mouth piece and all his teeth are perfect.
I wouldn't be removing healthy teeth if it can be avoided.

Thank you!! I’ll take a look.

Is the palate expansion with an NHS dentist? I think my children need it.

My daughter had hers done privately. No teeth out. She did have an nhs consult - wanted to take out 6 teeth. Best £5.5k I’ve spent 🙄 (well not really, but her teeth look fab now and she still has all of them). Orthodontist said they do everything they can to avoid pulling teeth but it’s often the first thing an nhs orthodontist will do. It’s lazy dentistry in my opinion but I guess it can come down to cost. We are fortunate we could afford it privately, it makes me so cross nhs treatment isn’t equal. If teeth don’t need to be removed they shouldn’t be.

You need to ask a different dentist rather than asking on here. I had two teeth extracted for an overcrowded mouth but no braces.
Separately and as an adult, I was told by a dentist that Invisalign is less long-lasting than train tracks.
If you are getting the work done on the NHS your daughter’s problem must be reasonably severe, since many people don’t qualify. It is costing me £4500 per child for my daughters…

No, private. Their NHS dentist referred them privately.

When I was 11 I had teeth removed from my upper jaw and braces fitted but nothing was done with my lower jaw. My teeth were overcrowded. When my wisdom teeth came through the upper jaw was fine, there was room for them but the lower jaw was a problem. I ended up with the wisdom teeth being impacted and having teeth removed at the hospital. Now my teeth don’t align correctly which could have been easily avoided if they had removed teeth from the overcrowded lower jaw. Dentists I have seen over the years have been amazed this wasn’t done.
please think about the room needed for wisdom teeth in years to come

My dd had nhs treatment with fixed metal braces. There was a choice of whether to extract 4 teeth or not. Our own personal dentist said it was better to keep the teeth. The orthodontist said the treatment would last less long with the extraction.
Apparently in America, so I was told they never do extractions thus we decided against the extraction as I thought a better look would be achieved; as an earlier poster said, a wider smile looks better. I can report, we were very pleased with the end result and so I would recommend no extractions.
My dd still has to wear a retainer nightly and at age 27 had to have wisdom teeth removed but this wasn't a problem.
I myself used to have braces and had 4 teeth removed and without wearing a nightly retainer they have since become more crowded at the bottom.

Hence I would say the key to maintaining a good result is wearing a nightly retainer for the rest of your life.

My daughter (now 34) had standard NHS straightening, but is now paying for Invisalign to correct movement which occurred later.
My son had truly awful teeth (mainly due to compulsive thumb-sucking, which we tried & failed to correct) He also had a narrow jaw & a somewhat recessive chin.
We went for private palate expansion. It corrected everything, no teeth lost & his teeth have not moved at all. Well worth it. I think OP’s daughter may be too old as it has to be done before bones harden.
The process is also less uncomfortable for the child in comparison to standard braces

Dad had blocks to expand her jaw in year 5/6. Her overbite was about 10 mm.

At the end of year 10, she had her wisdom teeth out. A few months later, braces top and bottom. Six months later, she had her bottom jaw broken, realigned and brought forward. She had a bar implanted cross her bottom front teeth.

Mid year 12, she had her braces off. She has an Invisalign type retainer to wear for the rest of her life. She needs the retainer to keep her teeth in postition because while the teeth can be moved around with braces, the shape of the tooth socket doesn’t change and the teeth will always want to settle back.

All this work, apart from being cosmetic, will hopefully insure her against old age where the jaw will shrink and the gums will shrink resulting in her bottom teeth hitting her top gum and causing problems like ulcers.

As an aside, and I don’t recommend this as a normal solution, but dd found it almost impossible to swallow tablets. X-rays showed her throat space was very narrow. Post surgery, with her mandible brought forward, her eosophagus was able to open up (almost double in size) and tablets are now no problem.

Sorry, not in the UK.

My son had Invisalign at age 9 to avoid removing his teeth. The Invisalign helped expand his jaw as there were four baby teeth that never erupted.
My GP commented at the time that it was too early and he was told to wait for his sons to get older, but only last year his 14 year old twins had their teeth removed prior to braces.

The NHS approach is mad. You want to use functional appliances younger to expand the palate and align the jaws. They wait too long so the easiest option is to just yank healthy teeth. My eldest had a palate expander in the US and her teeth are now correctly aligned. It also shortened the amount of time she needed braces.

Invisalign is more limited in what it can correct than a fixed brace, but in this case I don’t think it’s the main issue.

My DD just had her NHS braces taken off, she didn’t have any teeth removed.
The orthodontist did mention we could get her teeth “a little more perfect” if we wanted by removing teeth but he didn’t think it was necessary (we didn’t either!) - so maybe something that’s orthodontist dependent

I think 14 will be too late for a palate expander. 3/4 of my children have had braces, my oldest needed a palate expander but she had it on about 11 years. 14 seems old for a girl to be getting braces in general, although presumably it depends on how quickly they’ve grown/matured.

I’m not saying braces won’t work at 14 years, though. Just that, in my experience, (daughters and their friends) most seem to have them coming off at 14, not just starting. Boys usually mature later so they go on later

I had the same although it was only upper teeth removed. Only issue now is the damaged enamel from
the cement has left ugly brown stains on my teeth that won’t come off.