9 year old DS with baby front tooth - any experience with orthodontic intervention

[miccoops]

Hi there,

My son is 9 and still has one baby front tooth, its the big central left one at the top. X Ray has revealed the adult tooth is there in the gum and there is no reason for it to be blocked. We have waited over a year for a hospital referral and finally had an appointment on Sunday. The Consultant fired a lot of information at me.. he essentially said they need to remove the baby tooth, attach a gold chain to the adult tooth to bring it down. He will also need a retainer brace.

Does anyone have experience of this? I have freaked myself out looking at the chain on google, and looks like it hangs down.. which will look very odd.

My son is very sensitive, suffers already with anxiety and low self esteem and I am really worrying myself about the impact of this. He is already very self conscious about the fact that he still has a baby tooth and teased a bit by kids because of it :-(

Any experience with this to help manage my expectations whilst I wait for our next appointment?

Thanks in advance.

My daughter had a similar consultation with a similar solution (alongside further complications) but since then, the teeth have done their thing and sorted themselves out (to an extent). She still needs interventions and will need braces, but she feels quite positive about it. These interventions are very common in the US which definitely influences DD (as she seems to think she is American!)

She was 9 also at initial consultation and the tooth in question erupted on its own so there is a chance this will happen for your son too.

My only experience is my own, where I don’t have the adult teeth to kickstart the process. So at 41 I still have two milk teeth. The dentist occasionally chucks some protective enamel type stuff on top.

Honestly I quite liked having them in my teens, it was one of those “I’m a special unique snowflake” things that was different, without being too different.

Can he bear to wait it out and see what happens?

Thanks for the replies. @stuntbubbles DS would definitely prefer to wait it out but the Consultant really advised against it and said that it was urgent now. The next appointment will be to take moulds for the brace so I am going to prepare some more questions now that I know what is in store for him

Presumably this procedure will be under GA, as the chain needs attaching to the unerupted tooth, which is probably covered in bone to some extent.
It usually only takes a couple of months for the chain to do its work and pull the unerupted tooth down, but ask the consultant for timelines.

The gold chain is usually very unobtrusive/ hardly noticeable.

@caecilius1 thank you.. yes under GA, waiting for appointment to come through

Get it done now, whilst braces are common as teens, there is a desire to get the work done as soon as possible with teenagers.

@Ducksurprise yes we’re not delaying.. just waiting for appointment. I’m feeling a bit calmer, it was a lot to take in and Google is NOT a helpful place to look.. I was more worrying about the chain hanging down than the braces..

No advice but solidarity as my 8 year old is currently on a waiting list to have part of his hip bone grafted into his gum and 4 baby teeth taken out. He will need extensive orthodontic work doing after that.