Impacted canine treatment - experiences pls

[Mogandbrew]

We've just been told DD - almost 15 - has her adult canines lodged in her gums pointing at an angle, towards her front teeth.

It was a real shock. Her last dentist hadn't ever suggested we needed to keep an eye on them.

We are waiting on an appointment to discuss the treatment. But she's seeing social media videos where people have their baby canines removed and have to live with the gaps until the adult ones come through.

She's flat out against that - as an almost 15yo it's the worst thing she can think of. I'm a bit scared about the treatment too tbh.

Has anyone been through this? Were there gaps for ages? Could she just choose to not do anything?

Any experiences/advice would be greatly appreciated.

My daughter is receiving treatment for this at the moment. She was referred to the dental hospital January ‘23, had several appointments to take X-rays and moulds then a couple of options were set out. The orthodontist recommended an operation to uncover the buried teeth and metal chains were put on them to try to encourage them to grow down. She also had a wire in her mouth that the chains were attached to. This was November’23. It took a while to heal up but in the whole she said it wasn’t too bad. The baby teeth were removed in June then braces fitted in July. She only had visible gaps for 3 weeks. The braces are needed to help widen the gap for the adult teeth to fit into. All in all it’s quite a long process but for us it’s been reasonably straight forward.
We were given a few options but the orthodontist felt this was the best one in her case so we followed her lead. Your daughter may not need the operation if they think the teeth will grow down naturally.

Hi @Mogandbrew My DD is younger than yours, nearly 13, but also has an impacted canine tooth. Like pp, we also opted for the operation to expose the tooth (it's called 'expose and bond' if you want to Google that). It has been fairly straightforward so far, but the orthodontist has warned us that she will probably need to wear braces for 2 - 2.5 years.

Hope that helps.

My DD too. Discovered when she was 11 and the impacted teeth had actually absorbed the roots of her front teeth and the ones at either side of her fronts, leaving them hanging on by a thread essentially.

It was a devastating time for us. Due to start high-school and they were basically telling us her four front teeth were unsalvagable.

Her two's were the first to go and Dd had a plate moulded with false teeth on. She found it too uncomfortable and just braved her first year at high school with 'bunny teeth', she didn't get any shit for it thankfully.

A couple of months ago she was playing with the dog and he knocked one of her front teeth out. It was awful seeing the panic in her face. She had a little cry about it and then we contacted her dentist who had a new mould fitted with a front tooth.

So no we uses her plate with a front tooth in and her impacted canines have started growing where her twos should have been and when they're further out they will be trained out and when her jaw has fully developed she will have to have implants. Devastating really, I was shocked by the x-rays because like you, this was never flagged up at previous visits and we went frequently aside from covid times.

Our dental teams say just one of those things and couldn't be helped. DD handling it well tbh but I do worry about the impact of all the extensive work/orthodontics visits she'll have to have.

I wish this had been offered to me. Unfortunately I had a hopeless dentist who ignored them, leading to a cyst and jaw damage that I'm still having treatment for years later.

Get to the orthodontist, not least because it's on the NHS while they're kids!

Thanks all. These responses are so helpful. I knew Mumsnet would come through!

@Mumof278 sounds like a very similar situation with the op and the chains. It's helpful to know it's been straightforward (and the gaps weren't there for that long!)

@cloudcett - we've heard 2-2.5 years too. That takes her into sixth form, but at least lots more people have braces now (unlike when I was young!)

@TheLemonFatball and @Summerhillsquare I'm sorry things didn't go so well in your cases. Hope the treatments work out for you both.