Wisdom teeth/braces

[Gardenarian]

The orthodontist just told us that dd (13) will need to have her wisdom teeth extracted to go onto the next step of her braces. I find the idea terrifying! At 13 the teeth are still deeply buried and extraction would be a pretty big deal.

I know she absolutely needs braces - when we first took her to the orthodontist she couldn't close her mouth and her lower teeth were starting to dig into the roof of her mouth - a real mess. But they have improved greatly after 18 months of braces and an additional 2 years with retainer.

Does anyone have any experience with this? The thing with braces is, you never know - maybe the teeth would have corrected themselves. And maybe we can put this off for a few years??

DD has ridiculously good health - no fillings, never gets sick, full of energy. I hate the idea of subjecting her to some horrendous medical procedure that may not even be necessary.

Has anyone been through this? How do I reach a decision??

Thank you so much.

[creaker]

I had very crowded teeth which required 4 teeth removed (I was around 12?) to make room for everything else - and then after my braces had been removed, found out all 4 wisdom teeth were impacted and had to be removed when I was 16, since the impacted teeth were shifting my other teeth and messing up what the braces accomplished. And they'd have to come out eventually, anyway. Sounds like a lot of teeth to remove, but I just did not have the room for them. No way it would have corrected itself.

13 sounds young, though, did they say why? Braces have changed a lot over the past 40 years, maybe it's more common.

[Tussiemussies]

I had a retainer to pull my teeth in and did have a gap in front and the teeth protruded out. I guess I was in my early 30's when my wisdom teeth grew in, my teeth did protrude out again and some on the bottom now stick out when they never did. I won't have them out though, the gap between my front teeth never came back, so they did not return to their original state.Maybe you can ask the Dr. If she stays on the retainer until she is a little older because you feel more comfortable with that, would it suffice?

[treehugger]

I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed when I was 15. They were all impacted (not showing) and had to be broken into pieces to be removed, and there was simply no room for them to come in. I have a small mouth (really, I do; don't ask my husband ;)). This was after I had braces (which I had from about age 12 to age 14). Anyway, it was a somewhat painful recovery, but necessary, and I am glad I had it done before those teeth came in and caused real problems.

You seem to be stuck on the thought that this is a "horrendous medical procedure" when it's just oral surgery like other oral surgeries (that is, removing teeth). Maybe getting a second opinion and doing some more research about what is involved in tooth removal will help you think about this more calmly.

Good luck, with whatever you decide.

Kara

[try2bfrugal]

I had very crowded teeth which required 4 teeth removed (I was around 12?) to make room for everything else - and then after my braces had been removed, found out all 4 wisdom teeth were impacted and had to be removed when I was 16, since the impacted teeth were shifting my other teeth and messing up what the braces accomplished. And they'd have to come out eventually, anyway. Sounds like a lot of teeth to remove, but I just did not have the room for them. No way it would have corrected itself.

We had to make the same decision with our kids. One has really straight teeth after braces and opted not to have his wisdom teeth removed. The other had impacted teeth crowding out his other teeth, his bite was still off after braces with an apparently less than stellar orthodontist, and it even caused a chipped tooth in front. So we actually had to go through braces again in the late teens to correct how the first orthodontist left the bite.

We decided to get multiple opinions on the extractions, found an oral surgeon with many years of experience, the orthodontist highly recommended him and we felt really comfortable with after talking to him. The first oral surgeon we talked to I wouldn't have trusted to clip a hang nail. Because of some other medical conditions I asked to have the teeth removal done at the hospital with an anesthesiologist present. The surgeon got pre-approval from the insurance company and everything went fine.

I do think teeth removal is too automatic these days and in some cases just a money making procedure so it pays to be cautious. The mortality rates from wisdom teeth removal are not zero so it is not something I would not do without a very good reason. However, I did check into things and it seemed like many of the deaths and poor outcomes were related to one of two things: 1) excessive bleeding after surgery; or 2) bad reaction to the anesthesia. A week before the surgery I took my son in for a complete physical with his regular MD and had all sorts of blood work done including liver function and clotting times, so that ruled out most of the bleeding and anesthesia detoxification issues that seemed to have caused most of the poor surgery outcomes I had read about in other patients.

[Dhiana]

13 is plenty old enough to have a say in the direction of her treatment.

What are her concerns? What does she hope to gain from all the work done? Are those hopes realistic?

She may surprise you with her insight into this treatment. She may already have friends who have gone through some of this already.
Ask her what she would like to do :)

[boss mare]

I have been in the dental field for over 20 years... Having wisdom teeth extracted for orthodontics is very very common as having then out at earlier ages is becoming more common.. it is easier at a younger age is the tooth has yet to become as " formed" as makes removal alot easier...

[catherine]

I'm a strong believer in orthodontia.. I had braces from the time I was 13 (way back in 1965) and I also required extractions, and my daughter's teeth came in such a mess that she also spent many years in braces.

If you don't get the teeth out, there will be no space for the crowded teeth to settle back into. I would listen to your orthodontist. They know what is required to achieve a proper bite. A lot of people think orthodontia is just about looking nice with straight teeth, but a good bite is critical to overall dental health. You'll have less decay overall if you are biting properly.

When I was in the position to decide for my daughter about getting extractions, I didn't hesitate. And I have no recollection of trauma at all from my own extractions when I was your daughter's age.

[Gardenarian]

Thank you all for your feedback - very helpful!

I think I am over-reacting to this news as I have had a lot of medical problems this year and the thing that held me together was thinking "well at least dd is well and happy." So when I heard this I felt like somehow she had fallen under the same bad-luck spell that I feel has got me.

We are going to speak to her regular dentist, whom I entirely trust, and have a consultation with the oral surgeon. After that I'll have some more information to work with.

As for how dd feels: she can't continue with braces until she has the teeth removed, and she would like this all to be over with ASAP. She hates medical stuff but even more hates the anxiety of waiting for it. So she just wants to go with it.

One of my main concerns is that the surgeon advises general anesthesia. Try2bfrugal, I will definitely have her checked out by her physician (who is also a naturopath) before the surgery.

At this point, it looks like she will have the surgery done. Now to decide whether it's worth the trauma of having local to avoid the dangers of having a general anesthesia.

I had to make that decision for myself last month; it was not easy and I'm still not sure I made the right choice.

:confused:

[boss mare]

There are other ways of having this done, not with just GA ... Nitrous Oxide, taking an anti anxiety drugs ( Valium etc) or a combination... I worked at a non-profit childern dental clinic and "Happy Pills" and "Strawberry Air" ( Nitrous Oxide that had a scented mask) were very much used . In cases where the there was rampant caries, the child too young or was not going to going to be able to handle the treatment due to behavior they were able to go to the hospital and be put under GA and got all of the work done at one time with no lingering trauma or memory

[sweetana3]

I had one bad experience with one wisdom tooth (army dentist) but the other three came out with just regular numbing and I felt nothing but a pull. GA is so much more expensive too.

It all depends on what the Xrays show of the size and placement of the wisdom teeth. I bet with all they have in regular dentist offices (and the fact they can work on my panic attack husband), they should be able to do without GA.