Braces - pull teeth or expand?

[delilah]

I have been through just about every orthodonic/dental situation with my DD13 and myself. She had a very narrow jaw. She had the expander before they applied the braces, so they cemented the expander onto her molars. I had to turn the appliance every night for a few weeks with the "key". She never complained about any pain. The only thing that bothered her was trying to learn how to talk & eat with it in the beginning. After about 2 weeks, she had it mastered.

My son just finished with the expander. He now wears it to maintain the teeth in position, like a retainer after braces. Our experience was musch the same as Cinderellagrl's. He never had any pain. He also had supernumary teeth, so he needed oral surgery to remove them, since they were keeping the permanent teeth from coming in. I wish I had had the supernumary teeth removed earlier, since, apparently they can damage the permanent teeth. Personally, I agree totally with the philosophy of not removing any permanent teeth. Complications can result from any medical or surgical procedure, but, I would much rather start out life with all my natural teeth in good position, so 40 years or so down the road, I don't need to have dentures.

 

[mickeyfan2]

The palete expanders change the facial features. The ones I know all looked better after. They got more pronounced cheeks and the top of the mouth was more in proportion to the bottom jaw.

 

[mickeyfan2]

i'd like to know too!

i am 26. i had braces when i was in middle school and had 2 teeth pulled in preparation. i haven't had any negative affects and i don't have any gaps in my teeth.

i think braces are a total rip off though, since my teeth have moved right back to where they started (overbite). my ortho told me i didn't have to continue wearing my retainer after the first year. guess he was wrong. same thing happened to my sister.

Actually my orthodontist told me to watch when I was in my early 20s. Your mouth changes for the last time in your early 20s and teeth that have been moved can move back. I was told to wear my retainer off and on forever. BTW I am now 44 and the one tooth that always gives me touble has move, so back to my retained, but only at night.

 

[FINFAN]

One question I would have for your ortho is, to also consider your childs size as an adult...they will grow, facial structure will change and sometimes nature does step in. I know there is no crytal ball to help here, but I look at my DH who is 6'3", and his mouth etc., DS is small, and does have major overcrowding, but I can tell he will "widen out" so to say..and then if he had also been missing 4-6 permanent teeth...just odd. I guess I am one who figures, they are permanent...we are to hold onto them...with all the stuff being done today to help us keep our teeth, if there are alternate methods to pulling them, I would try htose forst. If not having any effect, then I guess extraction must be looked into.


Pam

 

[polly p]

old school orthodontics pulled teeth, today a good orthodontist/dentist will try not to extract teeth. If you go for an ortho consult and are unsure, always go for a 2nd or 3rd opinion. Trust you gut. Today's ortho tx starts much younger and works with yours child's growth and development to give them a much more stable end result.

 

[TxJasmine]

It's kind of funny that this old thread got resurrected today, because I'm the OP and my kids are going to the ortho on Monday to have their expanders removed!

I decided not to have teeth pulled on my DD, so both my kids got expanders which they've had now for almost a year. It's really amazing how fast it worked. Both kids had major crowding, so there was no room for the permanent teeth. Now, they have gaps in their teeth, and the permanent teeth are starting to fill in the gaps. I'm very pleased with how everything worked out. The only thing I didn't realize, is that when they get their expanders off, they will get another appliance attached to hold their teeth in place. They'll be wearing this for several years!

 

[AMcaptured]

I would not recommend having permanent teeth removed. It is very common for baby teeth that don't want to fall out to be removed at the beginning of orthodontia but think twice before you allow anyone to pull perfectly fine teeth.

It is an old school, new school belief and "modern" ortho believes that removing adult teeth is only to be done as a LAST option.

Good Luck!!

 

[GJM]

Haven't read all the responses, but when I was a kid I had 2 teeth pulled before my braces, I have had no problems at all - no spaces between my teeth.

My nieces just got braces about a year ago and had the expander - it just seems so horrible to go thru. When I had my teeth pulled it hurt maybe for a day. If I had a choice I would rather have my tooth pulled -

 

[chris1gill]

Well, our orthodontist has sent DD for six pulled teeth so far, with more to come. So there is no reluctance around here.

I ended up with 12 pulled, four permanent. Small mouths, regular sized teeth -- something has got to give.

If pulling will forego braces, yank 'em. A couple of days, a milkshake for dinner the first night, and you're done.

My son had this done 14 months ago... same thing. 12 pulled, four permanent. There was NO room for them, absolutely no room at all. There was no doubt it had to be done... Poor kid has the smallest mouth ever I think.

If you have any question what should be done, get a second opinion IMHO...

 

[LisaNJ25]

I took my 13yo to the orthodontist 2 days ago for his consult.

he has to have a pallette expander on the top. After that is off he will still need 4 teeth pulled. 2 top 2 bottom.. the expander will stay on for 4 months. Than the teeth come out and than braces.

 

[dizagain]

We are going through this with DD10. She had the expander/braces a few years ago and now we're having a different type of appliance ( a T-Rex?) put in that will pull her molars back. We are on our second orthodontist due to a move and this one agrees that the first one did the right thing with the expander and it did its job. There will now be room for the molars to slide back to give room for her eye teeth to come down from her gums. Both orthodontists were totally against pulling teeth unless absolutely necessary. Now her teeth will be in the right places and she can have braces to straighten other problems in a few years AFTER older sis had hers paid for.

Anyway - it's crazy expensive, but I feel comfortable with our plan. I did have four permanent teeth pulled before my own braces as a kid and my teeth are still fairly straight.

 

[mtorto1]

I'm 30 and had top of the line orthodontist treatments when I was in middle school. I have a very narrow jaw and larger teeth so I my ortho pulled 4 of my ADULT bicuspids (and later my wisdom teeth)... At the time palate expansion was still new....

the result... A perfectly shaped smile and bite , but its very narrow. I never was happy with the end result. It seems that my friends who had palate expanders at that age, now have a beautiful wide smile. I find that so much more attractive than my tiny mouth. I hate pictures of myself because my mouth seems to curve inward.

Perhaps I am just vain, but i want to look like those models that have wide beautiful smiles. I'm NOT talking about Julia Roberts wide, but still wider than what i have.

any thoughts....

 

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[mjkacmom]

My poor son had TEN TEETH PULLED this past Monday... the poor kid. Four were permanent & six were babies. The top braces have gone on but need to be wired... we have to wait for the bottom braces because of his overbite they need to fix

If you have a small mouth, you've got no choice other than to pull them... our DS has a tiny mouth with regular size teeth... seems genetic!

They didn't use expanders? Three of my kids had them, my nephew is getting them for the second time. Dd13 is now ready for braces, just for fine tuning. The expanders made a huge difference, her mouth went from a train wreck to almost perfect.

I had 8 permanent teeth pulled, they know better now. Our orthodontist doesn't even like to pull baby teeth, but ds13 had to have a couple pulled anyway. His mouth is small, his teeth are big, I think he is going to be like ds18 and be in braces forever (heading off to college in them, orthodontist is such a perfectionist, dd19 still goes for check ups). Around $6300 a kid, well worth it.

 

[VandVsmama]

deleted since I accidentally replied to a resurrected zombie thread from 11 yr ago. :-D

 

[kidshop]

Thank you all so much for your responses - it's really good to hear about your experiences! We're still undecided about which way we want to go, but I think we're leaning toward the expander. The main reason for this - and it's not a good reason - is that I don't like the idea of removing two perfectly good teeth. We did go to two different orthos to see if we would get two different opinions. Both of them pretty much recommended the same work on each kid. The only difference was that ortho #2 gave the option of expanding or removing. He also said that he wasn't as agressive as some other orthos with the expansion and that the key only needs to be turned twice a week. Ortho #1 wanted to turn the key every day. We decided to go with ortho #2 because we felt he was more thorough with his examination, and I liked the fact that he gave us some different options. Both of my kids are so excited about getting braces, but the poor kids have no idea what kind of pain they're in for!

I think the slow approach on the expender is the best. We do every other day to correct a crossbite (I think 4-6 months total) and dd doesn't feel anything! it is no issue at all, twice a week you won"t have any problem. I'm not sure why some orthos are 'crank crazy' but I am not comfortable with that at all. My ds will get his expander next week, he doesn't have a crossbite, but a narow palate and overbite.

 

[holycow]

I have 4 children 3 of which had braces. My oldest son had 4 teeth pulled and I wish to heaven I hadn't done it! I wish the Ortho would have opted out to expand his mouth! He's 28 now.