Eye tooth extraction for Invisalign

[straight_teeth]

Hi everyone

I had braced for 2 years when I was young. After treatment, over the process of immigrating to another country my retainers were lost and by the time the new ones arrived my teeth had shifted. To my regret I never saw anyone about this and now they are all skew again.

At the age of 23 now I am in college and very social so it is very hard for me to consider getting braces. I saw an orthodontist regarding Invisalign, who assured me it would be fine but I would need an eye tooth extraction, so I entered into the contract.

On the visit to get the tooth extracted, the dentist urged me from the bottom of his heart not to have an eye tooth removed because of complications and the potential change in ones face. He urged me to bite the bullet and get the braces - something I was going to ponder over and who knows what I would have decided. He said he talked to the orthodontist and it was all cleared up. I made a big mistake here by not contacting the orthodontist as now I can't get our the contract. The good thing is now I have to get braces or Invisalign with the tooth extraction due to the financial commitment.

So yeah, does anyone else share the dentist's view on the tooth extraction?

[Zoso]

An eye tooth? The canine? The pointy one, third from the centre? If so, it's generally a bad idea to remove that tooth.

Or did you mean a premolar tooth (also known as bicuspids) - the fourth and fifth teeth from the centre? In this case, it is sometimes a bad idea to extract, and on the other hand sometimes it is a great idea and really the only way to get good orthodontic result - it all depends on the case.

Something else you should know is that closing extraction gaps is sometimes a problem with Invisalign - instead of the whole tooth moving across into the gap, the crown (the top) of the tooth just tips (leans) across into the gap. Something to be aware of.

[straight_teeth]

yes the eye/canine - it's the third tooth on the bottom right. basically the 2nd and 4th are pretty much touching (the canine is pushed way out).

I understand it can cause problems but please consider my situation as well.

[Zoso]

If you've not already had the teeth out, but you are truly stuck in a contract with this one orthodontist, I'd urge you to explore with him other possible treatment plans, or at least get some good information on why he wants to pull canines, since this is quite an unusual option.

Edited to add: and were I you, I'd at least seek a second opinion.

[myhollywoodsmile]

Honestly, forget about the contract for one moment and seek a second (and if it were me, a third) opinion. In the meantime tell the original orthodontist that you need a little time before you start treatment to decide what to do. Look on the Invisalign website, for the most experienced providers in your area that are orthodontists. I believe the most experienced ones are called platinum elite providers now, but check the Invisalign website to be sure.

Next, did the original ortho tell you why he wanted to pull out this tooth? If not I think you should call him and ask, as it does seem unusual. Take this information with you when you get other opinions and see what the other orthodontists say.

Lastly, I am not a lawyer, but are you sure that you can't get out of this contract? I think that once you have had your other opinions, (and if you can, get them in writing, especially why they don't think you should pull the eye tooth if that is their opinion) take them back to the original ortho. Explain that you signed the contract in the belief that you would have to have the tooth pulled and then get Invisalign. As other dentists have given the opinion that this is not appropriate you do not want to follow through with the contract. I think someone reasonable would let you out of this, but as I said I am not a lawyer. The fact is that you haven't started treatment, so they haven't done any real work yet.

The thing that puzzles me is that you say that your teeth used to be straight but have relapsed. If they used to be straight with all your teeth there, then why would you need to remove a tooth to make room now? That seems very odd to me, and is the reason that I really would be taking some other opinons.

[abercrombie_boi]

I just got all 4 of my premolars extracted the 27th and started
Invisalign today! The dentist who did the extraction said
he was used to seeing the premolar extractions for many
orthodontic treatments. They put tooth colored stuff in the
tray where my tooth used to be and u seriously cannot tell
there isnt a tooth there, it's very cool!
However, if you do get an extraction, be ready with some kind of
painkiller. They gave me 500 mg Loritab that I have been living on!
It is VERY painful to get the extractions and today when I started my
treatment I almost had him take them off for good because they hurt soo
soooo bad. I did not eat today and left them in because I am afraid to take them
out. I did take my aligners out tonite to clean them and it was a little easier
to remove them than earlier, but still very painful. So anyway,
be ready for the pain but if you have extreme crowding then it is
a great way to take care of that and assure the best results!

[straight_teeth]

hi all

so i got a 2nd opinion from an oral surgeon and the bottom line is i have a lot of over crowding in my bottom teeth and regardless of whether i get braces/invisalign, a tooth needs to be removed.

he did not think that removing the canine would cause life long complications other than from an aesthetic point of view.

like the poster above said, it is more common to have the premolar removed and he is going to write a note to the orthodontist.

i am going to talk to the orthodontist and see if he can change the plan and have the premolars removed and then make the decision.

the bottom line is i am feeling a lot better about this

[MCOMarkhamOrthodontist]

An eye tooth? The canine? The pointy one, third from the centre? If so, it's generally a bad idea to remove that tooth.

Or did you mean a premolar tooth (also known as bicuspids) - the fourth and fifth teeth from the centre? In this case, it is sometimes a bad idea to extract, and on the other hand sometimes it is a great idea and really the only way to get good orthodontic result - it all depends on the case.

Something else you should know is that closing extraction gaps is sometimes a problem with Invisalign - instead of the whole tooth moving across into the gap, the crown (the top) of the tooth just tips (leans) across into the gap. Something to be aware of.

Generally, orthodontists do not want to extract canines, but like all else, there is always some indication to perform certain extractions under certain situations.

My best guess is that you told the orthodontist that you did not want braces. You were either going to do nothing, or get Invisalign. Using Invisalign, the only way to correct your crowding was to exo this canine. Other possible extractions using fixed braces should have been another of your various treatment options.

Tipping of the crowns used to be part and parcel with aligners. However, greater research has been performed and shown that we can indeed move roots with Invisalign. There have been many successful treatments involving extraction cases. Proper timing, movements, and attachments are of paramount importance to achieve proper translation movement and root parallelism.

[Punkin]

hi all

so i got a 2nd opinion from an oral surgeon and the bottom line is i have a lot of over crowding in my bottom teeth and regardless of whether i get braces/invisalign, a tooth needs to be removed.

he did not think that removing the canine would cause life long complications other than from an aesthetic point of view.

like the poster above said, it is more common to have the premolar removed and he is going to write a note to the orthodontist.

i am going to talk to the orthodontist and see if he can change the plan and have the premolars removed and then make the decision.

the bottom line is i am feeling a lot better about this

I had severe crowding in the same spot, with the canines almost completely in front of the other teeth, on the bottom arch. Check my first picture in this thread. I had all four first premolars removed, everything is moving nicely into those spaces (there is a picture later in that same thread).

I wouldn't have wanted the canines to be removed, especially since they would have had to remove all four (my ortho said that in order to keep things even, they have to remove tops and bottoms of the same teeth). I was concerned with people being able to see that I had teeth removed, but with the premolars, unless you were staring at my open mouth you couldn't tell. Someone mentioned tooth coloring on the aligner, I hadn't thought about that, but that would probably work. Of course, it was also really cool being able to watch that spot on the aligner where the tooth used to be shrink, and eventually disappear.

Sorry, I seem to have rambled a bit, just wanted to offer my experience for you.