I am sixteen years old and still have baby canine teeth on my top and bottom. Last year, I had the two bottom teeth taken out. For one of the canines, there was an adult tooth growing behind it. Over the last year, it has moved sort of into the right place. The other one did not have an adult tooth behind it so I am stuck with this empty spot. I still have the two baby canine teeth at the top. I don’t want empty spaces in those the way I did with my bottom teeth. Could I take those out and get dental implants so that I have teeth by the time I take my senior pictures?
Camilla
Dear Camilla,
One of my questions before going into the solution is why are you having to handle this? Where is your dentist? Your parents? Don’t get me wrong, you are very mature and I am quite impressed at the fact that you are trying to take this on. Your dentist, however, should have dealt with this years ago. Dentists are instructed in exactly what to do in situations like yours.
The first thing you need is a good set of x-rays to see if you have adult canine teeth under there. If you do, dental implants will not be a good solution for you because there won’t be any place to put the implants. If it looks like they can erupt into the correct position, then making a surgical incision into the tissue will help them to erupt properly. Sometimes, they are not in a good position, though. In that case, you will need an orthodontist to help you. The canine tooth is an anchor tooth and very important. If there is too much crowding it would be better to remove a premolar to make room.
Now, let’s say that there are not any teeth to deal with. You will not want to get dental implants right away. Your jaw is still growing. While dental implants are the best tooth replacement, you will have to wait until your jaw is fully developed for them to function properly. In the meantime, you can have your baby canine teeth extracted and have a temporary tooth replacement, such as dental flippers placed, and you will look beautiful for your senior pictures.
This blog is brought to you by East Cobb Dentist Dr. Cristi Cheek.