Can or should molar/premolar teeth be moved/realigned at age 50?

[Annie364]

I’m really unsure about if it’s possible to move misaligned teeth as an adult.

I am 50 and have one premolar on the top UL5 that pushes inwards, I guess it was always like that, I’m not sure. I’ve never had orthodontic work or braces as a child. This what is looks like:

upper hosted at ImgBB

Image upper in DF album

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There is a gap at UL7 where I’ll have an implant placed in a few months time. This made realise that once an implant is there, it's set in that position in the jaw, so if I wanted to move the other teeth near it (UL6 and UL5), they'll have nowhere to expand into as the titanium post is fixed. So it would be now or never if the tooth needed to be moved outwards and backwards, pushing UL6 backwards too. I don’t have a wisdom tooth at the UL8 site.

I was wondering if it can be possible and a good idea to move a tooth like this as an adult, for me at age 50? As if it carried on being squeezed inwards, the others might start getting out of alignment too. It would be good to have it straight, but I wouldn't want to try and force realignment if that then causes other problems, as I can eat on it OK.

I've been told my jawbone looks dense/strong on the scans. I'm guessing that maybe moving teeth past childhood is perhaps difficult and not a good idea, as the roots are set into a fully grown jawbone. But then I've heard that all the teeth shift forward in older adults, so wouldn't that mean they are moving around and they could/should be encouraged to move into better positions such as in my case getting this one tooth outwards/backwards in line with the others, before the titanium post goes in at UL7?

Many thanks.

 

[Gordon]

It's possible to move teeth orthodontically at any age. It happens a bit quicker during puberty as conveniently there are growth hormones kicking about which helps with the process.

If you're seriously considering this then see an orthodontist BEFORE placing the implant. You would need to create some space to move that premolar into, so placement of the implant may be affected.

 

[Annie364]

Thanks so much Gordon! That's really good to hear that it's still possible to move teeth, I will look into it before the implant.

 

[Gordon]

Good luck with it, I'd be interested to hear what an orthodontist thinks.

 

[Annie364]

Just updating on this, and I mentioned it in my other thread as well.

I asked my dentist about UR5 (and then LR5 but less important), who is not an orthodontist but gave me his opinion. After taking a look he said in my case it's a possible thing I can do if I want, but it would take extensive work and be quite difficult. It would be around 2 years of wearing the orthdontist materials to move it, & it's possible the ortho would say he can't do it.

I asked if they will move more in the future, and he said he didn't think they were really likely to, or if they did it would be very gradual so we could address it if it happens.

So overall I think I'd prefer to leave them as-is, as UR5 is just a bit recessed when I smile and I'm OK with that vs 2 years of the orthodontic work & then keeping them in place after, plus function-wise they are fine.

I'm glad to have have had it looked at and thought it through.

Thank you Gordon!