Extraction of Impacted Canine anyone?

[bbke]

I read tons of stories about people who have their impacted canine exposed and go through braces but that doesn't look like an option for me as I'm almost 40 and teeth don't tend to move like that when you're creeping up in age.

I had the baby tooth removed about a year and a half ago and a bridge installed to replace the gap, but for about the past 4 weeks there's been a lot of pain in the impacted tooth, right next to my nose, causing all kinds of grief in my face.

I can live with pain if I know there aren't any ill effects from the tooth hanging around in there - but in the event that the surgeon says what I know he will say next week when I go in, has anyone here every had an impacted canine extracted? Can you give me an idea of the recovery? Is it gruesome? I refuse to watch the Youtube videos, but would still love some first hand knowledge about the procedure.

Thank you!

 

[MountainMama]

I haven't had an impacted canine removed, but I just wanted to offer support. I hope it goes well.

As a teen, I did have my lateral incisors on the top impacted in the roof of my mouth, and had to have oral surgery to expose them and bring them down with braces. It was a pretty big surgery, but I was only out of school about three days, and only took ibuprofen at the time. I have also had an extra impacted wisdom tooth removed this past summer, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be...quick recovery.

 

[Enarete]

Hi Bbke,

hope you get a reply from a dentist soon, but for now here is my two cents...

It's good to read that you refuse to watch YouTube videos, I haven't ever met a person with anxiety about dental procedures that would get calmer after watching that. So asking here is definitely a better option.
I have no experience with extractions of impacted canines, but know a lot of people who went through other, sometimes very complex surgeries and it all went well. Dentistry is really advanced these days and no matter what procedure you will get done, nothing should be gruesome. There are painkillers, there are instructions after surgery and it's also helpful if you stay in touch with your dentist / surgeon to know that you can give them a call if you have any questions or worries after the procedure or something doesn't feel right. It's also a good thing to think of what exactly worries you and make sure to talk about this with your surgeon. He should be able to tell you any details about the treatment and put you at ease. I am writing this over and over again in a lot of posts, but talking to the person who treats you is really important.

Last thing I believe is that living with pain is never a good option, so just talk to your surgeon/dentist and let him suggest options.

All the best wishes, keep us posted and hopefully you get a reply from a dentist soon

 

[Gordon]

The difficulty and likely post-op complications from the surgery will vary a bit depending on where the canine is lying, if it's on the outside of the arch or the palate side.

There's usually a bit more swelling from the outside arch but the surgery is a bit easier for the surgeon to do, the tooth is more accessible, but the tissues are a bit more delicate and "bruise" a bit more easily, so you can get more post-op swelling. On the palate side the tooth is less accessible but the tissues are tougher.

There can be ill effects from just leaving the tooth in place, but we don't need to worry about those for now.

I wouldn't say you're too old to have orthodontic treatment if you fancy it, I've seen 60 year olds have it done... but it really depends on where the tooth is lying if that's doable or not.

A wee back story, when I was a dental student, there was a whizzy new technique which involved extracting the canine as gently as possible, then drilling a suitably sized hole in the appropriate place in the dental arch and putting the canine into it... it was called transplantation and seemed to be a brilliant technique to save years of orthodontics.

Unfortunately the canines self destructed after about 2 years, the root just got eaten away like a baby tooth root. Nobody knows why it happened but the technique is no longer in use.