As time goes by we have noticed an increasing number of young adults turning up at Winning Smiles with..
- crooked and crowded teeth (especially at the front)
- narrow upper or lower jaws
- one or more missing adult teeth (usually front incisors or canines)
- very unhappy with their smile
The cause
With all the problems we have seen above, the cause is an adult tooth (or teeth) that never grew down in to place during childhood.
The other teeth crowded around the space that was left, and whilst often there has been an attempt at correcting the problem with orthodontics, for whatever reason it didn’t work very well….
One other common factor is that again, some patients tell us that their dentist has told them nothing can be done – or if it could it would involve horrible and expensive surgery….
Does this sound like you? What to do about a missing incisor tooth?
Here’s the good news
At Winning Smiles we have been successfully treating these cases since the mid 90’s!
Though it is true to say that these cases are challenging – and involve both orthodontics (braces) and one short session with our surgical dentist – the results are very predictable and our patients invariably end up with exactly what they want
- nice straight teeth
- wider smile
- all their own teeth (no implants needed here – your own tooth pulled into the correct position is much better)
- very happy with their smile!
How does it work?
As always it starts with a free consultation to see if you are suitable for this sort of treatment – (most people with ‘trapped’ canines or incisors are)
We then need to utilise our 3D CT specialist dental CT scanner – this is the diagnostic tool we need to accurately visualise the position of the trapped tooth in the bone.
Once we know exactly where it is (to the nearest half millimetre) the surgery to uncover the tip of the tooth becomes easy and keyhole – the CT scan image shows where to go. Normally we can uncover the tip of the tooth within 40 minutes using the Dental Laser! We then bond a little hook onto the tip of the trapped tooth.
The best thing about using lasers instead of scalpels is the wounds heal up much faster and there is much less bleeding during the procedure – truly ‘minimally invasive’
At this stage the (very minor) surgery is all done.
The patient goes to see our friendly orthodontic team along the corridor and they will fit one of our discreet adult braces which attach to the little hook to pull the wayward tooth back down into its proper position.
The process normally takes from 12-18 months.
And the bonus? The same discreet brace is used to widen the smile, and get all those crooked/twisty teeth back into a nice straight line at the same time as pulling down that tooth no one ever thought could be reached!
We love these treatments because they showcase the best of what we can achieve at Winning Smiles with our friendly enthusiastic multi-disciplinary team backed up with state of the art technology!
We love our job.