Braces at 30 - What happened at my private dental implants consultation?

Posted on 1:35pm Monday 21st May 2018

Last Wednesday I had my top brace taken off and then on Thursday I picked up a clear plastic Essix retainer which I have to wear full time for now.

My bottom brace is still on to close two more gaps and hopefully it will be removed in June.

Now I’ve had my top brace off I wanted to get the ball rolling with the next steps of my ‘braces at 30’ journey – the false teeth!

I went for a dental implant consultation and will share what happened in this blog post.

Choose an orthodontist and dentist in one place!

I decided to enquire about dental implants and had a consultation at a private dentist on Saturday.

My orthodontist’s surgery is just that – that is, they only do orthodontics, nothing else.

If I could start over I would probably choose somewhere that does that whole lot – braces, false teeth, the lot. That way I think the whole experience would be smoother and they can easily consult with each other.

My experience has been a bit broken up as I go to the dentist for one thing and the orthodontist in another town for another! It’s not very streamlined.

I never knew this though and at the start I asked my dentist and they referred me. I never thought about searching for somewhere that did the entire experience from start to finish in one place.

If you are thinking of getting a brace and will also need false teeth, then I’d recommend looking for somewhere that can do the lot. If it’s just to straighten teeth then a standalone orthodontist is just fine.

Implants instead of false teeth and veneers?

My original plan was to have a veneer over the peg tooth and a bridge with false tooth on the other side. I need false teeth for both my lateral incisors. But when my brace was removed, my peg tooth was wobbly!

Yikes!

This got me thinking that perhaps implants would be the better option on both sides. I should just have the peg tooth removed.

Implants are a lifetime option. If I have a veneer and bridge they will need replacing every 7-10 years, whereas an implant should last forever. It would just be like having my own teeth!

The other positive is I can then have a permanent retainer bonded to the back of the teeth. Something I can’t have with a veneer and bridge.

This means I can have the implants and bonded retainers and be done with the whole experience! I’d have my mouth back and wouldn’t need to even use the removable retainer again. It’s the ideal option.

Implant consultation

So I had a consultation with an implant specialist to see if I am suitable. I’m glad I went as he did an x-ray of my teeth and discovered why my peg tooth is wobbly.

It’s actually eating itself from the inside out, also known as internal resorption. My body is basically eating the minerals from the tooth and now it’s wobbly. It will definitely need to come out.

The peg tooth side (left side) is absolutely suitable for an implant. That’s great news.

But he’s not sure about the right side where I already have the entire tooth sized gap. Though the gap we can see for the tooth is the right size, the roots in the gums are not in line. They actually both bend towards each other leaving a much smaller gap for an artificial root to be placed. The implant is around 3.5mm and my gap is approx. 3.7-3.8mm. Eek!

If the implant touches the surrounding teeth then they can become damaged and have to come out too! Not ideal!

It’s very close so to get a better idea he took a CT scan (nice questionable dose of radiation there for me) and he’s going to properly investigate my images to see if it’s a possibility or not.

I’ll find out what he thinks today or tomorrow so I have all fingers crossed that he can do an implant for both teeth. Otherwise I’ll still have to have a bridge on one side and the removable retainer which isn’t the most perfect option.