Advantage of Extraction for Braces Next

When Gina is 12 years old, her front teeth are crooked.  Besides, two baby teeth (Fig.1 (X-ray) B) in the front of the 1st permanent molars (1) retain.  There is no permanent tooth underneath.  In the top jaw, there are two permanent teeth in the front of the 1st permanent molars (1), but one of them is off (red line). 

To make front tooth alignment easy with braces, four teeth are extracted (Fig.2 (illustration) black areas).  In addition, the molar teeth have room to move forward (arrows).

When the latter is done, the third molars (Fig.3 (illustration): 3; wisdom teeth) have room to move forward and erupt (red oblique arrows).

Two years 10 months later (as compared to Fig.1), four of the wisdom teeth show the possibility to come out normally (Fig.4 (updated X-ray).  If not, extraction will be much easier.  One year 3 months later (17 years old), one of the top wisdom teeth has erupted normally (Fig.5 arrow), while the opposing one is straighter (black line) than before (as compared to Fig.4).

Return to Kid Dental Care

Xin Wei, DDS, PhD, MS 1st edition 06/13/2015, last revision 09/17/2016