Before	After
Front View
Side View
Top Arch
Bottom Arch

Which Teeth are Commonly Extracted For Braces?

A 12-year-old girl has crowded top teeth (Fig.1,3,5), while the bottom tooth alignment is not so bad.  Two of the top 1st bicuspids (Fig.3,5: #4) are extracted.  The canines (#3) are more important than #4, because the formers have the longest roots in the mouth, critical to our appearance.  The 2nd bicuspid (#5) are a little too back in the mouth, whereas the crowding is in the front.

Can we just take one of the 1st bicuspids to be conservative?  No.  By taking out one tooth, the top dental midline will deviate.

With good planning and execution, the top and bottom tooth alignment is good without dental midline deviation (Fig.2,4,6,8).  There is no gap between the teeth.  The top and bottom teeth lock into each other (Fig.4) so that the young patient can chew well.

For this case, the treatment takes 2 years to finish.

Return to Child Dental Care Before & After in Photos

Xin Wei, DDS, PhD, MS 1st edition 04/16/2017, last revision 05/13/2017