Impacted Canines
What are Impacted Canine Treatments?
When a tooth is impacted, this simply means that it is stuck underneath the gums and unable to fully emerge, or erupt, on its own. The most common teeth to be impacted are the wisdom teeth. However, it's not uncommon for the canines to have trouble coming through the gums. For this reason, we offer proper impacted tooth treatment to ensure that impacted canines come down properly as well as wisdom teeth are removed.
Why are Impacted Canine Treatments needed?
If left untreated, impacted Canines can eventually cause problems to your oral health. They may continually push against surrounding teeth, causing shifting and orthodontic problems. Likewise, the teeth themselves may become decayed and infected, causing a cyst or abscess to form. Removing impacted wisdom teeth and guiding impacted canines down into place will help to prevent these problems from happening.
Who is a candidate for Impacted Canine Treatments?
To determine if you might need treatment for impacted Canine, we will examine your mouth and take x-rays. These x-rays can help us to get an idea of which teeth are impacted and the best way to go about removing them or bonding a bracket in place for the orthodontist to guide them into place. If you have an impacted tooth, we will recommend having it treated as soon as possible to prevent future problems from developing. Treatment is ideal for patients of every age, and we'll go over your health and medical history to ensure you're healthy enough for oral surgery.
What happens during Impacted Canine Treatments?
We first administer a local or general anesthetic to make the procedure comfortable for you. If a wisdom tooth is impacted, we will make a small incision through the gums to gain access to the tooth itself. It's removed and sutures are placed to close the gums. If a canine is left impacted and is not coming down when it should (around age 13), we will use special wiring and brackets to help pull the canine down and into its proper position. It is important that you have a relative or friend bring you home from the procedure. Important aftercare instructions help in promoting quick and even healing.
If you think you might need impacted teeth treatment, contact us today and we will be happy to get you in for an appointment.