Hello everyone!
Today, I will be sharing with you guys what has happened with my mouth from 2014 up until now.
I have some bad news. News that made my family and I cry.
If you are seriously considering orthodontic treatment, whether it's Invisalign or traditional braces,
I would highly recommend you to watch to the end.
Before I got my braces, there were some things I didn't know (risks associated).
You'll understand what I mean later on in the video.
Let's get started~
I have all the details on my phone so I'm just going to read it out.
From 2014 up until March 2015,
I see my orthodontist once a month.
Every time I see him, he simply tightens my wires
and continue to tug on the chain that is attached to my impacted tooth (tooth that is stuck in my gums).
In March, I only had 1 chain link left.
He told my that my tooth is moving, but it's moving really slowly.
In April and May, I took another x-ray.
He didn't say anything special about it.
When I look at the x-ray myself, I can see that my teeth moved a bit.
However, it's not a significant amount.
I remember at that time (May 2015), my face was really swollen.
Ever since I got braces, I would get an average of 5-6 canker sores.
I got used to it.
But I remember I had a canker sore so big that
I would want to cry every morning because it hurt so much.
Whenever I have more than 1 canker sore, I would have
swollen lymph nodes along my jawline.
If you get canker sores easily like me,
I would recommend salt water rinses every morning, afternoon and night.
Although you'll have tears running down your face (from it stinging), it really helps you heal faster.
Nothing special happened from May - July 2015.
I had a regular dental cleaning in mid-July.
My dentist told me I have two cavities between two upper molars.
He said it is most likely because I don't floss my back teeth enough
so some plaque may have built up.
If you've had braces before, you would know how annoying it is to floss your teeth.
You need to be able to put it through your wire before being able to floss.
My dentist recommended me to floss more often
so I searched online for ways that can make flossing easier.
Then I found this blue tool.
If you're getting braces, I strongly recommend you to get it.
It's like a sewing needle where you can put your floss through it.
It makes putting your floss through your wires much easier.
Ever since buying that, I floss every night and I no longer think it's annoying to floss.
Although you still need to spend 10-15 mins flossing, it's worth it.
I forgot to mention that after that cavity fixing appointment, I had a hole / dent in my gums.
I couldn't brush my teeth those few days because it hurt to do so.
I was worried because I wasn't sure why my gums was missing a piece.
When I asked my dentist about this, he said it's not anything to be worried about.
Since it's most likely due to tools (used to treat my cavities) scratching a piece of my gum off.
I was recommended not to floss back there and only brush lightly.
After 2 weeks, my gums almost fully recovered.
After seeing my general dentist for cavity problems, I had an appointment with my orthodontist again.
My mom asked my orthodontist why
my impacted tooth still isn't coming down after 2 years (since my exposure surgery).
Then my orthodontist agreed to write a referral letter for me to see a dental surgeon
to see what their opinion is (on my impacted tooth) and how I can make the tooth come down faster.
When I met the surgeon, he literally looked at my x-ray for less than 2 seconds
and told me that I have some major health issues going on in my mouth.
This is where the bad news starts.
The surgeon saw that my...
*asking mom what roots are in Canto*
The surgeon saw that my roots were really short.
He saw that my roots were shrinking overtime (external root resorption).
I was born with naturally shorter roots (compared to the average person).
The surgeon explained that orthodontic treatment can sometimes trauma to your roots.
As a result, your roots will shorten.
I have never heard about this before I got my braces on.
He said that my situation is very severe.
I saw my surgeon in the morning and then I already had an appointment with my orthodontist right after.
When I went to my ortho appointment, my orthodontist just got off the phone with the surgeon.
Then my orthodontist said,
"Oh yeah. Your roots are indeed shrinking and you lost about 60%."
I was scared to bits because as you can imagine, shorter roots = easier for your teeth to fall.
I never knew that I was supposed to monitor my roots.
This is why I'm going to share with you guys how you can monitor your roots so you won't end up like me.
Go on Paint and just draw a rectangle from the tips of your roots, all the way down to the bottom of the tooth.
Every time you take an x-ray, compare the boxes and see if it got smaller (meaning roots are shorter).
Of course, this is not going to be 100% accurate since
you might have shifted while taking the x-ray.
However, this still gives you a good estimation because you can see that I have a huge difference between the left & right.
My orthodontist told me that I only have 2 options now.
First: Do another exposure surgery to scratch off some gum and continue tugging on the impacted tooth.
This is really risky because I might lose my front 4 teeth!
The 2nd option is
completely extract my impacted tooth.
As you can see, I have a hole here.
I asked the orthodontist, "What would happen to my gap after the extraction?!"
He told me that I can...option #1: get a dental implant.
2nd option: Bridging, which is basically a fake tooth being glued on.
Option #3: Wear a clear retainer that has an image of a fake tooth.
Whenever I take off the retainer, you would see the gap.
After hearing all this new information in one morning, I was just so scared.
My mom and I both cried in the office.
I can't even bring myself to drive home right now because
I'm so worried over the condition of my teeth.
Some of my teeth might fall off.
My orthodontist said the best method is to take off my braces ASAP.
Then if I decide to extract the tooth and get an implant,
then this is how my post-ortho treatment teeth would simply look like.
There's no more changing how my teeth looks like.
Like what my mom just said, it's "the end of the journey".
I feel like 3 years of pain just went down the drain.
This isn't even the biggest problem.
I think the biggest issue here is that my roots are shorter now.
I'm seriously so scared because you're telling me that my teeth might fall out in 10-20 years.
I'm angry because part of the orthodontist's duty is to ensure the wellbeing of my teeth.
He takes photos at every visit and x-rays every 6 months.
It has been 2.5 years now, why hasn't he mentioned this problem?
Why didn't he tell me that I may have root resorption?
Why didn't he tell me that my teeth are at risk of falling out?
But when some other surgeon takes a quick look at my x-ray, he is able to immediately see an issue.
After a few weeks, we finally calmed down a bit.
We decided to go see a 2nd surgeon to get another perspective on my current situation.
We wanted to get a second opinion from another professional.
The 2nd surgeon told me that my roots are not as severe as what my orthodontist had told me.
The 2nd surgeon estimated that I lost about 15%.
Although it's 15% instead of 60%, that's still bad because I already have naturally shorter roots.
This surgeon suggested me to get my tooth extracted ASAP.
After the extraction, there'll be a void (air pocket).
To fill the void, he would insert bone graft.
Then he would insert the implant screw and crown.
This is the 2nd surgeon's prices in Canadian dollars.
Prior to the surgery, I need to have my brackets and wires removed.
This would cost around $150.
The actual surgery, which includes sedation, extraction, and bone grafting,
costs around $1100.
After the surgery, I can't get my braces back on so I need a clear retainer to hold everything in place.
That would cost another $740.
The last step is to actually get the implant.
This procedure, which includes sedation, the screw, and crown, would cost around $4000.
We decided to do the surgery with the FIRST surgeon (who detected my root resorption).
The 1st surgeon said implant isn't always the best option.
A lot of people go with a dental implant because it's the most "permanent" solution.
However, he told me that implants can be dangerous because my body may reject the implant.
It's also very easy to get an infection since I'm getting such a large surgery done.
This surgeon recommended me to do things step by step.
First step would be to extract the impacted tooth.
Allow the hole to heal first.
Once my mouth has stopped stopped swelling and the bleeding has stopped,
I will decide what to do from there.
My surgery is not scheduled for September 28th.
I'll update you guys on what option I will choose after my surgery.
This experience has taught us a lot of things.
Firstly, we realized we shouldn't have completely trusted and depended on our orthodontist.
Your orthodontist may overlook some health issues.
After every appointment, you should look and compare your photos and x-rays
to have a better understanding of what is going on with your teeth.
Second lesson we learned is that you should always get a second opinion.
This is because what one person says may not always be accurate.
Getting 2 or 3 opinions will always be better than just relying on 1 person.
My teeth and roots are already at this severity.
The only thing I can do is maintain the remaining length of my roots.
After being sad and worried for a while, I hope that all my following procedures and surgeries will go smoothly.
I'll update you guys on my condition in a future video.
I hope you found this helpful and I sincerely hope that this will not happen to you.
I'll talk to you next time!
Bye~