Dr. Noah's Dentistry Blog

Questions About Dentistry Answered

Archives for November 2012

What Can I Do about My Crooked Front Tooth?

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I am having a challenging time locating a good dentist who can straighten my front tooth. I keep hearing different things about how to solve my problem and I don’t know what to believe.
Here’s my situation: The tooth next to my front tooth on the left is very crooked and looks bad. Are braces my only option, or will Invisalign work? It was also suggested that my crooked tooth be pulled. What do you think?
– Brian from Texas

Brian,
It’s best to avoid pulling your crooked tooth, even if a dentist believes this would solve your problem. You don’t want to pull a tooth because your smile won’t look right if you have an uneven amount of teeth showing. You want your smile to be symmetrical and you can’t have that with five front teeth instead of six.
If you’re an adult and your teeth are crooked, Invisalign is a good solution to straighten your teeth. Another option is to have a cosmetic dentist create porcelain veneers for you. Both of these options would be appropriate.

For more information about Dr. Noah, please see his Region Dental website.

Do I Need to Keep Wearing My Retainer?

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When I was a teenager, I had to get braces and was told to wear a retainer for a month all day and then later, only at night. My upper front teeth relapsed a bit, so I spoke with a new orthodontist who said new braces would fix this problem. He also suggested I could use my old retainer to get the teeth pretty straight and then have a new retainer made. He mentioned six months of daily full time wear and then at night would do the job.
I’ve worn the new retainer fulltime for nearly three years and notice one tooth seems to shift after a few hours of not wearing the retainer. So now, I feel like I can’t go more than a few hours without the retainer. Am I imagining this or does this occur sometimes? And if it happens, what are the repercussions? What should I do?
– Justin in Oklahoma

Justin,
You’re probably not imagining that your teeth are moving. Clearly, one tooth in particular, seems to be changing position a bit. You should continue to wear the retainer all the time, day and night. If you don’t want to wear it during the day, you have a couple choices.
Your first choice is to get a permanent retainer bonded to the insides of your teeth. This could be done on the upper or lower teeth. The only issue is cleaning your teeth – you’d need to use a floss threader to adequately clean your teeth. If you’re okay with this, this may be a good solution.
If you’re not keen on this, your other option is to have a tooth bleaching splint created. This clear bleaching tray holds your teeth in position and isn’t as noticeable as the basic orthodontic retainer.
A dentist should see you to determine why your teeth haven’t stabilized. It isn’t good for your teeth to change position so you need to keep using the retainer to avoid this issue. Hopefully, over time, the movement will stop.

This blog brought to you by Tulsa dentist, Dr. Noah.