Braces Are Not Optional

As our lives improves, braces appear to be an important aspect of our dental health.  They improve our appearance, which may be optional to some of us.  But they are not optional sometimes, particularly for the following case.

Ms. Jiang has a severe accident, smashing one of her front teeth (Fig.1-3: #8).  It has to go.  The best way to restore it is to place an implant.  However it is extremely difficult to do so, because the space for the implant is quite narrow.  Besides the tooth #7 is right behind the broken tooth (Fig.2).  Therefore braces are a must before implant surgery.

First of all, the broken tooth is extracted without too much damage to the surrounding bone and bone graft is placed in the socket.  When the wound heals, braces are placed to bring the tooth #7 to the right position and increase the space for #8.  Then the implant is placed smoothly (Fig.6: #8).  After further adjustment, braces are removed and a crown for #8 is cemented (Fig.4-6).  Ms. Jiang is pleased, although the shade for the crown is not ideal due to Tetracycline teeth.

Xin Wei, DDS, PhD, MS 1st edition 06/27/2012, last revision 12/25/2016