Impacted Canine Surgery

 

Table of Contents

 

FREE Impacted tooth Surgery + FREE CT-Scan when you start braces or Invisalign with Dr. Kanaan at iSmile Specialists. Cash patients only.

What is an Impacted tooth?  

When a tooth does not grow in the mouth and stays inside the bone, the tooth is impacted. Impacted teeth canine in adults and children are quite common and require immediate attention.

Usually, your dentist will discover them during the regular check-up visit.

Impacted Canine
A patient with 2 impacted teeth; one in the upper jaw and one in the lower.

What is the cause of tooth impaction?

  • Genetic: Research has shown that genetics plays a significant role in teeth impaction, especially the maxillary canine palatal impaction. 

  • Trauma to the baby tooth: Children love to play and with that comes different types of trauma like falling from a bicycle, Trampoline, hitting the pool curb, ...etc. When the trauma is directed to a baby tooth, this might move the developing tooth under it which will cause it to grow in the wrong direction. 

Impacted tooth from trauma
Incisor impacted by bicycle trauma
  • An extra tooth: Sometimes, we might develop an extra tooth in the location where the original tooth is supposed to come.  
  • This prevents the original tooth from coming and requires surgery to remove the extra tooth and bring the impacted tooth in.
Impacted Premolar
This patient has an extra tooth over the original tooth causing it to be impacted. Treatment requires removing the extra tooth and expose the impacted tooth.
  • Narrow jaw:  This is common sense. When teeth don’t have enough room to grow in, they will get stuck inside the jaw causing an impaction problem. This is more common in children with allergies and mouth breathing as they will have a narrower upper jaw. Expansion is always needed in these cases. 
Impacted Canine Narrow
2x impacted canines due to narrow jaw. After expansion, both canines came down without surgery

Why do we need to treat impacted teeth and impacted canines?

Teeth are supposed to be in the mouth, not the bone. If they stay in the bone, this can cause serious problems such as:

  • Might cause damage to adjacent teeth:  Impacted teeth can get aggressive causing damage to the bone, ligament, and tooth structure to the adjacent teeth.

tooth from impact

 

 

  • Might get ankylosed and stuck to the bone. This will happen if the impacted tooth is left too long without treatment causing the surrounding bone to fuse with the tooth. Removing the impacted tooth becomes a challenge and will require a major bone graft to fill the void. 
  • Might develop into serious pathological conditions such as cyst formation, infection, and cancer. reference 
Impacted tooth cyst
Notice the big cyst circled in RED associated with the impacted canine. Major surgery was needed.​​​​

 

I have an impacted canine; do I need to treat it?

YES. Dr. Kanaan DOES recommend the impacted canines be either brought down with braces or to be extracted. 

 

Why do I need to get an Impacted canine surgery?

The same way a tugboat needs a rope to tow a cargo ship, we need to hook an orthodontic rope “Gold chain” to the impacted tooth so we can tow it back its position.

This requires a special surgical procedure to uncover the impacted tooth and place the chain on the tooth. If there is bone covering the tooth, then it needs to be removed. 

two impacted canines with gold chain
Two gold chains were placed on the impacted canines after removing the gum covering them.

Can we prevent impacted canines from happening?

As always, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The AAO recommends early orthodontic checkups no later than age 7 and to take at least one Panoramic x-ray before the age of 10.  The Panoramic X-ray can give a general idea about the growth path of each tooth and Dr. Kanaan can make early intervention if needed. This includes:

  • Removing the extra tooth if it is blocking another tooth from erupting.  
impacted premolar self correction
Notice how the lower premolar corrected itself after removing the extra small tooth. No surgery was needed for the impacted tooth. Patient age: 12. 
  • Remove the corresponding baby tooth allowing the possible impacted canine to grow back into the right position. This is called self-correction and will only happen in growing children. After the age of 15-16, I have never observed this happening and surgery is always required to bring the tooth down. Reference  
  • Expand the jaw if the patient has a narrow jaw associated with impacted teeth. The expansion will create space and might eliminate the need for the surgery especially in actively growing children.

Self Correcting Impacted Canine

Impacted canine surgery cost

The surgical procedure usually costs between $500 to $1500 based on the surgeon and the difficulty of the tooth.

At iSmile Specialists, we do NOT charge extra for the surgery if you get the braces here. Call us for details 281-249-9999

Can I treat an impacted canine with Invisalign?

YES, most impacted canine cases might be considered for treatment with Invisalign. However, If they are hard, then regular braces would be the only recommended option.

Impacted teeth and canine Before and After 

Here I will share with you a few cases that I have treated since 2005.  

Case #1: This patient has an impacted central incisor with a blocked upper canine. The canine was moved back to its place and the central incisor was brought down with braces and surgery. Treatment time: 32 months. 

impacted central canine houston

Case #2:  As we said earlier, impacted teeth can cause tooth damage and this is what happened here when the upper right impacted canine caused damages to the two adjacent teeth.

Treatment included impacted canine surgery and a mini implant to move the canine away from the root of adjacent teeth.  

After the impacted canine was in a safe position, we started braces and finished the case in 23 months.  

impacted canine correction with mini implants

Send me an e-mail for any questions