Hello all. I have such the non weight loss issue it is funny to post here. However, here goes.........

My daughter has been going to a highly recommended dentist since she was 3. She is now 6 and a half. Her teeth are .......hmmm....how do I say this? JACKED!!!! She has one coming in behind all of the rest. Her dentist mentioned once just pulling baby teeth all around to make room for adult teeth to come in more where they should. He did not want to pull all at once, but as needed. This did not sound ok to me so, I headed to an orthodontist to get his opinion. He says do NOT pull any more baby teeth. We pulled two about 8 months ago. That worked out just fine. Her bottom teeth look great. That is where we pulled from. Ortho says pulling too many baby teeth can disturb the bone growth.

Today, we go to the dentist for usual cleaning. I was expecting him to ask me to bring her back to pull teeth. He did not. He wanted to put a retainer type device in to push the rear tooth up to the space it should be in. This sounded great to me. He also wanted to put a space maintainer all across the bottom teeth. This too sounds good.

Problem is.........I mentioned that we saw an orthodontist and he did not want teeth pulled and mentioned a pallet expander (at a later date) and he just wanted to see us in six months. Dentist seemed offended and said well, just let him do what he wants, we won't do anything here.

Now, I want to do what the dentist said. I think the sooner we get that tooth moving, the better. I don't even know if I am using the ortho I consulted with.

Should I get a second ortho opinion? Should I make an appointment with the dentist to do what he wanted? Mind you, the dentist is supposed to be one of the best around. The ortho is my neighbor's boss. She is the only recommendation I have for an ortho. The dentist has his he refers to. What do I do????

Any opinions or input would be great. Thanks!!!! --Amy

I would get a second opinion.

Find an ortho you can trust. It is a specialty.

I tend to trust the orthodontist. My DD had a palate expander when she was in 2nd or 3rd grade. She didn't need to have any teeth pulled and she didn't have the problem with adult teeth coming in behind baby teeth (although I have seen that in other kids).

Don't be too overly quick to put braces on. At this age, chances are that either she'll be in braces for years or she'll get them off and end up getting them put back on later when all her adult teeth finally come in. It happened to my DD, but I felt a dire need to get her in braces because her top front teeth were beginning to grow horizontally (she was a finger sucker and she had a terrible tongue thrust that was making them jut farther and farther out). Once her palate expander was done (about 4-6 weeks if I remember right) they did the braces with a thing in the roof of her mouth that eventually trained her not to have the tongue thrust.

That is a tough one. Maybe you can ask your ortho to recomend a dentist that they work with so there is no hard feelings between the two and they can work together to get your daughter's mouth into order. I was lucky growing up that my dentist also did orthodontics. I think I had everything done, teeth pulled, spacer to widen my upper jaw, braces, pulled wisdom teeth to make room for my teeth since they were coming in crooked, a crown and root canal. I was lucky enough to inherit my father's teeth. So maybe find a dentist/ortho or a pair that works together.
Good Luck
Erika

Thanks so much guys! Just wanted some opinions from several people. I think I will go to a second orthodontist. Thanks again!!!

If ortho expanders are still today what they were 20 odd years ago, do not put your child through this. My mom still gets tears in her eyes when she recalls having to turn the crank on the expander and having me scream my head off from the pain every night. It felt like my entire face was being split in two. I had one in for a year and as soon as they took it out my pallete went back to how it had been. I personally think they are a bunch of baloney and just a way for ortho's to make more money.

I'd find an orthodontist who doesn't push the pallette expander. If they insist, I would have them explain to you in detail what it entails and what you will have to do and what she will have to endure. It's not pretty.

my kids ortho didn't suggest an extender for my oldest but has for my youngest and i know why and have always figured he might need something cause his bite just looked sooooo narrow and he has sooooo many teeth fit into such a small space..but i am alarmed at you saying for a year!! my son's ortho said he might keep it in at most for 3 months.. my boss's daughter uses the same ortho and has already had to do this and said it was more of a hassle in the way of eating but didn't report any pain like what you are describing ..
i would suggest finding an ortho you are comfortable with ..and maybe your dentist did not mean to sound like he did .. it is prolly more along the lines of not wanting to cross over on treatments .. anyways good luck!

Well, they put the pallette expander in for 3 months at first, but my pallete went back almost immediately to how it was once it was removed. They put another one in a month later and left it in for 9 more months to see if my face would "get used" to its new shape. I do have a narrow upper jaw, and I still do (because my pallette went back eventually even after the 9 month one) but luckily it has never affected me as far as jaw alignment.

I just don't trust orthodontists, they were always trying to come up with something for my parents to spend money on. Like, they decided I was pushing on the back of my front teeth with my tongue too much, and thought it would be a great idea to glue something sharp and uncomfortable to the teeth to "remind" my tongue not to rest there. Uhm yeah. They spent 6 months slowly turning a tooth of mine around because it had actually grown into my lower jaw turned 90 degrees. When they were done, there was no gum attached to it so it looked like a white stripe and was horribly ugly. I had asked they pull it originally but they insisted it would be better to turn it. Then they decided to fix this white stripe they would graft a piece of my upper pallete/gums into it's place and stitch it there and hope it would attach and grow. I informed them I'm not frankenstein, thank you anyway. They finally gave up on the idea and wound up pulling the tooth anyway, after all of that.

I had my braces for 2 years and when I was 18 and working my first real job, I wanted them off so my peers would take me more seriously. The orthodontist was SO mad - I mean he actually was MAD at me for wanting them off even though they'd been on 2 years (which should be PLENTY of time to do what they needed to do). I had to sign a waiver saying that it's all my fault if my teeth go back to how they were before. If looks could kill, I swear that doctor would have had me dead right then and there. He knew he was at the end of his money-soaking road.

*shudder* I think the only orthodontist I'd trust is a friend of mine from high school who eventually became one, himself. (Graduate of Harvard Dental School no less.) Unfortunately, he's in Chicago and I'm not even close.

Ugh!!! That all sounds horrible. Here is what I have heard. Now days, people don't wear the expanders so long. I don't know what they changed, but we are looking at 4-6 weeks. We are also looking at a 7 year old. Lots of growing to do still. This probably makes a difference. They don't expect her to wear braces too long. They are going to look at her every 6 months to do things at the right time. I will for sure go get at least a second opinion. Especially after hearing your story smart-butt. I wore braces for three years in high school and HATED it!!! I hope to get my kids taken care of before high school. They should no have to start college with braces. Thanks for all the input!!!