Reply to Has your child's orthodontist done (or asked to do) a head CT prior to starting treatment?

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[quote=Anonymous]Re: the cephalometric.  Our orth. surgeon used this "whole head" x-ray to determine whether or not it was safe to remove our son's wisdom teeth.  The machine is amazing, new within the last five years. and costs an ortho. surgeon almost 500K to acquire so not all have them.  The reason I am posting is that the ortho surgeon (not the orthodontist)  was able to show me why it was safe to have our son's wisdom teeth pulled but not our daughter's.  In her case, our orthodontist had failed to tell us it was time - at any time throughout the orthodontics process - to remove the wisdom teeth.  By the time we were having a tooth pulled on our son and the ortho surgeon said "Well, while we are doing that we might as well take out his wisdom teeth", I thought we should have daughter's checked inasmuch as the orthodontist had said nothing about wisdom teeth removal and daughter was older.

The ortho. surgeon used this particular x-ray and determined that the roots of her wisdom teeth had grown too close to the nerves and that he could not guarantee removal without partial paralysis.  I'm very grateful to him that he had the cephalometric machine and was able to do this exam.  It is costly - about $300 and our insurance wouldn't cover it but the ortho. surgeon offered to do both exams for less.  Very well worth it.  Son had the wisdom teeth pulled but daughter did not.  And now daughter's teeth are moving because the wisdom teeth are growing in so all that ortho. work is for naught.

So if you are going to a very busy orthodontist, please think to ask them when in the process your child should be evaluated for wisdom teeth removal.  Ours never did and we are paying the price because daughter's teeth are shifting.[/quote]

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