I do not have any wisdom teeth; they are just plain not there (according to xrays); so I never had to go through the whole wisdom teeth removal.

In addition, I never had to have braces either.

Nor have I ever had a cavity, b/c, according to my dentist(s) (multiple dentists thru-out my life): "my saliva must be good" and must sort of fight the cavities. (summarizing according to my best understanding of the topic)

So, this, combined with all of the other posters, just goes to show everybody's teeth really are different; you just never know!

PS Don't be jealous: I have lots of other physical and mental and emotional problems. They just do not happen to involve my teeth!

Anonymous wrote:Another poster with 2 incisors missing on the top and 1 on the bottom. Had braces to pull everything together and then had my eye teeth bonded on top. I've had my bonding for about 20 years. I'd like to get it redone but, as other mentioned, it is cosmetic and I have to pay out-of-pocket.

I just paid out of pocket to have 2 of my 4 replaced. They are a composite material, not porcelain and it cost just under $1000. Yikes! They were about 15 yrs old so they were chipped and stained so it was worth it but that was a huge chunk of change.

Don't wait too long if it involves wisdom teeth. Our idiot orthodontist never mentioned the possibility (duh) that wisdom teeth coming in should come out because they will wreck the alignment of the newly straightened teeth. When I raised it, she said, Oh, maybe it is time Well it was time for my 14 year old son but too late for my 16 year daughter. The surgeon couldn't do it safely because the roots of her wisdom teeth had grown around the nerves. He could do the surgery but said she might have permanent nerve damage. So she will now have to live out her life with impacted wisdom teeth that may create real problems for her much later in life, and also is already beginning to push all that expensive orthodontic work out of whack. If your orthodontist is running a mill and not paying attention, you may need to ask "uh, when should the wisdom teeth come out". I'm ready to kill mine.

Another poster with 2 incisors missing on the top and 1 on the bottom. Had braces to pull everything together and then had my eye teeth bonded on top. I've had my bonding for about 20 years. I'd like to get it redone but, as other mentioned, it is cosmetic and I have to pay out-of-pocket.

Thanks for all the stories--they've very helpful! We'll definitely talk with an orthodontist, but I'd be inclined to wait and see unless there is something we definitely need to do early.

Anonymous wrote:Two of my top teeth are baby teeth. No adult teeth ever developed. I am 42 and the baby teeth are still hanging in there.

I forgot to add that my teeth are straight, so I never needed braces. One dentist told me that it was better that I never had braces on those teeth because the movement involved might have weakened the little roots. He told me not to mess with them and they might last a very long time.