Hi all! At 29 years old, I’m finally prepping for getting braces this year. I’ve got some pretty bad crowding and after a consult with my ortho, she recommended extracting two of my upper premolars. Mostly here I’m just curious as to how this will affect bite/aesthetic. I’m only going to have 12 upper teeth but will still have 14 lower teeth. I trust my ortho knows what she’s doing, but I’m finally able to afford getting my oral health together and have been working hard with my dentist to fix all the issues I’ve been dancing around for 10 years. The loss of healthy teeth makes me nervous. Am I going to have enough teeth left? Will it be noticeable?

Secondly, I have to get a few crowns replaced and two new ones put on. My ortho and dentist are supposed to have communicated about order of the work needed but the dentist’s office doesn’t seem to know conclusively when I ask at my appointments. From what I do understand the replacement crowns can wait till after ortho, but my dentist told me as she was fixing a broken tooth with basically a very large filling that she wanted to get a crown on that tooth (#2) before braces because she thought it would be weak with just the filling. At my last appointment for wisdom tooth removal I learned she’s left the practice and the owner said he didn’t know why she’d say that and he was going to scrap her plan and recommend braces before any crowns at all. Should I get a second opinion? I’m obviously not as educated as the owner of the office but now I’m worried that I’ve heard the tooth will be weak and don’t want braces to knock out a tooth that could be saved.