In moderate-to-severe crooked tooth cases, orthodontists sometimes recommend removing one or more teeth to facilitate proper braces alignment. While losing teeth raises concerns for some brace candidates, strategic extractions actually enable corrected smiles.

Why are teeth extracted?
There are a few reasons why tooth removal improves the braces process:

Crowding
Partially erupting emerging teeth can shift other teeth. Extracting these teeth alleviates crowding.

Impacted Teeth
When developing teeth lack enough space and become trapped below gumlines or other teeth, removing them clears barriers.

Alignment Needs
In severely misaligned jaws, extracting teeth allows more room for remaining teeth to spread and straighten optimally into better positions.

What Teeth Get Extracted?
The orthodontist determines which teeth to remove based on the patient’s specific malocclusion issues and goals. It also makes teeth hygiene better.

Baby Teeth
Often pre-molars or baby canines get extracted since permanent successors will replace them anyway. Removing these baby teeth facilitates favorable permanent tooth positioning.

Permanent Teeth
Extraction of permanent teeth for spacing occurs more selectively and cautiously, often targeting first premolars or second molars based on precise spacing requirements, later enabling properly aligned new smiles.

How Extractions Help Braces
Strategically removing select teeth allows braces to effectively straighten surrounding teeth.

Creates Space
Extraction areas serve as reservoirs allowing enough space to align formerly overlapped or doubled-up teeth.

Allows Movement
Surrounding teeth shift more freely into normalized positions within now broader arches and jaw segments modified by extraction voids.

The Extraction Procedure
Performed by an oral surgeon or trained general dentist, the process involves numbing the area first before extracting.

Local Anesthesia
The dentist applies local anesthetic blocks to ensure the procedure remains pain-free throughout the roughly 15-30 minute visit.

Simple or Surgical Extractions
Simple extractions involve basic loosening and removing fully visible erupted teeth. Impactions could require surgically accessing harder-to-reach teeth before retrieving any fragments.

Healing Time and Process
Post-extraction sockets fill via blood clots forming into new bone over 2-3 months. Braces placement follows extractions once sites mostly heal after around 14 days in less complicated cases.

Results and Proper Care
With strategic extractions enabling teeth to align in more stable positions long-term, patients ultimately gain improved smiles, function, and hygiene. Proper oral care during healing and brace wear minimizes complications from extractions.

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Conclusion
Though counterintuitive initially, extracting select teeth ultimately catalyzes properly aligned smiles in those needing more spacing for severely overlapped or crooked teeth to resolve favorably. When performed judiciously by orthodontic professionals, this preparatory step sets the stage for transformative braces outcomes.