Dr Sarkissian explains: “Extracting healthy teeth from an arch that is deficient in size to begin with, is a delayed death sentence to the child. Ignoring the early developmental growth phase until it is passed, and then extracting four healthy teeth to make room is nothing short of mutilation to the organism. During the more than 20 years of my practice, I have yet to see an adult who has undergone braces with bicuspid extractions as a child and has not suffered one type or another damage. There is ALWAYS a damaging consequence to braces with bicuspid extractions, according to my observations. Some are hardly noticeable, but most are debilitating. They range between poor facial esthetics, a deficient mid-face with collapsed lips, severe crowding due to relapse, TMJ problems, life-threatening obstructive sleep apnea, and a multitude of other issues. The sad part in all this is that most of these side-effects manifest years after orthodontic therapy is completed, therefore they are not attributed to orthodontics.”