I Confess . . .

• That I totally snapped one of my rubber bands on my cheek, so hard that I made myself bleed. nerd!
• That when I, now, look at photos of myself pre-braces I'm not nearly as bothered by my formerly crooked smile as I used to be. In fact I have found myself thinking that my teeth were bad, but not THAT bad. Maybe it's just the sore gums speaking, hoping the torture ends soon.
• That I'm not usually self conscious about having braces anymore, but every once in a while someone will make an "off" comment and I suddenly turn into an embarrassed 12 year old.
• -That I am REALLY REALLY hoping that I make some phenomenal progress and I get my braces removed before my 24 months are up! This guy at work just got some and his teeth looked far worse than mine and he only has to wear his for 18 months!
• That deep down I kinda know that above confession is not going to happen.
• That my orthodontist is Ok, but I won't refer friends/family to him. I somewhat feel that he won me over to get my business b/c he knew I was shopping around but now that he's got me he's not what he promised to be.
• - That my gums are soooooo damn sore since my last adjustment, but mainly b/c of these rubber bands. It is taking a tremendous amount of will power and the far fetched hope of decreasing my sentence (aka time in braces)to keep these rubber bands on and not just take them off b/c they're killing my mouth.

M I A but back in Action

Hello! I've been M.I.A for a while now, haven't I? I guess sometimes life happens, right? I hope everyone has been doing well! I've been good. I'm sure I've got tons of updates for you but I'll try to condense them to the more important ones. :)

Updates

• I don't think I mentioned that I got power chains. Doesn't that sound like some kind of monster truck lingo? POW-ER CHAINSSS!!! LOL They're basically just honeycomb shaped rubber bands that connect your teeth. I started getting gaps/spaces in my teeth as my braces moved them and the power chains prevent gaps while my teeth continue to move. Power chains are strong so they're also being used to close the gaps where I had my teeth extracted. Supposedly they provide great/fast results, but I guess we shall see. They don't hurt at all or make my teeth ache. The one bad thing is that they stain though. I've had mine for about 3 weeks and I need to brush them GOOD to get the sparkly and clean. the only photo I have of them was taken right after I drank coffee (yes I should have drank through a straw - lesson learned) and they look dingy and gross. But my electric tooth brush gets them pretty clean! I have an appointment next week and I can't wait to get them changed. Now I know to avoid staining foods or to brush my teeth immediately after i eat/drink.

 Picture Above: Blue Power chains (mine are clear)

Picture above: Photo of my teeth as they are now. See how stained my power chains are? Embarrassing, but i still wanted to show you. 

• You may have already noticed my update #2 in the photo above! My ortho put a spring on the lower right side (screen left) of my teeth, see it in the picture above? The spring is pushing two teeth apart to make room to finally bring that back one that I hate up front! I actually had a spring put on in May, but my teeth didn't move far enough apart to attach the archwire to that straggling back tooth so he put another spring in earlier this month. I admit that I was pretty bummed that my teeth didn't move as fast my ortho expected. I hope he can put the archwire on at my next appointment next week!
• This is more of a bitching type update . . . one of my brackets broke off...AGAIN. It's not the same one as last time, it's the upper left one. It's not the typical ring shaped bracket that goes around your tooth. My ortho was "trying" new ones out on me that he glued to the side of my teeth. this is the 2nd one that has broken off so I don't think they're working all that well. I was unimpressed with my ortho's office when I called to tell them too. I had a good 1 1/2 cm of wire sticking out in the back of my mouth when the bracket broke and it was poking and scarping me. I called to see if i could go in and the lady told me to clip the wire myself with NAIL CLIPPERS! Is that normal? Has anyone else ever been advised to do that? Luckily I found wire cutters and used that instead, but i have to wonder WTF am I paying for if I am treating myself? not cool & I plan to talk to my ortho about it when I go in next week. 
• I also experienced a yucky little issue when I was at my appointment. The ortho opened one of the brackets on my tooth to change my archwire. The bracket on that tooth opens like a door on hinges. When he snapped it closed on the archwire he also snapped  it on my lip and CAUGHT a part of my lip IN the bracket. It hurt and I couldn't talk. First he tried to pull it, but i could that that would cut me so I put my hand up and uttered "whatever you just did, undo it!" and he did and released my tooth noting "that's never happened before'. Needless to say, he isn't my favorite person right now. . . 

The part circled in yellow is where he caught my lip;

So those are my updates. I am hoping to have a much better appointment next week and hopefully get that back tooth on board with the rest of  my teeth!

XOXO

A few updates

Hi! Sorry I've been M.i.A for a few weeks - I guess I was busier than I realized!

Anyway

I had an ortho appointment last week so of course I've got to share it with you! I went in all smiles b/c I had gotten used to my braces since the last tightening session. In fact, I think I can even say that my braces were "loose" or at least the wire was. I had become very content with the way my braces were feeling, but I definitely knew it was time to tighten them back up!
I sat in the chair as directed and my Orthodontist (I think we were calling him Dr. X in past posts? well let's call him that again!) and he came over to take a look. He commented on how pleased he was with the movement of my upper teeth. They are not 100% straight yet but they are very close! Then he looked at the bottom train wreck of teeth and started touching them and rambling numbers and other ortho things. He told me that once he can get a thicker/stronger wire in there that I'm going to be amazed at how fast they move and reassured me that they'll be perfect. Then he called for an assistant to come over and he basically just gave her instructions on what to do with me and moved on to the next patient.
The assistant began removing my wires, as usual, then she popped a new top wire in and put clear rubber bands to hold them in place. Next she moved on to my lower teeth, removing the old wire. When she went to put the new wire in O M G! IDK what she did, but it felt like she was trying to rotate one of my bottom front teeth upside down! Holy Shit, it hurt like Hell! I literally thought she was going to pull my tooth right out. I made a noise and she could see the pain on my face so she stopped and asked if I was ok, to which I replied "no, that hurts really bad". She gave me a break, then started again and AGAIN it hurt like hell! She commented that my mouth must be sore and asked how long that tooth has been sore. But my mouth WASN'T sore and that tooth had not been sore at all prior to my appointment! Dr. X even called out to her to just wait and he'd put my new wire in b/c he could see that she was hurting me, but she popped it in before he could get to me and thankfully the pain was gone as soon as she got her hands out of my mouth! Oh yeah, she also knocked a band off one of my back teeth! Ugh! It was glued to the side of my tooth, not the kinda that go all the way around like a ring. But now Dr. X says we'll put a traditional band (like a ring) on that tooth since the other one came off so I left with spacers in the back tooth too. And I do have to say that while spacers made my mouth VERY sore the first time around. i barely even notice the 2 in there now.

So that was my appointment! I go back next week to get the band put on, spacers removed etc.


And for your viewing pleasure, here ar some pics :)

I have to confess that I'm not happy and a little discouraged with my lower teeth right now. While they seem to be moving and you can SEE the spaces between my teeth now (they were totally overlapping before), they're still really crooked and with the new spaces in between they just look like a mess! More of mess than even before! I sure hope they start lining up soon!

PS: Sorry if this post has a negative undertone, it's not meant to be negative. swear! :)

and...just b/c I personally really like to see any progress made, here's a quick collage to document it!

More Teeth Pics

I realized that most of my brace face pics don't really show my bottom teeth, so I've decided to muster up some courage and show you all the mess that makes up my lower teeth. I've also highlighted a few things just to show progress made so far;

• "Ew!"- Just indicates the most crooked area of my teeth. My upper teeth have bothered me way more than my lower teeth for some reason, I guess b/c my upper teeth are much more visible in pictures when I smile & that upper right (screen left) tooth provided plenty of ammo for others to make fun of me in the past (snaggle tooth). But now look! The upper teeth are progressing nicely, the snaggle tooth barely even sticks out anymore! Now I realize that it's always been that lower mess that I should be more concerned with.
• O : Do you see that thin black line inside the yellow circle? I never had it there before. In fact, those two teeth were overlapping so I've never even seen them side by side the way they are now. I hear the black line can also appear as a triangle and it's not uncommon for people with braces to get them. Anyone know what it's called? I think there is an actual term for it. Mine doesn't seem bad right now so it doesn't bother me. 
• > < : See that gap? I definitely never had that gap there before. My teeth were so damn crowded that dentists used to have a hard time even flossing mg my grill! Yay for progress!

Now I just can't wait for that whole "EW" section to start straightening out! Hopefully soon!

Famous Brace Face of the Month (x 2 b/c I forgot to do it last month)

I forgot to add a famous brace face for the month of March so we'll do two for the month of April, beginning with the absolutely stunning

Cindy Crawford

That's right, the gorgeous supermodel once had braces! She even posed for a pepsi ad with her beautiful brace face!

and here she is with her perfect smile (below)

Our next brace face of the month is . . . 

 Tom Cruise

I have to say that Tom holds a special place in this little brace face's heart b/c he is the only celebrity that I was able to find who PROUDLY sported his metal mouth smile with complete confidence. He got his braces at age 39 for a cross bite/midline issue.

And here he is with that mega whatt smile...

 

Famous Brace Face of the Month

Regular Jane's like us aren't the only ones who were born with crooked teeth! Some of our favorite celebrities have been known to rock the brace face look themselves! I've only had my braces for one week and there have been a few occasions when I have had to muster up my confidence to flash my pearly whites metal mouth at others. Maybe you can relate? And maybe seeing a famous brace face each month will help to boost confidence? If nothing else, it's fun to see celebs with braces. Enjoy our first Famous Brace Face of the month:

GWEN STEFANI

 Gwen Stefani, lead singer of No Doubt and solo artist, got her braces when she was 30 also! 

*And she still nabbed 'garbage' front man, Gavin Rossdale - braces and all!

Want more inspiration? Check out her gorgeous grill now!

WORTH IT! 

Braces are ON!

I really meant to blog last night, my last night of a metal free mouth, but it was Valentine's day and my attention belonged to my lover! So, instead I am blogging to you today as newly loaded metal mouth!

I was told to block off a good 2 hours to take care of everything at my appointment, but I was pleasantly surprised when we wrapped everything up and I was on my way out in just a little over an hour! The procedure itself was painless and damn close to discomfort-less (I know, not a real word) too! The first thing they did was remove those pesky spacers that I've had in my mouth since last week. Even though I was getting used to them, they were still very annoying and kept my teeth consistently sore. It felt so good to have them removed! Next they placed a band on one of my back teeth.

 

Dr. S then decided that I didn't need traditional bands and instead used a new model of smaller bands that are glued to the sides of my back teeth. So after days of being sore from the spacers, turns out i didn't need them anyway since traditional bands were not used. Ha! Fine by me though, I was tired of having things stuck between my teeth. Next the assistant applied "conditioner" to my teeth and let it dry. Finally it was time for Dr. S to apply my brackets!

 I ended up with all metal brackets, except for my 4 upper front teeth. Dr. S being the great ortho that he is, provides clear (I guess ceramic?) braces on the front teeth for his adult patients (shh: free of charge). After all my brackets were in place, the assistant took over, inserting the archwire in my brackets. The appointment came to an end with a brief lesson on how to care for my braces (i.e - brushing techniques, how to floss with wire in the way etc.).

Now I'm a real life brace face! and I couldn't be happier about it! 

So without further ado, I present to you my new tin grin!

Day #1

of life with braces