7 Month Update

Can you believe it's already been seven months since I got braces? Eight since I started the whole process! Some days it feels like 24 months will never arrive and I'll be a brace face forever but some days I just can't believe how much progress has already been made and it makes these past 7 months worth it!

I had a routine appointment scheduled for this morning. I figured my ortho would just tighten everything up, like usual, and he did ... but I also got some COOL new gear! He put a power chain on my entire lower set of teeth & rubber bands (removable) connecting my top and bottom teeth. I know some people hate power chains because, well they're tight and I assume they make some people sore but they really don't bother me at all. In fact, when my teeth were still all haywire and spaced out in weird places, it almost felt good to have them held tightly in place. Like a bra for your teeth. LOL! The rubber bands connecting my upper and lower teeth, I'm not so crazy about. I have to admit that with all the dorky braces gear that I signed up for when I got these suckers, these rubber bands ranked in at #2 on the nerd scale for me . . . just after a head/neck gear (#1!). I remember talking to kids in high school who had those rubber bands connecting their teeth and it always looked like they had slobber strings dripping from their mouths when they spoke. Or like ooey gooey cheese hanging off their teeth. Ew! That's me now! Ha ha! Pretty nerdy! But you know, after all I've gone through with this process and all the time, money and energy invested, I can deal with rubber bands. Plus they're removable! I remove them when I eat and brush my teeth, but I am supposed to wear them as much as possible, especially when talking b/c the tension of the bands pulling while I talk will speed the process up! I like the way that sounds! The bands will help to pull my lower back molars forward and my upper front teeth, back. Makes sense and if it helps to speed things up then SIGN ME UP! I have to say that I am already sore though and I got a slight claustrophobic sensation when i realized I had to make an effort to open my mouth. I'm sure I'll get used to it though. I wonder if I need to wear them for the remainder of my treatment? I always think of things to ask AFTER my appointments. Ha!

In addition to my new gear, my ortho surprised me and filed some of my teeth down! We had talked about it before and he always said he'd do it when the braces came off but he decided to do a few today. My 2-3 lower bottom teeth, to be exact. I used to grind my teeth but b/c my teeth were crooked I couldn't grind my whole lower middle tooth so I ended up with a lopsided tooth that looked chipped. Since my teeth have moved into different positions, that lopsided tooth had begun hitting (more like tapping) my upper teeth. It was kind of annoying. But that's not an issue anymore since my teeth are nice and even now! It didn't hurt at all to have them filed, although my ortho kept asking if I was ok so maybe thats not the norm?

Anyway, a post wouldn't be complete without progress pictures so here we go!

New Bands & Progress

A few weeks ago I went to brush my teeth and as I began, I automatically realized that yet ANOTHER one of my back bands were loose! As I took a closer look I realized that it wasn't just loose, it was completely knocked off my tooth! The only thing keeping it somewhat in place was a power chain. Since it was the THIRD time that this had happened (separate teeth) I knew that I should cut the power chain to release the broken band and thats just what I did. I admit that I was pretty frustrated since this was the 3rd of 4 bands to break off. I emailed my orthodontist right away b/c I had this long ass piece of wire poking the back of my mouth and I didn't want to wait weeks again as I had to do the previous time that my band broke off my tooth. I was very polite in my email, but I couldn't hide the tone of my frustration. My ortho has two locations and told me he wouldn't be in the office that I go to until the next week, but he made a special trip just to cut my wires 2 days after the band broke off. I really appreciated that, but at the same time I have to note that this is totally different than what I had been told upon selecting him as my orthodontist. I had narrowed my choices down between 2 orthodontists and I went with my current guy b/c he told me he offered Saturday, lunchtime and late evening appointments - not to mention he was significantly less expensive. But in the 5 months that I have been going to him I have only been able to get one Saturday appointment and usually get appointments just before or after lunchtime. Either way I was still happy he made a special trip for me. I was the only patient in the whole office and his staff who usually wears matching polos were dressed in their normal clothes so I could tell he made them come in too. Eek! I felt kind of bad about that.
He ended up replacing the band that had broken off (no spacers required this time) and removed and replaced the final band (the only one that hadn't broken off yet) to prevent it from doing the same thing all the rest did (break). Then he tightened my braces etc. And so far so good!

My progress is really becoming apparent now! I know I've got a long way to go b/c I still have huge gaps and I have a slight overbite that needs to be corrected, but my upper teeth are pretty straight and my lower ones are really getting there!

(IDK why my cell phone cam always makes my rubber bands look dingy, swear they don't look stained in person!)

 (lower teeth, see that straggler really coming up and blending with the rest? :) )

Progress...so far

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!

6 Week Pics!

I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks since I got my braces! Other than the teeth extraction/dry socket fiasco time seriously flew right by! I can see changes already! I got my wires extended and tightened 3 days ago and my Ortho said that if i thought I saw fast progress before, just wait until I see what happens now that I've made space (4 pre molars removed) & got my wires extended. I'm excited!

Can you see the difference just 6 little weeks have made already?

 February 15, 2011

March 28, 2011