Rubberbands Rubberbands Rubberbands

What is my deal with these rubber bands? The first 2 days with them were kind of torturous! My teeth and jaw were so damn sore. I even had a bad dream that I couldn't open my mouth! Yikes! After the first days, the pain definitely subsided and it became more of a slight discomfort than pain. Now it's really not a big deal at all, BUT I woke up again this morning to find that I didn't have the rubber bands in my mouth! What the heck?? I KNOW I put them in my mouth before bed and I have NO recollection of taking them out at all! So where were they? Like deja vu, I checked my nightstand and lo and behold there were two little rubber bands placed nicely next to each other . . . AGAIN. I must be taking them out in my sleep. what other explanation is there? Ahh! now I need to figure out how to stop this bad habit. But how do I do that when I don't even remember taking them out in the first place? Eek! I wonder if doubling up on the rubber bands might help to make up for the time I haven't worn them (sleeping hours). I met someone recently who told me that she used to double her bands up to make it more effective. I wonder if that actually works? Hmmm . . .

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.

Rubber Bands

So these new rubber band things that I'm supposed to wear are kind of a pain in the ass. They made my teeth beyond sore by the end of the day yesterday. I ended up taking advil throughout the evening/night.

This morning when I woke up and went to brush my teeth, I remembered that I needed to remove my rubber bands first but to my surprise they weren't in my mouth! My first thought was 'OMG did I swallow them in my sleep??', 'Did they fall out?'. I checked around my bed and found them placed nicely on my nightstand and suddenly I remembered pulling them out in the middle of the night in a twilight state. I remember my mouth killing me and just yanking them out so I could sleep. Oops! I wore them all day though! Only took them out to eat and brush my teeth and I'll wear them while I sleep tonight also.

My mouth is still pretty sore and as luck would have it I am completely out of advil! Ugh! But, it's still not as sore as yesterday so hopefully it gets more and more tolerable as the days progress. In the mean time, I'll be sure to pick up advil tomorrow!

The straggler is finally on board!

I had my appointment today and my teeth finally separated enough to allow my ortho to archwire that straggling back tooth that I hate so much! Finally! That tooth has bothered me for years! When I first got braces I was a little bummed that that tooth couldn't be wired yet, although I completely understood why. My teeth were so crowded that it was impossible to wire that tooth with the rest. But alas it is finally on board and if my lower teeth move anything like my upper teeth did then I think I'll be seeing results pretty soon! I'm excited! I couldn't imagine going my whole life never knowing what I'd look like with straight teeth and a proud smile. My crooked teeth have caused me so much grief- getting teased, shy smiles, hiding laughs! Now my crooked smile is slowly fading away.

Back to my appointment . . .

Highs

• Now ALL of my front teeth have brackets and are archwired, even the straggler.
• Orthodontist said the spaces where I had teeth extracted from are closing and healing nicely and better than a lot of other patients he's seen.
• Said my bite looks good

Lows

• The assistant kinda sucked and had to stop a few times in the middle of changing my wire to ask the orthodontist questions. She even asked me a question & I had to answer "I dont know" b/c hello she's supposed to be the one who knows what to do! I'm so close to requesting that I work only with the actual orthodontist.
• The bracket they glued to my back tooth to replace the one that broke off earlier this month, broke immediately after they set it. It woudln't stay put so they put spacers in and I have to go back next week to get a band.
• My teeth are soooooooorrrrrrreeeeee!!! I figure the more I feel, the more it's working - no pain no gain, but MAN! Sore!

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!

Spacers Repaired!

Yesterday, I stopped by my orthodontist's office to get the spacer that popped out replaced and to get the others checked b/c I am kind of a spazz like that. The visit was extremely fast. I think I spent more time finding parking than I did at the actual visit. I walked in and was the only non staff member there, they immediately had me sit in the patients chair and sent the same assistant woman that initially  put the spacers in over to me. I showed her the spacer that had popped out and she popped a rubber spacer in it's place (it was metal the first time around). Just like that! No elbow grease, no struggle, just popped it right in - no problem! Then I showed her another spacer that seemed loose to me and she quickly pulled it out (no pain or discomfort at all) and popped a new rubber spacer right in.

I honestly couldn't believe how easy the visit was. I thought it would hurt since my teeth had become sore, but it didn't hurt at all. The assistant definitely redeemed herself in my eyes and so I now lean on the good side of the fence.

Today (day 3 of having spacers in) my teeth are still sore. I haven't really been eating much. See my menu below;

Thursday
- Gyro for lunch - VERY unsuccessful! I took a few small painful bites that took me like 20 minutes just to chew and get down. I ended up throwing more than 75% of the gyro away.
- Mashed Potatoes & Mac n' Cheese for dinner - Mashed potatoes were a great choice! Mac n/ cheese was soft enough but it still took some effort to chew. Not as easy as it sound for uber sore teeth.

Friday
- Coffee for breakfast
- Clam Chowder soup for lunch - or maybe I should say clam chowder broth and the potatoes found within. There was no way in hell I could masticate those chewy clams in the soup. At the end of the bowl I had  a pile of all the non liquids found within the soup.
- Dinner - Giant baked potato from BJ's. I basically ate the softest parts and left the skin. Didn't eat the whole thing b/c I got tired of the effort it took to eat it.

Saturday
- Little appetite
- Lasagna for dinner and very soft brownie a la mode for dessert

Sometimes I feel "used' to the discomfort, while sometimes it feel like torture! All in all it's nothing I can't handle. . . just VERY annoying. I mean imagine how annoying it is when you get a tiny seed stuck in your tooth when you eat strawberries or sesame seeds or something! Now imagine liked 10 seeds stuck in 8 crevices! Not fun, right? I actually read that spacers are as thick as pennies so that would be a more accurate thing to imagine ; 4 pennies stuck between your back teeth. Blah!

All will be worth it though and I keep reminding myself of that.

I have wanted straight teeth for such a long time now! My crooked smile has seriously affected my self esteem to an extent and has maybe even held me back in some ways. It's time to quite letting it dictate my life. Time for me to get that crooked smile fixed and be the me that I've always been meant to be!

No pain, no gain!

and . . . if you want more info. on spacers here are some helpful links that I found that can explain spacers a whole lot better than I could...enjoy!

First: Here's what rubber spacers look like (NOT my teeth - two of mine are actually metal bars)

Helpful Links:
http://www.bracesguide.com/duringbraces/duringbraces03.html

http://www.archwired.com/spacers.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodontic_spacer

Here we go . . .

So after several visits to various orthodontists, I finally settled on one. I'm pretty comfortable with him. He has a Doctorate in dentistry from Harvard University and also studied at UCLA. His yelp reviews are stellar and my friend's kids are patients of his and she loves him! He also has great hours for someone who works full time 9-5 hours like me and his prices are incredible compared to the only other orthodontist I considered seeing. I do admit that I think his staff is not as good as the staff of the other orthodontist that I met with, so I guess I am going to have to see how that all plays out. So far I am on the fence and I'll tell you why;

Yesterday, I completed what I guess you can call step 1 of getting braces. I had spacers put in between my back teeth to make room for the brackets they'll glue on when they put my braces on next week. The orthodontist was great at explaining everything, then he turned me over to the assistant. I'm sure there is a more technical name for her; dental assistant? ortho assistant? Anyway, she shoved some rubber spacers between my upper teeth with a smidge of difficulty. Then she started on my lower teeth and was using some serious elbow grease but couldn't get them in.

"Do you have trouble flossing?"

"No"

"Your teeth are very tight"

Ok? Then she decided to switch to metal spacers instead. With the same amount of oomph that she used to get the first set in, she began to try to shove the metal bars between my teeth. At one point her hand slipped a little and she poked me. I think she got more scared than I did and that in itself made me think twice. After a few more minutes, she finally said we were done. I felt one of the metal ones popping up already and asked her about it. She said if it pops up to just push it back down. Ok? The entire appointment from waiting in the waiting room, asking a million questions, taking pictures and getting spacers only took 30 minutes. My teeth didn't hurt, it only felt annoying b/c things were stuck in my teeth but the ortho warned me that I'd hate him by tomorrow when they got sore. By the time I got home from my appointment, one of my metal spacers had already popped off. Yes, the same one I inquired about before I left the office. I'm not sure if this is normal or if my teeth really are tight or what! It's not  huge deal, just enough to put me on alert. I called the office today and the orthodontist (let's call him Dr. S) told me to come in when I can (tomorrow) and he'll personally replace the spacer that popped off, as well as replace the metal ones with more comfortable rubber ones. So, I have been pacified for now and hope that this is a one time glitch in the soon to be year(s) long plan!

And for the record, I don't hate him today as he warned me that I would . . . but boy do i understand why other patients might! For such tiny little pieces of metal/rubber, they sure do produce a lot of discomfort and soreness! I better get used to it! Next week is braces & within 2 months I'll be getting EIGHT teeth extracted! Eight, man! Four wisdom teeth, two of which are impacted & the teeth next to my canine teeth on both top and bottom (4). So, not looking forward to that...but it will all be worth it when I get that megawatt smile!