"What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been" - Robert Hunter, Grateful Dead

[Twangsnap]

Haha. I have trained my 6 year old son to check my braces after I eat and tell me if anything really obvious is stuck in there My husband has happily allowed me to walk around town after a lunch out with an entire serving of spinach plastered to my front teeth so I clearly can't count on him. I do think I must be a horrendous meal companion though, as I subconsciously pick bits out of my teeth and eat with my mouth open because heck, back teeth don't touch anymore.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

I received an email over the weekend from an overly enthusiastic former classmate who was sending out a "save the date" announcement about a class reunion this summer. Woooo boy, I wouldn't want to miss that, because nothing announces your victorious return quite like showing up with braces! Maybe I can develop some acne and wear floods to complete the look. Just awesome.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

My next ortho visit is tomorrow, and it feels a little like "back to the future" since I find myself, once again, focusing on moving up to the next wire in whatever the new sequence is. I'm shaking my head because I'd been on the final wire ("final?" hah!) on top and the next to last wire on the bottom for many months leading up to January, but they went back "a few" wires when they switched brackets. I don't know how many steps back we took, but right now I have flexible round wires, which was a little surprising and seemed like a pretty big step back. Hopefully they're just meant to be there for the briefest of brief transitions, and we can start marching through the wire sequence and get back to the stiffer finishing wires asap. Here's to hoping for a big, stiff wire, even if it hurts like heck. Let's just get back to where we were.

Anyway, in the spirit of glass half full, I've at least appreciated not having to bother with elastics over this past month, or worry about discolored powerchains that will now be visible. Hopefully I get another month without elastics coming back, but I suspect the hiatus from powerchains might prove to be brief since there have been a couple gaps that have appeared. I should probably order up a neon-colored dinner while I can.

[Twangsnap]

That must be frustrating, especially having been so far down the road with your other braces. What did you end up with this time?

But on another note priceless

Woooo boy, I wouldn't want to miss that, because nothing announces your victorious return quite like showing up with braces!

That's just amazing time, right?

[SinkFullOfDinner]

What did you end up with this time?

One step fwd! That January retreat to round, super flex wires lasted only one month, fortunately. It sounded like he skipped one size that he might have used and just went straight to flexible square wires, so I'll call it two steps forward for now. Given how much they struggled, however, to get the top one in, I'll admit to reconsidering my earlier enthusiasm for going big. They cooled the wire in a couple spots to get it to deflect(?) enough, and it was still a struggle to get it in a few slots. That's generally a pretty good predictor of future soreness. Can we all agree on that? And I can tell you that one day later I think this ranks #3 on the list. That's fine, as long as that wire is getting down to some serious multi-tasking. Btw, regarding that cooling thing, some of these wire materials are kind of amazing, aren't they? Cooling is opposite of what I'd expect.

Also, a second month hiatus from elastics, but he did say they'd be back soon. He wants to move up one more wire before getting back to those. It's nice not having to bother with elastics, but now that I know it's just a matter of when, and that they're standing between now and the finish line, I just want to get them started back up and over with.

That's just amazing time, right?

Seriously. But now that I'm thinking about the summer calendar, that date is about a month before the early guestimate for getting these off. So, maybe if I get lucky and things move even a little bit faster than the optimistic view, they'll be off by then. I know, stacking optimistic on top of optimistic are long odds, but it would be nice to be done when I reconnect with everyone. It's definitely not as big a deal as someone who's trying to wrap up before their wedding. I think everyone understands that situation. I'd have a better chance of it happening if I were on your schedule. I'm not expecting it to happen, but we're all allowed a couple tiny wishes and crossed fingers, right?

[SinkFullOfDinner]

That earlier reference to Back to the Future is starting to feel a bit too accurate for my taste. So much of what's going on right now is the same as what was happening early in treatment. It's gone from "haha," to now somewhere between surprising and unsettling, because this is supposed to be the last push and not a do-over.

You know the early script: waking up and your bite has changed overnight; some tooth moves, and now you only have one point of contact on one side; a molar starts to shift and it feels exactly like you have a bite block and your old open bite is back. Later adjustments result in a couple areas being sore as the tweaks become more targeted, while everything is sore early on because everything is moving. Early on, gaps are mostly opening as space is created, instead of mostly closing later on.

It never occurred to me that there might be one more trip through the "it gets worse before it gets better" phase, or that there'd be another fun gappy period to look forward to, but that seems to be what's happening. Even the ortho indicating that I can schedule my next appointment 6+ weeks out reminds me of the early months when the intervals were longer so that wires had more time to sort things out. I'd been doing 4-5 wk intervals for quite awhile. Geez, idk what to make of it. It's just a lot more change and movement than I was expecting this late SPAM SPAM SPAMMING, especially given that I thought things were feeling relatively coordinated over the last couple of months.

I'm not that big into drama, so I'll do my best impression of "remain calm and carry on," but if they're going to break it, it better be for a reason, and they better know how to put it back together quickly. Sorry for the mini-vent, and I certainly don't want to overreact a mere six weeks into the braces switch, but this just has that unsettling feeling of being more involved and possibly taking longer (again) than anticipated. Hope I'm wrong and just a little skittish at this point. What's the saying about "once bitten...?"

[SinkFullOfDinner]

ok, I kinda wish I could just delete that post! It sounded a bit crabby. Sure, there's more going on than I anticipated, and it seems eerily similar to the early days, but what do I know? And it is what it is...nothing I can do about it.

The thread was really started to post some of the eye-rolling, ridiculous, embarrassing, smh, funny stuff (even if it's only funny afterwards) that happens when you're dumb enough to sign up for this process. I prefer to have someone read and think "haha, that totally happened to me once," instead of "oh man, that sucks." I just forgot for a second. Oops.

[Twangsnap]

I think you should allow yourself to feel down and even be ratty once in a while. If you can't b*tch and moan here, where can you b*tch and moan?

I wonder why all the sudden movement? Maybe because the switch from back to front of teeth creates more pressure or room for manoeuvre? Don't worry, I'm not giving you any sympathy. You did sign up for it after all

[Shelleyt]

Came here to harass for a lingual question! When you had your linguals, did you have anything taken out temporarily (like get wire out at ortho, leave and go next door to the dentist, then come back after cleaning to get hooked up again) or did the hygienist maneuver around everything?? I have a cleaning scheduled a couple days after my adjustment and was wondering if I should swap it out for a same time appointment so it's not so hard. My concern is that my ortho has a wire power chain type attachment on my front bottom 4 that essentially blocks acces to those teeth, which are usually the ones subject to the most scraping (gives me shivers to think about that sound) plus linguals just make life harder in general for those in the dental arts

[SinkFullOfDinner]

I wonder why all the sudden movement? Maybe because the switch from back to front of teeth creates more pressure or room for manoeuvre?

I haven't a clue. Unfortunately, my next appointment is still a month out, which gives me all kinds of time to invent several epic fail scenarios! I'm sure I'll be creative.

If I had to guess, though, it's probably just an unavoidable part of switching bracket types. If you get a bracket or two repositioned, you feel it later even though it's not a setback. Now basically reposition all 24 of them. I suppose it could also be the result of adjusting from a custom archwire to one of the standard shapes. I know there are some predetermined sizes and shapes of archwires, and the ortho selects the one that best matches what they're aiming for when they do your plan. Maybe they can do whatever size and shape they want when they do a custom wire setup, but if they later have to switch to a standard archwire shape, there's some overall movement required. That makes sense to me, which means it's probably wrong.

I'll bet when I ask my ortho what's going on, he'll just kind of shrug and say "sometimes that happens, totally normal" and then I'll think to myself, "he just casually explained it in about 97% fewer words than it took me to guess in this post. I'm so glad that I wasted my time thinking about it."

[godutch]

I'll bet when I ask my ortho what's going on, he'll just kind of shrug and say "sometimes that happens, totally normal" and then I'll think to myself, "he just casually explained it in about 97% fewer words than it took me to guess in this post. I'm so glad that I wasted my time thinking about it."

I think what I feel happening is that the archwire exerts a force but also friction from contact between teeth is a force the archwire must overcome to move a teeth, so when a gap appears somewhere suddenly there is less friction on the rest of the teeth and they start moving too

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Yeah, that could be it, too. And see, fewer words to explain it than I needed. I need to start thinking in terms of tweet length.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Came here to harass for a lingual question! When you had your linguals, did you have anything taken out temporarily (like get wire out at ortho, leave and go next door to the dentist, then come back after cleaning to get hooked up again) or did the hygienist maneuver around everything??

I did not, but wish that I could have. Unfortunately, my ortho and dentist aren't close to each other, so to add the round trip time to the already long lingual appointments would have killed a large part of a weekday morning or afternoon, and my dentist isn't open on Sat. If they were "next door," as you said, I definitely would have tried to coordinate just so the hygienist could be more productive without the wires in place. As it was, she just had to work around everything. I know it was a pain for her, because she commented on it every time. Especially with the lower front ones, like you said.

If your ortho is willing to work with you to coordinate, and they're nearby, that would be great! I'll bet it depends on whether they're planning a wire change anyway, because you know what's involved with removing and replacing those crazy elastic double ties, or your crisscrossed wire, or the threading required for some of the wire ties with linguals. Someone who needlepoints would be really impressed! I can't imagine that my ortho would want to go through that if it weren't already part of the appointment.

Also, I don't know where you are in the wire sequence, but when you get to the last wire, it's such a slot-filling fit that the only thing harder than getting it snapped in is trying to remove it without bending it. When they had to in order to do some IPR or something, it added to the appointment time and seemed like a big pain in the rear. If you're already at that wire stage, you may be out of luck, but you should definitely call and see if you can make it work. Good luck!

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Just a side note. I'm not exactly sure when this happened, but somewhere along the way from Day 1 to today I've forgotten what it's like to look in the mirror and not see braces. That seems so weird to me. As if I've already forgotten how things are supposed to look. I realized it today and tried stepping back from the mirror far enough to kind of squint and visualize them gone, and it worked a little, but not really.

Like I said, "when did that happen?" I still vividly remember week 1, when every morning I looked in the mirror and thought "those are not my teeth," and "wtf, somebody photoshopped braces on my smile." It looked ridiculous to me. Then, a few weeks later you look, shake your head and think "ugh, they're still there," and then a little later "[sigh], that still doesn't look normal." It probably doesn't look any less ridiculous, just that I'm used to seeing it. It crept up on me, and then bam, I don't remember regular teeth. Serious short-term memory. Damn. That cross over point when you forget "normal" has to happen to everyone, right?

Now I think I understand why the "Big Reveal" is a real thing. You just forget and can't visualize the result.

[LisaK]

Sink full of Dinner caught my eye! I think that every time I use my Waterpik. Its my lifesaver! I just joined this site a few days ago. I came across your name and then I sat last night reading all your posts. Youve given me hope and I love that you have humor with everything that youre going through. I totally get it. I saw how you said you hit a little rough patch and try to make humor about this process. Youve been through a way longer process then I have. Im only a little over a week in. But....some of the thoughts you have and humor you make of it, is the same thing I think and tell my husband. I dont think anyone gets it, unless theyve been through it. I dont have a bite plate and hope that I dont need one. My Ortho was hoping to give me one, but the person that made it, didnt fit it properly so he said to scratch that off my first visit. So he said for me to be careful and not bite my ceramic brackets off. I also have a little lisp/slur that you speak of when I talk because I cant bite down all the way. I just want to thank you for sharing your journey and before you know it.....You'll remember what it was like to see your teeth again and to see how worth it was. Keep you with your posts. I do enjoy them and will continue to follow your process. Good luck!!