If you want to share the detailed saga of your braces story, this is the place to do it. You can use this forum as a braces journal, editing and updating your posts as your treatment goes on. Remember to also visit the main ArchWired.com site for additional stories from other readers!
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Day 1 of being braced! I've had them on for about an hour. Ceramic uppers and lowers. So far they feel better than those seperators did but I'm sure I'll be eating my words on that one! I've taken an ibuprofen in anticipation of "discomfort"!
I was almost panicy about it at first - laid in the chair thinking to myself that I was a fool for doing this - but by the end of the appointment I had "adjusted" my attitude. I am truly going to have an even more beautiful smile when this is over.
I will have wires for 9 months - my ortho assures me that is all it will be as I hinted that once he got them on me he would refuse to remove them - and then I will have invisalign for 9 more. He says they are having really good success with this treatment plan - doing all the "heavy moving" with wires and then the fine tuning with invisalign.
My first adjustment is in 6 weeks - at that point there will only be 7.5 months to go!
One day down, how are doing? Feel like a high school sophmore showing off your new mouth jewelry? I hope everything is going well and don't worry the calendar is already counting down the days until you are a braces alum.
Wow - 2 days down - amazingly enough no pain! A bit of rubbing on the back rings but that lovely dental wax fixed that up in no time.
I feel like my lips are preceeding me everywhere I go but I know they don't look as pushed out as they feel. I've actually had long conversations with people who near the end will say "did you go to the dentist today?" because they notice a bit of strangeness in my speech but didn't notice the braces! So I'm starting to feel a bit less weird about it.
I am rinsing with salt water every day - thanks for the tip!
I am coming to understand that just because they are the center of my universe right now they barely merit notice from most others. Which is a good thing. Eating in public is tough but I suppose that will get easier as time goes on too.
And speaking of feeling like a high school sophomore - today I ran into my first ever boyfriend, who I went to high school grad with - haven't seen him in 25 yrs! And I truly didn't feel self concious about my teeth!
A lot of my confidence is due to reading posts from people on this forum - it helps to know that there are a whole bunch of people out there just like me!
I can't believe it is almost a month since I got my braces! Still no real problems - and I'm getting better at eating - still stay away from lettuce in public but I will eat just about anything at home.
The one thing that I really miss is apples - I used to eat one every day and loved them - somehow cutting them up and eating them in pieces isn't the same!
I've really gotten into smoothies for breakfast - easy on the teeth and healthy too!
One thiing that kinda bugs me is I have 2 little rubber bumpers on my bottom teeth to keep the top ones from crashing into the brackets and they have gotten discoloured - an ugly orange colour. I suppose its from coffee and red wine - 2 things I love and refuse to give up so I guess I'll just have to live with it. I wonder if I can get them replaced when I go for an adjustment in 2 weeks. I'm also noticing that the elastics are a bit discolored as well. Not really obvious but I take a pic every week so I can track my progress and when I compare between Day 1 and Week 3 I can tell.
I can't believe 5 weeks have passed since b-day! I can really notice that the teeth are moving - especially when I compare the day 1 picture with the Week 5 one.
I have experienced some soreness in some teeth - thankfully not all of them at once! I'm really curious to see how I feel after the adjustment - I know I didn't experience much discomfort or pain when I first got braced - am hoping that the same is true for the adjustment. I will definitly post an update afterwards - and i will ask to have the discolored bumpers replaced.
I am such a believer in the salt water rinses (THANKYOU KK!). I've experienced no soreness in my mouth from any chafing.
Ewwww, discolored bumpers, I know how it goes. I had them for 2 months and finally got them off. Hopefully your first adjustment isn't as bad as mine. I still had some extremely sensitive molars and cuspids and boy, were they letting me know they were sore. You might want to take some tylenol or advil before the adjustment, just in case.
Upper and lower 1st premolars extracted
Uppers braced 4/6/07 & Lowers braced 4/20/07
ceramic brackets and rectangular arch wires
Est. term: 30-36 months
De-banded: 3/04/09 w/ LBR and U&L Essix
Well I had the first adjustment! And I don't need to have bumpers anymore - my teeth have moved enough. I'm glad 'cuz they were pretty ugly when they got stained.
I took advil before going and it still hurt - but only for a short time - when she was removing or replacing the elastic on some teeth it was kinda painful - nothing unbearable but if it was going to go on for a long time it would have been. I didn't get a new wire this time - probably next time. They also replaced some of the elastics with wire - I guess over time the little elastics stretch a bit so they aren't holding the archwire in place as tightly as they should. The ortho is happy with my progress and sees no problem with meeting the magic switch to invisalign day in 7.5 months. He says he's not worried about me at all. Which is a good thing - I wouldn't want him to lose sleep
My teeth were a bit sensitive for a couple of days after the adjustment but today (3 days later) they feel great!
When I go back next time (7 weeks) they are putting brackets on my very back molars - currently the brackets are 1 in from the back. So they put one of the dreaded spacers in - kinda bugged me for a few days but feels ok now. I gather they will remove the brackets that are there now? Guess I'll see in 7 weeks.
I'm actually thinking that I may re-evaluate the invisalign thing when the time comes and just finish up in wires but we'll see. I might still be in the "honeymoon phase" and might be getting tired of the flossing/eating challenges with the wires. But all in all I kinda like them! Is that weird?
- and then I will have invisalign for 9 more. He says they are having really good success with this treatment plan - doing all the "heavy moving" with wires and then the fine tuning with invisalign.
