Who I am: I'm Christy, a hella cool almost 41-yr-old who feels and acts more like a 25-yr-old who lives in Central Florida.
What made me get braces: Mild to moderate upper and lower crowding that got worse with time.
My prognosis: 12-14 months in braces for the above mentioned crowding, correction of lower front teeth 1mm off facial midline, slight (2mm) overbite and relief of TMJ symptoms.
My braces: traditional metal braces on the bottom, clear ceramic brackets on the top front 8 teeth (not quite sure what brand or type he uses).
Here's what my smile looked like pre-braces:
Notice how the two front teeth started to turn toward each other? Yeah, that drove me sesame crazy. That "black triangle" gap at the top of my two front teeth also drove me nuts.
So I got braced on October 23, 2007. Getting them on was not too bad, the cheek spreader thingy was the WORST part of it. I have a tiny, tiny mouth (my dentist generally uses tools and instruments made for kids on my mouth) and it felt like the ortho was trying to literally fold my cheeks over my ears! While he was putting the braces on, he mentioned that I had very strong and healthy jawbones, the bones were in the same condition as a 16 year old's!
The pain started that evening and continued for about 4 days. It wasn't really intense pain, just very achy. Tylenol helped, but there was no way I could eat. I was totally freaked out because my back teeth didn't seem to touch, so I couldn't figure out how I was ever going to chew anything. I decided to wait a few days to see if anything changed before calling my ortho.
The insides of my mouth were really torn up, but I was expecting that. I just rinsed with salt water and used wax for anything that felt too "pokey". It took about 10 days for the inside of my mouth to toughen up. All in all, I lost 13 lbs in 2 weeks because my mouth hurt! Oh another very cool thing for me: my lips have always been on the thinner side, but not after getting braces! I knew they would be swollen initially, but it looks like having braces makes them bigger, which now puts me at normal size lips rather than thin lips! Yay!
After 2 weeks, I got used to the way the braces felt in my mouth. Eating is still kinda icky, but I'm able to eat with no pain. I brush almost immediately after each meal, I live in mortal fear of an unsightly bit of lunch making an appearance at an afternoon meeting! Flossing is a major ordeal it takes me like an hour to get my whole mouth done.
Oh, I almost forgot --- right at the 2 week mark, the bracket on my bottom right incisor came off. I think it happened at work; I was particularly stressed out and I have a habit of clenching my jaw. I think as I was clenching, my top incisor was pressing against the bracket and then when I ate dinner, I felt the bracket just sliding back and forth along the archwire. I called the ortho and he fixed it the next day in about 15 minutes.
12/13/07 - 1st adjustment: The ortho complimented me on how super clean I was keeping my braces. I mentioned that I noticed a gap had opened up, which the ortho said was totally normal. He also said that I may notice a few more before treatment is over and that I shouldn't worry about those at all. The asst took the wires off of both the top and bottom and then gave me a few minutes to floss without wires in my way! LOL, I was absolutely thrilled by this. She then put the same archwire back on the bottom teeth. The ortho came in and did a little IPR around my front teeth, and then his asst powerchained my top front 4 teeth and put in a new (stronger) archwire. Instead of just having plastic ligs, I had all the top teeth tied in with wire and then covered by clear plastic ligs, which looked great.
Again,I thought I got off easy with no pain, but I was mistaken. It was achy that afternoon and for about the next 4 days afterward, then everything was normal again. Looks like this will be the way it goes from now on. It really isn't that bad, I think it's manageable.
So that's where I'm at so far. My next adjustment is 1/22/08, 4 days before my 41st birthday. This is good planning, since I will have nice new shiny ligs that haven't been discolored by coffee or tea plus I should be able to eat at my birthday dinner!
1/22/08 - 2nd adjustment: three words: NOT.SO.BAD !! On Friday afternoon, I felt something snap in my mouth - it turned out that I broke part of my powerchain. Since I had an appointment today, I decided not to call the ortho; which I paid for slightly, because the damn broken ends poked me in the lip all weekend. This problem was easily solved with some wax.
So I told the asst that I broke the powerchain, and she said it was no problem, and she asked what color I would like my new powerchain to be. I told her I hated the way they discolored and I asked if I still really needed the powerchain. She said I could ask the doc. The doc came and checked me out, said the spaces had closed nicely, so no more powerchain, he said she could just "gang tie" them! Yay ! No more plastic on the top!
So long story short: no more powerchain and new wire ties on the top, new archwire on the bottom (didn't really hurt, teeth are just a little bit pressure-sensitive, but not so badly that I can't eat). No elastics yet. I'd say I got off pretty easy today. Pictures forthcoming....
I will have more pictures as soon as I can get my damn camera to work normally.
