Hey People, Im 22 and new to the braces or soon to have braces club
i saw that I needed to post within 7 days of joining so I said why not

Went to my ortho for wat I thought would be just braces but after xrays and molding I was told of my narrow arches. He says we might need to extract 1-4 teeth but would like to do it without extractions so instead of braces i got spacers last week. Those 6 evil little plastic circles that i clearly underestimated. I went to eat a day or 2 after gettin them and the pain was immense. I dont know wat hurt worse, the pain in my molars from the spacers or my pride as i cried through that meal. haha

After that week of the buumajik liquid diet they took out the spacers and I enjoyed about 10 minutes of freedom until I got the rpe and lip bumper combo. The assistant said nobody will notice by just looking at me and she lied. Right to my face.
Day 2 of the combo, I never imagined how much it would affect my speech, cant pronounce anything with a R right, and spitting and swallowing was horrible, not to mention eating. Not as painful as the spacers but Its like i have to eat like a duck to get anything past the bar of expander justice. And the amount of drool was crazy. im sitting at work stealing my coworkers mirror so i can see those little holes to put the bumper back in while she screams not to drool on it. Well i cant help it lady.

Ortho said to turn the expander with the key twice a week so todayI gave it a try. I remember the assistant saying to get someone to do it or to come in and they would turn it for me. Both were not a option so I tried it myself. That little hole was elusive, denying me key turnin access after many positions including close to the mirror, far from the mirror, infront of the sink, on the sink, in the sink, on my bed, upside down (worst idea ever) but then just standing up straight i get it hooked in.

The pain from the turn went away pretty quick but im wondering how long others had to wear a expander and/or lip bumper

*pics to come*

Here are my teeth before anything was done


After two weeks Im not sure if any movement has happened with these torture devices but Im getting better at talking and getting food around the expander. But when I turned the key twice for this week I thought I ripped something in my nose in half but that pain went away in about 5 mins or maybe im just getting used to it.
Im still contemplating just going through with the extractions though I coulda sworn when my ortho told me the last time about extracts, he pointed at my canines and I dont want those sacrificed but maybe he meant the premolar. Guess Ill find out next week at the appt
Ill try and get some current pics with the xpander and lip bumper wheneva I get my camera back

Welcome to AW!! Hope your treatment's going well! I know all too well the liquid diet. Not fun! I think I lost 8 pounds in 2 days after getting braced!

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Hi Buu,

Welcome to the AW club!

Good to hear that you're getting used to your expander/lip bumper combo. Never needed those but can imagine it's quite hard to get used too.

Congrats on starting your journey to a new and better smile.

Hope your expander does its magic real soon and you can be rid of that device and get on with your journey!

Best of Luck! Ken.

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2 years 10 months braced. Now in retainers.
My new Toy!

"67 Camaro

Yea getting used to them is rough. Mostly for talking and eating. Actually its just that food trap that doubles as a expander since the lip bumper is removable but in time ill be able to talk and eat like I used too. At least thats what I will tell myself everyday for the next 3 months
In recent news I went to my ortho 2 days ago and he takes a quick look. Tells me that the cars on my molars around my crossbite are driving too fast kinda like this one hehehe
He says ill need speed bumps to slow em down and as a bonus it will help my expander do its job
So 2 blue pieces of playdoo the assistant says that this stuff will go away eventually but I never asked how long I should expect it to stay. Im surprised how soon I got used to them too. I thought man I just figured out how to not eat like a sloth with this expander and lip bumper now my bite is compromised but I was back to turtle speed
Ortho says about 2 more appts which should be 2-3 months until braces wooooo
Says I might still be wearing the expander and lip bumper with the train tracks too. I know having the expander with braces is common but I have no idea how i can have tracks on my lowers with this bumper. Guess I got some time anyway.

pics of where i'm out now
7 turns of rpe

Buu,

Ohh that expander thing looks like it is a tough thing to have. Well I have a habitt appliance which sucks really bad . Eating still horrible and talking it took 3weeks to sound a little normal. There are alot of things I can't eat. I eat alot of soft and smooth things. Hope your braces journey is a good one.

LynB

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Here's hoping that once you've got that nasty expander out of your mouth, that will be the hardest part OVER with And from then on, the braces will be a breeze!

I can't wait to see your teeth changing, you will have a beautiful smile when you're done

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Clickies on the "WWW" to see my braces story

Becca, BracedAgain, Lyn, and Kittymeowmeowmeow

Thx for the support, I can only hope the next 3 or so months go by super fast

I can only hope this is the hardest part tho first I had spacers and those just hurt, now I have the expander/lipbumper and they are just annoying, so will braces combine them both? annoyingggg pain

but then I read this

and makes this mission clear again
kitty If someone said that to me every morning it would makes things so much easier lol

As far as my progress, nothing new but will get some new pics in a few weeks

later all

Last friday I woke up in the middle of the night when I felt somethin like a pebble in my mouth and I spit it out. I woke up to find out it was a piece of my tooth, the premolar next to the molar band to be exact. I couldnt believe or understand how it happened. I never grinded my teeth before and the blue stuff they put on my molars keeps my bite apart so I shouldnt have been able to anyway. Even wierder the tooth wasnt completely chipped. Just the top layer of half the tooth. It feels like someone chiseled it or somethin while I slept because it still feels smooth. And to make matters worse the buccal tube on the upper molar band on the other side of my mouth is gone. I have no idea where or what happened to that. After trying to call my ortho to see what he says I found out he was on vacation so i decided to try again on monday.
I didnt think the missin tube would matter for a expander so I tried to turn it and it wouldnt budge. Must have been an hour before I gave up.

So on monday I make a appt to have the expander turned and I would just tell them about everything else while I'm there. They also have no idea what happened besides possibly grinding and eating something that popped the tube off. The assistant tried to turn the expander and it bent my key so she tried another one. Also bent. Ortho tries and gets the same result. After a comparison with my original pics he doesnt see the progress he expected and tells me not to turn the expander anymore.
But with the bad comes the good.
He then tells me that he's gonna take out the expander next appt, move forward with the braces and use elastics to correct the overbite. Not sure what will become of the lip bumper tho.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Brace day is the end of the month, March 26 instead of in 2-3 months.
Its get my braces early time

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Young67's Brace Face Blog

Lose one torture device and gain another Young67, thats how my treatment seems to have gone so far lol
Braces are on finally as of yesterday. Damon's Ceramic/metal hyrbid on top and metals on the lowers. Unfortunately the expander is still in so my upper arch doesnt relapse, or thats what i was told but atleast the lip bumper is gone.
I ate immediately after before the pain set in which wasnt too bad either
but within 4 hours of gettin them on a bracket popped off. Not sure why because I was just sitting down at work when all of a sudden I feel a slight bit relieved pressure on my uppers and a bracket just sliding on the wire.
Haha
It was almost like a sign cuz the bracket popped off as I was slacking off at work.
I called the ortho and they said to come back on thursday just incase anymore want to fall off. Hearing that I was scared to eat and pop any off that night so buumajik liquid diet hathe been restarted. Speaking of which, that diet is basically applesauce and protein shakes. Im a meat n potatoes kinda guy so this liquid and soft food thing is not working out at all.
Any Suggestions
Day 2
Woke up and my lowers felt really tight. Couldnt believe it but realized it was expected after reading the other stories on the forum. And besides, pain = progress right? right???
well i hope so
I forgot my liquid breakfast too so I was forced to eat something at work.
Ended up with a BLT sandwich with soft bacon. I stared at it for awhile wondering how much pain will it be this time. But I did it with spacers I can do it with braces. I bit my finger a few times to see which parts of my mouth hurt the least so I could chew mainly there and to get used to the pain and ripped through the sandwich.

It hurt. It hurt alot. but hunger makes me do crazy things and I know this wont be the last. But if you have good suggestions for soft food pleaaaaaaaaase hook me up.
Oh and of course, ill put some pics tomorrow after I get that bracket fixed.

Buu don't forget that we have over the counter meds!!! Take something you would for a headache half an hour or so before you eat. It won't rid the pain completely but enough where you should be able to eat without wincing in pain. Hopefully your brackets will behave and stay put, I've gone through 3 teeth having broken brackets. 1 tooth was 3 times and the other 2 teeth were only once so far.

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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

wooo Braces are on. Got them last tuesday but couldnt get a good pic with my horrible camera (best I got so far below)

Smiley: ah yes the the bliss pills. I need to buy some of those for the house. Or steal more from the work medicine cabinets hehehe. So far the renegade bracket has stayed on after the ortho pasted it back but but she only put the wire halfway through the bracket. The very next day the wire was poking me in the cheek on one side and I thought it was slack from that halfway bracket so i called my ortho n popped it all the way on. Then I looked in the mirror again and noticed each wire has a notch in the middle n it wasnt centered at all. Fixed that and the stabbing stopped. Now my mouth is just sore. Very very sore. But its worth it.

Oh and my soft food adventures continued. Found out oatmeal is great for this braces situation so I picked up a few boxes with the packets. It might be just me but eating oatmeal feels like a massage for my mouth and washes out very easliy when Im done but These quacker oatmeal guys dropped the ball, the packets are so small i gotta use 3 or 4 at once and there's only 10 in the box. Needless to say they arent lasting that long but feel great on my sore chompers.

Hey Buu,
You're hilarious by the way. I enjoy reading your story. More pics, get a better camera!

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.•*¨¨*·-:¦:-·*SPACEY'S *·-:¦:-·*¨¨*•. updated braces story: http://www.archwired.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=25311

Woo one month down, 17 more to go
Got a new camera, pics below,

In the lower arch pic(ignore my tongue, I aint kno what to do with it), the two premolars right next to the wire have elastics(I think they used a piece of a powerchain) to rotate them into their proper positions
Still havent used any wax, the time I did need it when the wire was poking my cheek, it either wouldnt stay put for nothing, or the wire just poked right through it. After wax lost to the wire 5-0, i stop trying and will be putting the remaining wax on ebay. Free shipping if within a 5 mile radius
Also got the holy grail of braces, the waterpik. This thing is grrrrreat. 1st time i used it, their was water all over the sink and the wall but I'm a pro now.

And for some reason, as soon as I got braces all this food appeared outta nowhere, 1st subway has that $5 foot long sub deal and there is one right next to the office, then work has 3 weeks worth of meetings, and their was leftovers after everyone. On friday I stole, i mean saved from the trash , 2 boxes of pizza from work. Wanted to rip out my braces and chow down during the nba playoffs but I took my time and let the waterpik take care of all the pizza mess leftover on my teeth. Did I say the waterpik is great already???

Luckily I dont feel much pain or soreness right now, but that makes me think my teeth stopped moving, so I cant wait for my may 10th adjustment and hopefully get the last few teeth on the wire

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My Progress: http://www.archwired.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=24388