I'll start with calling myself a liar because I actually started this process something like half a year ago. I did get my braces fitted last Friday so that's where the topic title comes from.
DISTANT PAST
So it's my second try at this: when I was a lot younger, I guess somewhere between 10 and 16 maybe, I already had braces. They were of the removable kind: a plastic plate at the top of my mouth with wires to move my teeth. After a while this got replaced with either a palate expander or something that combined both functions. I don't know if they ever told me why but I do remember that instead of the plastic being one thing, it was 2 halves connected with some metal contraptions that could make it wider.
I never had braces for my bottom teeth.
Being a child I really disliked wearing them, although I can't remember exactly what was most annoying. I do remember hating it when they put the goop in my mouth to take prints, and also how it changed the way I spoke because I now had this huge thing in my mouth. And since, being removable, nothing was really stopping me from taking them out, I was wearing them less and less and eventually my parents got sick of it and let me quit altogether.
I'm not going to say I regretted it ever since because I'm sure when I stopped I was momentarily happy, but I don't think that lasted very long. I do remember my sisters getting braces (no longer removable: they either had a better orthodontist than me or science had evolved by then, or both), and being jealous when they had them taken off, what with their perfect teeth and all.
MORE RECENT PAST
Eventually, after years/decades of never really wanting to smile, especially not in pictures, I got sick of it and decided to go see a dentist specialised in cosmetic dentistry. I was sort of thinking that maybe I could get away with just having them whitened, but very aware that they were probably going to suggest braces. So this was obviously what happened and because I had been thinking about this for years I agreed right away. (If I wouldn't have wanted braces I wouldn't have gone there to begin with.)
They referred me to an orthodontist and it all began. I have moderate crowding at the top and more severe crowding at the bottom. My lateral incisors are all positioned to the back of my other teeth. This is more pronounced for the bottom. All my front teeth are fairly wonky too, all rotated in different directions. As for my pre-molars and molars, instead of having a nice normal convex arch they are concave, curving inward instead of out. The only good thing I could say is that's it's all fairly symmetrical and that it could be (a lot) worse.
At my first appointment, my orthodontist was thinking she wouldn't have to have any teeth removed, but after all the pictures and scans were taken (that 3D-imager she has is so sci-fi holy sesame) she had to change her mind. To make space without pulling teeth she'd have to move them all outwards and my (front) teeth are apparently already pushed so much outward that moving them even more wasn't possible. I never really thought my teeth were sticking out too much (and I still don't) but bone structure being what it is, I would have to have 4 pre-molars removed.
She also advised going to a stomatologist to check out my wisdom teeth. I still have all 4 of them, but none of them have erupted and 3 of them are really deep and pointed straight at the roots of the molar in front of them. Some decades ago another dentist had also told me to go to a hospital to have them checked and possibly removed, but I never did. They've never given me any problems really, so I don't blame myself too much for not doing that.
I wasn't too happy with the thought of having 4 (and maybe 8 ) perfectly healthy teeth removed, but I still started scheduling everything in:
1. Removal of 2 pre-molars
2. One week later: removal of 2 other pre-molars
3. Three weeks later: braces go in
4. One month later: stomatologist appointment. (I checked and having this after already getting the braces was no problem. Stomatologists all have a several months-long waiting list and I really wanted to get the show on the road.)
5. One week later: removal of wisdom teeth. (If deemed necessary... but apparently the check => removal is so routine the surgery is always already scheduled even before you have had the checkup.
)LAST MONTH
First up was the removal of the pre-molars. The teeth to be removed were the 15, 25, 35, and 45. Having all 4 of them extracted at once was a remote possibility, but the dentist doesn't like doing that because you need to sedate the entire bottom yaw, which is a pain. I would've chosen to get it all over with it in one go, but in hindsight I'm glad that didn't happen because this way you can at least sort of eat on the side they didn't work on.
The weird thing is that after the first extractions I had to take painkillers for like 5 days, while after the second set I could already stop taking them the day after. Not sure why those were so much easier (he had to pull a lot harder on the bottom one during the second session too); maybe it's because I left the gauze in a lot longer? I didn't change them until I got home, while I changed the gauze for the first extractions at the dentist's office already. Leaving them in resulted in a lot of drooling on the way back home but if that's the reason for the healing process being so much easier I thoroughly recommend leaving that gauze in, drool be damned.
Then last friday, the braces went on. I have braces on my teeth up to the extraction gaps, and metal separators between my molars. (Oh and speedbumbs on the bottom molars so I don't bite off my bottom braces.) I can feel the pressure on my teeth and when I prod them it kinda hurts, but that's a piece of cake compared to what these torture devices are doing to my lips, cheeks, and tongue.
It seems to be something different every day too. First it was my bottom lip getting cut up by a bracket or maybe a wire, and then it was the bottom left separator absolutely destroying my tongue. Eating is a special kind of hell because somehow my right cheek gets squeezed against the rightmost bracket.
I was able to sort of solve the separator problem because I can move it around a bit and when I move it all the way out my tongue doesn't reach it anymore. It's strange that while it now sticks out quite a bit to the outside my cheek doesn't seem to be bothered by it. I don't know if I can keep doing this until the next appointment, if it starts insisting to go back to the inside I may have to contact my orthodontist and see if I can switch to a rubber separator.
As for the eating thing, not sure what I'll do. I guess I'll see what happens the next few days and see if it improves; some other trouble spots (namely my bottom lip) have been able to grow armor already so hopefully this also happens for this. In the mean time I'll keep drinking smoothies and taking half an hour for very carefully eating a single sandwich.
I haven't used any wax yet because while it hasn't been a walk in the park nothing has really been totally unbearable except for the tongue/separator thing and wax wouldn't have worked there anyway I'm pretty sure.
TODAY
My stomatologist appointment got moved up a while ago for some reason I forgot, and the new date was: today. Conclusion: my wisdom teeth are in a pretty terrible position (big news there) and if I had been about 20 years younger she would've removed them, but by now they are solidly encased in bone and removing them would be that much harder. So unless my orthodontist really wants them removed (and seeing as I just had 4 other teeth removed to make space, I can't see why), or they become an actual medical problem later on, they're staying in. Hooray!
LATER
That's the story so far. Feel free to comment or give tips! I'll try to update if something interesting happens, and I could see about posting pics if I'm allowed to.
Oh I'm also going to buy a water flosser thing, they look rad.