A long time coming

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WonkyToothBGone
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2019 5:34 am

A long time coming

#1 Post by WonkyToothBGone »

Hi everyone!

I am nearly 47 and just had metal braces put on 3 days ago. So far, I have no regrets about making the decision to do so. I have been wanting my teeth straightened since I was 7, but, at least clinically, there wasn't a reason to do so. My parents didn't have a lot of money when I was younger, and so having my teeth straightened for purely aesthetic reasons just wasn't an option. There were so many more things that were more pressing. Fast forward through my life, I totally understand the money aspect so I cannot begrudge my parents for it. Now that I am finally in a decent financial position as an adult, it was a no-brainer to go for it. So here I am, metal in mouth, and its all a bit surreal. When you have wanted to do this one thing for yourself for so long, its a very odd feeling to have actually done it. That persistent nagging thing in your head finally goes away. So now I am on this journey to help improve my self-confidence. Even though I am just at the start of it all, I am over the moon.

I had taken before and 1st day pic, but the rules of the forum won't allow me to post them yet since I am a new member (sorry!) I will share them once I have racked up enough posts.

So, would like to share my decision making process with you, because I think that its a part that is overlooked. This is hard to explain without a picture, but I will try. The main reason for having braces in the first place is a tiny gap in between my two front teeth, and one tooth that is slightly rotated. I had initially looked into Invisalign as an option. On the face of it, it sounds like an ideal solution - custom treatment trays, short treatment time, and not noticeable except up close. Who wouldn't want that? I had gone to my dentist who has had the invialign training for mild cases. Still sounding good, he went through the assessment and treatment process. But then there were things that made me question whether this was right for me. First, he was only authorized to administer their Invisalign Go. This only treats the front teeth (I think 6, but don't quote me) and not the back ones. Then he gave me the price. £2500 for the course of treatment, which could be eligible for a small discount if I didn't use the finance company. Thats a lot of money for what I saw as only partial orthodontic treatment. But I knew I was going to have to invest in this, so I took the information and went away to think about it. So I visited LOADS of invisalign forums and viewed lots of before and after photos. There seemed to be a consistent pattern with all of them. If a tooth needed any significant degree of rotation, invisalign treatment would fix the rotation in part, but not all the way. You could see that the tooth was mostly in line with the rest of the arch, but a small degree of rotation was still there. That was disappointing for me, because I thought i had decided on a way forward that would suit me. But on balance, I could not spend that much money for something that didn't really correct what I wanted to have corrected. The nail in the coffin for Invisalign for me were some of the horror stories of Invisalign dentists (not orthodontists). There were patient complaints about them not being able to deal with the problems - bite/alignment - that arose from the treatment, or being unable to fix the problems without charging significantly more than originally quoted. I'm sure that it does work in some cases, but for me, the risk was too great.

Then I looked into ceramic braces. It seems that there are some issues with the brackets being fragile and staining easily. Well, I like to eat and drink lots of tea. So, I ruled them out too.

I just couldn't fathom the idea of having lingual braces. I think my tongue would just be rubbed raw by them, so that's was a 'nope 'from the start - not to mention wholly cost-prohibitive for me.

So I decided on metal ones. They are a strong material, have good results with teeth rotations, and correct the whole arch. I need low nickel (because I have a nickel sensistivity) and non-latex elastics (I have a latex allergy), so these were my only concerns with this type of brace. I made an appointment with an orthodontist this time, and metal braces ended up being cheaper with an actual orthodontist than invisalign was with a dentist. who knew?! I went with what I see as a high-end practice as well (I admit with shame that I was pulled in by their flashy website). So far, I cannot fault their service and professionalism, and the information they provide to patient and prospective patients is thorough and clear.

So, up until now, I have had to go through a few steps to get where I am.
1 - consultation appt. they took pan-oral images to draw up a treatment plan.
2 - fix potential problem teeth before treatment commences. obviously having fillings would disrupt your orthodontic treatment, so all would-be issues have to be corrected first. so of 6 issues raised in the pan-oral image, 1 was confirmed as needing a filling by bitewing xrays. So I had that completed.
3 - hygienist appointment - to remove any calculus that had built up and help improve gum health before appliances were fitted.
4 - records appointment. this was to take baseline/starting images. also fit the top arch.

So thats where I am up to. My next appointment is early next month when I will have the bottom arch fitted.

I felt more pressure from them in the first few days than pain. Its a bit like a mild tension headache, but nothing unmanageable. There are a couple of teeth that ache in the roots now, but it is more of a case of it being sore if pressure is applied by biting than pain all of the time (if that makes sense). Its a bit odd to me because the pressure isnt where I thought it would be, but I think thats probably just a sign that it is working. I've used a bit of ibuprofen to take the edge off of it at night, and have had no problems sleeping.

I haven't really drooled per se, but spitting after brushing your teeth is a new and messy experience. You will need to have a towel to hand when you brush - Fair warning :-) Oh! and saying anything starting with the letter 'F' is a challenge at first too.

I'd say the hardest part to deal with is the poking wires at the end of the arch on both sides. They mentioned you could trim this yourself, but I feel I would mess it up so will wait until the next appointment.

Aside from that, the edges of the brackets against the soft tissue can get pretty painful. The inside of your mouth becomes a bit raw. DENTAL WAX IS YOUR FRIEND!!! I have lots of dental wax strips now and it makes things so much better. I hope that other newbies will not try to tough it out and just use it from the first time it starts to feel uncomfortable ( for the pokey wire ends too).

So most of the literature I read says that you start getting used to them after about 3 days, which is pretty spot on. Its starting to feel more like a part of my mouth now (the wax helps). I am still on soft foods and will be for the foreseeable I think. If you cant smush food between your tongue and the roof of your mouth, then its not going to be eaten. This isn't a bad thing IMHO since food has always my friend, and it shows. Between what you can eat and having to brush obsessively after every meal, it makes you really think about whether you want to be bothered to eat something or not. Watching your coworkers eat a biscuit with their tea is enough to make you shed a tear -haha. But I am going to take this opportunity to eat less - an better - and hopefully at the end of treatment it will have created some new eating patterns that I can stick to.

So that is all from me for now. If you have read this, I hope what I have said will resonate with some of you. I wish you well on your own journeys, and I will post more after the bottom arch goes on.

Until then - take care!
-Jen

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