Jenn's Braces Saga: THEY'RE OFF! Cavity issues. :(

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#196 Post by **jennandtonic** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:01 pm

kiwigirl83 said:

I had to have a dodgy shadow looked into before I got started on my orthodontic work. It was just over my capped front tooth. Apparently, when the cap went on when I was ten years old a little bundle of bacteria had got in and had been imprisoned ever since. Then, when I was in my 20s they suddenly decided to make a fuss and all kinds of weird stuff happened (a little white blister appeared on my gum etc) I was totally perplexed and couldn't afford the dentist as I was at uni. Anyway, eventually got it sorted when I left uni- the dentist had to dig into my gum and scoop all the nasty things out. EWWWWW.

Your teeth look beautiful, especially after you had them evened out (although, to be honest, I think they looked great before as well) Good luck with the rest of your treatment- I will keep checking in to see how you're getting on. Take care

Ouch! That doesn't sound fun AT ALL! You poor thing! I bet you're glad you got that out of the way before it got even worse.

Isn't it funny how the first things we as individuals notice about ourselves are the last things other people notice? If you were to ask me 19 months ago, I'd say the worst thing were my top two front teeth and the ridges on them...and other people don't even notice them!

KK thank you! And thank you for keeping up with my progress. You truly are an inspiration to me to try and keep upbeat because you have handled yourself so well.

MommaDucky Said:

jennandtonic: I just caught up on your posts... it took me a while, but I did it!!!

First off- your progress is amazing. Your story is inspiring, and it was great to read. You've obviously overcome a lifetime of obstacles and you've worked your way through to doing what is right for you! You really should be proud of yourself for all your hard work.

Secondly- upon reading through the last 18 months of your journey in quick succession, I found several posts where you seemed absolutely sick of having braces. What I'm wondering is, how do you get yourself through those times? For me, I've been in braces for just under three months, and I'm pleased to say that at this point, I haven't felt totally tired of them... yet. I'm sure that once I've been wearing them for quite some time, and my progress starts to slow, I'll begin having some of those days. Is there anything you do that helps see you to the end of the day when you start feeling down about it? All I can think to do (whenever this starts happening to me) is that I'll just have to reassure myself that this is the right choice, and I should be happy that it only takes two years to be able to enjoy the rest of my life with a beautiful smile, etc. But for me, I've found that I don't necessarily respond well to self-affirmations..... I guess I just want to prepare myself for what is (almost inevitably) to come!

Again, you've made beautiful progress, and I'm sure it will feel like no time at all and you'll be finding yourself in that dentist's chair getting those suckers taken off for good!

Hoping you are well.

Well, first off, thank you for reading my thread, MommaDucky! It's no mean feat, that's 18 pages we're talking about.

Self affirmations, no matter how many times I try them, never work for me, either so you are definitely not alone in that.

I think reading this site, there are quite a few 'cheerful' braces wearers. Always completely content to have them. And while, most of the time that's me too, every few months--sometimes, every setback, I'm not so jolly about it.

Honestly, what gets me through is I start trying to think or concentrate on something else other than myself. Because a lot of times when I get to that point--being sick of having them, all I'm thinking of is 'me-me-me-me. Why me, poor me,' which is, well, kind of selfish, at least when I let myself indulge like that. So when I catch myself looking at my teeth in the mirror thinking 'god, I hate these,' I immediately get away from mirrors, go do other things that don't involve me thinking about myself. I volunteer on occasion, I do homework, I read, I put on the music really loud, I turn on a movie, I call a friend or a member of my family, I try and do things for others. I find that it tends to help build self-confidence in the general sense, and it gets me to stop thinking about my braces. In other words: DISTRACT YOURSELF, and shamelessly.

If all else fails, though, another thing that helps is my progress pictures, and this progress thread. When I look at how my teeth were versus how they look now, I'm amazed at the progress I have made and I'm not so 'oh, woe is me!' about them.

Miss Smiley I'm a little better because I realize, right now, there's not much I can do until I go see a dentist about it. And, in the end, we'll figure out what's going on.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments!

#197 Post by **jennandtonic** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:08 pm

Tonight, I went out to eat with the family. As we were driving home, I was using my handy-dandy proxy brush, when in the mirror...I noticed a gap in between my two front teeth that I SWEAR had almost completely closed several months ago.

Check it out. The first picture is from June, second from July, third from August. I even put a circle on the third one where the gap formed. If you look at the pics, it's a gradual change from closed to open. I'm not happy! Not that I don't think it will even out in the end, I just hated that gap, was glad to see it go. I am DEFINITELY going to say something at my next adjustment.

Also, I took a picture of the remaining swelling that won't go down, and I circled it for your benefit.

Such a little thing to be so pesky!

Now here are my other pics. Note the RETURN of the closing loops! Hopefully these will help close the gaps between my top canines and my premolars. For comparison, the one on the LEFT is from last month, the one on the RIGHT is from this month. Oh, and I apologize for the crappy lighting on the ones today.

#198 Post by **MommaDucky** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:46 pm

distracting yourself sounds like a great idea, and that should be effective for me, as I spend a lot of time with my family and I have a little boy to keep me busy! Thanks for the good advice. Also - your pics look fabulous! I know I always get excited when I look at my before & after photos - it's really encouraging to see all the changes that are taking place.

Keep up the good work - you're already nearly 19 months in -- not much longer to go!

#199 Post by **jennandtonic** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:02 pm

Thanks for your encouragement!

So today, in the middle of class, my phone rang.

...my professor was really nice, didn't mind when I turned off my phone, then, it rang AGAIN! It was some sort of malfunction with my phone. But how embarrassing! I ended up just taking the battery out just to be sure it wouldn't ring again.

After class, I checked my messages, and it was Dr. Greer's office, calling to say that she'd had lunch with my potential dentist, and he'd agreed!

I called to set up an appointment, and they're going to see me TOMORROW!

How's that for fast service? Usually my other dentist schedules things six months in advance, so this was really nice.

Anyhow, he's going to check out what's wrong, I will update with the 'diagnosis' tomorrow.

#200 Post by **jennandtonic** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:56 pm

I just got back from my appointment.

Dr. Hermen is a very nice man! He poked and prodded (very gently, of course) around the tooth, and also took an x-ray to see what was going on there. He also asked if there had been any pain in that tooth to which I answered no, just the second outcrop of swelling had been a little painful. Otherwise, no pain.

He showed me the x-ray, and pointed out a little bit of a shadow over the tip of a root. He assured me that it doesn't look like anything significant--it's a common problem when a person is getting orthodontic treatment. He also showed me how one of my roots has lost just a little bit of length, though, again, nothing to worry about-- a common thing with orthodontic treatment. He also said that I'm not showing symptoms of a dead tooth at all, in fact, it looks perfectly healthy in the x-ray.

He said that while he can't be a hundred percent positive right now, he thinks it's not that tooth at all--that it might be caused by the molar band in front of that second molar. He says the molar band may be a little too big for the tooth, and might be causing that outcrop of swelling between the two teeth.

He assured me that there is no major problem, at least, not that he can see. He said he'd talk with Dr. Greer, get some feedback, and one of them would call me to let me know what they decide to do.

So, while I didn't THINK it would be a major problem, I'm still very relieved that it's not a dead tooth or anything like that.

#201 Post by **jennandtonic** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:00 pm

seriously wrote:

Hi, Jenn! Been catching up on your updates. Your progress photos are great...your teeth are really coming along. It made a huge difference filing those bumps on your front teeth off, too! And don't worry about your temporary gap... your ortho will fix it!!!
Hope your dentist appt goes well. It's great you can get in right away! Kinda reminds me of that phrase, "it's not what you know it's who you know." Now you can, hopefully, get that gum treated and get that swelling down soon so you can get back on track!

Let us know the results of the dentist appt.

Keep smiling cause your teeth are really looking good! Good luck in your progress!

Thank you very much, seriously!

While, rationally, I know that my ortho will eventually fix my gap, I'm not going to be able to resist saying something about it. Call it 'Braces OCD,'

#202 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:16 pm

Jenn, glad you were able to be seen by Dr. Hermen so quickly! And HOORAH! Nothing wrong with your tooth!!

#203 Post by **cwatt1** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:07 am

Hi Jenn!

Haven't yet finished with your entire blog, but wanted to drop by and say hello nevertheless.

Great to hear that your swelling doesn't appear to be anything serious. Hopefully it won't be long before your ortho can continue your progress without that tooth holding things up!

#204 Post by **jennandtonic** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:01 pm

Gol-lee! Time just gets away from me. School started, so naturally now I'm about eight million hours behind on my homework, but I had an adjustment today so I thought I would update.

Since the dentist thought there was nothing wrong, I assumed that the tooth would be rebanded today, and I was wrong. Not to say that she isn't going to mess with that side, though.

I asked why she wasn't going to reband, and she said "While the tooth is healthy, and the dentist couldn't find anything wrong, I had two xrays that showed signs of root resorption and I don't want that happening."

I asked how it would affect my treatment, and she said she wasn't sure about how much longer it would take. I said I wasn't concerned about how long my treatment is, and she said that she was concerned because she feels that most of the time, treatments over two years aren't as effective and things start to go wrong when treatment times are significantly over two years. She still feels that I'll be done either before or maybe a few months after two years...which I'm relieved at, though at this point I don't see how I'm going to be finished in 6-8 months. However, she's the professional so I'll defer to her!

I got another archwire, and she put this stainless steel...tube on it to reinforce it, so that the molar behind it is included when she's trying to move teeth. I'll take a picture of it soon. The archwire is different than I'm used to, a little more bulky because of the tube reinforcement. It's taking a LOT of getting used to.

She also put in a powerchain on the inside of my top left lateral and canine--she'd disconnected that from the cleat at the last appointment. She said that was for further rotation of those teeth.

I'm also going heavy duty on my elastics. I've got two class twos (one on each side) with the 3/16", then on the right I've got one going from the premolar to the third molar, which is supposed to help with my midline.

And I'm sorry that I don't have pics right now--frankly, I can't open my mouth wide enough to be able to take pictures. Eating was a chore tonight at supper. I fixed chili and still had trouble getting through it. The spoon was almost too big and I had to be careful not to let it click against my bottom teeth, 'cause that was agony!

#205 Post by **jennandtonic** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 6:24 am

Man, what a night.

The pain wasn't all that bad before I went to bed, but at around midnight I woke up with some intense jaw pain, and it was spreading to a full blown headache. The problem with over the counter pain medication for me is that when I take it I get jazzed up and restless, so I hate to take it at night, however, the pain was bad enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep regardless, so I reluctantly took some Excedrin and went back to bed.

And, as usual, I got restless and was awakened about 2 hours later when I heard a little noise outside. I couldn't get back to sleep, which is more annoying to me than the pain is. So I just got out my DVDs of the second season of The Office (American version) and watched it for about three hours until I could get ready for school. I went ahead and came early hoping to distract myself from all of this today.

#206 Post by **jennandtonic** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:08 pm

Hey ya'll! I'm sorry it's been a few days and I had wanted to post pictures sooner, but several things have happened.

One being, I caught a cold. You know that headache I was complaining about? It was the onset of a cold, not because of jaw pain. So I spent a couple of days wallowing in how stuffy my head felt, and frankly I was still in a good deal of jaw pain so I didn't feel like taking pictures.

Then I noticed that my jaw was starting to swell on the right side just a bit. I wasn't sure why, but hoped it wasn't because of the braces because I REALLY didn't want to have to call Dr. Greer and have my progress delayed even further. Luckily, the swelling went down in about a day, and I've felt fine and dandy ever since. Including...no more jaw pain! I'm still on the soft food diet, but at least I'm not hurting anymore.

So, I was able to snap some photos.

I picked ORANGE ligs in honor of Halloween. I was debating whether or not to go orange and purple, but they didn't have the shade of purple I wanted, so I stuck with orange.

The one on the left is from last time, right is this time.

Top teeth, last time and this time (forgive the angles, it's harder to work around elastics:

now for the bottom teeth:

Now, on my left side, if you look really close at that second molar (last tooth that's showing on the bottom, you'll see that reinforced tubing instead of a band there. That's what Dr. G put in to keep the wire steady. It's bulky and was really hard to adjust to, but I'm used to it now. Once again, the one on the left is last time, right is this time.

right side...note the elastic formation with the 1/4" elastic going from the premolar to the third molar, and the class II with a 3/16" elastic. Once again, old one to the left, new one to the right.

#207 Post by **jennandtonic** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:57 pm

I was looking at a credit card reciept at work today and realized it was October 2nd! I've hit my twenty month anniversary.

The original estimate was 20-26 months, and at this point I don't see how my teeth would be completely straight, bite perfect in 6 months from now. It's okay, though, I have accepted this and I'm not upset.

But it is fabulous to know that I am most of the way through my journey, and I've made some GREAT progess.

Anyway, happy 20 month anniversary to me!

#208 Post by **tipstar** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:38 pm

Happy 20th month anniversary

#209 Post by **overseasmel** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:43 pm

Congrats on the anniversary and good luck with the rest of your treatment, however long it needs to be in the end.

#210 Post by **jennandtonic** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:59 am

I had an adjustment yesterday, and I'll update about that later today.

What I wanted to update about today was my dentist situation.

I had thought that the reason I had to go see Dr. Hermann for my swelling problem was because it was taking Dr. Brooks a little longer to recover from his hip replacement. However, two weekends ago, my mother got a call from the dental assistant there, who said that one day several months ago, she and the secretary were there...and the IRS came in and told them to gather all of their things and leave! Apparently, Dr. Brooks has not been paying his taxes for YEARS, so they confiscated his practice. She's working for Dr. Hermann on Thursdays now. But wow! I thought Dr. Brooks was such a nice guy...well, he's a nice guy that doesn't pay his taxes, apparently!

Anyhow, we're now going to Dr. Hermann for our dental needs from now on, and I have a teeth cleaning appointment in November.