Rainy's Adventures in Braceland:POWERCHAIN TIME

[Rainy]

Wow the time has flown. I cant believe I have had these braces in a month. I will admit to there being a few times when I was thinking, darn its only been a month.

After I had gone in and gotten my bracket reattached two weeks ago, and the rest of my wires snapped in, my bottom teeth hurt for two days. For the most part now I only get irratated in my mouth after a long day at work. Several hours at home and that seems to go away.

Whatever great power in the cosmic universe decides to make what tooth tender at any given minute/hour has been having a field day in my mouth. I dont mind it though as it tells me there is movement.

Over all doing real good. I have mangaged to keep off the six pounds I lost. I have used that incentive to stay away from most of the junk food and soda I consumed before. Maybe one side benefit of eating better will bring my darn cholesterol down.

I can eat anything I want, it just continues to take a bit of time as the bite is all messed up. I find that if I eat at work or where others are near I am placing a napkin in front of my mouth. I find it difficult to chew with my mouth closed. Thats if I want to chew, versus swallowing food whole. I have been told by my co-workers that I am actually smiling a whole lot more now then before. Hehe I told one person if he had that much money attached to his teeth he would be smiling big too.

I have enjoyed reading others who got braced around the same time and seeing all of our progress. Thankyou everyone for all your support.

As a side note I do have one ligature that is holding a wire out of the way. I am going to ask the assistant to change it to a nice blue or green to honor the Seahawks, if I get to keep it.

I am posting my pictures from the day after I got my braces on and from today.




As I can now see my tops are starting round out some. Still lots of work there though. I only noticed by looking at the pictures that the one front tooth is becoming level with the other. I had never noticed that one was higher then the other. I may ask the ortho about IPR for the two front teeth, see if they help line them up more....

The bottoms are slowly untwisting and more spaces are appearing between them, I am happy with that progress so far.

Rainy

[Rainy]

Thanks Kiwi.... LOL I tried to be discreet eating lunch today and was swishing water around my mouth in between bites, but I felt like everyone could hear me in the restaurant....At least the mister dosnt even ask what I am doing now when I finish my last bite and head to the washroom.

A piece of exciting news for me today I got myself a brand new car. My very first one, I have always gotten one that was somewhat used ( 1 year used) Its a 2007 Mitsubishi Spyder Eclipse Convertible. We do get some non rainy days here that I can put the top down on.


Rainy

[timewaster]

Wow, Rainy! You are making great progress, and in such a short time! Congrats on your new car. I look forward to your updates!

[victor36]

Congratulations on the fantastic FAST progress, Rainy! And congratulations on the Spyder; so exciting!

~Victor

[cwatt1]

Rainy, you can certainly see your teeth are aligning beautifully! Amazing progress so far!

You must be really excited about the car -- I don't blame you! My first NEW car was a 1977 Chevy Nova -- not very exciting, but serviceable. Guess that dates me, huh?

[Rainy]

Well in the teeth front. I had gone in several weeks ago to get the wire clipped on my upper right. It also turns out the entire upper wire was sliding over. The assistant put it all back then put a crimp in the wire just before the buccal tube, so it wouldnt slide anymore. Funny thing is I feel that the top teeth havn't moved at all since she did this.

Now my bottom teeth are a different story. While I dont really see much movement, they are so sore. Just the bottom front five. One tooth in particiular is barely touchable, but thats the one that is slowly untwisting. I just keep telling myself its moving it moving.....

I go for my 1st adjustment next Tuesday and keep wondering what will happen. I have a feeling they wont change the size of wire on the bottom till more straightening happens.

On the Car front, its a nice baby. She runs perfectly and we have had enough sunny days here that I have been able to drive home with the top down...

The other fantastic news for me is that 13 months after I filed for my green card, I got it in the mail today. I am now a permanent resident of the US. I have been here for 10 years working as a nurse and finaly decided to file the paper work.

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone. Cwatt I am waiting to hear all about your first adjustment too as we arn't to far apart in out b days.

Rainy

[Rainy]

Wow what a week this has been on the teeth front for me.

Tuesday was the day for my first adjustment. I took the day off of work to make it easier on myself.

1220 pm I go to the ortho's office to get my wires removed. Now it had been 7 weeks since I had my braces put on, and the past 3 weeks have been all about my bottom teeth. They have been real sore. I mean bring tears to my eyes sore if I bit into something the wrong way. But like everyone else, sore means they are moving. I could make them wiggle if I touched them when I flossed.

So I sit down in the chair and tell them I am getting my teeth cleaned and need the wires removed. I would be back later to have the actual adjustment done. She (the assistant) removes the top wire. There is some tugging and its somewhat uncomfortable but ok I can do this I am thinking. (Can you see where I am going with this?) I tell her my bottom teeth are sore and a "little" loose. She starts on the bottom at the back. She goes to unclip one of the front bottom ones, and I just about jumped out of the chair. I have tears in my eyes and I have never felt pain like this before. Child birth was a piece of cake compared to this I am thinking.... She is of course sorry she is doing this and goes on to the next tooth... Its even worse. By now I have scared the crap out of her and she calls the other girl over. The other girl says slide the wire out. Well she does this from the other end.

Now I am attached by wire to the remaining four front teeth. She is too scared to touch my teeth as she sees how loose they really are ( I know they are but still dont realize how much at this point). She calls Dr Nelson over and now I have 4 assistants standing over me as he shows how to support my jaw and each tooth to remove the wire. It still hurt like he** but needs to be done. He then tells me they are very loose, he seemed surprised at how loose, but he reassures me that it is ok and not unexpected in the first few months. I now am off to go home as I have about an hour and half till dentist appointment.

I go home and decide I better eat because I still have the teeth cleaning and actual adjustment to go through, and at this rate I will never be eating again.

I made a grilled cheese sandwhich. Ummm tasted good, not hard to eat but feels funny with just brackets on and no wire. I feel like my teeth are going to fall out as they are missing all that support. I am sipping my cup of tea, having a smoke and kinda playing my tongue over my brackets... Whats this... oh no I swallowed a bracket. I go to clean my teeth, because even though your going to get a proffesional cleaning done, we all scrub them like crazy before hand. ( like they dont know if you havnt flossed in ages..sheesh ) This is where I move my front teeth. Remember no wire on now. I freaked out when I seen how much they moved. I mean my front teeth are moving a good 1/4 inch back and forth.

Now I am sure my teeth are going to fall out.

Off I go to the dentist. They call me back and he asks me how I am doing. I tell him the wires are off but that my front teeth are very very loose and very very sore. He was as gentle as he could be all things considered. He cleaned parts of my teeth that have never seen the light of the day. I have too many sensitive teeth I think. I have been using Sensodyne everyday but it dosnt seem to be helping much. My mantra, through the vist, "Clean teeth Clean teeth... " Before I leave the dentist comes in. He is amazed at my teeth and gets so excited about it. I think he is looking forward to my straight teeth as much as me now. Two small areas that are now uncovered, that while they dont have cavities are kinda " sticky" I will be going back in a few weeks or so to get them taken care of. He told me I dont need the wires off for it.

I now have 1 minute left to zip across the parking lot to Adjustment time. Now anyone who lives in Seattle knows it rains but this isnt rain, its cats and dogs out there people. I havnt seen it come down this hard in years.

I am so ready for this day to be done and not sure I want to go back in the chair after all the pain earlier. Dr Nelson comes over and tells me he actually called over to the dentist's office and told them how sore and loose my teeth were and to be extremly careful. I get a different assistant this time. They probably pulled straws to see who would have to take me

I get the next size up in wires on the top. Yeah, they will move again. The bottoms they are putting the same starter wire on. Still lots to do movement wise. Let me tell you the snapping of the wires into the brackets is almost as bad as the taking them off part. Finally done. Everyone was apologetic. None of its their fault I tell them. I just have had a lot of movement, movement is good (i think not sure at this point )

But wait I am not done yet.......

Last night I notice while flossing that the wire came out of my buckle tube. Its too short for me to get it back in. I call the Ortho's office when i get to work today. They can fit me in at 330pm. I leave work early. Ok you know those sore bottom teeth. OMG I went through it all over again. She couldnt use the same wire and slide it back in, it was too short. I could tell she was more experienced though. She counted to 3 for each bracket and held the teeth as best as she could. At least it was over fast. So all in all a rather rough few days of it, but heck when I took my picutes I was amazed at the actual progress. Enjoy them as I have.


The first week of braces and 1st Adjustment






Rainy

[Miss Smiley]

Sorry to hear of your soreness! I've only had one adjustment that bad and to hear that you went through it twice, YIKES! You really need some R&R after that, hopefully, your next adjustment won't be so bad.

[chillin-in-grilz]

Not bad after a week!

[Cleobabe]

Nice progress Rainy I hope your teeth feel better soon.

[Andantae]

Hi Rainy,

I've enjoyed reading your story! I can imagine how freaky that would be to have teeth so loose---and oooo soooo tender! I think that when all is done, that you are one of those people that is going to have really dramatic results! Your teeth are so nice, and your arch is already starting to round.

Have your teeth gotten more stable by now?

Andi

[Rainy]

Thankyou everyone

Yeah I needed the R&R after last week. The teeth did not hurt after a couple of hours. They are still loose but I am not sure if its as bad, its hard to tell with the archwire attached.

I went to see my dentist 2 days ago, as when I had my cleaning he seen a spot on a tooth that he wanted to fix before it got worse. It was a spot never exposed before.

He was telling me not to worry about the loose teeth, he went through the same thing. (braces off for about a year he told me) I took the time to ask him what he thought about oral surgery. He looked real good and measured a little bit. He thinks that yes I will want surgery as my bite will never be fixed if I dont, nor will the overjet be gone. ( currently I have a 12 mm overjet) He thinks that all I would need is a lower jaw advacement. He told me get the consult from the Surgeon recommended by the Ortho then to call him and tell him what they say. He will give me the names of others if I want. He did mention Dr Bloomquest, as being real good but as he used to work with him but he "is old as the hills now".

I go in 2 weeks for a visit and then will think about what I will do. Right now I am wishing I had Regence Insurance, according to their critera I found on the web I would be a shoo in for coverage

Oh well wait and see for now

Rainy

[QKate]

Hi Rainy,
Oh you poor thing! I just read about your first adjustment and those sore bottom four front teeth. Boy can I relate! check out a picture of mine here.


http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7084/qkatetz9.jpg

It's a blurry shot but you can see how little bone and gum is holding in that tooth, and how much root is exposed. It is more exposed than it looks even in the photo.

So I totally relate to your experiece of torture on those teeth!!
When I had my braces put on 2 weeks ago, the only REALLY painful part was when I had to hold my lip open for 10-20 monutes while she aplied glue and air and water and stuff to those poor four bottom teeth. I wanted to have the teeth pulled then and there! ARGH!

But I of course want to keep them.
But it hurt so badly. Of course for cleanings I need novocaine to even get close to it.
How do you manage cleanings (professional scrapy kind!) with those?
Do you have bone loss in that area?
thanks! QKate

[Rainy]

QKate, for a normal cleaning I only had a few sensitive spots, usually on the uppers. I never got novacaine. For deep cleaning and scaling, yes I would get froze and half a mouth at a time. This past cleaning I was sensitive in a lot of places but I cant really say If it was the bottom ones or not. It may also have been due to the loose teeth. I didnt have any novacaine though as it was just a regular cleaning.
I have never been told I have bone loss by my Dentist or Ortho, so not sure If I do or not. On the loose teeth front, they seem to be more stable now but I still can move them.

I can see a pattern occuring. My teeth seem to do not much movement till about 4 weeks in. I will get indivdual teeth that are sore for a few hours but not much else. As I get closer to adjustment time I feel more of that occuring. I know things are moving as I am still having to wear a ton of wax while at work. I seem to get new spots being rubbed every other day. I drink so much water now and I still get deep grooves in my bottom lips, not from the brackets but the actual wores. They dont hurt but by the end of the day make me feel very irratated.

Rainy looking at her ticker and thinking some days it feels like forever since I had them put on

[Rainy]

PowerChain: aching, unpleasant, arduous, irritating, raw, sharp, sore, tender, throbbing, painful OR striking, vivid, intresting, rich, vibrant, picturesque, brave



I went to the Ortho at the beginning of November for my 2nd adjustment. Sitting in the chair the assistant quickly took off the wires and told me to go floss and brush. So I get back in the chair and now we wait for the Ortho to come over and take a look. Listening to the conversations going on around me, I hear him telling a male adult, that they have many colors available. I turned to my assistant, and said, that If I had to do it all over again I would go with regular braces so I could have the benifit of colors. (My how far we have come and how we feel about braces) My Ortho overheard me and said ...we can give you colors even with your Smart Clips....You just need to ask for them.

So I am kinda thinking yeah maybe we will go for some christmas colors, surprise the Mister and all. So eventually he comes over to me and hems and hahs... ( can you see where I am going with this yet?) Well, he states, your going to get color wether you want it or not, we are going to go with a POWERCHAIN.....well due to the wonderful posts here I knew what it was, he held up a ring with tons of colors and because it was getting close to the Xmas season I choose red, its actually a deep red. The reason for the powerchain, I have one upper tooth on the side that wasnt turning and the wire wasnt sitting properly in it.
I kept the same wires in, so still have the very first beginner wire on the bottoms, which is ok. After all the pain with movement I had before on the bottoms I wasnt ready for anymore there yet. As as a side note the bottom teeth while still a little wobbly and crackly or no where near as bad as the last visit I had.

I knew too expect some tenderness with the powerchain and I could feel the pressure as she put them on, the next week was sore sore, but the kind of sore you actually dont mind cause you know why its happening and by now I know it will settle down after a week or so. Next adjustment is in 2nd week of Jan. Have no idea now what will happen as I wasnt expecting powerchains so soon. Some how I can see elastics in my near future... Just a gut feeling though.

I truely hope everyone has a very wonderful Christmas season and I wish everyone the best.