Can I do it?

[littlered]

Hi EbonyQ! I have a sticking out canine too. Reading your story I found it funny that you wanted to get your canine out but your dentist talked you out of it while in my case I had a dentist comment that I should just get my canine pulled and that's what made me decide to keep it and get braces. Canine teeth are so structurally important. I hated mine too but when I thought about just taking it out I started to look at the rest of my teeth and how bad they would still be even with it gone. You're doing the right thing keeping that tooth.

I got my braces on a week ago and while I'm still having trouble eating the pain has not been scary at all. The day I got them on there was no pain, only a bit of pressure, and when my teeth started to ache it was actually reassuring because it means that they're starting to move! I was terrified too before I got them on but that's ok. Sometimes you just have to take that leap and do it. Feel the fear and do it anyway, hey? And your ortho sounds so fantastic I bet everything will go well for you

[EbonyQ]

Klobird: Yeah, I know about Thanksgiving. Sound like a very fun day! There is a huge horse marked somewhere in the states where they sell horses ready for slaughter, it’s every Black Friday, so I know about that day… someone I know is collecting money so they can buy some these horses and give them a home. Being a stable girl I’m a bit soft hearted for these animals lol
How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

Thank you for that! I’m the only one in my family who can write and speak English (my little sister can write a little, but she don’t like it) so I tend to be the “translator”. I don’t feel it’s that good though… When I went to collage I got an E+ on my written exam, I had terrible teachers… So it was not before that I started to teach myself to write and speak English properly. Started to write English every day and read out aloud for myself, and it did work. Still far from perfect but it’s much better since collage lol And no, I have never been to the US before, it’s been my dream for so long Maybe one day
I can see some of my “errors” in my journal, but I can’t edit them. So I keep telling myself “noo! that is not right, how i wanted it to be! “ lol


In the Norwegian dental system red means “out of office” and blue are meetings, courses etc.. All other colors mean different things the pt is going to do. He put the “out of office” color behind my appointment again so nobody could put any pts behind me. It’s anyway very kind of him to do that. Don’t like the time pressure. I guess how long he’s working day depends on me that day, mowhahaa

Yes, he’s the best. And yes, he’s not that scary anymore. I’m starting to trust him now… wait… did I write that? Oh, yes, I just did. But yeah, he is wonderful, really doing everything he can to make this as easy as possible for me. What more can I wish for in an ortho?
And yes, I will tell my ortho if I’m backing out. I want to send him an e-mail right away telling him that I’m doing this, I’m still having this wonderful “I’m survived a visit to the dentist, I can do everything now” feeling, and I know if I wait a few more days I will go back to “I can’t do it, it’s too scary”. If I tell him then I have to do it, I can’t back out again. Hmmm

BracedSurgeryStudent: thanks! Your ortho’s appointments sounds like how my ortho does it. I’m happy for it because it gives me a good time to get to know him and how he works.
December 1th is not that far away! Good luck! please, let me know how it went!

Littlered: Wow! Maybe we could switch dentists? Lol
Thanks! Yeah, I’ll try to just feel the fear and do it anyway, but why does the fear need to be that strong?
How long is your treatment? Braced on both jaw?

[littlered]

Yeah I'm braced on both jaws and I don't want to scare you but my estimated time is 24-30 months - longer than usual because I had less than ideal teeth extracted due to a couple of failed root canals. Don't let the length of my treatment put you off, your case won't be as complicated so it won't take that long. When I was your age, before I had to have teeth taken out, I was told braces would only take 1.5 - 2 years. God I wish I'd gone with that 4 years ago, I could have been done by now...

I don't know why the fear is so strong. When I had my extractions the anaesthetist helped calm me down by telling me he understood that the reason this is so difficult is because it's a choice. It's not like we've been in an accident and woken up suddenly with braces on our teeth, it's entirely our choice to do these things. Maybe just knowing we could back out makes it harder instead of easier to go forward. Anyway I kind of dealt with the fear by um.. not dealing with it, I just let my dentist and my orthodontist do what they had to do. I will admit at one point it was hard not to jump out of the chair and run lol. If you trust your ortho, that's the most important thing.

[klobird]

Hey Ebony---I have never even heard of that kind of Black Friday!!!! We have laws about killing animals!!! Of course, cows,pigs,chickens,turkeys are killed for food. But I just have never heard of a place that kills horses! I will have to look into that!

OK, well,as I said, we eat all of that stuff on Thanksgiving. There's a lot of football or something on TV--some sport--
So, a lot of people watch that.

And the others might just sit around and visit. In New York, there is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It's huge and televised. At the end of the parade is Santa Claus and his sleigh, to usher in the Christmas season.

Then Black Friday--I have only heard it used for the once a year Friday after Thanksgiving shopping frenzy. I saw an ad on
TV last night that one store is opening at 12am!

As far as the colors for appointments--that's interesting--when I was loading all of our software when we 1st opened several years ago, I just picked all the pretty color combinations for the different appointment scheduling reasons. (One color for the background and one for the writing.) And everyone knows automatically what the green appointment means, or the yellow etc--you learn real fast what they stand for....

Well, good luck my friend--you are going to be just fine!

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Oooh yes, I cannot wait until thanksgiving either. We have Turkey, Stuffing, and vegetables and some bread rolls. We eat the meal together as a family and talk about what we are thankful for. The night before there is always a bonfire from the city. On thanksgiving day we have american football (not soccer). Also very early everyone here watches the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade.

I will most definately let you know I made out. I can tell you how the appointment to getting my braces on went:
She greeted me with a friendly greeting, and then we signed that consent form and she told me exactly what she was going to be doing, and asked me if I was ok with that. I told her yes it was perfectly fine. She sat me in the chair. I had a gift for her for being such an awesome orthodontist. I bought her a set of four porcelain vases that were shaped like molars, and a card that read "True meaning is found in the little acts of kindness that spring from the heart" "For all the ways you give and care, and make such a difference, thank you" So she opened it and loved it. What they did once they laid me back was her assistant came nad over nad just cleaned my fronts of my teeth with an electric toothbrush thing, then put retractors in which weren't any big deal at all, did not even ontice they were in. Then they put this blue stuff one for about tow minutes and washed it off with just water. They then blew air over it, then put this white q tip with white stuff on my teeth. my orth was there the whole time watching. Then she sat down beside me taking the place of her assistant and she asked how I was holding up and I gave her a thumbs up. Then they cured each bracket with a blue light for a few minutes and then took out the retractors. I have both rows done and It doesn't even seem that bad. Her assistant took her place and did the colours and wires, with the orthodontist doing her hovering thing LOL. Then afterwards I got up and all was dandy, the braces feel very weird in your mouth but a week or so later you barely know they are even there. Hang in there you can do it. I also like my orthodontist so much I got my picture taken with her

The First Adjustment:
They called me in early and Im usually the only pt being seen either that or theres someone getting their retainers checked. They usually like to have one pt in at a time. So I went in and they had me sit down and I was greeted by my friendly orthodontist. She is pretty awesome if you ask me. Sounds like yours is too. So then she came over and I gave her a copy of that picture I took with her and she loved it so much she came and gave me another hug. So then she looked in my mouth and then told the assistant what she would like done. And then she said if I had any questions or concerns she'd come right over and she went to the chair next to me. And worked on a patient for literally two minutes but she still let me talk to her. So then the assistant let me choose some colours. I tried to ask the orthodontist to pick a colour but she said she'd rather not because she'd pick some ugly colour I did not like to go on my braces. As fasr as colours on the files are concerned we don't have any because she is paperless. She usually has one paper she makes shorthand notes on and then enters it into the computer when she has a spare moment. But anyway, she came back over and checked my bite once the new colours and new bottom wire was put on and the top wire was put back on. She examined me and said I was doing very good that I can stop wearing my nighttime elastics, which never bothered me because I was always sleeping when they were on. Then I had asked her if she had another bottle of mouthwash and she said yes and gave me some. She was very nice. Then I was on my way.

She said in her letter "If you ever have any questions feel free to contact me at any time and I can answer them."
Oh and three days alter in the mail I got a thank you card handwritten on the inside by her personally and she was sending it to thank me for not only the picture but the gift I got for her the day i got my braces on AND, she also said "It is a pleasure to have you as a patient" before she signed it. That is pretty much all there is to it. Braces are pretty simple. my case is going to last 30 months due to the overbite and backbite situation but teeth get straight faster than the bite gets fixed. I hope that helps and You can do it. I will let you know what happens at the second appointment for the ajustments.

[EbonyQ]

I’m still a bit “I can do this” but my “no I can’t” is lurking in the shadow. Saw a bunch of kinds with braces today and thought “why can’t I do this?”.

Want to send my ortho an e-mail and tell him that I will do this, just so I can’t change my mind, but then my thoughts are saying “what if I need spaces to get molar bands? What if I need a power chain?” and then it all seem too big for me lol . And the same time, I only know his university e-mail, and it feels strange to send him an e-mail there. And he is doing so much for me on my appointments that I don’t want to bother him when I don’t have appointments.

I guess I need to wait till Thursday and just cross my fingers that my fear will not ruin everything that day. It’s THE appointment, if I let my emotions win and tell him no, I guess there will be no more.

And I did something today… Bought a Christmas card to my ortho, I want to thank him for everything he has done. Even if I can’t do it, he deserves to know how grateful I am for what he has done for me.

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Awh You can always call up the office and just tell tyhem "yes" that way there you can't back out. I sometimes have to call my orthos office. I kinda want to get my ortho a christmas card but she's Jewish so idk what kind of card to get her probably a basic wintery scene with nothing christmas on itit that just says holidays. I bought my orthodontist molar shaped vases and a thank you card and she loved then I got my picture taken with her and put it in a frame and gave it to her now i am on a venture to getting her a christmas card.

[EbonyQ]

I have been working with a dentist this whole weekend; I have spent 15 hours on a dental clinic in just two days! It’s part of my dental assistant course (which I take because of my dental fear) and it has been a great weekend

We were 9 students, one dentist and his assistant on a clinic where 6 dentists usually work, so we had plenty of room. I was a bit nervous at first, sitting furthers away from the dentist at the table when he explained things. We later worked in pairs (I was working with another person with dental fear) in each our surgery room to practice cleaning and getting the surgery room ready for use, and later we practice cleaning on each other’s teeth. At first I was a bit skeptical about this, letting someone see inside of my mouth. I’m very ashamed of how my teeth look and this is much of the reason why I have dental fear, but I knew that the one I worked with had dental fear herself and she did not like her teeth either. Doing the cleaning on her was so fun, I really enjoyed being on that side of the chair.

But when she was doing it on me, don’t you think that the dentist walked in to the room? So I automatically closed my mouth a bit and she kept asking him questions so I had to open my mouth to let him show her, but closed as soon as I could several times. And when he went to the next room she had to ask the dental assistant about something too so the dental assistant needed to look into my mouth as well… Did not like it at all and I think they saw that. Other than that it was a very fun day. We later did x-rays on each other and much other fun stuff.

The second day went much better. We started the day to look on each other’s x-ray together with the dentist and he told us what he saw, those who wanted could say what pictures was theirs. I choose let them know when my x-rays showed up on the screen even though I got a lot of fillings.
We later did impressions on each other in groups on three, did not like the thought of having those two in my group and the dental assistant look into my mouth on the same time but I survived

I think this whole day did something to me, working this close to this super nice dentist, very good dental assistant and my class on this dental clinic in all these hours, because later that day the dentist told us that one of us could get a model of our teeth out of the impressions we did. Everybody wanted a model of their impression but I was a bit unsure, it meant that everybody would look at my teeth. After thinking it through a few seconds I told the dentist that if he wanted a mouth with a lot of crooked teeth we could use mine, he chose my impression even thought someone had said they wanted it before me. I think he has seen through the course that I was very embarrassed about my teeth and doing this, letting everyone see how my upper teeth look, was a big thing for me. I later told him that I could use it as a motivation when I get braces, to see how my teeth used to look like when I get the braces of.

When the model was finish it was passed along to each other and I did not feel much, it was ok because I knew that I’m going to fix my teeth they won’t look like this forever. The dentist took a look on it as well and gave a few tips about extractions of a premolar.
At the end of the day we went through dental equipment and I was actually sitting right next to the dentist, all relaxed having fun. No more dental fear there.

So this weekend had done three things for me: 1) I got a better perspective on how dental assistants work. 2) It helped my dental fear a lot 3) Got me motivated to get braces. I really want to have better teeth but they don’t need to be perfect.

So on my appointment next Thursday I’m going to tell my ortho that I will do this and show him a picture of me working in someone’s mouth (Can't wait to see his reaction )

I'm going to do this!

[klobird]

Hey Eb--

That is one of the most amazing posts I have ever read on this site!! I am soooo happy that you took the steps you did--
once you face your fears, the rest gets easier and easier. And I bet everyone was really supportive of you also, huh?

Most people are really good--and only want the best for you and your comfort (well, except for bugar face assistant--but I don't have to deal with her anymore .).

I think you have done incredible work this weekend- you are very strong,courageous and bright--I am so proud of you my friend!!!

[EbonyQ]

Thank you klobird!

Yes, my class has been very supportive. They really understood my embarrassing of my teeth and when they saw the impression they said that it was not that bad at all, I had nothing to be embarrassed about.

My class supports me 100% with the braces thing, they are very supporting and understanding of my fear

My ortho is awesome too, so I can't get it any better . And the same time, when you're 23-24 your jaw will start to harden and braces will take longer time, I'm 22...

Can't wait to tell my ortho this!

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Hey Ebony Q. I think your posts are amazing and I LOVE reading your story, you should make a blog about it You know, to help motivate other people. When I was 7 when that seocnd dentist told me about needing braces I was hooked every since and I got soo mad when all the orthodontists told me no But you know what? I am SOOOO thankful for that because then i would not have found a great orthodontist who would get this done and get it done right.

I think that's awesome that you want to be an dental assistant you know that can for sure help people in your predicament who comes to get a cleaning in such fear you can help them to relax. I hadnt been to the dentist in quite some time between age3 and 7, ages 7 and 15 and ages 16-20. I've only been to four different dentists. The one I went to now really alleviated my fears, but now when I go to the dentist I will be proud and happy when I go because my brackets will be on (they take out the wire to do regular cleanings). Now no one can say anything to me and i dont know the feeling is just great. you are going to feel soooooooo amazed the DAY you get the braces. I was sooooooo excited.

I think that its a great idea, my orthodontist said that I can keep my models, when Im done that she'd make me copies Maybe she might even make me one of the after (you know, because they need to do impressions for retainers). She said she will give me copies of everything on my case, including the files, photos impressions and x rays and whatever else she may need to do. Yes you should most DEFINATLY go for it say yes. You can always keep telling yourself (if you got to bring home thos impressions) look at them and think I can definatly do it now I mean look at these I can turn them into something beautiful via braces. I told myself that all the time. She sent me home with my impressions for two months, mainly because I was going for orthognathic Surgery Consults which freaked me out so I decided just braces and my orthodontist was perfectly fine with it So braces it was for me. I hope this helps, just think of the Little Engine that Could! "I think I can I think I can I think I can" over and over and he finally could and we're all right behind you backing you up the entire way through this and if you ever need anyone to talk to I am here. At any step of the process. Don't forget I also had a huge dental fear.

[EbonyQ]

Look what I did this weekend:


Not bad for one with dental fear It was so fun to be on that side of the chair, I wonder if I should become a dentist lol
This dentist only had size L in gloves...

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

That's pretty awesome if you ask me

[EbonyQ]

the anxiety is here... What if I say no out of fear tomorrow?

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

If you do then you can always call up and say you mean yes. I just called my orthodontists office and felt like such a bother because my wire shifted and was poing and asked if I could snip it and they said of course, then I talked to someone who gonna bring me to my next appointment and asked me to do it earlier like at 8 something instead of 10:30 so I called back and did. Then today Kathy was in and so I called and asked her if I could switch it back because my parents are in fact taking me as originally planned and I told her I was terribly sorry for the inconvenience and she said it was perfectly fine. So im sure they wouldn't mind you calling once LOL, if you do infact say no out of nervousness and then you can make your next appointment over the phone Oh and i forgot to ask my inportant wuestions lol I will just ask when I go there in aweek from Thursday. Tomorrow is thanksgiving and she isn't in the office this week, or at least Thursday anyways.