VWMystyc's Braces Off!!!! Pics coming soon!

[vwmystyc]

I'm 24 and am set to get my spacers put in on Thursday! I'm so excited I have a great orthodontist and I’m looking forward to finally getting my teeth fixed.

My treatment plan is to have the small self-litigating metal brackets put on all but the top front 8 teeth. Those will have the Clarity ceramic braces. I will get the lower brackets installed on the 17th and two weeks after that will have my RPE put in I have a very narrow V shaped arch that needs to be corrected. After 6 months in the RPE I will get my top brackets put on. Total estimated treatment time is 2 years, guess we shall see if that holds true.

Problems that this will correct are, gap in between top front teeth, crowding on lower jaw. After the RPE comes out we will decided whether I need two teeth pulled so they can align my top and bottom jaw correctly or if I will need surgery. Right now lower jaw and upper jaw do not meet correctly so they can either pull two teeth from the top and move the others in and back into the correct place above my lower jaw or I can have surgery to move my lower jaw forward to meet my top jaw. This is a decision to be made later apparently.

Other issues I have include missing the lower left 2nd molar but having my wisdom tooth back there completely in. They are going to try to move my wisdom tooth into that empty space, they said it won’t align completely but at least the space won’t be as large as it is now. I will need to have the other three wisdom teeth removed at some point in the process also. The other issue I have is that my upper left and right laterals are “babyâ€

[Chris]

Why not get an implant for the missing molar? Wouldn't that be easier than moving the wisdom tooth in that slot? Just a thought.

[vwmystyc]

Once I had the molar pulled the wisdom tooth came fully through the gums and has slid forward partly into the spot already. At this point I would have to have the wisdom tooth pulled to make room for an implant. Since there is nothing wrong with the wisdom tooth the ortho and my dentist agreed that it would be easier to pull it forward.

[Chris]

Well gosh darnit, aren't you the lucky one. You saved yourself a few thousand dollars for not having to get an implant and new crown.

Wish I had a tooth they could slide over.

[vwmystyc]

I had my spacers but in yesterday and yes my teeth ache today but two Aleve took care of that. It will all be worth it in the long run. I checked with my ortho and I won't have to have surgery to assist the RPE. One less thing to stress about. I'll take some before pics tonight, it will be nice when everything is said and done to see how different my mouth looks. For anyone nervous about getting braces as an adult just take the plunge, most of my coworkers think it is great and are excited to see me in my braces. Hopefully I'll get pics up this weekend.

[vwmystyc]

Here are some pics of my teeth beforehand. You can see my spacers are in on top. You can also see how narrow my top palate is which is why I am getting an RPE.



Front view of my teeth, notice the small laterals and of course the gap.



Lower teeth, you can't tell from the pics but I have a wisdom tooth sliding in to fill the whole left by having my molar removed on the right side.



Lower teeth, you can see the crowding in front that needs to be fixed.



Top palate with spacers in, notice the V shape which will be a U shape after the RPE.

I can't wait to get everything fixed and be proud of my smile!

[Guest]

Thanks for the pictures Vwmystyc. You are going to have one beautiful smile when your treatment is complete! Glad you are going for it gal!

[joplin]

Vwmystyc, I can image that you will definately gain from the RPE! My upper arch used to be V-shaped too, but it's nice and roundish now: check out my pre- and post-expansion images at http://www.geocities.com/jopliini/arch1and2.jpg if you like.
Yours will be just perfect You have very nice looking teeth to begin with, so I'm sure you will have one of those perfect smiles once you're done Good luck!

[vwmystyc]

Thank you everyone for your encouraging words. I am so glad I'm finally able to do this for myself. I've always been self conscious about my teeth and hated having pictures taken. I have been reading everyone's stories about their progress so far. Keep it up, it is great to see the pics and see how far some of you have come in such a short amount of time. My spacers are still making my teeth ache a little but I figure this is what it will be like for the next two years so better get used to it. Thanks everyone!

[vwmystyc]

Just came back from quick run to ortho, needed have spacer put back in. I started on my V-day candy early and forgot about not eating sticky stuff with spacers. I was terribly depressed to think it will be two years before I can have another chocolate covered carmel candy. It is already enough of a pain to clean off your teeth after eating one I don't even want to think about cleaning it off your braces. So all of you in spacers stay away from sticky caramel

[vwmystyc]

Well I had my lower braces put on today. Even though I know I will get used to them and will be happy in the end seeing them for the first time was a big shock. I feel very ugly right now, but I know that in a couple weeks I won't even notice them anymore. My family has been having fun calling me all the nicknames, brace face, tin grin. My sister thinks it is hilarious that she isn't the only one with a lisp now. Eating for the first time was fun, I will definitely be carrying a mirror with me everywhere My teeth are very achy right now so I'm off to pop some meds and relax.

[vwmystyc]

Here are some pics of my lower braces. I have the ones from 3m that are self litigating. They took the impression for my RPE and put my spacers back in on top when they put the lower brackets on. I have a crown on one of my molars so they had to put a band on it. My teeth are so sore, if I can't swallow it whole or gum it then I can't eat it. I have an interesting installation story though. From what I have read here most orthos place each bracket individually and use a light to seal it onto your tooth. My ortho doesn't do it that way. They put in the lip spreader which actually was very comfortable, they kept my tongue busy by having me hold the thing that sucks the water out of your mouth with it. They dried my teeth and painted something on them and let it dry for a couple minutes then they put the etching stuff on. When they brought out the brackets they were already placed inside a clear mold of my teeth and they placed the mold with all the brackets at once onto my teeth and had me bite hard and they held the mold tightly to my teeth. After a couple minutes they let go and pulled the two pieces of the mold off my teeth. Voile, all my brackets were placed at once. When the assistant was putting in my archwire she had problems getting it onto the tooth that is leaning backwards so now it is sooo sensitive, the vibrations from my electric toothbrush make it hurt. Well I go back on the 3rd and get my RPE put in. I'm getting used to the brackets slowly, most people don't even know I have them bc my lower lip really hides them. My speech is getting better, I'm a pretty fast talker so I notice if I talk a lot my lip gets sore from rubbing. Flossing is getting easier except the front teeth are really sore still so flossing them is painful. I'm getting a little better at keeping them clean while eating. I did have a date today and was so happy my lower lip hides the brackets because when I got to a mirror I had egg stuck in one of the brackets on my molar. I think from now on as soon as I'm done eating I'm making a quick trip to the restroom to spot check Any way here are my photos with the lower brackets and thanks everyone for listening to me type about what this is like



Here is a pic of my lower brackets.



Here is my smile now, with my lower lip covering you can't even tell I have braces!

[joplin]

Congratulations on getting started, Vymystyc! Looking good You will without a doubt end up with the nicest smile!

When they fit you with the RPE, be prepaired for a couple of things:
you tongue may get really sore within the first couple of days. That will pass, so don't worry about it too much.
The appliance may feel very weird at first, but your mouth will get used to it in time.
You may feel uncomfortable about excess saliva in the beginning, but again: that too will get better once your mouth realizes the thing will be there for a while. I had a wet mouth all through the time I had the RPE, but I would not call it "drooling" like I read somewhere prior to getting the appliance myself.

And most importantly: think of the fantastic outcome that little gizmo will help you reach. I almost backed out when my ortho wanted me to have the RPE in done, but looking back I'm happy she talked me into it

Good luck and keep posting!

[vwmystyc]

Ohmygod! Please joplin I need details. How long will it take before I can speak like a normal person? Or swallow? The excess saliva wouldn't be a problem if I could swallow it. I'm starving and since my teeth are sore I can't chew anything so I'm trying to have a bowl of soup but only half of it is making it down my throat the other half is stuck in my mouth. I want to cry. I know the only way to speak normally is to talk outloud and just get used to it so I'm trying that and have asked my coworkers to withhold their laughter at least until they leave my office. I did have to speak with a really cute guy for his computer problem and I wanted to die the whole time. I explained it to him and he teased me but I still wanted to fall through the floor. The good news is that I should only have this thing for 4 months instead of 6 like originally planned. I have to turn it every other night until April 5 when I go back. They turned it one more ahead and it hurt, just lots of pressure hurt though. They turned it back one though so I can get used to it. I'm sure I will post more this weekend as my trial and tribulations with this new torture device continue. No problems with my lower braces. I haven't been able to eat much solid food until this past week and now it seems I'm on soft foods again for awhile. I'm certainly dropping weight which as a girl I'm like alright but people around me keep telling me to eat more. Wish I could! Thanks joplin for the heads up on what to expect. I'm sure I will be talking to you a lot.

[joplin]

Vymystyc,

everything you're going through sounds familiar to me. I was devastated for the first week and could not believe it would ever get easier, but it did.

Take it nice and slow now. Your tongue is very confused to say the least about what's going on in your mouth right now but you will see how it will slowly adapt to your newly arranged interior decorations Give it at least a week or two. I think for me it took longer, but on the other hand I've heard people get adjusted to their RPE sooner.

I was constantly worried about my speech and used to explain it to people all the time only to hear them say they did not notice anything strange about it. It sounds worse to you than others. And it will get better. Towards the end of my RPE era I didn't pay much attention to it's affect in my speech. All in all don't feel embarrassed about it. If it bothers you, tell people you have this thing going temporarily and get it off your chest. My experience is that people mostly felt for me and wanted to know if it was painful. End of conversation.

How is your tongue? Mine got very sore within the first 48 hours. So much so that eating banana was so painful it took me to tears. In time the tongue toughened up, but it looked funny through the whole RPE experience but once the appliance was out it got better very quickly. As your tongue hits the appliance every time you swallow it's bound to get irritated, but it won't be painful through the whole process.
Towards the end of wearing the RPE I practiclly ate anything, cut in small pieces. Things still got caught between the appliance and the roof of my mouth but it didn't feel so uncomfortable anymore. I learned how to use my back molars only to chew and how to work the food around the appliance. Your mouth can have unpredictable capabilities to learn new things!

For me the saliva issue persisted, and it still does to some extent, as I now have quite a massive appliance in too. For the first nights with the RPE in I slept with a towel on my pillow as swallowing was difficult because of the appliance in and because my tongue was so sore. After a week or so my mouth had learned to manouver with the excess saliva and could handle it.

Funny how the human mind works: I was so sure I would not handle the RPE and everything about it felt so intolerable in the beginning, but now I find that I have forgotten many details about how it was! I wrote down some of my RPE experiences in my braces journal "Joplin's impacted canines" on this board. If you wish you can check it out. You'll see how little I talk about the practical inconveniences as the story goes on. It tells me those worries really subsided little by little. My first days with the RPE are right in the beginning of the journal. I also kept a private, traditional diary at home. It helped me sort out all my feelings and keep track of the process while the RPE process was going on.

I'm very pleased with what the RRE did to my arch, so it was all worth it and it will be for you too, you'll see

I'm sorry this became such a long post. I'm just trying to say that although you may feel down and frustrated in the beginning, hang in there, it WILL get better!

I'll be gone for holidays for the next week, but keep talking on this board: there are many others here who have gone through the RPE experience. They helped me and they will help you

Good luck and congratulations on getting to the next level in your treatment!