Pearls - Update - 6th adjustment. Pics page 9!

[pearls]

Today marks the day that I begin my braces journey!

Let me first introduce myself quickly. I am a 20 year old female from Australia, who has never been braced before. For the past 18 months or so, I have been considering the idea of getting braces to straighten my teeth. And finally today, I had my first orthodontic consult!

As I approached my ortho's office, my nerves really started to kick in. But once through the door, my nerves settled a bit. So I signed in, then sat in the waiting room (with other kids about half my age!), where I filled out some paperwork.

Everything was smooth sailing from there. The assistant (who is lovely by the way) called me into the ortho's office, where I sat down at a desk and spoke about my issues with the ortho. He was very understanding and very helpful. He actually still had my sister's file floating around from about 6 years ago, which he pulled out for me to see.

I then lay down on the chair where he checked my teeth, whilst listing a whole lot of issues, which the assistant would have been busy writing down. Some of the words I heard were "class 1 occlusion (I think!), crowded anterior lowers, deep bite". The ortho then had me sit down at his desk again where he explained what was wrong with my teeth. He told me that braces are desired to fix my teeth, but not 100% necessary. I asked him for his opinion, whether or not he thought I should go ahead with the braces which he replied "well they'll get worse over time". This was one of my main concerns about my teeth, so I was getting keen to go ahead with the braces.

After this quick discussion, we decided to go ahead with the moulds and pictures. It was a bizarre feeling having the mould be put on the bottom teeth! This gooey substance being squished into my gums and underneath my tongue! I also had to bite down on this red peice of wax. The wax was very interesting to see because it showed how deep my bite is, and how close my top teeth are to my bottom teeth when i bite.

The ortho then referred me to get X-rays, which I did before going home that day (talk about keen!). I then made another booking for a second consult which is on March 14, and off i went! The total time I was there was only about 30 minutes! I was very impressed. I did not expect to get moulds on my first consult!

This ortho by the way was the first ortho I tried, but I am definately keeping this one! He communicates very well and is so easy to get along with.


Well that's it for me at the moment! I will keep you guys updated with my progress down the track!


Take care, Pearls.


Oh and the hardest part of today was working up the courage to walk through the door!

[kittymeow84]

Yay another Melbournite!!!

Would you mind disclosing who your orthodontist will be? Is he in the city? No worries if that's too personal a Q
My ortho took molds, made me bite on wax before sending me off to get a Cepholometric xray on my first visit to him too. All the other ones I went to only wanted to talk about treatment and didn't want to do molds right away.

What will happen on your second consult?

[pearls]

I heart Melbourne! Crazy, crazy weather as usual hey!

I too got a Cephalometric X-ray as well as one called OPG which has in brackets "Impaction, Caries, Pathology". I'm guessing it is for abnormalities or something?

I have no idea what will happen at my next consult! I suppose we will have a look at my moulds and discuss what treatment is appropriate. Then hopefully I will find out about length of treatment and cost. And if all goes well I would love it if I got spacers in that day too!

No my ortho isn't in the city. He's located in the inner eastern suburbs somewhere! That's all I feel comfortable with saying at the moment.

It is so exciting that this is all happening. I can't believe that the process is actually starting!

I forgot to mention earlier that it looks like my ortho offers a variety of braces. He had those fake jaws sitting on his desk with three different types of braces - Ceramics with ligatures, Damon3 (the clear ones) and standard metal ones. At the moment I think I'll probably go with the metal ones, but if the cost isn't too much more expensive, I might consider the Damons!

Pearls.

[Braced32]

Welcome and Congrats Pearls on starting your journey! I recently started mine. At times I've thought what the HECK am I doing but know it will be worth it in the end.

[kittymeow84]

From my experience the clear brackets *shouldn't* cost you more than $300-400 extra.

My ortho only charged $350 for the In-Ovation C's and another one I went to said treatment would be $5850 instead of $5500.

[pearls]

So today I had my second consult. It was very brief, but necessary all the same. My ortho showed me my x-rays, moulds and photographs and told me that I would indeed need braces if I wanted to fix and straighten my bite.

So in 4 weeks time I will be getting my separaters, then one week after that I'll be getting braced! My ortho has a wide variety of brackets, but he said that the metal brackets are the best, so I will listen to him and have my treatment with metal brackets.

I can't believe that I am actually going to be going ahead with this journey!

My treatment time is approximately 18 months. This morning before my apointment, I told myself if the treatment time is anything over 2 years I won't do it, so I am very glad that it's under 2 years, because i'm looking forward to fixing my teeth!

This is are what my teeth look like today:












pearls.

[Braced32]

Congrats on making the decision to go ahead with getting braced!

Lucky your treatment time is expecting to only take 18 months. Mine is 24 to 28 months. Hopefully it's the lesser!

[SGPWired]

Congratulations on your decision and thanks for the pics! Keep us posted on your progress.

[pearls]

So I'm finding it hard to choose what colour ligs I should get when I first get my metal braces. Originally I was just going to get silver/grey to be discreet. But now after some thought, and looking at some pictures, I don't want to get grey, because in a way they make your mouth look even more full of metal!

So suggestions would be lovely! Also I am not opposed to having one colour on the top, and a different colour on the bottom. But I probably won't want to get alternating colours this time around.

Thanks!

Pearls

[Crystal S]

hello pearls and congrats on deciding to go for it! My brace day is on April 23rd! I'm getting Damon brackets, so I won't have ligs, but from the pics on here, I like the light purple and hot pink ligs. I'm a girlie girl! I wish you the best of luck on b-day!

[Miss Smiley]

I liked hot pink! Staining was kept at bay even with multiple days of curry and chili dogs!I also had a raspberry color which was cute and didn't notice any staining. My friend had tried black on top and purple on the lowers, she liked those and got them again the next adjustment. Green and dark blue also looked nice when I looked at the lig thread!

[pearls]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I saw a photo of 'rose' on someones teeth and really liked the look of them! And purple is my fave colour, so I'm thinking I might get Rose on the bottom and Purple on the top. But I'm not sure if my ortho has many colours from choose from. At my last appointment I noticed a little sign near the door with a display of the Lig colours available, and they were all pretty standard, eg there was only one type of purple, one type of blue etc. I'm hoping this is an old sign though and they have new colours! Because I'm not sure if I can go to the bother of ordering Ligs online.

I will keep you updated with how I go!

Pearls.

[jenny101101]

Hi Pearls,

Congrats on deciding to get braced! I, too, have Damons so no ligs but I must say I really like the pics I've seen of the pink ligs(all shades). Hopefully you'll have lots to choose from and, hey, you'll have them long enough that you'll be able to try lots of colours!

Good luck! Can't wait to see post-brace pics!!

[M1k3y]

Great decision. You will be super happy when its all done.

[pearls]

First off, thanks so much to everyone for your support so far!

So today, I got my spacers/separaters put in! I have only had them in for about 30 minutes, so no pain yet, but having these little buggers in, I can only imagine the pain that I will soon be experiencing. And my ortho kindly told me that my teeth are quite tight, so I will most likely be in quite a bit of pain! I sort of expected this though because it was a bit tricky to get the spacers in.

Just before I left the ortho's office, I asked him if my canines will be less obvious after treatment. He told me that my teeth will definately see a marked improvement, especially because of the way my teeth are angled backwards. Then he possibly said one of the best things I could hear, "I really enjoy working on cases like this one, let me tell you your teeth are going to look great after this". That comment made me feel sooo reassured that treatment is the right thing to do, and that I'm having treatment with the right ortho. I am really excited that he likes working on cases like mine, because that probably means he will try to perfect everything, so I end up with a great result.

So for the next week until I get braces, all I have to look forward to is pain from these blue spacers, and being an absolute nervous wreck before braces go on..... here we go!

Here are some pics of the infamous spacers. They are so bright that you can even see them when I smile!







Take care,
Pearls.