I had to have all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed before I could move forward with my treatment. It was not a pleasant experience, but at least all 4 of them were fully erupted so the surgery wasn't a major deal.
My top set of teeth do not form an arch. Rather they make an indented shape mid-way through. I have an open bite, and some crowding and buckling with my front teeth on both top and bottom.
I went through 2 applications of spacers (joy), and just got my braces on this past Monday. I had to have spacers re-inserted, as I will be getting a tongue basket/tongue trainer in addition to my braces in a few weeks. Apparently I have the tendency to push my tongue forward when I smile, and my ortho is certain this is the main culprit in my open bite issue. The tongue basket is supposed to retrain my tongue to sit at the roof of my mouth.
I am currently wearing elastics on the right & left side at teeth 4 & 3 to start closing my open bite. The braces aren't as bad as I feared. I work in HR and spend much of my time on the phone and conducting speaking events so I was fearful of how braces would affect my speech. Other than a slightly funny sounding way I pronounce my "S"s I haven't noticed any other changes in my speech.
The biggest bummer by far is the braces scraping against my inner lips. My ortho tech recommended I try to power through the pain as much as possible to toughen my lips up. But I have broken down and applied wax to one particularly obtrusive spot for just a couple of hours. The spacers are also peeving me; I honestly think they make my mouth more sore than the braces themselves. My ortho tech recommended that I try to keep my diet as varied as possible with permitted foods, and don't rely solely on soft foods. She said forcing myself to chew the more solid foods will benefit in the long run. But the spacers make my mouth hurt so badly that I've been sticking with soft foods for breakfast & lunch and eating more solids only at dinner time. A rotation of acetaminophen and ibuprofen have helped somewhat.
Glad I found this board; I was a little apprehensive about being an adult with braces but it appears they are way more common than I thought.
Glad to meet you all!
