So excited to get braces!

[SpottedPickle]

Wow it has seem to have flown with your braces, even from my side! boring can be good sometimes. I can certainly see asparagus being a big pain. I have been experimenting with things.

Hooks make excellent spaghetti noodle shelves, making them sometimes a pain to eat. I will stick to wide noodles and tubes cut up.
Braces are like drying racks for canned tuna, it get everywhere and caught everywhere, avoid it in public.
Ball Park Beef hotdogs are the softest, and kind to sore mouths.
Cauliflower cooked is great, broccoli, not so much. Broccoli has to bee overcooked to eat currently, and that is just gross.
Whiskey Sours are awesome on a sore mouth.
Ice cream is a great closure for a meal. I does not take an hour plus to eat, and is soothing.
Hooks will trap ice against the cheek and tooth, not so cool for sensitive teeth.

[parsleysage]

Everything is still going well with my braces. Just waiting for my adjustment now. It's been two weeks since that bracket was glued back on and everything is holding up well!

I'm happy that my braces obsession has waned a bit, though I am starting to get a tiny bit slack on some areas of hygiene, mostly flossing. Better get back to it asap!

In my non-braces life, I've been focusing more on weight loss. I've lost about 8 lbs in the last three weeks, mostly through tracking my food and eating at a caloric deficit. My boyfriend and I have started cycling together. Well, actually, he's been cycling for years, but we just bought me a bike and he goes with me on what I am sure are very boring rides for him, lol. It's a lot of fun, though, and good exercise for me. (He still goes out on his long rides as well.)

I am thinking of joining an 8-mile ride called the Anthem Moonlight ride... the "full moon" is 17 miles and even though it's about 5 weeks away I don't think I'd be ready for that long a ride. I should be able to do the "half moon" 8-mile just fine, though, we're riding about 2.5-3 miles at a time right now so I can work up from there. I think I can do it in about an hour or so, depending on if I need to stop. It seems really fun, it's done about 8pm so it's starting to get dark and you wear all kinds of funky costume stuff, glow lights, etc.

So yep... crickets on the braces front... hopefully no more events or updates until my adjustment!

[loa]

Oh and the sad thing is that the treatment coordinator told me that the orthodontist will probably want to have me in Damon brackets I was so looking forward to having colors! LOL! I am sure I sound ridiculous but I'm a tiny bit sad to be honest. Maybe I will just get the colored rubber bands

Still reading through your posts, but had to comment on this. I felt the same way! lol. The colours were going to be the fun bit lol.

[newbite]

I'm glad I came across your posts because your profile/bite looks a lot like mine (if my teeth weren't super crooked) and I'm really interested to see how your treatment is going! just wanted to post my happiness at finding someone who looks like me going to read the rest of your posts now

[newbite]

Just finished reading this whole thread and I hope your braces are still going well and that no more brackets have popped off! Did you ever hear from your insurance about jaw surgery? I was dismayed to hear that you were told you needed surgery to properly correct your bite. We have a very similar profile (except my teeth are crowded and very crooked) and the ortho i've seen gave me some options to fix my bite but said only surgery would make the best aesthetic change (but that since it would probably be considered cosmetic by my insurance that it wasn't really an option). i've been trying to decide if i should just go ahead with this ortho, or have a consult with a surgeon to get their opinion. i like the ortho and his office, so i don't really want to have another ortho consult. my big question is whether my profile is going to be worse after braces.

[parsleysage]

I still haven't heard back from insurance so decided to toughen up and call them today. Apparently only one person there is able to tell what the approval status is which is the office manager, who wasn't available. She will call me back. I'm pretty nervous at this point.

[pjade1]

I just read through your journal and I am glad things are better for you. I always wondered if the brackets can come off with crowns or composite fillings. I have a quite large composite filling in on of my front teeth and that tooth is not smooth with an indentation so I am concerned that bracket might keep popping off like yours did in the beginning. I am glad yours is staying put now. Hopefully, you will hear something positive with your insurance company. Mine is actually covering a lot more than I expected.

[nicolie825]

I have composite fillings in my top incisors and one of my brackets became debonded yesterday. Hoping its not a recurring issue :-/

[parsleysage]

Insurance update: No pre-auth was sent because they don't do it until 3-4 months before surgery. WTF????????! I could have avoided weeks and weeks of worrying. I guess the surgeon doesn't know much about the insurance side of things. Little peeved about the whole situation.

@ pjade & nicolie, things were popping off at first but it's been 3-4 weeks since I had everything reglued with super duper cement, and it's holding up fine now. The first time, they reused the same kind of cement they had the first time. The second time, they used a different kind. A&D or something? (Which is also the name of diaper ointment, lol!) That cement has held up fine and it's been a relief not to have to go to the orthodontist every week.

Next Monday is my adjustment! I should have bought the bite wafers on DentaKit.com earlier, I think if I order them now it will be too late. I am expecting a lot of pain, but I am also expecting to get a new wire tie between my front teeth so I can finally see some more diastema progress!

I had a good hygiene appointment (not sure if I posted about that but had almost no buildup) but since then I've been lazy about flossing It's SO annoying. Hoping the Waterpik will see me through.

[pjade1]

What are the bite wafers used for? I saw those but didn't know what they were used for.

[parsleysage]

Hey pjade, they are used as a spongy surface to bite down into - for some people (like me) biting down during braces pain brings relief. So instead of biting into a rolled up napkin or something, you can bite into the wafer.

[parsleysage]

Today was my adjustment! I got moved up to .20 NiTi wires on both top & bottom, I got the wire tie between my front teeth tightened, AND.........

I GOT PURPLE POWER CHAINS!!!!!! YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are only from 2 to 2 top and bottom, but I am so excited to finally have some color in my mouth

The adjustment wasn't bad, I did a lot of waiting in the waiting room this time which is unusual. I had a really nice assistant, she's the one who glued my bracket back on the last time (the time it finally stuck) and she's very talkative and funny, my kinda person!

I am having a fair amount of pain. It was really bad at first - it has eased up some, or maybe I've just been distracted, but now it's kind of a dull ache with the only real pain coming if I press my tongue against my teeth, or chew food. There is a lot of pressure between my front teeth, because I have the wire tie AND the power chain now, which means I expect to see some VERY speedy diastema progress this week. Hopefully I will have a new progress pic soon!!!

Here's my chompas...

rsz_photo_5.jpg

I go back after six weeks this time, that's kinda nice that it's not a full two months. Tuesday, September 9th.

[parsleysage]

OH, I forgot to say that I got to brush without my wires on, and I really didn't like it and won't be doing it next time. NOT because it wasn't awesome to have the wires off, but because it WAS. I actually got a little emotional, lol. (I'm ridiculous, I already know that.)

Even with the brackets on, it was so nice to see my smile, feel no pressure in my mouth, move my tongue around without feeling the wire. The last few weeks have been super boring and I've been frustrated with the cleaning process after I eat and getting discouraged about how far I have to go and how long I will be dealing with my braces. I know that I wanted them really bad & I've moved heaven and earth to get them, and I know it will be worth it and all that.

But I don't want to be reminded about braces-free life just yet as it makes me extremely discouraged. So next time she offers I will say, "Nope, put on my wire ASAP please!" LOL!

[pjade1]

Cool that you got some color! I had white ceramic uppers, self-ligating, so I didn't need any bands. She asked if I wanted them anyway but I just wanted them as descrete as I could for now and I was thinking that defeated the purpose of them being self-ligating. They wouldn't be able to move.

I totally understand the flossing frustration. I have no problems using my waterpik friend. I love the waterpik for getting all that food out. I have a hard time flossing my back molars, especially with those molar bands on. I ordered some spam spam spam ortho flossers hoping that will be easier than the floss threaders. I'll do anything to make this easier. I am avoiding foods based on how hard will that be to clean or I am just too lazy to clean now.

[SpottedPickle]

YAY for the color and wire change! You are moving along great I am dreading my August 19th appointment because the hubs says he thinks they will brace my bottoms, They have been my savior for eating

Your teeth are looking great hun! As for the insurance, it would have been so nice had they just said something in the first place. Oh well it is one thing off your plate for the time being!