My braces journey (clear at the top/metal lowers)

[belistic10]

Hi all, I am in australia and at 25yrs old i am finally getting braces on which i have wanted to do for so long but unfortunately finances always got in the way! but i thought enough already i want to do it! so for once i am doing something for ME (i am a mum of 2 young girls so this is hard for me to do). About 3 weeks ago i had 4 extractions (2 upper 2 lower) so that they can move my crowded lower teeth outwards to give a wider smile, and i have a overbite so they'll be able to move those ones back in to where they should be!
My orthodontist appointment to get the braces fitted is exactly 7days from now and i really cannot WAIT to get started! nervous about the pain and not being able to eat as well in the beginning, but i am sure i will get through it somehow. I am recently engaged and we are planning the wedding for March 2014 which means my treatment will definately be finished by then allowing 2yrs,5mths treatment time just to be safe, but it should be more like 2yrs.
I want to feel confident on my wedding day, not self conscience like i have lived my entire life its shocking what something like this can do to your self esteem, and i am sure alot of you know what i mean! i dont like to smile as i have always hated the way my top teeth stick out and the lower crowding at the bottom i dont like either. Jaw surgery was an option for me, as well as braces but that is just too expensive without insurance and i cannot really be off recovering for so long when i have 2 children relying on me, so have gone for the extractions & braces only approach. I hope it gives me results that i will be happy with!

will try and get my pre photos on here somehow once i work out how to do that! and will try and update progress as i go along.

[belistic10]

ok here are some pics the orthodontist did (this is before i had 4 bicuspids extracted) may not be the best pics as its a photo of a photo..

top/side:


lower crowding:


front: (may be blurry)


ok so thats the dreaded before pics, cant wait to take progress pics along the way

[belistic10]

5 days to go till the braces go on.. wish the time would hurry up! but i bet i will take that back later once sore still trying to decide between all metal or ceramic at the top 6 and the rest metal, since both are options it makes it harder in a way think i will just decide on the day if i can (still waiting to hear back from then in a email whether i can decide on the day or not lol) i would really like to compare the size of the brackets before deciding.

[belistic10]

i forgot to add in the first part, when i read the whole little report the orthodontist prints off (which i received in the mail a few days later) i must admit it was quite depressing!! just reading it all how it was worded, and had things in it like face shape, and exaggerated display of front teeth, over jet of this... blah blah. i just felt like i hope i am not the only one that felt this way. Dont get me wrong i am very happy to be doing something to fix everything, but just reading it in such a full-on wording style threw me off. I was not expecting to have to read anything like that! It was probably to show the options available to me on paper (which were 3 options) but still i would have preferred not to have read it since i had already chosen the option when i was there!
i dont know if they all do these ''reports'' or not, but gee it sucked! rant over

[belistic10]

ok i tried to get some ''before'' photos myself today since i have 2 days till braces go on & didnt have any after i had the extractions done 3.5weeks ago. bring on monday!!!
who knew it was so hard to get photos of your mouth?!, half the ones i took i had to delete as you could just see my nose or they were too blurry i had to use the cuisine scene function on my camera which seemed to take the best pics. (seems very wrong to take pics of teeth instead of food with that function) And if the pics look a bit yellowish its because I am in the bathroom and the light is yellow

front view:


bottom crowding (two extraction gaps at the moment too)


trying to get a pic of overjet (difficult, this is the best i could get)


dreaded side on view


ok that should be a good amount i think will update with a beautiful picture on monday of my new grill for the next 18mths-2yrs..

[belistic10]

oh dear i should have made them smaller and the third is very blurry

[HeyBuckey!]

Hey Belistic10!

You're teeth are already naturally beautiful! Congrats on the BIG B-Day tomorrow! Keep us all posted.

Oh! For your camera, check to see if you have a setting that may make the light cool instead of warm. That should tone the yellow down in your pics. I'm not sure how to fix the blurring problem but give it a couple of test runs to find out what setting works best if you have time to one day. Cameras probably rank at the top 10 in the "Biggest Pains in the Butt Since I Got Braces" list, somewhere around mouth ulcers and elastics.

[littlefairy]

You're lucky you already have nice teeth! After your treatment will be perfect
In a few hours it's a great day for you
Courage and good luck for the start of this adventure !!!

[belistic10]

thanks for the compliments guess i have always just hated them so i never have noticed the good but i cant wait for them to get straight

well they went on today! wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. the cheek retractors didnt actually bother me much but the suctiony bit they put over my tongue was a bit poky at times! and the glue stuff EWWW was sour and not nice! but i tried my best not to taste it took 1.5hrs as they had said it would! i did stay with my plan of clear damons on the top and metal damons at the bottom. My very back molars are not bracketed in yet, and one tooth at the bottom isnt yet as its been pushed out of place from the crowding so they are making room for that one first, it will have a bracket on at my next appointment in 12 weeks time!! (seems like ages away!)
they also put a little spring coil at the bottom (i think to help create that space for the poor tooth thats pushed backwards into my mouth!) i got no molar buildup things which i am happy about! and no powerchains or anything else as yet..

i will try now to put a pic on of my new smile. so far brushing and flossing is totally overwhelming to me, tried to floss but it hurt as some teeth are already tender. Should i do it still? or wait a bit till the soreness goes? managed to eat some scrambled egg & toast for tea. ripped the toast up and chewed on my molars lol. going ok so far

[belistic10]

ok heres a pic of my new smile! my 3.5yr old keeps telling me she loves my shiny teeth i have to watch the baby though as she keeps grabbing at them

sorry for the yellowness, got to work that out soon. will have a play tommorrow if i'm not too sore

[catgyrl]

Wow!! Another person whose teeth look almost identical to mine pre-braces! (Except, of course, you have NO fillings, and for that, I hate you... LOL!) Right down to the arch shape and overjet. Your braces look fantastic, and you already had beautiful teeth to begin with, so you will probably end up looking like a "movie staaaahhhh".

Congrats!
-Cathy

[anngie27]

Congratulations. my bottom teeth look almost like yours except that my canines are much lower.
Did you also have your wisdom teeth removed or just the premolars? I'm set to have my premolars removed once my braces get put on

[klobird]

YAY!!!

You finally got those puppies on!! Your teeth already look great and I'm thinking they will be absolutely fabulous when you are done!!!

[belistic10]

LOL catgyrl, thankfully no fillings but i grind my teeth at night so have damaged them a bit i think lol
Not in too much pain today, i took some painkillers last night and took some this morning, achy all over but its so far bearable. I have been using my wax on some of the bottom brackets (mainly that coil spring bit) as it tends to jab me a little and i notice my gum was getting slightly pinker so thought i'd try and prevent it going to a full on sore (really dont want one) so far the ceramic ones at the top dont seem to be irritating my gums, just feels strange! I had to get titanium for the ones at the bottom as i am allergic to nickel so glad i told them that as it was a last minute thought a couple of days prior to my appointment, so they changed the brackets for me to titanium otherwise that might have been very painful for me!

anngie 27 i have 2 upper and 2 lower bicuspids removed, so they were the little ones next to my molars i think they called them 5's or 7's or something

Thanks guys, your words make a massive difference to me today. slightly going through the what have i done stage (but not too severely lol), but trying not to dwell on it and look on the positives. This will all be worth it when we get married and i can feel amazing

[belistic10]

ok just over the 2 day mark- still quite sore, all my teeth ache! and i am feeling quite cranky today because of it! and looking after the kids is not helping my mood when i have a 3.5yr old whinging at me and a 10.5mth old being clingy and crying alot. Thankfully my mum came to visit for a bit today and she helped me tidy up a bit and we bathed the kids together, so it means tonight i wont have as much to do. My mum especially is so good at helping me when she knows i am feeling low
Feeling a bit emotional today so i hope i am not on my way to a mini breakdown. Everything seems to be heightened due to pain and i have alot going on right now: starting my first ever University degree end of next month (Studying early childhood education) so nervous about that and how i am going to cope with everything, also my fiancees birthday in a couple of weeks then not long after that our daughters 1st birthday and then xmas and new years. And on top of that my dentist bill from extractions and my orthodontist repayments is stretching our finances to the limit due to being on one income. So yeah all that extra pressure ontop of me feeling lost and trying to brush all the time and not being able to floss cos of pain is just getting to me today. And my partner has ongoing health problems too so i am also worrying about him! arghh just having one of those bad days.
Meant to be getting my hair done on friday which i was so looking forward to and now might have to cancel yet again as i forgot i have to take our daughter to kindy (shes only just started).

Its hard i feel like i cannot snack like i normally would since then i have to do the brushing all over again so i am really missing that, and i normally like coke and dont feel like i can drink that now so stuck with water (not a huge fan) or cordial (which also worries me due to sugar content?)

what does everyone drink during the day?? and do you brush after if its anything but water?? and how soon were you able to floss after getting braces on?? its day 2 and i cant even bear the thought of trying again!