Yesterday was the big day! I had the day off work so I could drive to my hometown to get the braces off. I had a really pleasant drive and it seemed like the whole orthodontist's office was excited for me when I arrived.
I got my favourite assistant which I was secretly happy about! She's been so nice and supportive from the very beginning. So it was she and the hygienist who did all of the work (man I wish I had a bunch of assistants who do all my work!).
This was the process; there were a lot of steps involved. Skip this if you're not interested!
-prepared the permanent retaining wires by bending them so they fit flat against my teeth.
-prepared the back of my upper and lower front teeth for the glue (there was some gritty etching thing and some of that gross-tasting solution)
-bonded the retaining wires with tooth-coloured glue
-UV light to the set the glue
-ground off excess glue and smoothed everything out around the retaining wires (one of the more unpleasant parts because the drill was so strong)
-removed the wire on the upper teeth because they can't remove the ceramics with it in
-popped all of the metal brackets off (holy moly do they ever come off easily!)
-popped the ceramic brackets off: I'd read getting them off is awful but it was only slightly more pressure than the metal. No big deal at all.
-used the mini circular saw thing to cut the two molar bands from my former TPA (one of the more painful moments, as the bands expanded and put pressure on my teeth as soon as they were cut)
-pulled the molar bands off (not the most fun part but it was very quick)
-cut the bracket glue off with those weird scissor things
-ground off the rest of the glue with the drill: everyone says that's the worst part but I think because she had done so much already with the "scissors," it was pretty painless (about 20 seconds per tooth).
-polished the teeth
-checked my bite to make sure I wasn't biting too much on the retaining wire, drilled off glue where necessary
-one impression of my upper teeth
-instructions for my new retaining wires ("don't bite into apples, corn on the cob, or pizza crust!")
Anyway, here are some photos since I know that's what you clicked the link for!
^Before treatment and after! I still feel like my teeth look gigantic! Sorry the before photo is grainy, it was a photo I zoomed in on.
^My bite post SARPE, 1 year into braces, pre-double jaw surgery
^Top row: pre-SARPE, post-SARPE, 1 year of braces
Middle row: pre-SARPE, post-SARPE, 1 year of braces
Bottom row: first day of braces, 1 year of braces, my functional bite post-SARPE/pre-double jaw surgery (the photo above is where my jaw actually sat naturally)
So the big question...am I happy? I would say I'm about 95% happy. My left side doesn't close together, I think because of excessive wear on those teeth. I also don't like that I have a slight cant and that my upper lip isn't symmetrical. I think it's possible that when I was in my early 20s, I had a few minor Bell's Palsy attacks that were so mild, I didn't know what it was at the time. I can see in photos of me over the years that after those episodes (which I remember but always thought it was nothing), that the left side of my face looks weaker.
Now that I'm done, I am really glad I went through with SARPE and the double jaw surgery (with sliding genio). I'm still pretty young and I figured it was smart to fix things properly as I hopefully have a lot of years left of chewing! So I have no regrets at all.
Oh and the best part was that my teeth are actually fairly white which shocked me! I totally expected to have staining because I drink black coffee daily and only brush when I wake up and before I go to bed. I used an electric toothbrush daily and used my Waterpik 1-3X a week. I also didn't floss, but don't tell anyone.
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