On Top of the World

It’s been a while since I posted about my braces, probably because not much happens most of the time. I’ve had two adjustments since I had them put on (the most recent one was yesterday), and the ortho put a new wire in each time. I haven’t really had any trouble with them at all so far, except for the occasional tender tooth. The wire he put in yesterday must have been a fair bit thicker than the other two I’ve had, though, because only a couple of hours after the appointment, one of my teeth started hurting. I thought the pain was going to disappear today (since it’s never lasted longer than a day so far), but it actually got a bit worse, and is still sore. It’s not that bad; it doesn’t prevent me from eating (although the packet of Kettle Honey Baked Ham chips I had this afternoon caused a niggle or two), but it’s been the most noticeable pain so far. Although that pain is still nothing compared with the pain I had with the spacers. Braces over spacers any day!

The appointment went well - the ortho said that at my next appointment (which has been scheduled for 3 weeks’ time) he should be able to get the rest of the brackets on my lower teeth - up until now there hasn’t been room to put them on. I’m really looking forward to it, since I just want everything to be in place and start moving the way it should. They’ll be metal brackets on the bottom, so that will be a bit weird to look at for a while. Semi-Metal-Mouth! Well, two thirds metal mouth since I do have some metal brackets on my upper teeth.

I haven’t taken any photos for ages; the original plan was to take pictures every week and compare, but that lasted two or three weeks I think! In the first two weeks I noticed a big difference, but not much for a few weeks after that, but in the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed one of my teeth moving quite a lot. I’ll definitely take some this weekend since I’ll be getting the rest of my braces on soon and I’m keen to compare pictures of my lower teeth as the weeks pass.

I’ve had my upper braces for 5 days. I have some brackets on the lower arch but not all of them because there isn’t room yet; hence there’s no lower wire either. I’ll be getting the rest in a few months I think (or whenever there’s room!). In the end I got clear brackets on my front upper teeth. After I had it done I had regrets, thinking I should have got the metal ones. I was even thinking that I might ask to get them changed to metal but I’m feeling better about them now and I’ll just leave them the way they are.

In terms of pain, I had a bit of aching on the second day, and I get the occasional twinge, but for the most part I can eat normally. It’s a fraction difficult to bite into some things, but chewing is mostly fine. Something I’m already sick of, though, is brushing my teeth after everything I eat! I mean, before I got braces I brushed my teeth twice a day anyway, so it’s really only one extra time (unless I have a snack, which I’ve now decided not to, to cut down the brushing frequency), but it’s still annoying! It takes a bit of the enjoyment out of eating as well, knowing I’ll just have to brush it all away afterwards.

The day after I got them, I went to an end of year dinner for TAFE. I’d initially planned not to go because I thought I might be a bit self-conscious, or in pain, but the day I got my braces I thought I may as well get out there and get used to people seeing them, so I went. I’m glad I did - I had a good time, even though I didn’t eat anything (I wasn’t brave enough to try eating in public, plus I didn’t want to have to brush my teeth in a public toilet!). I’m becoming less self-conscious of them, but I still catch myself smiling at people with my mouth closed, so obviously I’m not completely over it yet.

I had my follow-up appointment today, where the ortho asked if I had any ulcers or sores. I told him about a bracket at the back that’s been cutting into my cheek, and he had a look and directly poked the sore part (ow!), and then got some plier-y things and twisted the offending tube out of the way. Much better! I rinsed with salt water a couple of times today, which gave some relief, but now the tube is out of the way, hopefully the salt water will actually fix the problem rather than just temporarily alleviating the pain.

I’m considering changing the name of my blog. I go for ages without posting, and when I do it’s to have a bitch about how much my teeth hurt. Boo hoo, poor me. Sheesh, get a grip, woman!

Having said that, my teeth hurt! I got a sandwich for lunch today, and it took me 25 minutes to eat it. Pain really takes all the fun out of eating. Dinner was much better though - I bought some soups from the supermarket on the way home, and I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the one I chose for this evening’s meal was actually pretty good! So, if you’re finding it difficult to chew, I can recommend the Big’n Chunky Butter Chicken Curry Soup from Heinz. At least, I can recommend it until I eat it once too often and become completely sick of it. But for now, it still gets the thumbs up from me.

And for dessert, I got some Creme Caramel. At least that’s sort of solid.

Well, the pain never came. Not from the extraction, anyway. I took the painkillers and antibiotics as instructed, but oddly enough, even after the anaesthetic completely wore off and I was in between drugs, I didn’t have any pain. I stopped taking the painkillers after the first day to see how I went, and it still didn’t hurt so I just finished off the antibiotics on their own.

Today I had an appointment to put the separators in, to make spaces between my teeth to make putting the braces on easier. The appointment started off with the orthodontist’s assistant going through the standard stuff about what foods to be careful of or to avoid completely, and then she showed me the horror photos of people who hadn’t cleaned their teeth properly while having braces.

I also got to ask her a few questions, which was really good because I was still trying to decide whether to get the clear braces or just the ordinary metal ones. I think I’ve decided to go with the metal ones, which I didn’t initially think I’d want, but for various reasons I think they’ll be better for me.

After my chat with her, the orthodontist put the separators in - 4 on the bottom and 4 on the top. They felt pretty uncomfortable at first, and it hurt to chew, and the discomfort got to the point where I just took a Panadol to try to ease the pain a bit. A bit wimpy, but it really is hurting! I never thought that I’d be taking painkillers for this, but not the extraction.

So, it’s a week until I get the braces put on, and I’m actually looking forward to it so I can get these stupid separators taken out. I know it will still be uncomfortable with the braces on, but it will be a different kind of discomfort, and at least I’ll be able to chew properly.

Well, I’m back from my overseas trip, which was brilliant. I may post more about it later, but the purpose of this post is to indulge in some self-pity.

My orthodontic treatment has officially started, with a tooth extraction today. I’d never had any injections at the dentist before, so I’ve been feeling pretty worried about it, not knowing what to expect. Everyone has said that it won’t be that bad, and I won’t feel anything, but no matter how much people try to reassure you, it still doesn’t entirely calm the nerves.

I had to fill out a form at the dentist, and one of the questions was ‘Are you feeling anxious about receiving dental treatment?’ I put ‘yes’, because I thought they might give me some extra-powerful drugs or something The dentist was really nice, and I think he was especially nice because I answered ‘yes’ to that question. He explained what was going to happen, and then started. I guess none of this will be news to you if you’ve had dental work done, but the injections were ok. They stung a bit but they weren’t too bad. After that, he made some small talk, which I thought was partially to make sure I wasn’t going to freak out and bolt from the room, and partially to be able to tell how well the anaesthetic was working. The fact that I could hardly talk probably proved that it was doing its job.

So then he started the extraction, and soon after he started I heard and felt a snap. Ugh. He kept poking and digging around, and used the drill at one point, and had to put a stitch in at the end. Afterwards he explained the roots had snapped so he had to dig them out individually, hence the need for the stitch. He gave me a prescription for some antibiotics and gave me a rundown of instructions, and that was that. Fortunately, M was with me and he went in and got my drugs while I waited in the car, and I’m sitting here now with half of my face numb, having had my first drug cocktail, and waiting for the numbness to wear off (and the pain to set in).

So, all in all the extraction was ok (but the dentist said there wouldn’t have been quite so much digging around required if it had been done when I was younger), but it made me grateful that I had a general anaesthetic when I had my 4 wisdom teeth out - sitting through one of those was bad enough, but three more wouldn’t have been pleasant!

The appointments have been made, and the day I’m getting my braces has been set for December 13th. They could have done it before we went away, but if they had, I would only have had the braces for a month or so before we left, and that just feels like a bit too little time for me. Plus, since I’m waiting until I get back, I’ll be able to eat whatever I want while I’m away, which is always good when you’re on holiday!

I’m kind of dreading it, especially since I have to have a tooth extracted (that’s the bit I’m dreading most), but I’m also looking forward to getting started.

After my first trip to the orthodontist, I had the x-rays done and went back to get his opinion. He presented two options - an orthodontic-only approach, which would involve having a tooth extracted and then braces put on the upper and lower teeth, or an option involving surgery to lengthen the jaw, with no extraction required.

I initially thought that the surgery option might be a shorter treatment time and was considering it, but he said I may lose sensation in my lips after surgery, and the loss could be long-term or even permanent, and that idea worried me a bit. He said that if I were considering the surgical approach that I should talk to an oral surgeon to find out all the pros and cons. He said to go and think about the options and that if I wanted to go ahead with either approach, to let him know.

I procrastinated over it for a few weeks, then decided to see the orthodontist that the guy at work is seeing, to get another opinion. I thought it was the same guy that one of M’s relatives had been to when she’d had her orthodontic work done, but I found out later that it wasn’t. So I made an appointment to see him, and I wasn’t particularly impressed. I said I’d had x-rays done before and they said they’d get a copy of them, which they told me they had when I went there.

The orthodontist was nice enough, but he wasn’t as thorough as the first one I’d seen, and he didn’t even make any mention of my x-rays, and he said that I wouldn’t need any teeth extracted, which on the surface would be good, but the first guy had explained (and showed me) very clearly why an extraction would be necessary, so that made me worry that this second orthodontist didn’t really look into anything much. I went away feeling not that much better about the whole thing.

I procrastinated for another couple of weeks and then thought I’d go back to the first orthodontist again, armed with a list of questions. I made an appointment and went there the other day. I felt a bit silly, saying that I’d written all my questions down, but he said that it was good to do that, so that made me feel better. He patiently answered all my questions and waited until I’d finished all of them, without making me feel as though he wanted me to hurry up.

He said that if I want to go ahead, I could have the braces on within a month or so. We’re going away for a couple of weeks at the end of October so I don’t know whether it would be better to wait until we got back to do it, or whether it would be ok to get them done beforehand. I might call again and ask what he thinks. Now that I’ve decided I want to do it, I just want to get started.

… other than update my blog, that is.

Today I had an appointment with an orthodontist. In the last month or so my teeth have been bothering me - it feels as though they’ve moved and it’s becoming uncomfortable to chew. I’ve always had issues with my teeth, in that they’ve always been a bit out of alignment, but I didn’t have anything done when I was younger, I think because my mum didn’t want to put me through having braces.

So instead of going through it as a teenager, I’m going to go through it as an adult. There have been so many times where I’ve thought, “if I’d just done it when I started Honours, it would be over now” or “if I’d just done it when I started studying at tafe, it would be over now.” So, enough of the speculation and if onlies. I’m going to do it.

A guy at work had braces put on a few weeks ago and he only has to wear them for 5 months, which gave me hope that maybe I could get away with something similar, as my teeth aren’t too bad, they just need to be adjusted a little. Even so, I was feeling nervous when I went in for my appointment.

The orthodontist was really nice, and did a rather thorough examination, saying I have wonderful teeth with no decay or signs of decay, and then proceeded to rattle off a whole lot of dental terms describing my issues to his assistant, who dutifully wrote it all down. He then showed me a model of some teeth and how they were meant to align, and gave me a mirror and showed me how mine compared. For an initial consultation, I was actually pretty impressed, as some of the other dentists I’ve seen have given me the bum’s rush almost and then charged me some ridiculous amount of money for the privilege.

As expected, he said I’d need braces if I wanted to correct the problem, and at the end asked if I had any questions. I said my main question was how long I’d have to wear them. Alas, 6 months was not to be. He said it would be 18 months to 2 years, which is what I was expecting, but it didn’t make it any more pleasant to hear.

I then went into another room where they made moulds of my upper and lower teeth and took several photos. I’m having X-rays done on Friday, then I’m going back to him in a couple of weeks to talk about my options and the cost and whatever else. While I was waiting to get the moulds done, I actually felt a bit teary - I don’t know why. I was feeling a bit upset afterwards as well, but the more I’ve thought about it, the better I feel. I’m finally going to get something done to correct my teeth and prevent things getting any worse, and time goes by so quickly that hopefully it won’t feel like too long. That’s what I’ll tell myself, anyway.