On Top of the World

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’ve finally finished TAFE! Thank God for that. Four years of studying 2 nights a week - it’ll be so great to have my weeknights back! Tonight we had an assessment (on the last night, can you believe it!), followed by a supper sort of thing. It was ok, but it was nice to get out of there. This year was such a drag, and I’m so glad to finally be finished. Now I commence the process of forgetting everything I learned over the last four years. I might still volunteer in the ETD (Education and Training for the Deaf) program next year, so that’ll give me a bit of practice, but it depends on how it fits in with work.

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.