New headgear...any other victims out there?

Message

#16 Post by **Clo** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 12:52 am

Meryaten wrote :

if people do stare, you can turn the embarassment right back onto them.

Ahhhhh, wicked wicked girl you are, dear Tracey. This is pure psychological
terrorism ! But you are right, I am just joking here.

I was thinking about this when I had my headgear. Nowadays, communication
technology is developping very fast. Like the earphone thingy earpiece that communicates
wireless with your cell phone that is in your pocket somewhere. Well, maybe
when you wear such a thing, and some earphone thingy microphone too, you can
somehow mask the hg a bit. They will think you are a very very important
person that needs to be connected wireless to some giant organisation all the
time. Wear a black suit too and they will think Mission Impossible or the Matrix
are now getting real ...

#17 Post by **travdude5001** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:25 pm

Thanks for all the advice guys! Another little update:

Yesterday I went to hang out with a few friends and forced myself to wear my headgear. We were just chilling at one of their houses and watching a couple movies, etc. Went pretty well I guess. Of course I got my fair share of jokes, but they got it out of their system pretty quickly. lol. The worst part about it was having to watch them popping snacks all afternoon and me having it just sit there hungry

(since I didn't want to take my headgear off because I kinew if I did, it would never find its way back on). Today I wore it to classes which was a little worse I guess. Nothing like a room full of people (who you mostly don't know) staring at you for an hour.

The good news is that my molars are feeling a lot better. They still ache a little bit (and what's really weird is they actually start hurting when I take off the headgear - not when I put it on --- hope this isn't a sign of a problem) but not nearly as bad as they were a few days ago.

I was wondering, since I never remembered to ask and didn't hear my ortho say, how long will I probably be wearing this? A couple months? More? Any idea?

...Trav

#18 Post by **Daveyboy** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:36 am

Firstly well done on going out to your mates house, and as you say... they soon got it out of the system.

I thought i'd add something to this......

Think of all of those extreme sports people you often see on TV. MotoX, Snowboarding, Skateboarding etc.
I have seen loads of times when they have done a trick, got it very wrong, and ended up in hosptial. They then go around wearing whatever contraption they need to fix themselves up. The difference is that they wear it with PRIDE!

I once saw one guy on a skidoo do a faceplant from 80 feet...... he needed total reconstruction for broken jaws, missing teeth etc. On that video, he was shown going around showing off his new kit, which included headgear to all of his mates. it was almost like he was getting Kudos because of it.

I guess what i'm trying to say is why should you feel embarassed by having to wear it, would you be so embarassed if it was for another reason, such as an extreme sports injury?

You see plenty of people going round with neck braces, crutches, casts, back braces etc etc.

Think about how you feel when you see someone with something like this on..... personally my brain doesn't even react!!

Keep your head held high, and feel proud that you're doing something positive!!

Dave

#19 Post by **travdude5001** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:54 am

Thanks for all the encouragement, etc.! Another down side to my headgear is that it actually hurts to eat now because my teeth start hurting a few minutes after I take my headgear off. Does that pain eventually go away too, or does it always hurt to take it off?

Also, does anybody (maybe some of you who have or had headgear) know how long I should expect to have this thing? Are we talking a couple months or more? I know it probably depends on how far my teeth have to move. If I remember right, my ortho said my top molars need to move back almost 1 molar width. If anybody knows how long that takes, I would appreciate the info! Trav

#20 Post by **Clo** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:00 am

Arggg, as you keep asking about how long you will have this hg, I will answer
the question. Not sure though if you will like this. Yes, it will be more than a couple
of months. Some here had a hg for about 3 months to move molars backwards
about 3 mm. I think it will take at least a year to move this much. A whole molar
width is a lot you know. If you need that much, why didn't your ortho propose
extraction of maybe the first premolars and create a good occlusion that way ?
I hope you appreciate this information, you will need to be patient for some time.
Oh, to end in a more positive way, yes, this molar pain will go away very soon.
Within some time, placing the hg or taking it off will not hurt at all anymore.

Good luck !

#21 Post by **travdude5001** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:39 am

Clo wrote:Arggg, as you keep asking about how long you will have this hg, I will answer
the question. Not sure though if you will like this. Yes, it will be more than a couple
of months. Some here had a hg for about 3 months to move molars backwards
about 3 mm. I think it will take at least a year to move this much. A whole molar
width is a lot you know. If you need that much, why didn't your ortho propose
extraction of maybe the first premolars and create a good occlusion that way ?
I hope you appreciate this information, you will need to be patient for some time.
Oh, to end in a more positive way, yes, this molar pain will go away very soon.
Within some time, placing the hg or taking it off will not hurt at all anymore.

Good luck !

lol. Thanks for stepping up and answering Clo.

My ortho tries to avoid doing extraction (which is good becasue I do really want to get perfectly good teeth ripped out anyways), but also he said up front that it was not a good solution in my case anyways. My problem is that my top molars are way too far forward compared to my bottom teeth, so he would have had to take out a few bottom teeth and pull my bottom molars forward to line up with the tops right. My top molars are (guestimating) probably about 1-2mm short of being a whole molar width forward of where they are supposed to line up with my bottom molars. Since my molars (and other teeth) are pretty big as teeth go (according to my ortho) they have to move back a pretty big distance on each side.

Anyways, even with all that I definitely wasn't expected that I needed to wear this headgear anywhere close to a year! I was expecting/hoping for maybe an appointment or 2 at most! The only reason I even thought maybe 2 appointments is because my ortho has told me that my molars are strong-rooted and not very cooperative (based on 0 movement from the springy things for a few months). Trav

#22 Post by **HeadgearJoe** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:05 pm

hi trav, it's great that you are making the move to go out in public with your headgear in place , an yes my teeth like the pressure on them still , eating from time to time after removing your headgear will be tender , but for the most part give it a few weeks an you should be fine, my orthodontist doesn't like removing healthy teeth eather so it was headgear for me also, an like i said before it does get better, an yes you kinda get use to wearing it, an the darn things realy do a great job of moving things in place an holding them there also, i hope every day gets a bit better for you , (HEADGEARJOE) (+=+=+=+=+=+=+)

#23 Post by **smile2006** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:46 pm

Very impressive. That's great that you have the courage to do what you need to do. I know it wasn't likely that easy. In my first go around I had HG for about 8 months. Again it was high pull HG and my problem was an overbite. However, braces the first go around for me didn't work as my problems turned out to be skeletal not dental (however back in the 80s surgery wasn't the option it is today). I had upper and lower jaw surgery in July to "officially" correct my problem. After braces the first time, my teeth basically went into a funky open bite position (didn't have the overbite though after the first round of braces so perhaps the HG was a good thing). Continued good luck.

#24 Post by **Clo** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:00 am

See, that is why I started my answer with "Arggg".
If you ask this question to an ortho, most will not say how long it will take.
I hope I did not take away your will to go on. That is why I even hesitated
to post that answer. Anyway, do try to ask your ortho this question. Maybe
he will answer after all. Maybe I am wrong about your case. But even with
a hg, know that time will pass quickly. I know when I had mine, I could almost
count the days I wore it. Then suddenly things were more easy going and
the days became weeks. Before I knew it, I wore it 5 months. The most
important thing is that this works ! Afterwards you"ll be happy you went this
route and didn't need extractions or even surgery.

Good luck !

#25 Post by **HeadgearJoe** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 2:13 pm

trav, i've tryed sending you two pm's an all i get is error an DEBUG, so as soon as it's fixed i'll get back to you , just yahoo im me an will chat till then, headgearjoe

#26 Post by **josephine** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:11 pm

Ask your ortho about how long you will need for headgear. The ortho may be vague in answering, though, because the time required partly depends on how many hours you can really put in. Those of us who have been (ahem) less than thorough about the hours probably end up wearing hg longer than we would have otherwise. It sounds like you are really doing very well with it, though!

#27 Post by **macca** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:24 am

Hi Trav,

Well done for having the courage to go public with your headgear, I think you are one hell of a brave guy!!
The first few times you wear it outdoors will be the hardest, and you are already past that now, so it will only get easier for you.

As far as the timeframe goes, when I asked my ortho about tooth movement times, he mentioned a period of roughly 1mm per month. I think this is to allow the bone around the tooth to grow sufficiently as it moves so as not to leave the tooth unstable. Your ortho will know best though, at your next appointment they'll be able to advise more accurately.

Please don't be despondent if this seems longer than you had hoped, the hard work you have already put in just getting used to it and the results you will get far outweigh any negatives.

Hope this helps!

#28 Post by **macca** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:29 am

Sorry, accidentally posted twice !!