The very WORST adjustment in 1 yr.Got some bad news today

[Gennel]

Well as some of you may know I got an expander on my lowers in Nov 2006 so it's been about 7 months almost of sores,shredded tongue and globs of wax. Well the molars are finally upright. My 2nd molars were extremely tilted toward my tongue. I still cannot fully bite down because my top molar is hitting the edge top of my lower wisdom teeth! Let me try to get the story finished here!
Today he says that Ive had enough movement wearing the expander and it was coming out today. I should be thrilled right? He saw I was upset lol. He asked what was wrong and I told him it was going to hurt because simply pressing on my molarbands hurt like hell because of such great movment I've had. Well he starts to rock the molar band back and forth trying to remove it (remember this is cemented on! ) I let out a loud
" Ahhhh!!!" he did it in 2-3 seconds and then he let me hold my jaw and I felt bad for him because he felt so bad! Then on to the other side and this molar has a big filling on it so it's pretty sensitive to cold. I yelled out even louder " AHH!!!" he said how sorry he was. By then my 15 yr old daughter is there holding my hand tightly ,his asistant is on my other side saying it's over,it's over. I held my mouth moaning with pain. Then he had to use that drill/sander to remove all the cement. This is when it happens. Since this molar has a filling,the sanding was killing me! I squirmed because the cold pain was shooting to my nerve. I jumped and he cut my tongue twice. OUCH!!!!! So now I have a little piece of hanging loose skin under my tongue A piece of my filling was also chipped off.
He felt so bad that he said to leave my bottom teeth alone for 2 weeks to let my molars settle down a bit.

Now for the bad news. He said that my font bottom left tooth had to be removed.I was expecting that because I have gum recession in that one tooth. I have accepted that .I did not care about having a perfect midline. I just wanted straight teeth and a bite I could live with. What I did NOT know is that I may possibly need Bone grafting in that spot! He asked me to see a Periodontist to see if I can just have that tooth pulled and close the gap or will I need bone grafting done before.He wants the go ahead of a perio first.
This will hold back my treatment again! I have had my top braces on top for a year on June 14th. My bottoms were left alone until my expander would be taken out. He said as soon as he gets the go ahead that he would put the bottom wire on and the gaps would be closed soon.My top gaps were all closed within 4 -5 months.
I need my wisdom teeth taken out ASAP because I can't bite down .
This is too much out of pocket money that I DON'T have and what choice do I have now?
My insurance will run out this year when I have my wisdom teeth out.
I won't have my $1,000 benefits until January 2008! ugh!! I will post pictures as soon as I can move my tongue out of the way! lol

Gennel

[Meloho]

Oh wow, that sucks so bad...I hope you'll feel better soon. That's what intimidates me about cementing stuff on our teeth, getting them out again... At least the expander's out though; every little bit counts toward the end picture. Good luck and take care!

[gerbilburp]

uh man hope you get better

[Lisa65]

oh my goodness Gennel what an awful day you've had, by the sound of it! At least now that awful expander is off although I'm sorry it was so painful for you. Hopefully your molars will soon recover from the trauma. It's great that they've finally uprighted though. I remember the pics you posted when you first had the expander in and how far those teeth had to move.

I hope you can get those wisdom teeth out and the problem with the bone loss sorted without too much expense and delay, and can then get on with your braces treatment.

keep us posted on what happens for you.

[Gennel]

The expander has slowed my treatment by 7 months. If it wasn't for needing the expander,my bottom teeth would be straight already and they would only be working on the "tweaking" my bite.
I called the Periodontist today and they gave me an appt for tomorrow at 3pm. I have my Panaromic x-rays with me so he can take a peek at my tooth and look at my X-ray and tell me if a simple extraction can be done and we can proceed with just closing the gap OR...... will I need the bone graft done and need to wait for the granular calcium carbonate matrix to heal. I don't know how long that would take. I will let you guys know tomorrow.
My tongue feels a little better today. Now I can see how much damage was done...ouch.
Here is the picture of the tooth with gum recession:



Gennel

[Laurie]

Oh no! That sounds like an awful appointment all together!

[Miss Smiley]

As if the expander pain wasn't enough. I hope you're doing better and that the visit to the perio isn't too heavy on the pocketbook.

[dojo]

Oh my god that was indeed very hard .. so sorry to hear about this

Still .. there is still something I don't understand .. if it did hurt why didn't they use any anesthesia? I would kill my doctor if I had to go through 1 percent of the pain you had to endure. I think they should have stopped at the first sign of serious discomfort and try use something to make the area less sensitive .. that's how I would see this ...

Anyway .. let's hope it's gonna be all OK

[Gennel]

I thought they should or would use anesthesia. I asked one of the girls there and she told me they don't do that there. The worst thing is that I have to get molar bands again in 2 weeks. Even though the molars are upright they still need some alignment and elastics will be used for that. I am going to talk to my ortho about how will he take them off next time. He only does simple children's teeth extractions and he does use anesthesia for that! lol I am going to be FIRM on asking for anesthesia for next time. If it comes down to a money issue then I will ask to put it on my bill! The pain was only like 3 seconds of popping it off but it was like being stabbed for 3 seconds. But the problem was that after he took them off he started sanding them down and one molar is extremely sensitive to cold because my filling is very big on that molar and it goes very near to my nerve. I was super close to getting a root canal but when my dentist opened up the cavity it was not up to the nerve. Imagine keeping your eye open while someone blasts cold chips of ice into your eye and tells you " Keep still don't blink!" It hurt so much that I did jump and he cut me pretty bad underneath my tongue.
Well hopefully tomorrow I will get answers.


Gennel

[Gennel]

Here are pictures of my Expander progress. At first they tried using elastics to upright the molars but nothing happened at all in 2 months so they put the expander.

This was August 2006


Today May 31,2007


First day in upper braces:


Look at my arch the first month!


Today/May 31,2007


This was around 6 months ago


I have to keep looking through all my progress pictures so I can remember how far I've come.It can get to a point that I feel hopeless and start to feel regrets for every doing this but I know it will be worth it in the end.

Gennel

[Gennel]

Thanks for that link! I'm checking it out now. I'm counting the hours for tomorrow's appt.Not knowing is the worst part.


Gennel

[Gennel]

Ok I just got back from my Periodontist appt. He looked at myX-rays from last year and did tell me that I did have bone loss on each side that is holding my #24 tooth.But it's not in the other teeth next to #24 He said that he wanted to be 100% because we're talking about an extraction here and he prefers NOT to do that. He took an Xray of the front.He said that this could goeither way . If he leaves the tooth in and does the granular bone graft and a gum graft to,it will most likely continue to bone loss. When he took a close look at the very tip of the root of that tooth there is a little dark area that concerns him. He asked me if me tooth hurt,if my gums hurt or any teeth next to it hurt. I said no ,there is really no pain at all there only when the ortho put the archwire on that tooth really got loose in a matter of 3 hrs.

He said IF I did not need to move my bottom teeth that there was a better chance that I could keep the tooth. He said if I went ahead and kept the tooth and got the braces on. I will have the straight teeth but will end up losing the tooth during braces or after. Then that would be a problem!
The choice was mine.

Choice #1 keep the tooth and have a bone graft done .
I will most likely end up having to get it pulled later if it turns out that the dark spot he sees in the X-ray is actually infection/cavity and then have an awful gap after braces that my ortho is not going to put me back in braces for free He told me without opening my gum and going all the way to the tip of my root ,he can't say 100% what that spot is but usually those things turn out to be infections . I can't imagine losing a tooth after I get braces off ! I told him losing my midline was not a worry of mine but he said that he's seen a lot of people with only 3 incisors that have a decent looking midline and it's something he can't notice at all unless he tells you to open wide for him to take a closer look lol

OR

Choice #2 Take out the #24 tooth,he would pour the bone granules in the extraction hole at that same day. Put something called a membrane over it. It looked like a tiny piece of plastic or paper. It's just to keep the powdered bone granules in that area. Wait 4 weeks so the bone can start the regeneration process. After the 4 weeks I will get the archwire on and the gap can start to be closed . As the gap closes the surrounding bone andteeth will move in closer and rebuild a stronger bone in that area.
I thought that I would have to wait like 6 months before I get the braces on bottom but he told me no. At that appointment I am also getting my bottom wisdom teeth extracted since I will be knocked out. I wish I could also take my top wisdom teeth out but this would be too much money.
My ortho's concern was to get the bottom wisdom teeth out ASAP because those wisdom teeth are NOT allowing me to bite down completely.

I called and spoke to my husband about the possibility of leaving the tooth in and hoping the tip of that root did not have an infection that would continue to spread and have more boneloss or take it out now and just put some bone granules in one extraction site.
I would be spending money probably twice and the Perio told me he does not feel comfortable asking me to take a chance like that.
I really liked the fact that he spent about 1 hour just talking to me explaining every detail and answering every concern that I had.


I chose choice #2. Now I just want to get the tooth out ASAP. I know if I would have left it that I would be in constant pain when the archwire was put back on. I told the Perio that the pain in that tooth when it was attached to the wire was horrible. I know the difference between tender teeth due to movement and the pain I had in that tooth. It was just a piercing sharp throbbing pain that only went away the day he removed the archwire!
I hope I can afford the estimate they are going to give me on Monday. I want to do this ASAP because I could be out of braces much sooner than my estimated treatment time!

Gennel