Early removal....yippee!

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#1 Post by **Yeatsmom** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:25 am

Almost exactly a year ago, I began the process of fixing my cosmetically distressed teeth and fixing my bite. Without surgery, the bite would never be perfect, and all the research I did indicated that for anyone of my age , which was 58 at the time, it was risky. The risk was a high likelihood of permanent numbness in the jaw. But using lots of elastics, I was told, could get it close to perfect over a period of a couple of years.

About nine weeks ago, I had the most annoying assistant in the entire office replace my wire (Damon 3). She stabbed me in the gum three times, hard. She was nasty about the gunk around my total bottom power chain (despite the fact that I literally lifted off each band above and below the bracket with a little hook and reamed the gunk about four times a week), and was just generally unpleasant about things. I asked about some pain I was having around one of the molar bands, and she completely ignored it. This was doubly unfortunate because, each other visit except maybe one I had had a young woman assistant who is one of my stepdaughter's best friends. Plus, she's very gentle and competent.

About the same time, I had decided to go back to teaching horsemanship (hunt seat, which is to say, jumping). It turned out that yelling in an arena six hours a day twice a week was highly painful. Worse, however, was the fact that often the students couldn't understand the instructions. I'm very particular about teaching, and there was also the safety issue. So, when my favorite of the four docs in the practice saw me last visit, five weeks ago, I told her I was about ready to be done. My teeth had been looking straight for a couple of months. She took the panoramic photos and said, "OK, the roots are all straight and the teeth look good. Give me until Christmas and we'll fine-tune it." I agreed, initially, but then the teaching/safety issues got to me...and having had the nasty metal in for my wedding pictures last January and our honeymoon in April (partly to my ancestral home, Ireland, and partly to Simon's hometown in Devon, England)...I decided the heck with it, I want them off for our trip to Key West two weeks from now. My favorite doc said OK, she understood and if I was happy, she was happy. So the took them off, took retainer impressions and I get the Essix retainers on Monday.

The original doc (who was dedicated to the bite issue) had said Hawleys full time for a year, then nightly. My fave doc said Essix full-time for six weeks, then nightly, and I can take them out while teaching. I find this to be a much more workable and sensitive solution, and I think that particular doc has a good feel for the compromises adults want or sometimes must make between reality and dreams of perfection and life as we know it on the planet at present.

My point in all this is: I basically feel a little foolish in going through all this for a cosmetic thing at my age, and doubt that I'd do it again. Should my teeth shift, I'd do Invisalign, I think, for a short time. My teeth look very, very good now, but not perfect. But then, nothing in life is perfect for more than a second or two. I know for certain, especially after a discussion in which I was told that if I had done the bite, I'd be fighting for it for the rest of my life, that I would only agree to cosmetics at this point. And I think my measure of a good orthodontist for adults who are basically concerned with their diminishing youth and disintegrating appearance would be one who was comfortable doing what suited an adult's needs and intentions best. My orthos are an excellent practice, and their work on my two eldest step-daughters was excellent indeed. And, as children at the time, they did need cosmetics and bite both adjusted for the greatest perfection.

I offer all this because there are so many older adults wanting to look better, and yet have other issues to deal with. Clear communication is one, especially in professions in which communication can mean life or death. (My main profession is journalism, and while it was uncomfortable to have to repeat for that, it was not dangerous. I simply am passionate about horsemanship, while journalism is just a job....hence my early return to horsemanship.)

Well, enough I suspect. I hope everyone on this wonderful forum gets what they want from their orthodontic experience as painlessly as possible. I am truly happy with my results; I only wish I had had the guts to make the switch in intention earlier so the tweaking could have been moved along and my cosmetic results would have been even more wonderful.

Thanks to everyone for their wonderful information and emotional support, and to Lynn for having the foresight to develop the site, a true boon to all adults in orthodontic treatment.

Yeatsmom

#2 Post by **Kat** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:55 am

All the luck to you!
I too do horses in a huge way every moment of the day so I know how the braces get in the way. Farm life is a bit ruff on the body including the mouth. In lessons I put up with the discomfort in giving comands to students. (I teach saddle seat) I whack my mouth all the time and it's bad but I as well am after the cosmetic result as well as the bite. I'll put up with these things forever if I have to. I do not want the jaw surgery either.
Good luck with the horses, it is a great life.

#3 Post by **jcdamon3** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:32 pm

I find this to be a much more workable and sensitive solution, and I think that particular doc has a good feel for the compromises adults want or sometimes must make between reality and dreams of perfection and life as we know it on the planet at present.

Very well said. That is what is great about us middle agers. Hey we can do whatever we darn well please!

I am getting a little tired of all this too and can't wait for these things to get off. I went into it for my bite first, then cosmetic. I am now calling it an intervention as I wanted to save my teeth - mainly my front ones - I guess my back ones too now that I think about it. My bite is so wonderful now so I am happy. I hope my ortho won't nit pick everything to death. Sometimes good is good enough!

#4 Post by **jcdamon3** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:59 pm

(But, my goodness! "Hunt seat" and "saddle seat"?? You Americans use some very odd terminology!)

Interesting since they are both English style riding. or is that your point? LOL