Surprise! I am braced!

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#1 Post by **gunter8888** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 7:22 am

I had an ortho appointment yesterday afternoon and I was expecting it to be the usual, 10-minute check the expander routine that I have had for the past 4 months. But this time he asked the assistant to hand him a ".018 NiTi". Thanks to you all, I knew exactly what that was. He held it around my teeth and turned to the assistant and said, "We're ready to bracket the lowers." Before the assistant could get a word out I asked if they were going to do it right then. They looked at each other and then at me and the ortho said, "Yeah, we could do it now." I asked what the alternative was and he said to come back in 2 weeks. I said that would be a crazy time at work and very difficult to sneak out early.

Next thing I knew he was "sanding" my teeth and the assistant was inserting the cheek retractors.

It was such a smooth process! I was so impressed at how well the ortho and his assistant worked as a team. Like everyone says, the echant and the glue smell and taste truly foul, but overall the process was slick and totally pain-free.

I have "Delta Force" brackets with dark blue ligatures. I haven't heard anyone here mention the Delta Force brackets, but they are triangular in shape and allow the ortho to put the ligs on in 3 different configurations. Anyone else heard of the Delta Force brackets?

Because I don't usually show my bottom teeth I decided not to tell my wife I had the braces on and see how long it would take her to notice on her own. After about 2 hours and a half-dozen kisses (I wanted to know if she could feel them when we kiss), I got impatient and flashed them really quickly. I saw her do a double take. She blurted out, "Oh my gosh!" and I broke out laughing.

This morning I can feel pressure, especially on the fronts where they are most crowded, but its far from being painful. The brackets feel so strange against the inside of my lips, but I haven't needed any wax yet (knock on wood).

I still have the Schwartz (removable expander) on top, but I no longer have to turn the screws. The ortho wants the bone to settle for a while and I will probably get my uppers in January.

I am so excited to be "officially" braced. Thanks to everyone here for all the encouragement and mountains of great info!

Sorry for the long post and thanks again!

#2 Post by **Saki** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:45 am

Congratulations! That's so great - enjoy the braces! Hope it continues to be such a pain-free process for you!

#3 Post by **science teacher** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:57 pm

That's great! I wish that could happen to me. I will have to have the top almost completely finished before the bottoms to go on... I also wish I had a removeable expander.

Kim

#4 Post by **Caroline** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:03 pm

Congrats Gunter8888! You may want to check out Jaws' story, as I seem to recall that she had the same type of brackets as you do. Good luck with everything!

#5 Post by **gunter8888** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:01 am

Thanks all for the congrats, the encouragement and the sound advice.

The first 18 hours or so were unremarkable, but by last night my teeth were getting mighty sore and the inside of my lips and cheeks were feeling a lot like ground beef. My sweet wife coached me on applying a little wax to the offending brackets (she had braces for 4 years as a teenager). I took some ibuprofen before bed and this morning the pain is rather mild. The inside of my lips and cheeks are still a wee bit sore, but not bad.

Eating has been a real adventure. I had a BBQ beef (Togos #25 - for those of you from the SF Bay area) sandwich for lunch yesterday and while it was delicious, as always, biting through the bread was quite the chore. Pizza last night wasn't bad, but getting all the bits of food out of my wires and brackets took some work. I tried the salt water rinse this morning and it did wonders for my lips and cheeks. Thanks guys!

I have to give some major kudos to my sweetheart. Despite the fact that she still thinks its a little bit dorky that a 34-year old man has braces, she has been so supportive and very, very sympathetic to the challenges of getting used to braces. Its no wonder I love her so dearly. I am a very blessed man!

Oh, and my 7-year old daughter thinks they are the coolest and can't wait to have braces of her own.