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Hi, here's an update for everyone. To refresh your memory, I got headgear at the end of October. Today was my first time going back to my ortho since I got it. It didn't exactly go quite how I expected....more like this (not exact quotes, but the general idea):
Ortho: Ok, let's take a look at how it's doing.
[Spends the next minute probing, inspecting, having me open, then close, then open, etc.]
Ortho: Hmm. Do you have your headgear card with you today?
Ortho: Have you been wearing your headgear all the time?
Me: [Feel like telling him that he just read the card, didn't he?] Umm, no. I have been wearing it 150 hours per week like you said.
Ortho: Hmm. Are you sure?
[Me thinks: No, you have a good point....I'm not sure. It's been so long since I learned to count in preschool that maybe I'm getting a little rusty with the whole numbers thing.]
Ortho: There has hardly been any movement. Usually your teeth should move 1 millimeter per month, but it looks like your teeth only moved maybe about half of that. If we are going to get those teeth moving, you have to wear your headgear all the time.
Me: All the time? Like 24/7?
Ortho: 24/7. Don't get it wet or wear if your doing something rough where it could hurt you, but other than that you should be wearing it. You can take it off when you eat if you really need to, but if you can keep it on, that's even better because the more you wear it the sooner we are done. And don't forget to take it off and brush your teeth really well after you eat!
Me: Umm wow! How long am I going to have to wear it?
Ortho: It's too early to say for sure. If you do really well wearing it all the time and your teeth pick up the pace a little bit, you can probably be done with it in 24 months!
Me: [Mumbling] #$%# @#$@# @##$^%@#$%$^&%#
Ortho: Great! So remember to wear it all the time! Here's your new headgear card. [Assistant] just needs to swap out your rubber donuts and you're done. See you next time...
So as you can see it was not really the "your teeth are doing great" news I was hoping for. And just in case I was finding it too easy to go around wearing it 150 hours per week, now I get to have the pleasure of its company all the time. I guess the good news is that I don't have to go back for another dose of news until around the end of January.
By the way, any words of wisdom for eating would be VERY helpful right now. LOL
I have never had headgear myself (and frankly, if I did, I don't think I could cope half as well as you are), so I don't have any words of wisdom to offer, unfortunately.
But, here is some food for thought: If you do the math (and it sounds like you probably have already), at 150 hours a week, you are alreay wearing your headgear an average of 21 hours a day. I would be asking, is that extra three hours really going to make a big difference? It seems like a marginal amount to me. But then again, I am not an ortho.
More math: If your teeth are supposed to move 1mm per month, and your ortho says you need this headgear for 24 months, that is 24mm of movement. Do your teeth really need to move 24mm???? Does that not seem a bit excessive?? I would be asking for some further explanation...
In the meantime, hang in there. You are much braver than me.
I have never had headgear myself (and frankly, if I did, I don't think I could cope half as well as you are), so I don't have any words of wisdom to offer, unfortunately.
But, here is some food for thought: If you do the math (and it sounds like you probably have already), at 150 hours a week, you are alreay wearing your headgear an average of 21 hours a day. I would be asking, is that extra three hours really going to make a big difference? It seems like a marginal amount to me. But then again, I am not an ortho.
More math: If your teeth are supposed to move 1mm per month, and your ortho says you need this headgear for 24 months, that is 24mm of movement. Do your teeth really need to move 24mm???? Does that not seem a bit excessive?? I would be asking for some further explanation...
In the meantime, hang in there. You are much braver than me.
I know that it's only about 3 more hours per day (which apparently is a big difference in ortho terms) so it seems that if I already wear it 150 hours per week, what's the big deal about 3 more hours per day. I think the shock for me is the thought of wearing it 24/7 = no time without it. But yeah, I guess 3 more hours isn't that big a deal if I can manage 21 as it is.
Also, I got the feeling that the 24 months was because my teeth were not moving 1 mm per month or whatever the exact number was. I think it's 24 months (instead of shorter) because my teeth are moving less than he thought or expected.
Trav, I remember your post from before and how you were really upset about getting the hg, can't say I blame you! What a b***h that you have to have it 24/7 now... even if it is only an extra three hours a day! I don't have hg, so I can't offer much advice, but I can offer sympathy! Hopefully that extra three hours a day will give your teeth the message to get in gear and MOVE!
Good luck
~jlb~
Braced 5/19/06 - Full Metal Mouth!
Went topless 07/27/07!
Totally NAKED 08/30/07!
Sorry to hear your appointment wasn't very pleasant. I know we all look forward to some positive reinforcement when we visit the ortho....and I am sure that I would be needing some after wearing headgear for 21 hours a day.
I hope you can make the additional 3 hours per day work for you and you don't end up needing to have it for a long time.
Hi again everyone and thanks for all the support & advice!
Since my appointment, I have given up my couple hours of headgear-free time each day and have started wearing it all the time like my ortho said. I would be lying if I said it doesn't suck, but the jump from 150 hours per week to all the time wasn't as bad as I thought it would be at first.
The only thing that's really still a problem is eating/drinking --- mostly drinking. I tried eating snacks with it on a couple times and that went ok for the most part except for lots of food getting caught up in it near my back teeth. I still haven't even come close to figure out how to drink anything without spilling 3/4 of it down the front of me. Taking it off everytime I take a drink of something sort of defeats the point of wearing it when I eat since I would be taking it off and putting it back on constantly.
Does anybody know how you are supposed to drink with headgear? If anybody has experience with that (or even just knows the answer) I would really appreciate if you can share the trick with me.
I thought about that, but didn't have any to try. Guess I'm going to have to pick some up. Does anybody know for sure that straws work or will I still end up wearing my drink? Also what about when I'm not at home --- do I have to carry a bunch of straws around, or should I just take it off to eat/drink when I'm not home?
My first suggestion was going to be a straw. If you don't want to invest, you could stop by a fast food chain or gas station and steal one. I bought a 50-pack of bendy straws the other day for about 60 cents, though. So it's not a big investment anyway.
My other thought is perhaps instead of a glass, try a water bottle? Like with the screw cap. The opening on that is a lot smaller, so that's a suggestion. And it's more portable than a straw. Everybody around here carries them. I keep one in my backpack and refill it through the day.
Of course, my suggestions may be way off. I don't have headgear (yet...), so I don't know specifically what the problem is, but I'm trying to imagine and work from there.
cowlypso wrote:My first suggestion was going to be a straw. If you don't want to invest, you could stop by a fast food chain or gas station and steal one. I bought a 50-pack of bendy straws the other day for about 60 cents, though. So it's not a big investment anyway.
My other thought is perhaps instead of a glass, try a water bottle? Like with the screw cap. The opening on that is a lot smaller, so that's a suggestion. And it's more portable than a straw. Everybody around here carries them. I keep one in my backpack and refill it through the day.
Of course, my suggestions may be way off. I don't have headgear (yet...), so I don't know specifically what the problem is, but I'm trying to imagine and work from there.
Thanks for the info. I don't mind buying a package or whatever of straws, but didn't want to waste my time running to the store for them before I found out from other people that they actually work.
Good idea about the water bottle. I'll give that a try. Should I just take my headgear off when I'm eating/drinking and not at home or should I still wear it even then? And what about going out to eat at restaurants?
Wow, you're doing great! Good for you! It must be really hard to wear it all the time.
The fear of headgear was one of the reasons I waited until I was 42 to get braces. Turns out I didn't need that, only elastics; that is the only reason I decided to get them finally.
All 3 of my kids have had headgear. My youngest has it now and she uses a straw when she drinks and she doesn't complain about it.
I say buy a small package of straws and see how it goes...or, order a fountain drink from a fast food restaurant drive-thru and try it out there....no audience while you give it a try in your car.
jennielee81 wrote:Wow, you're doing great! Good for you! It must be really hard to wear it all the time.
The fear of headgear was one of the reasons I waited until I was 42 to get braces. Turns out I didn't need that, only elastics; that is the only reason I decided to get them finally.
All 3 of my kids have had headgear. My youngest has it now and she uses a straw when she drinks and she doesn't complain about it.
I say buy a small package of straws and see how it goes...or, order a fountain drink from a fast food restaurant drive-thru and try it out there....no audience while you give it a try in your car.
Good luck! And best wishes!!
Thank you for the advice! I picked up a box of straws this afternoon and my first drink using one went much better than my attempts to use a glass! LOL I guess I'll have to carry a couple straws around in my pocket or something for those times when I need to drink and not at home.
I know my ortho said how important it is for me to wear it all the time, but I don't really understand enough about to it know how long I can leave it off before it's "too long". My ortho told me to take it off to brush my teeth or when I shower, so obviously 15-20 mins isn't too long. I was wondering if taking it off to go out to eat (1-2 hours depending on the restaurant) is too long (meaning I need to keep it on to eat at the restaurant) or not.
I'm sorry for the 40 billion questions, but I'm still trying to figure the whole thing out.
when I had my headgear I could drink pretty well. I made some pouty lips and
could drink that way quite well. Looked probably a bit ridiculous, but it worked.
About what I will write now, I hesitated really, because it will sound harsh and I
don't want to start a fight, as this is not my nature. But when reading your story,
I think this is not right. I forgot about your age, and have never seen pics of your
teeth. But an ortho who puts an adult in headgear 24/7 for 2 years can't be right,
given the more hightech possibilities there are now. If your teeth really need this
pulling back force all the time, some appliance like a pendulum or something
similar can be placed. Or even better 2 very small micro implants (screws)
can be placed to retract the upper arch. Even more, if the retraction need is
so big, other solutions are available. I repeat, this sounds to me not right at all.
Forgive me these harsh words. It would be very interesting to see what Dr. S says
about this. But if it was concerning me, I would have movement. Not of my teeth,
but of myself, going to another ortho. And believe me, as I needed already
to move twice, this is a decision I do not take lightly.
Thanks for your reply. I understand what you are saying about other ways, but headgear is actually the fallback plan for when the springy things i originally had on my molars (the original plan) weren't effective. Also, my ortho had mentioned back at the start that headgear was a possibility if the springy things didn't work, so it wasn't completely out of the blue. I also have a couple reasons for not changing orthos too: first, I like this guy a lot better than I liked the other ones I went to for consultation and second, I (and my parents are helping me out some) have a lot of money invested in my ortho's Caribbean vacations, Ferraris, etc. that I don't think I would get refunded if I decided to stop with him and start up again with another ortho.
The good news is that a couple people have sent me private messages that said basically the same thing that Bracedagain said. They told me that when the ortho says you need to wear headgear for 2 years, that time includes moving teeth and then holding them in place for a while to make sure they don't move back. They said that I either won't have to wear it 24/7 for the entire 2 years (like maybe after a year I switch to only wearing it at night) or if I do have to wear it 24/7 the whole time, my ortho will lighten the tension once it switches from moving my teeth to holding them in place. Either way, everyone agreed that I'm probably looking at a year or more of wearing it 24/7 to move my molars before I either get to wear it less or have less tension on it.
One of the private messages I got also told me that I definitely shouldn't take my headgear off for eating (even when I go out to eat) because chewing helps teeth move so if I take it off then I will end up having to wear it longer than if I eat with it on.
[Feel like telling him that he just read the card, didn't he?] Umm, no. I have been wearing it 150 hours per week like you said.
I guess the good news is that I don't have to go back for another dose of news until around the end of January.
