A graduation present to myself

Message

#1 Post by **hopelessjen** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:56 am

My journey is getting underway. I had spacers put in a week ago and replaced today. If this is the worst part of the whole experience then I'm good to go. I've had almost no pain and very little sensitvity. I was worried about pulling them out the first day or two, but stopped caring. My ortho said about 12-14 months. WOO-HOO He said something about a splint, but everything I've found is about TMJ, but I don't really have jaw problems. If anyone knows what that's about, let me know.

My story is that I'm 25 and I just graduated with my bachelors degree (I could really become a lifer in college) and decided to wait a year before I even apply to grad schools. In the meantime I plan on improving my health and looks. I've always been the fat/ugly kid in school so it's finally time for a change. My teeth are okayfor the most part, except a crossbite, that makes my teeth not touch on both sides at the same time, where a babytooth didn't come out before the permenant came in. Unfortunately money has been tight in my family for as long as I remember, my mom has a sever irrational fear of dentists, and we had a rough dentist when I was little. Because of this I didn't go to a dentist from 5 yrs to 20yrs. Now I'm making up. This is also in part for my sister. She had teeth a little worse than mine and was looking at getting them fixed when cancer got in the way. I don't want to dwell on this and let fear stand in my way of something so "small"and easily fixed. I want to be able to grad school being cute and healthy and this is the first step.

Anyway...

I'm obviously very talkative (type-ative?) and have no problem spilling my gut to perfect strangers.

6 days to b-day and kinda excited. I'm such a geek!!! I've been contemplating what colors to start out with. Any ideas of really obnoxiously obvious colors? I live to annoy my grandmother and she is against straight teeth.

#2 Post by **Bridget** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:30 am

@hopelessjen

Hey and welcome to this board! Great that you took the decision to improve your health & teeth. I am sure you will feel brilliant all the way!!!!!

Good luck with your journey!!!

Sunny greetings from Germany

#3 Post by **ssfw** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:10 pm

Hi Jen,

Congratulations on beginning your orthodontic treatment. I'm glad to hear that the spacers were not a problem for you. You have a great attitude and I think this will help in going through ortho treatment, especially if you have a nice orthodontist.

I didn't have much of a problem with the spacers and have had my braces for about 2 months and haven't had any problem with the braces either. In fact soon after I got my braces, the only time I think about my braces and upper expander is when I'm eating and flossing. I haven't had any pain and hope this continues.

Choose the lig colors that appeal to you the day you're getting them. I think most of the colors are pretty but really like hot pink and purple. Sometimes, around the holidays, people will get holiday colors. I think this makes having to wear braces alot more fun. Also some people alternate colors too.

I hope your sister is doing well.

Good luck and keep us posted.

ssfw

#4 Post by **hopelessjen** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 6:47 pm

I have less than 24 hours before my appointment. I'm getting the top tomorrow and the bottoms in a month or so. I don't know if I'm nervous our excited.

#5 Post by **ssfw** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:06 pm

Hi hopelessjen,

I hope your appt. to get your braces went well today and hope you are not having any pain or discomfort. You indicated you were a bit nervous and hope you were fine by the time you arrived at your appt.

I do know what you mean though, I was nervous when I went to my initial appt. to begin my journey of ortho treatment. When I was sitting in the chair ready to get my impression for my upper expander made and spacers inserted, I was thinking to myself while waiting to see my orthodontist, 'do I really want to go through with this' and knew it was my last chance to change my mind. I almost did change my mind . I had to think really fast and I told myself it was now or never (I'm getting older and I know for sure if I didn't proceed I wasn't going to go through with it in the future but knew it would always be in the back of my mind of how my teeth looked). I am so glad I decided to proceed with ortho treatment! After that appt. I never felt nervous about my appts. again and look forward to each appt. In fact, I'm getting my lower braces in about 2 months and am excited about getting them.

Let us know how your appt. was and keep us posted.

ssfw

#6 Post by **hopelessjen** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:52 pm

Well... not too bad. I had a late lunch with my parents imediately afterwards and went shopping. It has been like 8 hours and I can feel where my cheeks are getting shredded already, but I'll live. I went with purple and orange and I laughed. I have an inside joke with my friends that purple is associated with being crazy so I'll probably laugh everytime I look in the mirror.

Thanks for all of your encouraging words and suggestions. I'm thinking about posting pictures, but I'm not sure.

#7 Post by **Smiley77** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:43 am

Glad it all went well!

Certainly a colourful choice in the ligs! LOL

You should add it to the colour thread that is kicking around somewhere!

Take care, looking forward to hearing more!

#8 Post by **hopelessjen** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:00 pm

WOW!! It's already been 2 week (today) since my braces went on. Not too bad. I only wish I had looked at a calender ahead of time since the State Fair started only 4 days later and I worked everyday at one of the booths. Oh well, no caramel apples or corn dogs this year. I didn't have time to do much but sleep work and brush my teeth. I can't say the pain was too killer, as long as I ate little bites on my back teeth everything has gone swimmingly. It really made the thought of eating greasy fair food on a stick much less appealing.

Here are some pictures with spacers and top metal. Looking at the pictures my teeth seem so much straighter, but two little teeth (and really my teeth are tiny) kept my back molars from closing on both sides at the same time.

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#9 Post by **hopelessjen** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:21 pm

I kinda forgot to post right away after my first adjustment. That first month and a half was kinda wierd. First my front teeth moved apart. That was frightening, a gap formed where there never had been one. Then, a few days before my adjustment my teeth snapped back together. I was happy, but man was I scared for a while.

At the adjustment they decided to move me to an 18 wire (?) and I'm not really sure what I was at before. They also decided to use tie wires on two teeth that needed to be rotated and pulled into place. This time I went with plain old blue.

Too bad I lost the appointment card, I think I have two weeks before bottom separaters, and I really hate those things. So that means like a month until the bottom gets wired. Woo-Hoo

#10 Post by **hopelessjen** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:43 am

Okay...So It's been like 3 months since I was supposed to have my bottoms on and now it'll be done in 2 days. I had to wear a weird little splint for a while. That was awkward. I had a horrible lisp and drooled like a St. Bernard. Fortunately after 2 weeks I had already thrown it away and when I went to get a new one made they decided I was done... (YAY!!!) but needed my lower wisdom teeth out before I could get the bottom wired (BOO!!!) Go figure, they never have even hinted at coming in until a week before they were going to put braces on.

I realize that I am the biggest weenie on the planet at this point. I missed a week of work because of my wisdom teeth. Then exactly 2 weeks after having my inteligence removed I had spacers placed. Finally, in two days I will be wired on the bottom. I'm looking forward to it, but I've only been eating completely solid food for a few days, and back on the squishy stuff.

#11 Post by **hopelessjen** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:03 pm

Well...had an adjustment today. All went well and my ortho even seems psychic. One of my front teeth decided to take a trip north from day one and I was starting to get paranoid that it looked funny since my front two teeth were uneven. I kept telling myself it was ok and I still have a while, but I'm a worrier and paranoid. Anyway, today he bent the wire before putting it back in (I guess it's stainless) and already my teeth are even again (didn't even feel it) and I am really excited. He said next time he'll reposition the bracket on the one tooth and put in a rotating wedge. Sounds fine to me, except... what the heck is a rotating wedge?!?

(See, I told you I was paranoid)

I've googled it and looked on the forum, but nothing has come up. No big deal. I still have six weeks and not much I can do if they're a pain in the rear anyway, just wondering.
Otherwise, life is good. My teeth are moving really fast and besides normal sensitivity, no pain. I guess I never mentioned it before, but I had the lowers put on like 6 weeks ago. My teeth were really sensitve while he banded (almost cried when he put one on) but my ortho is extremely gentle. The lowers are no problem so far and I was trying to rough up my cheeks before, so they are fine (salt water is amazing) and they make me look even more liek a 16 year old. I know I'll love this in a few years when I'm 30 and still getting carded.

Hope everyone had a great Singles Awareness Day