mm's (not much of a) story (yet)

[mm]

So I'll introduce finally myself here after lurking on this board for a couple of months.

I'm 24 and about to get braces the second time. This is not so much of a relapse case but of a treatment in my teens that produced poor results in the first place. When the braces came off about ten years ago, there remained tiny caps between my upper front teeth.

Fast-forward to today, those gaps have widened, plus (I seem to be pushing my teeth with my tongue at night) all of my front teeth have tilted outwards a little. So my bite is off, I have what I would call a negative overjet or "underjet": my front teeth hit before my molars do, thus I have to pull my lower jaw back a little to really bite down. This must be the cause for TMJ pains that I occasionally have.

Hence this summer I've decided to address these problems, had a consultation at an ortho who seems to know what he's doing (sentence: as little as six months, ceramics on top, speed braces on bottom), x-rays done and all, the insurance won't pay but my parents will, everything is set to go.

However, I'm still in a limbo and can't get my act together to really take the plunge. Of course I have plenty of excuses: I want to re-whiten my teeth before, and then there's a family function coming up in four weeks (you know how relatives are: "are your studies going along nicely?", "so you're preparing thouroughly for your exams, yes?", "It's been a while since I last saw you. You should visit me more often!"... Now on top of this "What is it that you have on your teeth?", "You have braces? Didn't you have these before years ago?" I can do without!) and of course what will the people at the university think? Yes, I know, most people will forget about you having braces the minute they discovered them, still I'm hestitant.

Anyway, so far my sort-of-introduction-more-of-a-rant, I'll post more (including pictures) once I've really started this.

Thanks for listening!

mm

[mm]

sounds like you've still got a bit of finalising to do with the decision making ... but things are on there way!

Nicely put, Karen, my decision-making indeed still needs some final touches.

I'm constantly kicking myself in the butt when I think that if I had started this as soon as possible, I would've done 2 months already which would be a third of my whole time in braces

mm