*waves hello*

[samantha_lou]

Hi! I'm Sam, I'm 25 and living in Bellevue near Seattle in WA. I'm currently training to be the assistant manager of a very large (and wonderful) dental office - six general dentists, plus every speciality...ortho days are the busiest!! I've been working in the dental industry for around eight months now, mostly in recruiting for assistants and front office staff at my companies corporate office in Oregon, but my husband got a promotion to the Seattle area and so I applied for the opportunity in one of the dental offices - its been around a month and a half now and I really love it!

I'm hoping to start my pre-ortho treatment next summer, I'll be spending some time with an expander before I get the braces. This will be round two of ortho for me, I did have some ortho as a child back in the UK, but that mainly dealt with my funky front teeth. I was getting fussy about a small rotation on one of my bottom teeth, and so had the orthodontist take a look - he was far more concerned about my awful bite!!

My other main concern is that one upper side of my teeth have a very concave pattern, I'll have to get my husband to try and take a good photo of it - you can't really see it when I smile and talk normally, but I'm very aware of it and it makes me quite self conscious. I'm very excited about getting braces again, and one of my favorite parts of my job is talking to kids (and their parents) who are anxious about braces and getting them excited about their treatment.

[Shawnie]

Hi Sam

Welcome! I too am from Washington, glad to hear that you like it here. Good luck with your treatment, I am sure you will find this message board very helpful as I have. This way I don't have to drive everyone else crazy with brace talk. since I am sure they are not really as interested in it as I am. But here you can talk freely because we are all in the same situation!

[bbsadmin]

Welcome! Please feel free to explore this message board as well as our main site, http://www.ArchWired.com. Tell your dental colleagues about our site!

[jrbecca]

Welcome, Sam! It must be interesting to be receiving ortho treatment while working in a dental office. Does it give you a different perspective having been on the other side of the business?

I look forward to seeing you on the boards!

[samantha_lou]

Ortho is definitely my favorite speciality (sssh! Don't let the endodontist or periodontist hear me say that!!!) I love seeing the patients come through month by month and seeing the differences in their smiles and their growing confidence through that. We're definitely seeing more and more adults having treatment though, which is really cool. Our office is very lucky to have a wonderful orthodontist, he is incredibly popular and gets really spectacular results with his patients.

I'm definitely understanding more and more about ortho and braces, learning how it works and learning the more technical things about the treatment. I'm also learning about ortho insurance, the different coverages and of course setting up the wonderful payment plans and financial agreements.

I'm also very excited to be starting my own treatment, I still have to book my consult, and get my records done. I have an appointment with my regular dentist in the office at the end of January, he'll check my teeth out for overall health and make sure I'm in great shape for ortho and then it'll be on to a final ortho consult, records and the other wonderful appointments for the palatal expander..

[bracesmom]

Hello Samantha and Shawnie,

I just had to say I was so glad to hear of someone from WA here. That's where I grew up and now live with my dh in OR. Still exploring the site looking for the right place to post.

[samantha_lou]

I finally took the plunge and booked my consultation for the 4th March next year, I took a Saturday morning appointment at 7am!

I have my next appointment with my general dentist on the 24th January, so I figured that would give me enough time between the two if there was something that I needed to get taken care of before starting pre-ortho.

I feel great for getting it booked though, I'm hoping to start treatment around the end of May/start of June.

[NotBob1]

Hi Sam.
Yet another Seattlite here. I grew up in Bellevue. You'll be happy you made the choice to get the ball rolling. I'm up in 10 days, January 10th to be exact. You'll be in good company with all of those dental professionals in your building.

Let us know how it goes. (Maybe we should start our own little thread for those of us in the Northwest!!!) (Oregon included, ofcourse!~)

[samantha_lou]

Wow...just 10 days! Thats really cool that you're so close to getting started and getting your braces started. I think its one of the best things that you can ever do for yourself, once you have a smile that you love to flash, it just makes you feel great. It'd be great to see some starting photos and hear all about your adventure over the next few months!

Good luck!

[bracesmom]

(Maybe we should start our own little thread for those of us in the Northwest!!!) (Oregon included, ofcourse!~)

LOL, Thanks for including me . I am a Washington native of Gig Harbor and Tacoma. I'd like to run into more of us grown-ups with braces. I thought these braces would make me feel younger--but they don't lol!

Braces mom.

One more thing, isn't there and Emoticon out there with braces?

[NotBob1]

I'd love to know too, as I have tried to get them transferred and they are usually too big.

Is there a thread out here that explains how to do this properly? I've searched, but never really found anything.

[michele]

Hi,
I will try to help. First find the picture you want to use. If you need to host it go to http://www.photobucket.com and register for a free account. You will then need to upload the picture to their site. They will give you a link so that you can it can be your avatar and copy it (right click and click copy or edit copy) so that you can add it here.
It should look something like this:

Code: Select all

www.photobucket.com/picture.jpg

Ok is your picure is already on a site.
Find where the picture is right click on it and save it your computer. Then follow the directions above to host it this way you will not lose it.

Ok now you have the link for your avatar. Now you need to come back here to but it up. You need to click on "img]templates/subSilver/images/icon_mini_profile.gif[/img] Profile" so insert it go to the bottom of the page and put in the link to the picture.

Ok now you want to post a picture of your braces.
Follow the steps above to host the picture and then go and find the link that looks like this

Code: Select all

[img]photobucket.com/image.jpg[/img]

copy it and and post that in your message and you will now be able to see your image in the post.

I hope this helps,

Michele

[samantha_lou]

I had my pre-ortho consultation with my general dentist today, who basically evaluated me for periodontal health and caries for starting my orthodontic treatment. All went well, I just have to keep an eye on tooth 18's occlusal surface for the development of a cavity, but its not an issue at the moment. With some extra attention in that area, hopefully all will be fine - but its a lower tooth and the expander is going on the top arch only.

I'm good to go, just one more consultation with my ortho before we get underway. I think I'm just going to be taking the expander slowly over eighteen months, which should hopefully have me ready for braces in January 2008. I am a little concerned about how painful the expander will be, considering I'm 26 and my bones in that area have been fused for quite some time...hopefully taking things slowly will mean I'm not forcing anything to move in a short period of time.

My general dentist is a cosmetic dentist, and once I'm finished with ortho he has suggested some gum surgery, to expose more of my teeth because they are so small. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, I guess I'll wait and see how things look after ortho and then decide whether I would like "bigger" teeth. He said I have a few options cosmetically that we can explore, but considering I am somewhat of a nervous dental patient, I'm not sure how much of that I'll be comfortable with!

[samantha_lou]

I had my consultation this morning, not too many surprises - considering that I work right alongside my orthodontist in the same office, however, it was nice to have some one on one time in the chair.

We talked about SARPE surgery briefly, I'm very small and have a small bone structure - so I was never going to have a very big mouth with room for lots of teeth, and we don't want to or need to alter my profile or face shape at all. We're just going to go with the RPE, and take it very slowly. We are also negotiating on a bite plate for a small crossbite, but we're going to see how things go over the next year or so. The aim is to be ready for braces and full banding in January 2008, which seems such a long way off right now.

I have tentatively scheduled to have some study models and seps at the end of March, impressions and band fitting for the RPE in mid-April and then delivery of the RPE in the second week of May. Like I said, we are taking it all very slowly, and I've yet to decide if this is the schedule I will stick to (mainly its now figuring out the financing and what is due when, and my need to still be saving the $$$).

I'm pleased overall, and I am happy to have at least got the ball rolling, even though its rolling very slowly for me right now.

[Der_Todesengel]

Hello and welcome to the message board. I hope you enjoy yourself here. I am not in braces but I love talking to people who are in them or getting them to let them know it's okay, I used to have them.