I've been lurking here for several days, and figured that I'd finally drop a line or two, considering that I just got wired up this past Wednesday.
I'm a 25-year-old chemist, originally from a small town in Newfoundland, who's DESPISED my smile for at least the past 15 years. Being a poor kid from the sticks meant that orthodontic treatment wasn't an option when I was growing up, and I've been ashamed of that fact for entirely too long. Though my teeth are in good shape (not a single cavity, boo-yeah!), I look like something out of The Big Book of British Smiles (that's an in-joke for the Simpsons fans).
So, after playing the "Man, one of these days I'm going to ..." game for the past couple of years, I've finally decided to bite the bullet (so to speak!) and do something about it. I was less than impressed, however, to find that my dental insurance at work would cover only a maximum of 1/4 the total cost, and only for my non-existant "children between the ages of 6 and 18."
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Anyhow, I've finally embarked on my (at least) 2-year mission to stop looking like I open Coke cans with my teeth for a living. Right now, I'm wired on the top jaw only -- they were hoping to do both jaws this past week, but my overbite is too deep for the time being and would likely end up with my breaking the bottom set of braces. Not a good sign! I also have 4 wisdom teeth which need to come out within the next 15 months, due to that fact they're all coming sideways (the top ones, not so much so, but the bottom ones are practically perpendicular). Depending on how the overbite corrects, I might need jaw surgery too.
I can't WAIT for things to get going. The thought of not having a popping, cracking jaw and gnarly teeth is awesome. As terribly corny as it sounds, I found myself looking at all the before and after pics in the ortho office, thinking "My God, that could me ME!"
However, I'm also terrified of the "what ifs" -- you know, what if this doesn't work? What if my teeth don't move? What if things take 10 years to fix??
Well, enough of my rambling. I just wanted to say "Hello!" to everyone else out there!
