"What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been" - Robert Hunter, Grateful Dead

[carzfrm60s]

SinkFullOfDinner, Your posts are pretty funny, mostly because I think we've all been or will be
through some of these same things. I also use an old wax container for my elastics.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Just returned from a short trip to visit family. Day 1, I'm sitting with my 10 yr old niece catching up. Out of the blue, she says, "oh, it's a rubber band." I say, "huh?" She says, "you have a rubber band on your teeth...I thought it was a spit string, but it didn't go away." Great. I guess having elastics beats having permanent "spit strings" showing. I used to think that the color of the elastics was just kind of dingy, like two-week-old clear ligs when they're no longer clear. But now I guess they should just refer to the color as Spit Foam Tan. You'd paint a room or buy a car with that description, wouldn't you?

Next ortho appointment is later this week. Hopefully lots of progress but no new accessories. Wish me luck.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

It used to be that a "routine" appointment was to change the ligs and powerchain and maybe get a new wire. I kinda long for those. Now they seem to all involve being on the receiving end of an IPR power tool and saying "thank you, sir, may I have another" when they hand me another pack of elastics. "No" is also becoming a routine response when I ask if we're on the last wire.

At one point during the whole IPR jackhammering, my ortho said that she needed to take a couple seconds break because her fingers were cramping from pressing on the tool for that long. I said, "you can't possibly be expecting sympathy from me, can you? Wanna trade?" Sheesh.

Gotta get used to the new elastic config. Waaay tighter and waaay more visible. The self-conscious dork-factor index is on the rise.

[JanieO]

Ha! Great response. I've been finding that there's something about being held captive in the dentist's chair and the vulnerability of that that brings out the funny in me (not something I'm usually known for). When I went for my consult with a periodontist almost a year ago, I got there a bit late because I had gone to the branch office near where I live and my appointment was at their primary office a half hour further on. That office runs like clockwork and the doctor was in "super efficiency" mode which is probably why she first looked at my X-rays which were on the screen behind me; then, by way of greeting said, "I see you've had braces." Without missing a beat, I opened my mouth and heard myself saying "If I had had braces, that would be what you call an epic fail." She then looked in my mouth and said, "Gotcha." She explained that she'd made an assumption based on the fact that I have short roots.

I'm coming down to the wire finally and my braces will go on in less than 3 weeks. I'll be happy to finally get this show on the road!

[SinkFullOfDinner]

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics!"

I know there are all of these stats about how a gazillion adults have gotten braces. And while there are more women than men (cowards!) in the process, that would still mean that there should be something like one-third of a gazillion, or even a quarter gazillion adult guys out there, right? I've seen a couple young guys over the last year+, but they seemed to all be in the 25-ish age segment. I never, ever see an honest to god "wife, a kid , and a mortgage payment" dude in their 30s, 40s, or 50s., except a couple of times at the ortho's office. Not out in real life. Plenty of women getting things fixed, but not the gents.

I only mention it because I saw an actual mid-aged guy with braces at the coffee shop this morning! What a great "it's not just me" feeling! I don't know if it was because of some needed reaffirmation, or a knowing schadenfreude. But then I said to myself "calm down Sink, it's just another mid-aged dude with braces. You're acting like you're a NASA scientist who just discovered that we're not alone in the universe." Actually, I do think the feeling would be similar.

Anyway, I've discovered one out of a supposed gazillion. Finally. I'm still not buying the marketing claims.

I'm coming down to the wire finally and my braces will go on in less than 3 weeks. I'll be happy to finally get this show on the road!

Good luck in a couple weeks, @JanieO! [see what I mean...another female taking the plunge]

[SinkFullOfDinner]

Seven weeks in between my last and next appointment seems like an eternity! Only half way thru. I thought the long intervals were over early after you finish with the smaller, more flexible wires that the ortho lets cook for 6-8 weeks sometimes. We'd been clipping along at 4-5 week intervals for most of this year which, real or not, makes it feel like you're making awesome progress. I know I'm just being impatient, but I want to keep the foot on the gas pedal.

Random observations: While making a key lime pie today (yum!) I added one more thing to my list of minor annoyances from elastics. When you finally finish and it's time to get a mouthful of spatula to enjoy the last of the delicious leftover filling, you can't get the darn thing in your mouth! Went with the spatula-to-finger-to-mouth technique. Gets the job done, but the extra step pisses me off.

Next, I've now determined that cilantro is without peer for getting stuck and resisting any swish or tongue attempts to dislodge. Far worse than lettuces, kale, spinach, bread, etc. It's green, it's thin, and it just. won't. let. go.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

The Bottle:
So yesterday's appointment included a power chain on the uppers (lingual) for the first time. I've had a power chain of one kind or another on the bottom since the beginning of the year or end of last and it just wasn't any kind of big deal. The top one, however, has thrown me back into speech purgatory. I wouldn't really call it a lisp. It's more like extreme slurring, or maybe a combo "slursp." I just said slursp out loud and realized that I can write it, but I can't say it. Anyway, it sounds like the first thing that I do in the morning after my feet hit the floor is that I hit the bottle hard. Like I just fire back 4 or 5 shots of bourbon, then maintain a slurring stupor level throughout the day.

Besides my renewed self-consciousness speaking at the moment, I think that I'll need to drive a bit slower for awhile. I'm convinced that if I'm pulled over for speeding, there is absolutely no way that I avoid hearing the words "sir, have you been drinking?" followed by a roadside sobriety test. I doubt the officer will have ever heard of The Rainbow Passage. @kalia, this goes for you, too, if you're reading.

Math:
We're not talking vector calculus here, just simple addition. And I can't make it work, which means that either I stink at math (plausible) or the math problem that I wrote down from my ortho has a mistake in it. I definitely heard 22-24 months (never mind the word "estimate"), which would be Oct-Dec this year. It's September. That means 1-3 months from now. So far my math is awesome.

However, I overheard "should we start triangle elastics?"...."not yet, let's continue class II elastics for now..." They also intended to do some additional IPR to help with the class II elastics, but ran out of time and said they'd make a note to do that next time. *pulling my hair out* So, if my math is correct and as optimistic as possible, we're talking this month, then get to the final IPR and finish the class II elastic portion of tonight's performance, then triangle elastics for some period, then... That only works if each step takes no more than one month, and there are no other steps, and they take everything off at the same time as the third appointment. Possible? Perhaps. Likely? Ain't no way.

The realization that I'm probably getting a lump of coal in my Christmas stocking instead of a set of retainers was a pretty big bummer, although having retainers on your Christmas wish list is pretty lame, too, and an indicator that I need to raise my aspirations. All of that, and I'm still left with a slursping hangover for awhile. Hope you're all having a good week, though!

[SinkFullOfDinner]

I saw a thread above on likes/dislikes, and figured I'd just put mine here.

Dislikes: 1) The number of elastics I've swallowed when I run into someone I haven't seen in awhile and manage to pop off the elastics with my tongue. 2) The number of elastics that I haven't been able to discreetly pop off with my tongue when meeting new people. 3) Biting or pinching my tongue between two lingual brackets. Hurts worse than biting your cheek!

Likes: 1) They're working. 2) The worst parts are behind me. I assume. Otherwise, it's just one big "swipe left." Let's be honest, anything else that we might list as a "like" is just a mis-categorized "could be worse."

[Shelleyt]

This is hilarious. I'm getting linguals tomorrow and hope I'm in as good of spirits as you after a year and a half!

[SinkFullOfDinner]

@shelleyt, good luck today! Or maybe they're already on. All I can offer is don't freak out Day 1. In those first moments after getting linguals on and trying to speak, I was questioning every single decision that I'd made leading up to that moment. It gets much better, even kinda "normal," and it works. What they're able to do, and how they're able to do it, is pretty amazing.

[Shelleyt]

Thank you! It's been just over two weeks ago and I wish I would have read this then because WOW was my speech awful for he first week or so. Now I am at like 90% normal, so I will take it! Just waiting on those changes now

[Ayleiah]

I was reading your concerns about short roots and braces. I am getting my 2nd set of braces on in two days, however, I am concerned because, I have short roots on my lower 4 incisors. Have you had any xrays to see how the roots are doing? Will the teeth with short roots be splinted after the brackets come off? I am a little freaked out. I will be fit with Damon brackets hoping that they are not nearly as harsh on my little roots. I had spacers put in last week because I have a couple of gold crowns that my ortho wants to band and I am finding those 4 short rooted teeth are feeling a little unstable. Are you finding that you have some wiggling going on since the braces went on?



Thank you
Ayleiah

[SinkFullOfDinner]

I love getting good news:
Ortho said "lowers are looking great...I think they're about done." Music to my ears!

Why is there always a "but" that follows?

I Feel Adorable Now, and You Can Too!
I guess they still have some work to do pulling the uppers back on one side, so I hear "do you need one or two bags of elastics?" It sounds to me like fingernails on a blackboard by now. But, hey, I finally got a pack with one of the zoo animal names like all the cool kids get, instead of the ho-hum boring ones that I'd been getting that just say 1/4" medium whatever ounce. The animal makes all the difference. I used to feel awkward wearing those very visible no-name elastics, but now that I have the ones with an adorable animal name, I feel absolutely adorable, too.

Double Powerchain = Double the Fun?
Probably not. In an effort to speed up the closing of some gaps, they doubled up on powerchains across the upper front teeth. Apparently the tie-wings on lingual brackets are so small they weren't sure they could get a second powerchain on, but they did. Yay?? Anyway, I've never had too much soreness from powerchains before, but I have a bad feeling this time might be a little different.

[SinkFullOfDinner]

How lazy - or stubborn - am I?
My tongue is seriously roughed up and screaming at me, and I have no one to blame but myself. If you have braces, food gets stuck. All that matters is how you deal with it. If you're home and have failed with the swish or tongue push technique, the smart thing to do is just give up and go brush or waterpik it out. Sometimes, however, lazy and stubborn overrule smart.

More specifically, sometimes watching football promotes counterproductive behavior. Because I was either too lazy yesterday, or too unwilling to miss three minutes of a stupid game, or too stubborn to admit that the brackets and a little piece of annoying food had defeated me, I must have tried for over an hour to dislodge it with my tongue. I tried every possible tongue gymnastics move - shredding my tongue in the process - and I STILL lost the battle. I continue to pay the price today.

I'm an idiot.

[carzfrm60s]

You lucky devil! My elastics are "Chuck" and "Fred", no cute animals here.