Old guy with (pretty) new braces

[tcomeau]

Hi, I'm Tom, and I have braces.

I'm 45, and had terrible dental care as a kid. We went to the dental school about once a year to get all our teeth looked at, so I have a lot of old, large fillings, particularly in my molars. I also had a pretty crappy diet as a kid, so my teeth are rather brittle.

My fortunes changed when I got into the software business, so for the last 20 years or so I've had very good care, with two root canals and six crowns. However, I had one tooth in the front on the bottom that was sticking out from my lower lip, and it got so bad I was biting my lip constantly. I was doing enough damage I asked my dentist, Ron, about pulling it.

"You don't have enough good teeth in your head for me to start pulling them," he told me. "Go see Marty, and see what he thinks." Marty is Ron's orthodontist, and Ron is Marty's dentist, and they're old friends from dental school.

Marty looked at my mouth, took pictures, x-rays, did a model, scratched his head, said "Gee, the bottom is really jumbled," and told me to come back in two weeks.

When I came back, he went through the pictures, got out a pencil, and told me "Basically, what I can do is move every other tooth in your mouth. That will make room for this tooth, and it will also improve your bite, widen your face, and with two more crowns give you a really nice smile."

His original estimate was that it would take a year to get the uppers lined up, and about another year to get the lowers in place.

So, on November 8, 2006, I got braces.

He warned me that I'd have some pain, and he usually recommends ibuprofen. I'm allergic to NSAIDs, so all I can take is acetaminophen, and that has not been very effective. On bad days I'm taking five or six grams (the recommended maximum dose is 4 grams/24 hours); on good days I take 'only' 3 grams.

I had my first check-and-adjust on December 13th, and he was very surprised by how far the uppers had moved. That, combined with my persistent "discomfort" (his term) meant he didn't change the wires, just retied them.

I had my second check-and-adjust this Monday (1/22) and he says the uppers are almost where he wants them. I'll be keeping my "copper 2" on the uppers probably for the rest of the year. The lowers are still moving pretty well (I already have quit biting my lip) but are far from where the will end up.

The other thing that really bothers me about the brackets is that they are excellent heatsinks. So on cold mornings I step out of the house, take a deep breath, and get an instant "brain freeze" headache.

So I'm happy with how things are going, though about three times a week I think about asking Marty to pull the brackets off now, since I've already accomplished my main goal. But since that would leave me with a really messed up bite, I've been able to talk myself into leaving things in place before I could find Marty's phone number.

Sigh.