My name's Christy, I'm 40 (actually, I'll be <gulp> 41 in 2 weeks!) and I got braces for the first time ever on October 23, 2007. To be honest, my teeth were not all that bad to begin with: I had a slight overbite, my bite was slightly off center, my bottom teeth had moderate crowding (noticeable to no one but me), and my top teeth had slight crowding (my two front teeth were slightly turned toward each other, which drove me absolutely CRAZY). My dentist, who happens to be a friend of mine, told me a few years ago that braces would help my crowding issue and I didn't do anything about it until last year, when I actually noticed that the crowding was getting worse. I called the ortho, another friend who I met socially through my dentist, and he gave me the prognosis: 14 months, which I didn't think was bad at all.
I was offered Invisalign and that seemed like a good idea, until I learned that I had to sign a waiver stating that my ortho wasn't responsible if I was non-compliant. That's when it hit me: there was no possible way my teeth would get straighter if I was left in daily control of the process! I elected to have traditional braces, clear ceramic brackets on the top and metal brackets on the bottom.
The absolute WORST part of getting the braces on was the damn cheek spreader! I have a tiny, tiny mouth and that thing HURT. I giggled when they asked what color ligs I wanted, I could just picture myself walking into a meeting at work with a nice rainbow colored grille!!
I chose the tooth colored ones to start off with. It took about an hour and a half to get everything installed, and it didn't hurt at all, it just felt a little weird. Little did I know...For the rest of that day, my mouth was a little achy and I didn't think I would be able to eat ever again because, well, it just didn't seem like my teeth fit together and I swore my back teeth did not touch at all. I was freaked out because I had no idea if this was permanent. I decided to give it a few days and contact my ortho if I still couldn't eat. I ate my first solid food on Day 8.
It took about 2 weeks for my teeth to feel like they were not going to fall out of my head if I took a bite of food. The pain was gone, but the inside of my cheeks were so raw and torn up (the wax helped a little). I lost 9 lbs in the first week and 4 in the second (wooo hooo, I KNEW there was silver lining somewhere else other than my mouth!).
I had my first adjustment on December 13, 2007 and it went pretty well. I had noticed that a small gap had opened up between two of my teeth, but I was told not to freak out, that this was normal and I would see more of these types of things before treatment was complete. The ortho decided that I needed a little IPR between my 2 front teeth and then decided to powerchain my 4 top front teeth (that was NOT fun, LOL) plus a new archwire on the top. Even with my fastidious oral hygiene, the tooth colored ligs looked yellowish, I assume from coffee and tea, since I don't smoke. My dental asst showed me her braces, which were all tied down with wire and covered with clear ligs, so I asked to have that done. I have been generally happier with it, except I'm noticing that dingy look on the ligs (again).
I go in for my 2nd adjustment on 1/22/08. I'm told I will be getting a new archwire on the bottom and that I may have to start with the elastics (not looking forward to that part) depending on how much progress is noted. I'm thinking I will get silver or smoke colored ligs this time, now that I'm used to the way I look with braces. I may go for the fun colors during March Madness!
All in all, I'm absolutely amazed at how much has changed in only 3 months. When I smiled before braces, you could pretty much only see my top front 4 teeth because I had a narrow arch; now it has opened up really well so that 10 top teeth show! I will try to have a few pictures up in the near future so that you can see the changes. I wish I had done this years ago!
Anywho, sorry for the mini-novel, and many thanks to all of you for sharing your stories and support, I am learning so much from all of you!
