Weirdly enough, i never really looked at my teeth that much or disliked anything about them. Then, about 3 years ago i moved to Sydney and that started to change. I worked with people, socialised with people, who had movie star teeth, white, straight, perfect, and, as they say in 'Silence of The Lambs', "we covet what we see every day"!
In late 2004 i made the move to have my wisdom teeth out. After the x-rays, my dentist showed that i had a molar that had not come down, and was sitting up attached to my bone in my cheek (gone blank, cant remember what it was called), so he decided to only remove 3 of my wisdom teeth. I pretty much went along with whatever he said, and so there i sat in his chair while he needled me and hacked at my mouth and gums, removing my 3 wisdom teeth. I wasnt overly impressed, being fully awake and seeing the blood, and one of my wisdom teeth actually broke in half, ergh!
Out of all of this, and i know its not over, but that was easily the worst experience of my life. My face was swollen for a week, i couldnt eat, i just cried and swallowed painkillers and slept constantly. And the blood, being told not to spit, there was no way i was swallowing that disgusting mess!
Anyway, once that ordeal was over, i moved back to Melbourne and began the next step. I met with the good people at Invisalign, showed them my x-rays and talked about a plan. The next day i had an appointment with a normal orthodontist as well, to explore both options. The people at Invisalign told me that the molar up in my cheek would have to come out, and i wasnt impressed. I guess i was hoping that the orthodontist would disagree. Silly me!
The orthodontist didnt disagree, but i talked to him about the Invisalign option, and he told me that in his opinion, Invisalign would not work for me. So, i went back home, emailed the dentist who removed my wisdom teeth in Sydney, and asked his opinion. As he was an Invisalign dentist, he told me that if he thought it would work for me, he would have suggested it to me, and that he felt proper braces would work better for me.
So, the next step was surgery to have that damn tooth removed! I'm not a scared sort of person but i was really nervous. After the horror debacle of the wisdom teeth, i really didnt want to have to go through with it. Anyway, i was sent to a hospital and put under general anaesthetic, and woke up when it was all over. There was absolutely nothing to worry about!
So, on the 2nd of February in 2006, i had my braces put on! Full metal on the bottom and porcelains up the top.
Initially my plan was 18-27 months, and a few months ago my ortho (Gerry) told me that it would be no more than 18 - however when i saw him last week and applied some pressure he was rather noncommital. Damn orthodontists!
Hopefully i can attach these pictures ok, so you can see... i dont have many decent close-up ones of the progress, but i can certainly see some difference in the closed gaps, and even the misaligned bite - i never realised how crooked until the people at Invisalign pointed that first pic out!!
I have seen a tremendous change in the lowers though, they were rather crowded.
