Meghan's Braces Part Deux

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

I think you can see that my front uppers have straightened out in the past few days, although I think the right front upper still hangs down a little further than the left front upper. My bite seems like it's lined up better, but the only upper tooth that touches the bottoms is the tooth on my left just next to the middle teeth. You can see it best from the second picture from the left. Nothing else is touching at all, not even my molars. Also, from the fourth picture it looks like my entire jaw is uneven!

What do you think? Any progress is good!

KK and Linda 21 - thanks for your kind words. I'm definitely planning on asking lots of questions at my next adjustment, especially if it means my ortho will take a second look at my teeth, but I'll also try not to be so neurotic and control-freaky - it's good advice for braces and for life!

[M1k3y]

You're teeth are moving fast. I guess you didn't have much problems when it came to crookedness so that is good. Hope all goes well.

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

I knew it wasn't going to be a good day when I woke up this morning with a nightmare about my teeth. I dreamed that my enamel was peeling away, leaving my teeth transparent and weak. When I woke up, I had to check my teeth in the mirror to make sure it was just a dream. Does anyone else have nightmares about his/her teeth? It's happening to me more and more frequently.

So I just got back to work from my ortho appointment. At my last appointment in early November, my ortho had told me that my braces were almost over, and I would probably have them off by Christmas. I thought I didn't believe him, b/c I thought there was still a lot of work to be done. But my birthday is at the end of December, too, and I have some friends visiting around then, and I'm going to visit a friend in early January, and I guess I allowed myself to think I'd be doing these things without braces! I don't even know why it makes a difference, but when my ortho told me today that it's going to take a few more months, I was really disappointed. If he just hadn't said anything last time, then I wouldn't have cared. And it isn't even like I was bugging him for a de-bracing date, he volunteered it - which somehow makes it worse.

I'm just feeling kind of down. I'm under some stress in other areas of my life. I'm sick of braces. I'm sick of the fact that every time I get them adjusted I can't eat anything but soup and oatmeal for a week. I'm sick of taking 20 minutes to floss every night. Blah.

Now that I got that out, I actually feel better! So what happened at my appointment: apparently the last wire did not straighten out my bite the way my ortho thought it would. My teeth were hitting straight on again - exactly what they were doing before I started my braces treatment. So he put in a torque wire to rotate my front uppers out a little. So from straight up and down (|), they'll be more like (\). I can feel already that my teeth have shifted - a.k.a., they hurt. Also, I can feel them reverting to one of the problems that the last wire was supposed to fix - my upper front left tooth is pushing forward, in front of my uppser front right tooth. My next appointment is on January 2. I'll try to post some pictures tonight, & in the meantime I'll try to remember that another 2 months (or even more) of braces is almost nothing compared to the rest of my life without braces.

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

No progress to report, just a happy anniversary to me! I can't believe it's been a year already. Take heart, newbies - it really does go fast. My initial prognosis was for 12 - 14 months. It's turning out to be closer to the 14 than to the 12, but that's okay.

My birthday is coming up on the 28th. I've never been a fan of New Year's (somehow it seems sad, not happy), and as my birthday is right around then I tend to take stock of things and review the year on my birthday instead. Now I'm doing that with braces, too! Looking back, I think this year will always be The Year of the Braces. Happy December 5!

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

I didn't notice it until just now - it looks like my front upper left is a little crooked. I can tell with my tongue that it's fallen slightly behind the right.

Linda21 - thanks, you're right, 2 months isn't much at all! I can't wait to post my naked pictures, just a little bit longer!

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

Hi! Sorry the photos are so large, I thought I had sized them a little smaller !
I had my 9th appointment - I think it was my 9th, anyway, I may have lost track - on Jan. 2, and I got a power chain(on uppers) and elastics! I chose a bright coral colored power chain on my uppers b/c I thought it might make my teeth look whiter/less yellow. The power chain closed my remaining gaps. And my ortho gave me the Panda elastics, to bring my lower jaw backwards, and my upper jaw forwards. I guess they worked well enough, b/c when I went back three weeks later on Jan. 23, my ortho was satisfied and switched me to the elastics in the photos. Gotta say I liked the other ones better! It took me about a week to get used to these elastics, although now my mouth feels funny when they're not in. I'm not so crazy about how they're at the very front of my mouth. My lips tend to get caught in them. My orthos said they're supposed to bring my upper teeth down a little bit, so my bite will fit better. I hope they're doing it! I'm still worried b/c although my bite looks pretty good in the photos, the only teeth that actually touch when I bite are the two teeth just to the left (my left) of the center two teeth - I think maybe my jaw has reverted in the week and a half since my last elastics. Definitely something I'll bring up next appointment.
I've been wearing the new elastics all the time except to eat. I've also taken them out for a few hours at a time when I had to speak to people - for some reason, my braces never made me self conscious, but the elastics do, a little. Maybe b/c it feels like my tongue is in jail, and I feel like the elastics are more noticeable than braces?
Also, do any of you with elastics try to "exercise" your jaw? I'll stretch my mouth open as wide as I can get it, then close it, then open it again. I don't think this makes a difference in my teeth moving, but for some reason I feel compelled to do it - like scratching a bug bite that itches.
My ortho told me I'm in the finishing stages of my treatment, and it should be only one or two more appointments before they come off. My next appointment is Feb. 13, I'm very eager (and nervous) to see what happens then!

[Tin Indian]

Your teeth are REALLY looking nice Meghan.Hope your elastics will treat you better soon. Here's hoping for you at your next appointment.

[SimInsomniac]

Your teeth look beautiful Meghan!

I hope things go to plan and they're off soon.
Good Luck!

Sim

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

Hi everyone - KK, Tin Indian, & SimInsomniac - thanks for checking in on my story, & for your encouragement. The elastics aren't actually that bad, it's just when I'm speaking in front of a lot of people (which oddly enough has happened more in the past 3 weeks than it has the entire time I've had braces!) that they bother me. Also, I've gotten some teasing about them, but it's all in good fun, so no worries there.
I have my next appointment in about an hour. My ortho may give me a debracing date today, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Also, I'm finding I'm not that eager to get the braces off - maybe I have the braces version of Stockholm syndrome? I never thought this time would pass so fast, but it has, I've had my braces for 14+ months and I'm really used to them!
Anyway, at my appointment I'm going to ask about a lower tooth that looks and feels slightly twisted, and about my bite on my left side. It's hard to see from the pictures, but my teeth don't fit together smoothly when I bite naturally - I have to strain my lower jaw back to make it feel right. So of course I'll ask about that. I'll keep you posted!

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

Hi! I just got back to work from the ortho. He set my D-Day - March 13! He made a few minor adjustments to my lower and upper wires - a few bends so everything will straighten out, and my bite will fit. I still have to wear elastics 24-7 for two weeks, then night only for the last two weeks. Then, braces off! Surprised, and nervous!

(And I added a ticker - a snowscape b/c if you're in the northeast US today, it's snowing pretty hard.)

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I'm excited about my tentative de-bracing, but I'm actually semi-panicking, and I'd really like some input and perspective. My bite is fitting together no better than it did in the last photos I posted. I raised this concern at my last appointment. My ortho looked at my bite, and had me clench my teeth. I can make my teeth fit together, but I have to slide my jaw forward to do it. If I do that for more than 5 seconds, it tires out my jaw and is very uncomfortable. If I don't do it, though, then my teeth still fit together awkwardly the way I tried to show in those photos. My ortho didn't see a problem, though - and I'm wondering if I got my point across well enough. I don't think I can let them take my braces off when I still feel like I have this problem, but at the same time, I've already brought up my concerns and my ortho doesn't seem worried. I've almost decided to request another appointment prior to my de-bracing date (otherwise I wouldn't see him until my de-bracing). Is this unreasonable? Am I overreacting? I think it will be such a let down if I wait to bring this up until my de-bracing appointment and he tells me I need to keep them on for another month. I was hoping that maybe the elastics I have now would resolve everything, but I've had these elastics for a month now and they haven't done it yet.
Also, I'm still having a speech issue. When I was growing up, before my first encounter with braces, I had a speech defect that caused me to say my esses as "sh," and to mispronounce the "ch" sound in "cheese" and the "j" sound. I went through years (8?) of speech therapy to learn how to speak correctly. As a result of paying such close attention to my speech, I can hear it clearly when I'm not speaking correctly, where others think I'm speaking just fine. Before I lost my retainer in Aug. 2005 & started this whole braces process, my speech was fine. Over the past year, I haven't been able to say "ess" correctly, but I dealt with it because I knew that having braces is a temporary thing, and I assumed my speech would go back to normal once my teeth were correctly positioned. But this hasn't happened, and I'm very uneasy (understatement) that once my braces come off, my speech stay the way it is now, which is, back where it was when I was 5 years old. A friend of mine who had the same "ess" problem told me that it's an issue of the braces keeping my lips too far from my teeth, and that once the braces come off I won't have a problem with my speech. I don't remember if that was the case last time around - when I had braces before, my school hadn't yet cut the funding for speech therapy, so I was still going to speech therapy sessions that presumably would have addressed any problem. Does anyone know anything about this? My feeling is that if my bite issue is resolved, that that will solve my speech issue as well, but I have nothing to back this feeling up.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. I hope it's reasonably easy to follow - when I'm worried about something I tend to ramble. And thanks in advance for any suggestions/reassurance/game plan you might be able to give me!

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

Thanks Karen & bracedagain! I just made an appointment for February 27. Sometimes I have a problem with perspective. Even if my concerns are completely groundless, I need to go in and tell them what's worrying me for my peace of mind. And if my concerns aren't groundless, then there are things that need to be taken care of before my braces come off, and it's better to get them done sooner rather than later. I was worried that I was overreacting, and I was missing the point that it didn't matter whether I was overreacting - whether or not my concerns are legit, they need to be addressed. I feel slightly better now. Thanks!

[Meghan's braces Part Deux]

I went in for my panic/pre-debracing appointment on February 27. I'd say the result was a mixed bag. My main concern was that it didn't feel like my bite was aligning properly yet, and as I'm scheduled to have the braces off on March 13, I didn't think I would be happy with the result. It felt like my uppers were a little too far back in relation to my lowers. It took a lot of explaining to make my ortho understand what was wrong. Eventually, after looking carefully at my bite, after moving my jaw with his hands, and after having me relax my face with gauze stuck between my teeth, then bite down, my ortho thought he knew what was wrong - my upper left lateral incisor was too far inward, causing it to hit my bottom teeth.
My ortho put bends in the wire to correct this, and also to adjust the angle of my upper left central incisor. I guess I'm okay with my bite - it's better now, a week later, than it was before. But my upper left central incisor is now twisted a little. So my two upper central incisors, if looking down on them, would be a little like this: \---, with the slanted line my left central incisor, and the three lines my right central incisor. It's not nearly that dramatic, in fact I don't think it's noticable to anyone but me. And I think my ortho angled my left lateral incisor a little too far outward - now I can tell it's sticking out maybe 1-2 mm past my left central. I don't know how visible this will be once the braces come off. It might be like this b/c my ortho bonded my two lateral incisors to make them larger, and he ended up making them thicker as well as wider. Maybe, once the bonding comes off and I have it done by a dentist, it will look okay? The way we left it last Tuesday was that I would keep my debracing appointment, but let him know if I didn't think I was ready. I definitely have to bring up these new concerns before the braces come off, so my debrace date is still tentative. My ortho did mention a few months back that they can continue to work on teeth with retainers, but I'd really rather have everything taken care of before I get to that point.
One final issue - my speech. It's gotten much better. I think fixing my bite so I can close my teeth has done the trick. My esses aren't perfect yet, but before my February 27 appointment I could get them right 0% of the time, a few days after I was at maybe 20%, and now I'd guess I'm about 50%, and continuing to improve. That's a huge load off my mind!
Just kidding - another final thing. Now that the end actually is in sight, I'm thinking about whitening my teeth. If it's safe enough, I'd rather do this myself rather than have the dentist do it - braces are quite enough strain on my wallet as it is withoug paying for professional bleaching (and I'll also have to pay for the bonding once my braces come off, and somehow I don't think my insurance will cover it). Anybody have any recommendations? Good/bad stories? Thanks!