My teeth would have been perfect... on a horse! 16-3-07

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#1 Post by **egocidal** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 5:50 am

Hi! I'm 21 this year, and though I knew I should have braces since a decade ago, I didn't get them cos I was afraid of extractions. Hence, enduring the overbite and difficulty of covering them properly with my lips. In addition, my chin looked weak in comparison to the flared teeth. But now I'm on my way to a neat SMILE

Yeah, so I officially joined the braced bunch this morning, but two weeks prior to that, I had four first premolar extractions

, of which two developed into DRY SOCKETS. OW. Antibiotics and painkillers yadayada. Healed up fine. And before I knew it, brace-day has dawned

Friday 16th March, nine o'clock had me sitting bright and early in the waiting room after a(in this order) substantial breakfast, tooth brushing, before-pix! and liberal lip balm application.

O yea, initially, I asked my doc if he had GOLD braces, cos my teeth were woefully off-white, so that would blend nicely into the tooth color, but no, silver will have to do:( That actually threw me a little, since I had already picked out the ligature colors with GOLD wires in mind... So yeah, in case you were wondering what I'm thinking during the whole bracing, that's it

And it turns out that the sharp protrusion below my lower extraction IS bone, and not some buccal exostosis like I suspected. Must've been part of the root left there when he broke the tooth. He says it will go away on its own. Will it? It's been getting canker-like and driving me nuts every time it breaks the gum surface.
See the white spot below the socket? Ow

How the braces was worn

- Sit in chair
- Gargle
- Teeth cleaning
- Lots of cotton tubes stuck into mouth in place of expanders
- Mouth vacuum left in
- Acid dabbed on teeth
- Glue and brackets applied amidst lots of 'bite/open/bite/open's
- Choose ligatures!! *panic!* Blurted out a muffled 'Purpurh an' orane' with vigorous gesticulation because I wanted alternating colors but the same on the top and bottom teeth. Which my ortho eventually understood
- Bottom archwire fitted on. Mmm weird pressure goodness.
- One molar bracket falls off
- Scrape off excess glue residue, glue bracket back on.
- Other archwire ligatured on
- Cotton tubes out
- Gargleeee.....
- Mirror!!

First thoughts

- Now my lips won't even fit around the teeth!!
- Omg the nasty rubber taste from the ligs
- OMG I GOT BRACES!
- Man, I look weird.
- I can't believe it took just half an hour! That guy is QUICK.

So yay! Collected my new spectacles at VC and... it's time for lunch. A small smoked salmon sandwich sounded good on the menu, until it's served up. It wouldn't have been so terrible if the bread was the nice soft kind as opposed to ROCK HARD and CRUSTY. At least it came with soup. So I spent the next hour separating the individual ingredients, then dissecting each into cubic inch bits, and drowning every morsel in soup before mushing it vaguely with my back molars... They're the only teeth I can use at the moment--front teeth hurts too much

Okay, that wasn't so bad, cos even though one could probably tell what I ate just by peering in between my metalworks, I managed to gargle the remaining bits off with sheer mouthpower and the help of Earl Grey tea.

And now, dun dun dunnnn. The befores!

And afters!

Now my front teeth begins to hurt in earnest... Augh

Timeline

01-03-07 Four first premolar extractions

07-03-07 Got medication for two dry sockets
16-03-07 Brace day!:mrgreen:(purple/orange ligs)

egocidal is my regular/braces blog is

#2 Post by **Nawners** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:56 am

LOVE those colors!!
And those glasses are WAY cute.
Congratulations!!

#3 Post by **mighty mo** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:16 am

Welcome to the world of braces egocidal. Great pictures, and great attitude. I look forward to reading more...

#4 Post by **BracesRacer** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:27 am

You and I almost have the exact same story, lol... I had extractions a few weeks ago (only no dry socket or anything like that) and my braces went on this morning at about 9am'ish. I am also having jaw surgery on the lower when I am done but other than that... we are pretty similar. I look forward to reading your progress and its good to know I have someone else thats going through this at nearly the exact same time, haha

#5 Post by **dallison** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:08 pm

You have a BEAUTIFUL smile, egocidal!!!

I bet you won't be able to stop showing it off once you start to see a difference!!

#6 Post by **egocidal** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:08 pm

Thanks for the advice, encouragements and compliments you guys

Morning after report: Was woken up by a nagging ache in my central and lateral incisors. Took the edge off the sting by keeping a cooler of iced-water beside me, and sipping constantly. Since I'm not a huge fan of drinking (just water

), that's a hooray for my health.

Foodwise, I find it's the first bites that need to be white-knuckled through. After the initial chews, my teeth seemed resigned to the fact that I'll still be torturing them with work and therefore it's a good idea to dissassociate and go numb Lol.

New best friends:
- Ice water
- Bathroom
- Teeth cleaning eq
- Lip balm

#7 Post by **Danielle** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 5:45 pm

New best friends:
- Ice water
- Bathroom
- Teeth cleaning eq
- Lip balm

And if you get any cuts/scrapes you're gonna add wax to the top of that list!

#8 Post by **samantha_lou** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:10 pm

Looking good! Congratulations on getting the journey started! You have really nicely shaped and sized teeth, and I think you'll be rather impressed by them once you're done!

I look forward to reading your updates!

#9 Post by **victor36** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:03 am

egocidal,
Your lig colors are awesome, and so are your glasses!!!

here's to a great treatment!

welcome to ArchWired!!

~Victor