Chantel's story - Week 12 comparison pics (pg. 7)

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#31 Post by **antsika** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:44 am

Hi Chantel, I can understand your feelings as I had all four wisdom teeth extracted. I had it with only local anest. so I am sure GA will be much better. On the following day after the op you will ask yourself why I was so afraid of it!

Good luck!

#32 Post by **Chantel** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:20 pm

Yep time sure does fly.

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement

I'm really starting to get those shaky nerves, but I'm going to go through with it, I haven't waited this long for nothing.

And after speaking with my boyfriend we're going to start our travelling in around August of 2008 so by that time I should be out of my braces and in retainers that way we can go travelling around the globe and spend a year in London, can't wait

#33 Post by **Chantel** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 4:23 pm

Well as you can see from my banner in my signature, I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday,.. and I feel great!!! which is really quite surprising, I thought I'd be the size of a pumpkin with black and blue eyes, but my face is only a little puffy and some tiny blackness under my eyes.

There is hardly any pain (obviously I can tell I've had them taken out, but nothing excruiating (cross fingers nothing nasty pops up in the next few days). I was a bit teary going into the operating theatre as it's my first procedure ever done in hospital, but it all went really well. The nurse's reassured me that my doctor is one of the best oral surgeons in Sydney and rarely gets infections or major swelling, and that she knew he was quite expensive to go to, but like I said the old saying, I got what I paid for and it was definately worth it. Not in my life did I think I would be up and about and coherant a day after the operation!

I'm on the soft cold foods, so youghurt, ice-cream jelly! all the yummy stuff, hopefully I can progress to some soup's and some grilled fish this afternoon (i'm starving!!!!) So going to keep popping the pain killers every 4 hours and all should be good!

I'm hopefully going to start my actual braces journey in March as I'm going away for Christmas and also going overseas in early February for 2 weeks, so I'd rather not worry about having my braces on around that time. Thanks so much for everyone's encouraging support, it really has helped alot

More updates soon

#34 Post by **Chantel** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:40 pm

I've updated my ticker (see below) and as you can see I'm booked in for my spacers and braces! I know March seems like forever away, but I don't want to have them on over Christmas (even though they'll be on for next Christmas) I think I just want to have some fun without having to worry about other things, and also the whole overseas trip in February.

I'm a little bit excited about the whole journey, and I'm sure that excitement will turn into fear and loathing, but for now it's a bit of a fun ride.

One of my friends just recently got braced and got the same one's I'm getting and he's coping with them well, still going out eating pizza and getting stuff stuck in all the gaps and brackets, it's funny, so I can't wait to have a bit of fun with them as well!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas break and I hope Santa is kinda to everyone. Will be back in the New Year with more tales of the teeth kind

#35 Post by **BlahBlah** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:17 pm

Aye Chantel, im in sydney too... which surgeon did you see?
Congrats on getting a date for ur braces, and have a great holiday!!!!

#36 Post by **Chantel** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:22 am

Only 14 days to go until I get my spacers and in the last few days I've been going through a mixture of emotions, being scared and wanting to back out of the whole thing (again), but I'm determined to go through with it and have wonderful teeth at the end of it all.

So just wondering the whole spacers experience to those of you that have had them before braces, what do they feel like? I guess heaps of pressure on the other teeth considering a little bit of plastic is wedged in between them, but is it REALLY unbearable? or just a dull pain

I'm going to try and get in as many juicy t-bone steaks, popcorn, corn on the cob in the next 2 weeks.

Will update in 2 weeks when those spacers are firmly wedged in

#37 Post by **Chantel** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:22 am

Oops double post

#38 Post by **swiss1** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:14 am

Hi Chantel! great reading your story so far, and I'm sure you're making the right decision. I can empathise totally when you talk about mixed emotions and feeling like backing out. I think this is something many of us on this board (definitely in my case) went through. It is after all a big thing, and I knew that once I'd had teeth extracted pre-braces going on, there was no going back!

I had spacers before my brace went on (only for a week), and it wasn't that bad at all. I think it probably depends on the alignment of your teeth as some people seem to have better ride than others. I didn't really experience pain, except when trying to eat for the first couple of days. Try to stock up on yogurt, soup, mashed potato so you have plenty to eat if you do experience any pain. My teeth felt quite 'bouncy', but the most important thing is that they do their job and make room where its needed. Hope all goes well and keep us posted!

Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:33 pm

I had 6 extractions on April 20th, 2006, it was great! But minimal pain. Its awesome that your are starting your journey. it took me a year to get my brraces on, similar to your story except mine was 2 years ago

#40 Post by **Chantel** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:41 am

It's only been 3 hours since getting my spacers / seperators and I'm not feeling too bad at all *touch wood*

I can obviously tell something is wedged in between my teeth but I've drunk plenty of water and had two nurofen (pain relief / headache tablets) to cope and I'm going to top those up shortly.

I was extremely nervous walking into the Ortho's office, but all the assistants put my mind at ease and were laughing and chatting with me, Hilton my orthodontist is a lovely man, I think he's south african and very easy to talk to and quite gentle. One of the spacers kept snapping as it wouldn't wedge in between one of my molars, but he managed to thread the O ring onto a piece of floss and kind of "flossed" it in there that way!

I have 3 on the top of both left and right and 2 on the bottom left and right

I came home from work as I usually do and sussed out the fridge for something to snack on before dinner, but didn't have any softish food to snack on ;( soup it is for me for a few days anyway until I can chew properly.

The one thing I'm dying to find out from someone on this message board, is how on earth do you take those photo's of the top of your teeth so that you can see the arch from bottom view (and top view for the bottoms). I had a quick play with the camera, but I couldn't move my mouth properly to get everything in and they turned our blurry because of my breath hitting the lens and fogging up!!

I want to show you all my pretty blue spacers! =)

I will update as the week goes on to let you know of any unexpected pings and pains

There's no turning back now... haha

#41 Post by **Chantel** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:02 pm

Thanks for your tips regarding the photographs, but I'm still having a little bit of trouble, these are the best I could come up with, I think I need a bit more practice, and also maybe a camera that isn't 5 years old as well

So this is my 4th day in spacers, they've started to settle into place now, and I've managed to find, surprisingly, a spot on the right side of my mouth where it doesn't chew to hurt, so I've not been starving for the last few days, have had pasta, toast, fish, potato crisps (YAY), blt sandwich and ice cream! still relatively soft, but sttill good none the less =) and I do know that it's going to be fun starting a new eating process as of next Wednesday (when the braces are fitted)

So without further ado, here are my blurry (sorry!) pictures:

Top:

Bottom:

I know it's hard to make out the teeth, but you can kind get the jist of things! I can feel that my bottom teeth have been pushed together a bit more than nomral, as the molars were quite tight when he put in the spacers so I guess that's why, top teeth aren't too bad!

It's been an interesting experience so far, and I can't wait for the next stage to start (am I going to regret saying that you think?) I've bought my dentakit and that should come next week and I've stocked up on some other supplied (superfloss, some more wax, ortho brush head for my oral b electric toothbrush)

I'll attempt to take some more, hopefully clearer shots, in the next few days

#42 Post by **Chantel** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 8:34 pm

Just got home from the orthoâ€™s office and Iâ€™m all braced up!! It feels soooooo weird, but really not that bad, I know thatâ€™ll change in the next few days as my mouth and teeth start to adjust to the changes, but I was really dreading the worst when I went in there, but as usual they were all VERY helpful and we chatted along just fine.

They explained everything to me step by step and the doc kept asking if I was okay or needed a breather! The time seemed to go quite quickly, Iâ€™m not sure of which brand they used, but I saw some boxes of 3M Unitek so I think I have 3M Clarity Metal Reiforced Ceramic braces on top, and I'm unsure of the metal one's onthe bottom, but I'm guessing these are 3m too.

They also put whatâ€™s called a button behind my pushed in incisor (I think thatâ€™s the one) because he couldnâ€™t put a bracket on otherwise the bottom teeth would smack it off, but once it makes itâ€™s appearance more predominant in the world heâ€™ll stick a bracket onto it, the most relief I got was when he took the spacers out, it was like insta-relief

they stuck the rest of the brackets on, gave me the uv light and I was out of there, the waiting room was full of 11 â€“ 14 year olds getting theirâ€™s changed, I felt a bit silly being a bit older but I guess weâ€™re all there for a reason.

One of the assistants went through with me step by step how to brush, wax, floss, eat properly which was great, cause I felt a bit daunted by the whole experience having never done anything like that before. The pack they gave me is excellent, I really wasnâ€™t expecting all the stuff I got in it, it includes the following:

-Oral B Professional Car 5000 Electric Toothbrush (I canâ€™t believe they gave me the whole thing) Iâ€™d just gotten an Oral B Triumph for Christmas, so I might give this one to a family or friend
-Colgate Flurocare 200 Daily Fluroide Mouth Rinse (full size)
-GC Tooth Mousse for calcium deficiencies
-Colgate Total 12 Toothpasta
-Colgate interdental tool
-Orthosil & Ortho wax
-Oral B Satin Floss
-Plak Smacker Dental Floss Threader
-A handy little mirror on a stick, similar to the one the ortho doc uses
-Oral B Travel toothbrush
-Oral B Superfloss sample
-Infalab MagicTouch Brace Relief anesthetic gel
-Wrigleys Extra Sugarfree gum (she said I should chew this to promote chewing and to get used to what it feels like chewing) but it got stuck in the bands, so I stopped doing that a little while after I left.

So I was quite pleased with my haul. Now onto the pictures, I managed to get my camera working well, I figured out that when using Macro you have to be as still as ever, so I placed it on a high shelf and got them really clear. So here you go! Braces Ahoy

Top Arch:

Bottom Arch:

Front View:

My next appointment is on 16 May so roughly 8 weeks away, I'll keep the pictures and news updated in the next few days. Here we go

#43 Post by **Chantel** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:55 am

Thanks Karen & Braced Again, it's been going well so far, dinner was interesting, I managed to eat chicken schnitzel (although I had to cut off the breadcrumb part) some macaroni cheese, which I later found strewn everywhere as well as boiled peas and corn, which was also shredded up between the wires - you guys weren't joking when you say things get caught up hahaha!

But I managed to get it all down, slowly but surely, I haven't used any wax yet but I think I may put some on one of my front lower teeth as it rubs a tiny bit when I chew or talk, apart from that it's been painfree, just a slight headache, I think this was caused from the stress this morning and feeling a bit anxious about the whole thing! it couldn't have gone smoother!

I've been quite vigilant on the salt water rinses as well Karen, and I must admit it has made the inside of my mouth feel a lot tougher, I actually started doing them a week before my spacers, so for a full 2 weeks before braces, so thanks heaps for letting me know about that.

I'll post some progress shots in the next few weeks and we'll see if there's been any movement,,,... a bit too keen anyone???? haha

Thanks again for your support, it really is invaluable.

#44 Post by **Chantel** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:35 pm

Today my teeth are a little bit more tender, I think the chicken and vegies was a bit ambitious yesterday as chewing is a little slower and sore today, so I think I'll stick to the softer substances for at least the next few days.

I've got a few questions for those with bands on their molars, in the process of cleaning up my teeth last night, it all went well, brushing was fine with my ortho brush head, the flossing was a little to be desired! it was quite difficult, even with the super floss, but what I want to know is, how on earth do you floss between the teeth that have bands beside them? I couldn't for the life of me get that floss down there, no matter how hard I tried, does this get better and make room so I can get it in there, I dont' want to not floss for 8 weeks when my next appointment is, it's a little bit worrying!! I'm going to do a quick search on the forum, but would appreciate any assistance on this topic.

I also found some of the teeth that I could previously get the floss in easily was a little more difficult to get in there, so it's amazing to find out how much they've moved in only a matter of hours

Apart from that the cleaning process was good, took around 20 minutes which I expected! this morning I could feel the tightness start, and I had to put some wax on one of my bottom teeth at the front. Lots of questions at work, i.e. give me a look, what do they feel like? do they hurt? etc etc, it's quite funny answering all their questions.

Look forward to any replies regarding that damn flossing near my molar bands.

Thanks

#45 Post by **Patricia S.** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:34 am

Hi Chantel! I have the same problem with my bands

have you tried using a thinner floss? I use Crest Glide Dental Floss. It seems to fit where ever my teeth are really tight. It doesn't have the stiff ends, but this is what i have used for years. This is only my second day in braces but I did notice that some areas were harder to get into. Good luck and congrats on your new look!!

Patricia

***CORRRECTION***

My ortho gave met the Crest Glide, but they are a bit thicker than the one I normally use. Try Oral B their floss is thin and strong. Works great.