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

[Chantel]

Okay, after a stressful evening speaking with my partner and racking my brain on what to do, and after a restless nights sleep I finally came up with what I should do.

I'm going to wait until November to get my Wisdom Teeth out, my annivesray date for my health fund is up on the 17th November, and I'm getting the work done on the 17th (I rang the healthfund and asked them if I could do this, and they said it'd be fine) *phew* then I'm going to rest up for the week following that.

Oh, I'm also getting them out under GA in hospital, friends have warned me off IV and I'm really quite scared (such a scardey cat) so I'd prefer to not be in the "same room" whilst it's getting done

Then after all that is done and dusted, I'm going to go in and get my spacers/braces on in January! I think I'd rather just let my mouth settle down after those teeth have been ripped out and I would rather not have braces on over Christmas (for this year anyway )....

So it's going to be all quiet from me for the next few months, but I'll be back stronger than ever around November, I'm not giving up on my braces journey

See ya soon

[garrettnb]

Sounds like you have a great plan. I wish i could keep a plan. Also you might want to update your signature and ticker now.

[Chantel]

thanks for the reminder! changed now!

[lionfish]

Hey, sounds like a good decision for you, chantel, and especially starting after Christmas. That way you will have no worries about having a good time over the holidays.

[Chantel]

It's been quite a while since my last update on this thing, but here I am again with less than a month to go till my big operation (25 days to be exact) I'm quietly getting very nervous about the whole operation and at some stages was doubting why I was getting all this done.

I now won't get my braces on until next year just due to not wanting to have them on over Christmas and also having to go overseas for work in early February so I hope to get them on midway through February. Fingers crossed I'm not in for the long haul of 18 months as originally quoted and only 12 as I want to do some extensive travelling in 2008 and I don't want those suckers on my teeth anymore! Has anyone ever had any issues with travelling for extended periods of time i.e. 6 - 12 months and still been in braces? i.e. having to find another orthodontists for the remaining treatment, it's something I'll definately have to look into.

So I'll update again once the operation has been done and let you all know how it went.

[lionfish]

Hi Chantel, nice to hear from you. Has November come around already? Eek.

I fully understand your wanting to enjoy Christmas without having to deal with braces.

Good luck with the extractions.

[antsika]

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!

[Chantel]

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

[Chantel]

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

[Chantel]

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

[BlahBlah]

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

[Chantel]

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

[Chantel]

Oops double post

[swiss1]

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!

[chillin-in-grilz]

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