Hey everybody...it's been a while so thought I'd do a quick post. My Florida trip was good. Weather was pretty cold but certainly better than snow and -20 back home! Lots of great shopping, got out golfing one day, and managed to keep fairly busy.
Finally got around to taking some post removal pics before I get the bonding done...work in progress pics I guess you'd say. Check out the link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bracedup
My upper left lateral looks a little gruesome as I had to get my existing bonding (I chipped a chunk off as a kid) replaced while I still had the braces so it was hard to do a good job. There's still a lot of glue stuck to it from the braces as well. Am looking forward to cleaning that mess up. As you can see the gaps are still there on both sides. Also, I'm not too happy about the lower left lateral, it looks a little too straight forward facing to me. In the picture with the upper retainer in, you can see the bonded bottom retainer peeking out over the top a bit because of the way it's positioned.
I've got my first followup appt tomorrow so am hoping to get the go ahead for the bonding. My one tooth still hurts pretty bad, the one with the bonding already. It's sensitive to pressure, not hot or cold or sweets or anything. I had an xray back in the fall and everything showed up OK but I would have thought the pain would have eased up by now, after letting things settle down.
Still getting used to the whole retainer thing. Speech has improved significantly although I'm not sure S's and D's will ever be quite right. I've been good about wearing it 24/7 so I hope it shows in the retention.
That's about it for now...will check in again post appt. I've got to spend some time catching up with everyone else's stories in the meantime.
Bye for now...
empire11 (My Story)
Moderator: bbsadmin
Pre-Braces Pics
Hey folks
Had my first retainer appt. last week. That ortho makes me soooo mad! I know I must sound like a total complainer from my posts but I honestly don't complain about much but this guy just makes me crazy!
He gave me my full facial before and after photos and expected me to be all excited about them. I don't show a lot of teeth when I smile anyway so they look exactly the same so not sure exactly what I was supposed to get excited about.
They cleaned up my retainer and shaved some of the plastic off the back. I told him the wire was digging into my gum on the one side at the front so he shaved back the plastic a bit on the same side?! So now there's sharp bits where he ground the plastic away and the wire is still sticking in my gum. He asked how it felt and I said worse than before and he said well just let it settle down for a bit and then come back if it's still bad. That seems to be his answer for everything. #*&@er! I ended up buffing the plastic out myself when I got home with a router tool. Maybe I should apply for a job at the lab!
I also mentioned about the lower left lateral that I thought was turned too far forward. He blamed it on the size of my tooth and said there wasn't much he could do and didn't want to move the retainer further down because it would be hard to clean and floss. Strangely enough, towards the end of my appt. he decided to put some glue on the bonded retainer on that particular tooth to "prevent it from moving any further". So I'm taking this as an admission of guilt that he did move it too far forward but now can't do anything about it.
We took some more closeups of my teeth and I asked for a copy of my original photos. I had to get my brother to scan them back in for me so they're not the greatest quality but at least you can get an idea of my starting point. I don't remember taking any other pictures so I think this is all I've got.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bracedup
So, as you can see I had a pretty deep overbite, you really couldn't see my bottom teeth at all. So that's a big difference. I think the top teeth look pretty much the same, gaps and all. Obviously they have moved somewhat in order to fix the bite but it's not a dramatic difference by any means.
KK mentioned something in one of her recent posts about it being hard to get motivated when there's not a lot of visual improvements, when it's all bite related. I guess I'm missing some of that excitement. My teeth bite together properly in the back now which of course no one can see. My lower left cuspid was turned almost sideways originally but you can't see that either in my before pics because it's hiding behind my overbite.
Anyway, I've got my appt. for bonding next Wednesday and will get a good cleaning and have my dentist get rid of all the excess glue that the ortho was too lazy to scrape off.
Will get some final pics up once that's done...
Had my first retainer appt. last week. That ortho makes me soooo mad! I know I must sound like a total complainer from my posts but I honestly don't complain about much but this guy just makes me crazy!
He gave me my full facial before and after photos and expected me to be all excited about them. I don't show a lot of teeth when I smile anyway so they look exactly the same so not sure exactly what I was supposed to get excited about.
They cleaned up my retainer and shaved some of the plastic off the back. I told him the wire was digging into my gum on the one side at the front so he shaved back the plastic a bit on the same side?! So now there's sharp bits where he ground the plastic away and the wire is still sticking in my gum. He asked how it felt and I said worse than before and he said well just let it settle down for a bit and then come back if it's still bad. That seems to be his answer for everything. #*&@er! I ended up buffing the plastic out myself when I got home with a router tool. Maybe I should apply for a job at the lab!
I also mentioned about the lower left lateral that I thought was turned too far forward. He blamed it on the size of my tooth and said there wasn't much he could do and didn't want to move the retainer further down because it would be hard to clean and floss. Strangely enough, towards the end of my appt. he decided to put some glue on the bonded retainer on that particular tooth to "prevent it from moving any further". So I'm taking this as an admission of guilt that he did move it too far forward but now can't do anything about it.
We took some more closeups of my teeth and I asked for a copy of my original photos. I had to get my brother to scan them back in for me so they're not the greatest quality but at least you can get an idea of my starting point. I don't remember taking any other pictures so I think this is all I've got.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bracedup
So, as you can see I had a pretty deep overbite, you really couldn't see my bottom teeth at all. So that's a big difference. I think the top teeth look pretty much the same, gaps and all. Obviously they have moved somewhat in order to fix the bite but it's not a dramatic difference by any means.
KK mentioned something in one of her recent posts about it being hard to get motivated when there's not a lot of visual improvements, when it's all bite related. I guess I'm missing some of that excitement. My teeth bite together properly in the back now which of course no one can see. My lower left cuspid was turned almost sideways originally but you can't see that either in my before pics because it's hiding behind my overbite.
Anyway, I've got my appt. for bonding next Wednesday and will get a good cleaning and have my dentist get rid of all the excess glue that the ortho was too lazy to scrape off.
Will get some final pics up once that's done...
Hey folks
Yes...I've been MIA for a few months. Been busy with work, home renos, and my new obsession...facebook. Anyway, thought I'd give an update for those that were following my story.
So I had gotten my retainer as of my last post but of course it didn't fit properly right from the get go. It kept pushing on my gums at the front and making them swell up between my upper left canine and lateral. This went on for about 6 months of visits and cutting bits and pieces of wires and plastic off to no avail. Finally, about a month ago, the ortho agreed to make me a new one, (at no charge he said, like he was doing me a huge favour!). He tried to do a bonded one like on the bottom since I preferred the fit but unfortunately after he looked at my new molds, there wasn't enough room behind my front teeth. The retainer would have ended up banging against my lowers. Anyway, the new Hawley didn't fit right at first as my teeth had shifted quite a bit from not wearing the retainer for about 4 days in a row but things settled in after a few days. So I'm happy to say that my ortho visits should be few and far between now.
However, I continue to have quite a lot of pain from my upper left lateral. I recently went back to my regular dentist for more xrays and we continue to keep an eye on things. Basically, in rare cases, (of course, my case), certain teeth just don't like to be moved around. Sometimes the bone and ligaments around the root don't regenerate enough after movement so the root isn't as stable as it should be. So, as a result I still can't bite stuff at the front as any sort of pressure hurts that tooth. We're hoping with the proper fitting retainer it will become more stable. If not, I'm looking at a possible root canal or maybe an implant. He then proceeded to show me pictures of the implant procedure that thoroughly scared the crap out of me. Needless to say I'm crossing my fingers and hoping things turn around in the next few months or so.
I've uploaded my post bonding pics so you can see the final deal. They closed up the gaps by adding bonding to the canines. At first, they looked ridiculously huge to me but now I'm used to them.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bracedup
That's about it for now. Hope everything is going well for everyone. I look forward to catching up with your stories over the next little bit.
Yes...I've been MIA for a few months. Been busy with work, home renos, and my new obsession...facebook. Anyway, thought I'd give an update for those that were following my story.
So I had gotten my retainer as of my last post but of course it didn't fit properly right from the get go. It kept pushing on my gums at the front and making them swell up between my upper left canine and lateral. This went on for about 6 months of visits and cutting bits and pieces of wires and plastic off to no avail. Finally, about a month ago, the ortho agreed to make me a new one, (at no charge he said, like he was doing me a huge favour!). He tried to do a bonded one like on the bottom since I preferred the fit but unfortunately after he looked at my new molds, there wasn't enough room behind my front teeth. The retainer would have ended up banging against my lowers. Anyway, the new Hawley didn't fit right at first as my teeth had shifted quite a bit from not wearing the retainer for about 4 days in a row but things settled in after a few days. So I'm happy to say that my ortho visits should be few and far between now.
However, I continue to have quite a lot of pain from my upper left lateral. I recently went back to my regular dentist for more xrays and we continue to keep an eye on things. Basically, in rare cases, (of course, my case), certain teeth just don't like to be moved around. Sometimes the bone and ligaments around the root don't regenerate enough after movement so the root isn't as stable as it should be. So, as a result I still can't bite stuff at the front as any sort of pressure hurts that tooth. We're hoping with the proper fitting retainer it will become more stable. If not, I'm looking at a possible root canal or maybe an implant. He then proceeded to show me pictures of the implant procedure that thoroughly scared the crap out of me. Needless to say I'm crossing my fingers and hoping things turn around in the next few months or so.
I've uploaded my post bonding pics so you can see the final deal. They closed up the gaps by adding bonding to the canines. At first, they looked ridiculously huge to me but now I'm used to them.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bracedup
That's about it for now. Hope everything is going well for everyone. I look forward to catching up with your stories over the next little bit.
-
Miss Smiley
- Posts: 2008
- Joined: Wed May 02, 2007 11:59 pm
- Location: Sunny SoCal
- Contact:
Thanks for stopping by MissSmiley, Linda, and Denise. As always, your encouragement is much appreciated.
MissSmiley - that makes me feel good that you don't know which ones have the bonding, that means my dentist did a good job
Actually, I've always been happy with his work. The bonding was to the front (by front I mean the half towards the front of my mouth) of the upper canines on both sides. We talked about filling the gaps in by building up the rear part of the laterals but decided since they were already the proper size, they would look weird if we made them any bigger. So the canines it was! We actually did a mockup of both ways first to see which way would look better which was kind of cool of him.
MissSmiley - that makes me feel good that you don't know which ones have the bonding, that means my dentist did a good job
Actually, I've always been happy with his work. The bonding was to the front (by front I mean the half towards the front of my mouth) of the upper canines on both sides. We talked about filling the gaps in by building up the rear part of the laterals but decided since they were already the proper size, they would look weird if we made them any bigger. So the canines it was! We actually did a mockup of both ways first to see which way would look better which was kind of cool of him.Hi everybody
Thought I'd do a quick update...nothing too eventful. The upper left lateral is doing much better now that nobody's been poking and prodding at it for a while.
So I don't have to go back for another ortho visit until February '08. Yay!
Hopefully at that point I'll only have to wear my retainer at night. As of right now, I'm very diligent about wearing it 24/7. I pretty much only take it out to brush. However, on the odd occasion I do leave it out for a couple of hours, it's amazing how much they move in such a short period of time. They really do want to go back where they came from. So I'm not 100% sure how that's going to work exactly when I don't wear it full time next year.
I think I've grown pretty attached to it over the past few months. I actually kind of get a headache when I don't wear it for those brief moments. Weird?!? Maybe it's an emotional attachment? Who'd have thought!!
That's about it for now. Hope everyone else is doing great.
Lisa
Thought I'd do a quick update...nothing too eventful. The upper left lateral is doing much better now that nobody's been poking and prodding at it for a while.
So I don't have to go back for another ortho visit until February '08. Yay!
Hopefully at that point I'll only have to wear my retainer at night. As of right now, I'm very diligent about wearing it 24/7. I pretty much only take it out to brush. However, on the odd occasion I do leave it out for a couple of hours, it's amazing how much they move in such a short period of time. They really do want to go back where they came from. So I'm not 100% sure how that's going to work exactly when I don't wear it full time next year.
I think I've grown pretty attached to it over the past few months. I actually kind of get a headache when I don't wear it for those brief moments. Weird?!? Maybe it's an emotional attachment? Who'd have thought!!
That's about it for now. Hope everyone else is doing great.
Lisa
-
Miss Smiley
- Posts: 2008
- Joined: Wed May 02, 2007 11:59 pm
- Location: Sunny SoCal
- Contact: