Blake24 - Braces Story

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#31 Post by **Blake24** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:33 pm

Tom & Ken -

Thanks for the braceaversary wishes! I can't believe it has been over two months! How time flies.

Ken -

Things are going splendid with the ladies haha! Braces hardly affect the way I talk to girls anymore; in fact, I would say I forget that I have them on the majority of the time. The girls don't seem to mind the braces either.

Well, tomorrow is my first adjustment! I am pretty excited to go in and see what my ortho has to say about my progress. I would say my progress has been smaller than most others on this site, but I do see some differences. I am excited to get a larger wire on the top. I am also getting my metal brackets put on my lower teeth tomorrow! Here we go with another week of not being able to eat harder foods, irritated cheeks, and loose teeth!! Well, at least I know what to expect. I will post some pictures after I get my lower brackets put on, but in the meantime, here are some pics of what my teeth look like today, 2 months and 10 days after getting my top brackets put on..

Let me know what you guys think!

P.S. I had some trouble taking these pictures, so I apologize for the blurriness...these were the best I could do.

#32 Post by **Blake24** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:24 am

Well, today's the day. I have my first adjustment at 2:00....I will be getting my bottom brackets on, which will be full metal Damon 3MX's.

I have to say, I am getting a little anxious here...why can't I get this over with right now?!

Blake

#33 Post by **kayleighkelley** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:28 am

Good Luck Today!!!

#34 Post by **Blake24** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:15 am

Hey Ken and Kayleigh, thanks for keeping me in mind!

I am now fully braced, and what an experience! First off, my ortho's office holds two different Orthodontists, so the ortho I had yesterday wasn't even my original one. It wasn't a big deal to me (especially since my original ortho is younger than and not as experienced as the main ortho).

The assistant took off my top arch wire and then the ortho took a look at my teeth. He said things are looking pretty good, except that every once in a while brackets need to be removed and replaced because the position that they are in is no longer necessary. The assistant came back and removed two of my top brackets...I felt those teeth as soon as she was done and thought "whoa, that's weird, my teeth are soo far from my lips!â€

#35 Post by **Andromeda** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:47 am

That's strange, I only ever noticed people say how much worse bottom braces are and I know that was true for me. I got lowers 5 months after uppers and it was soooo much worse omg. And now anytime I get anything done the bottom hurts much worse. For example I recently got elastics on my side teeth. Even tho the elastics are connected to both jaws (each elastic is hooked from a top tooth to a bottom tooth), the lower jaw ached soooo much worse. And the lower brackets definitely still rub and poke my cheeks worse even after 13 months since I was first braced.

So I feel your pain haha. Hope things feel better soon for you!

#36 Post by **Annie Lou** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:36 pm

I've heard lowers hurt worse than uppers,
so I'm scared of getting lowers and am plotting an evil plan of buying ton of pain killers! Muahaha!

Well, I hope you get adjusted soon, and it doesn't hurt so bad

#37 Post by **Blake24** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:25 pm

Hey everyone,

A little update with me. I am back to eating nearly anything I want...thankfully. I am not really noticing any changes on my bottom teeth, but then again, it has only been about two weeks. Something strange did happen with my bottom teeth though. The other day while at work, I started to eat a nice and soft oatmeal cookie. These are easy to eat, but man do they stick to everything. While trying to fish out some of the cookie sticking to my very last bracket, I noticed that the arch was loose. Quickly, I jumped out of my seat to run to the bathroom and check the status. My arch wire had completely come out of my last bracket!! I immediately called my ortho and they told me they wouldn't be able to see me until Monday because they were closing for the weekend. I asked if there was anything I could do and they told me that I could use a pair of tweezers to get the wire back in. I thought, "is that safe?" They assured me that it is not a problem and that it happens when you are on such a small sized wire.

Well, I am a guy, and I don't carry around tweezers! My co-worker said that he had a Leatherman (a multi-tool plier haha). I thought, "it's worth a try," but this did not help the situation at all! I nearly ripped the arch wire out of my mouth

!! I went back to my co-worker explaining that I nearly had an accident that could have ended with my mouth bleeding all over the place. He then told me to ask one of the girls for some tweezers, and I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Luckily, one of the girls who sits close to me had a nice pair of tweezers, and though the thought of sticking her tweezers in my mouth grossed me out, it was the only option I had.

After a good 10 minutes of contorting the wire in every known angle to try and get the wire in the hole, I was successful. My mouth hurt from stretching my lips for such a long period of time. I was relieved that the experience was over, only to find myself in the same position on Saturday again! All I can do is be careful of what I eat, and always keep a pair of tweezers handy! Hopefully it will become more difficult for the wire to pop out as my teeth move some more.

What an experience!!!!

Blake

#38 Post by **Blake24** » Sat May 02, 2009 2:38 pm

Hey Ken,

I am glad that I am not the only one. The wire has popped out three times now, but I am getting pretty good at putting it back in so it doesn't reallt bother me.

Also.....

It has been 3 months!! Here is an update in pictures. Let me know what you think!

After 1 Week...

After 1 Month...

2 Months...

And today...3 months in

It looks like I have some weird things going on with a few teeth, but I am glad to see those gaps go!

#39 Post by **brika** » Wed May 06, 2009 10:10 am

Wow, the wire on your uppers has really leveled out a LOT! And the gaps are all gone!! Fantastic progress! You must be so thrilled!

#40 Post by **Blake24** » Thu May 14, 2009 9:32 am

Thanks brika! Yeah I was pretty happy to see that gap close on those two front teeth...even though it kind of opened gaps in different areas haha...I don't mind the other gaps because you can't really see them.

Soo, an update with my arch wire on my bottom teeth. I mentioned before that the wire kept popping out of my last bracket and that I have to use tweezers to put it back in. Well the wire pretty much pops out every day, which is quite annoying. I called my ortho this morning to see if I can do anything about it. They checked my file and told me that I can come in this afternoon to see if I can get bumped up a wire size! I hope I can get the bigger wire, because to me a bigger wire = more improvement! Plus, it would be nice to go 4 hours without the wire popping out of my back bracket haha.

I go into the office at 3 today, so we will see what they say.

Blake

#41 Post by **Andromeda** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:18 am

I feel like I posted this before but don't remember who it was to... Sorry if it was you and Im repeating myself but can't they bend the end of your wire so it can't pop out? They do that for me so if it gets too long it won't poke me and it also can't fit through the bracket to come out if its got a kink in it.

#42 Post by **Blake24** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:28 am

Hey Andromeda,

No, you didn't post that here before haha. The receptionist said that sometimes they can bend the wire, but my wire doesn't stick out at all, so I don't know how they would be able to bend it. If my teeth aren't ready for a bigger wire then I guess they could just replace the one I have with another one that is the same size, and leave enough slack at the end to bend it....truthfully, I kind of want the bigger wire just to speed up my progress haha, but I guess I shouldn't be so impatient with my results huh?

Blake

#43 Post by **Andromeda** » Thu May 14, 2009 12:37 pm

Ok good haha, glad I am not repeating myself to you

Anyway, yea if they give you a larger wire I think maybe it would still be a good idea to ask them to leave a tiny bit at the end and then bend it. And if they say you need to stay at your current wire size, maybe they could give you a new wire that is that same size but not cut it so short this time and again, leave a bit to bend at the end. Should work no matter what they decide. Sometimes they cut mine off to the edge of the bracket and its fine but other times my teeth will move enough that it will get pokey so bending is always the best way to go I would think because smooth edge pokey is much better than sharp point pokey haha and also it can't come out of the bracket.

Good luck with it. I'm sure it's an annoyance for it to keep coming out like that.

#44 Post by **Blake24** » Thu May 14, 2009 3:36 pm

Well I am back from my appointment and oooohhhhhh crap. They decided to give me a bigger wire...two sizes bigger! Now my bottom wire matches my top wire. I am little nervous about this because I wasn't supposed to get a bigger wire for another month and a half, so I hope my teeth can handle it. When the assistant was putting in the wire she kept telling me "geez, this is a big wire, you are going to feel this tonight." I joked with her and asked if I can get some vicodin haha. She said that if I can get through the pain then I will be much better off, and besides, the wire won't be popping out anymore, so that's good. Anyways, wish me luck with tonight's pain! After work I am going to rush over and eat a bunch of sushi before I am unable to bite down. I think I will have a couple of beers with my spicy yellowtail to numb the pain even more haha.

Blake

#45 Post by **Andromeda** » Fri May 15, 2009 7:47 am

Wow TWO sizes bigger?! Hope your teeth arent *too* sore... but that is actually really awesome that you weren't due for another wire for a month and a half and you got it now - that should be speeding your progress right along! Let us know how it's going