Sammm's braces story :)

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#1 Post by **sammm** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:48 pm

Hello everyone.

I'm new to the whole braces thing, but I found this about a month back when I actually started looking into braces. I love it and I figured I might as well start my own story on here

I got spacers April 14th and on April 27th I got my braces

I don't really know the whole braces lingo stuff but I have top and bottoms. My front four bottom teeth don't have brackets yet cause they're moving the bottom side teeth back before they can address those ones...

I'm experiencing a high amount of discomfort but I've read that it goes away

I think the worst part is the cutting up of my lips etc. I feel that the wax doesn't really work for me but I'm trying to use it still haha.

I'll post pics a little later tonight or maybe tomorrow.

Hopefully this will be a great spot to get advice, etc. I look forward to seeing everyone's progress as well!

#2 Post by **catfish** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:08 pm

Hi sammm, welcome to AW! You have definitely come to the right place if you want to share your experience with other people going through the same thing. Lots of people here, at all stages of the process. If you have any questions, this is the place to ask.

I hope you'll post pics!

#3 Post by **sammm** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:00 pm

I was reading other stories and I realized I kinda gave a vague description of my process

so I figured I'd add a little more. I'm 18 years old (19 on the 9th!

) and I've literally have always wanted braces. Since I saw my peers getting braces and figured out what they did (straighten teeth, obviously! haha) I've wanted them... I've always been self conscious of my smile. Mostly because I have a gummy upper smile... I know that braces won't fix it, but I am hoping that once my teeth are straight I won't notice the gums as much and focus more on my beauuuutiful straight teeth! I also have been told that I Get a loooot of flouride so my teeth have these white speks all over them

it makes other parts of my teeth look quite yellow... hoping to get them whitened when my teeth are naked again!

It's already the third day and I thought I'd never say this but I think I'm getting used to all the metal in my mouth! I've been having to put wax on the little balls that stick off the molar bands and rub up against my tongue... those hurt bad. and in the bottom front as well. But, today I haven't had to do that. Hopefully I don't jinx myself!

I don't have brackets on the bottom front four teeth yet. When I got spacers, I got SIXTEEN of them and they were making space so that they could not only put the molar bands on but also have room to shave my teeth down. What this did was allow them to move the side teeth back so that they could make room for the crowded teeth. So, because of this I have the wire going all the way around but he was nice enough to put a sleeve on the wire so that it wasn't as irritating (that kind of failed though

)

They did the shaving on top as well but it wasn't as severe and there's also more work to be done on those besides addressing the crowding. My ortho wants to move my two front top teeth up so they are "even" with the others. I wonder how long that's going to take?

Alright, so see for yourself...

Before:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a286/ ... il13th.jpg
(I can't get it to resize properly on photobucket... but the others did fine, so weird).

With spacers:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a286/ ... il14th.jpg
(Same with this one. If someone wants to help me with this problem that'd be great haha).

The day I got my braces:

Today:

I don't really notice any changes yet but it's only been 3 days so I can't expect much

BUT I do have a question...

Can someone PLEASE tell me how to take good pictures? Haha.

#4 Post by **pinkpixie1588** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:59 pm

Aww yay!! I think yours and my pre-braces problems are pretty similar--the bottom row, especially. I haven't had to have spacer or anything, though, so that's a relief. Do you have an estimated treatment time? Look forward to watching your progress as my own teeth start to change, too!

#5 Post by **sammm** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:02 pm

pinkpixie1588 wrote:Aww yay!! I think yours and my pre-braces problems are pretty similar--the bottom row, especially. I haven't had to have spacer or anything, though, so that's a relief. Do you have an estimated treatment time? Look forward to watching your progress as my own teeth start to change, too!

Yeah. My estimated treatment time is 24-26 months.] I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but I do know that my insurance pays $1,000 and for the next 18 months I have payments of about $200. I wish my parents would've done this when I was younger. It would've been a shorter treatment time, haha. But, oh well. I understand that they couldn't pay for it.

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#6 Post by **Tommm** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:32 pm

Welcome to the braces club Sam! Looking forward to following your progress.

#7 Post by **SmileForMe** » Sun May 03, 2009 11:10 am

Welcome! The braces look great

I was also wondering how to take good pix. Maybe with time we'll learn the tricks??

#8 Post by **sammm** » Sun May 03, 2009 12:39 pm

SmileForMe wrote:Welcome! The braces look great

I was also wondering how to take good pix. Maybe with time we'll learn the tricks??

Yeah, hopefully.

I saw somewhere that looking in the mirror helps but my bathroom doesn't have very good lighting and the pictures turn out blurry. There's no window in there so I guess I have to find a better mirror that is by a window! Haha.

My teeth are doing okay. I still can't bite into anything (I want a sandwich so bad!) but if I cut things up I can pretty much eat anything. I feel a little more pain in my back teeth today so I can tell things are shifting a bit more than they were.

I also have a wire sticking out in front? I was told it would in the back, but not in front.... it's like a 1/4 of an inch sticking out in the bottom right side, by the sleeve. Anyone know if that's normal?

#9 Post by **cathykay** » Sun May 03, 2009 2:26 pm

Hey! Welcome to AW, Sam!

I'm not the best at taking pictures of my teeth but definitely have your camera on the Macro setting, if it isn't there already. Tilt your head back a bit for the upper arch photos and angle the camera down a bit for the lower arch photos. That's what I do, anyway. Like I said, I'm not the best at it - it takes me a couple takes til I get a decent picture - but maybe the way I take pictures will help you. It's weird taking pictures of your own mouth, lol.

You're going to be so excited when you see movement!

#10 Post by **sammm** » Sun May 03, 2009 5:12 pm

What do you mean 'macro' setting?

#11 Post by **kayleighkelley** » Sun May 03, 2009 10:08 pm

Welcome to life with braces!!! Hopefully the soreness goes away for you. You mentioned in your story that your teeth have white blotches on them and you thought it was from too much floride. I'm not 100% positive but I'm pretty sure it's from the opposite. You should use a floride rinse to prevent them. Your teeth are more prone to get them with braces.

#12 Post by **sammm** » Mon May 04, 2009 11:56 am

kayleighkelley wrote:Welcome to life with braces!!! Hopefully the soreness goes away for you. You mentioned in your story that your teeth have white blotches on them and you thought it was from too much floride. I'm not 100% positive but I'm pretty sure it's from the opposite. You should use a floride rinse to prevent them. Your teeth are more prone to get them with braces.

I've used a floride rinse since I can remember and I drink a lot of tap water as well. My dentist has always said that it's from too much floride. And I am using a different floride rinse now, Phos Flur.

#13 Post by **sammm** » Mon May 04, 2009 11:57 am

kayleighkelley wrote:Welcome to life with braces!!! Hopefully the soreness goes away for you. You mentioned in your story that your teeth have white blotches on them and you thought it was from too much floride. I'm not 100% positive but I'm pretty sure it's from the opposite. You should use a floride rinse to prevent them. Your teeth are more prone to get them with braces.

I've used a floride rinse since I can remember and I drink a lot of tap water as well. My dentist has always said that it's from too much floride. And I am using a different floride rinse now, Phos Flur.

#14 Post by **sammm** » Mon May 25, 2009 3:07 pm

So.. it's been a while since I posted. I haven't really noticed any movement so I haven't felt the need to update. But I also haven't been taking pictures because my boyfriends mom has my camera! Lol.

Anyways...
On Thursday I was brushing my teeth and the wire with the sleeve on my front bottom teeth broke on one side, which left a 2 inch (ish) wire hanging out of my mouth. I called my ortho, asked what I should do and they said that since they wouldn't be open again until Tuesday to just cut it myself. My wire cutters suck so I ended up pulling it out quite a bit so now it's not attached to the molar band at all but it's pretty short in the front.

"Pretty short" meaning it LOOKS short but it's not short enough to not cut the insides of my lip horribly. On both sides I have huge kanker sores, but I am dealing. I go in tomorrow at 11:30 and they're going to replace the wire that broke. I was worried that they were going to charge me but she said that it's not common but that it's not uncommon... so hopefully I won't be charged. It shouldn't be breaking while I'm brushing my teeth. That's something I HAVE to do!

My next appointment is June 8th, so about two weeks. I'm wondering if they'll just tighten tomorrow and make me a new appointment? I sure freaking hope so cause I'm sick of seeing no movement.

I'll post pics soon hopefully.