To start from the beginning, my need for braces stemmed from a baby tooth (top left canine) that never came out because the permanent tooth didn't erupt properly. I knew I had a problem with the tooth for a while but I was too afraid to have anything done about it. I finally sucked it up and got a referral to see an orthodontist.
I found out I would need to have the baby tooth extracted and then have braces put on to make space for/pull down the adult tooth. After having panoramic x-rays done, it became clear that the reason my adult canine never erupted was because it was positioned perpendicular to the roots of my other teeth versus coming down parallel. It also had begun to degrade the root of the baby tooth which was it to become loose.
I had my dentist extract the baby tooth and the following day (March 6th, 2008, about 2 months before my 23rd b-day) I had my appointment with the orthodontics to have braces put on. That part was easy enough, and the first month with braces was not too bad, other than getting used to all the metal in my mouth and having a very limited diet due to pain. I also had bonding material built up on two of my lower molars to keep my bite open so that my top teeth didn't hit my lower brackets.
The real fun began when I was fitted with a coil spring in the space where my adult tooth eventually come down. Months and months with this yielded incredibly sensitive front teeth and a sizeable gap. As the space grew, I started to notice a tiny little bump and as the weeks went by a tooth began to emerge! This was really exciting because it meant that I wouldn't have to go to an oral surgeon to have the tooth exposed.
Once there was enough tooth showing, my doctor fixed a button to it and attached a little bit of powerchain to the main wire to pull it forward. The next step once it was more forward was to remove some gum tissue (with a handy dandy laser) and attach a real bracket.
(Note: When the button was attached, it was bonded to what was actually the back of my tooth since that was exposed)
A few more months and some creative wire bending and my tooth (lovingly dubbed "dino tooth" by a friend) was starting to look like a real tooth. I was hoping that I might be able to be done with braces before my 24th birthday, but about two months ahead of that, I found out that I won the lottery and would get to wear elastics to fix my midline asymmetry.
For my most recent appointment in early May, I was scheduled to have a permanent retainer placed on the bottom, but when I went, my doctor decided my midline hadn't shifted enough and he wanted me to wear just one elastic for another 4 weeks.
And that's where I'm at now. June 2nd is my next appointment, and if all goes right I should finally be getting my permanent retainer on the bottom. Not sure yet when the top will be done as well, but I'm crossing my fingers that I will be braces-free next week.
My major issue with braces has been the lack of ability to bite into anything. Because my top teeth were shifted so much to give the canine ample room to move down, my teeth have been too sore/loose to bite into anything until recently and I had some difficulty chewing certain items because of the stops on my molars.
On a random note, I started dating my boyfriend a month after I got braces, and almost 14 months later, he's never seen me without braces. I think it's going to be the biggest shock of all for him when I finally get them off.
I will be adding some pictures in the next few days, possibly just a link to my LJ, but it will be a comparison between the first day in braces and freedom from braces. I wish I had taken lots of pictures during the process but for some reason I never really thought to do it.
So it turns out I'm just as long-winded in writing as I am in person
Thanks for reading anyways.
