Onefastchick's beginning....

Message

#1 Post by **onefastchick** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:43 am

So I have been "lurking" on this forum for a few months now and I figured since I am about to get my top brackets on it was time to finally join the discussions. A little about me...

I am 32 and a full-time student majoring in chemistry with a pre-med focus. My husband is active duty Army and we have two children, daughter is 12 and son is 2 (I know we must have been crazy starting over).

I have what my ortho calls a severe overbite where my top teeth completely cover my bottom teeth and has started to cause some cracking of my lower teeth and my enamel to be scraped off both top and bottom as well as gum issues. My bottom teeth also has quite a bit of crowding and my lower canines are almost completely sideways causing a 4mm pocket in my gums that could cause me to lose my teeth. This is why I have chosen braces. Like most people on this forum I have needed braces since I was a child but I was raised by a single parent with no dental insurance and we just couldnt afford it. Now as a military wife I have great dental insurance but they do not cover braces over the age of 23 so we have to pay out of pocket for them. After careful consideration and research my husband and I have decided to make this a priority. I consulted with all of the orthos in town that accept adult patients (all of 3 of them) and didnt have a hard decision at all. I went with the one that I was most comfortable with that I have friends that go to and he happened to be about $2500 less expensive than the other guys.

So my story now begins... I went on Monday this week and had 6 spacers put in, 4 on top and only 2 on bottom cause I have had to have a molar pulled a few months ago I didnt need them on my bottom right. One spacer fell out within a few hours and I have to go back tomorrow to have that one put back in. All in all the spacers havent been too bad, a little discomfort and headaches but I am eating fine.

Because of my overbite I am not getting my bottom brackets on when I get the tops on. I get the tops put on on Tuesday next week the 15th and not sure when I will get the bottoms so wish me luck and I will very soon join the 30's and braced club...

#2 Post by **onefastchick** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:10 pm

One full week with spacers... The soreness/achiness never goes away and my teeth feel loose like I can wiggle them with my tongue. It is a very strange feeling although from what I have read on here, it is quite normal and I should probably get used to it.

I have pretty much been eating my normal foods except avoiding anything sticky that could stick to and pull out the spacers.

My bite now feels crooked for lack of a better word, I feel like my jaw slides to the right when I bite down. Well tomorrow is my last day of being able to bite into things like apples and corn on the cob so I will make sure and enjoy those tomorrow.

Am getting anxious to get started on my treatment, its funny how I never really was self-conscious about my "snaggle tooth" as my husband calls it until I started this process. Now I cant wait to start and look forward to the next two years of progression.

I will make sure and take pics tomorrow and post them up as well as first day pics on Tuesday.

#3 Post by **onefastchick** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 7:54 pm

Ok so I thought I was going to get to post up my experience from today but I am not going to get the chance. However I do have my pics to post so here goes...

Day before braces normal smile...

Uppers and lowers...

As of today this is now my normal smile

#4 Post by **onefastchick** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 4:59 am

So yeah, day two.... not as bad as I thought it would be. I woke up and rinsed with salt water and I put new globs of wax on all the molar bands and now I am sitting here with my cup of coffee

Now on to my experience yesterday...

So sitting in the waiting room there were 6 teenage kids and 2 adults, felt good that I wasnt the only one... Went back to the tech's chair, she took my pictures and chart to the ortho to find out what we were doing and she came back with what I already knew, brackets on uppers only and molar bands on top and bottom.

I knew I had crowded teeth on bottom but I think I have been in denial all these years about how bad the crowding is and how bad the crowding is on my top teeth. The tech went to take out the spacers and one broke and two just did not want to come out but after a minute or two she got them all out and I got some relief. Then the molar bands, well that was not pleasant. One of my molars is rotated so the band does not fit properly so it had to be shoved on there and two bands just didn't have enough room still even after a week of spacers. Got the band on the rotated molar as best as its going to be for now. The two without enough space they had to put a smaller band on and leave it there to make more room, she left those there kind of half way on while she placed the brackets.

She put the rubber cheek holders in my mouth to hold it open and began the brackets. She used air to dry my teeth and then she brushed some glue on each of my top teeth and let it dry, then rinsed it and instructed me not to swallow. She used the suction to suck out all the liquid/glue she had rinsed and brushed another glue on my teeth. She then set the brackets and called the ortho to come check. He poked them and moved a couple where he wanted them and told me he isnt sure how long til I get the lower brackets on. We have to wait for my top teeth to move enough to make room because of my overbite. The tech then light cured the brackets and pulled out that rubber thing.

The first time my lips hit my teeth/brackets it felt weird, kinda sharp and pointy and my top lip kept getting stuck on my snaggle tooth, but of course my lips were dry from being propped open. I got to go rinse and take a look in the mirror, my first thought was that this is not so bad. Got back in the chair and back to the molar bands we went. Had a very difficult time getting the bands on the two molars that were still very crowded and the rotated molar was just not playing nice. She called another tech over to help and eventually the two of them were able to get all my bands on.

Then she tells me she has to pull all the bands off and put cement under them, oh great after all that work now we have to pull them off? Fun times! That cement tastes nasty, I never tasted the glue under my brackets but the molar band cement tastes like ink. After all 4 bands were on I again got to go rinse and I was glad that the Listerine at their sink took that ink taste away immediately.

Came back to chair she placed the wire and put on my red and blue ligs

Thanks to reading advice/experiences from others on here I knew to feel around my mouth for anything pokey. I noticed the wire was poking out of one of my bands so it had to be trimmed again. Took care of the pokey wire, got my goodie bag of wax, floss, threaders and brochures on hygiene and my no-no list of foods and off I went.

The best part of it all was when I got home my 12 yr old came running out to the garage to see (I think she was more excited than I was). When my 2 yr old woke from his nap it took him a little while to notice but then he started poking at my brackets, he was very curious, it was cute!

So thats my story, brackets feel weird but not offensive, I dont know how people say they can hide them maybe because their mouth is shaped differently but my teeth show when I talk so no hiding my braces even if I wanted to. I dont mind them, I am so happy to be having my teeth fixed that I cant help but smile. Its been almost 24 hours now and Im still smiling

#5 Post by **onefastchick** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 5:18 am

Day two so far...

So my front teeth are sore which is definitely a good thing I think, hopefully things are starting to move. I have globs of wax on the fronts of all 4 molar bands, on the back of one band and on one bracket so far. I did wake up in the middle of the night, one problem with drinking more water is the constant need to pee... Took some tylenol while I was up just so that when I woke in the morning I wasnt throbbing. I have been anticipating the pain to set in but really I just have a dull ache this morning. My front teeth are achy but not painful yet... still waiting for that, maybe I will be one of the lucky ones. I do have to say that I have a pretty high pain tolerance but I also do not hesitate to take tylenol or ibuprofen for pain when it gets bad.

I managed to finish a cup of coffee this morning which was promptly followed by water to wash out my mouth. It felt good to have my coffee though, just something that resembles the normal that I have known.

My top lip no longer gets stuck on my snaggle tooth now that its not dry and the hardest part for me since coming home was tyring to get chapstick on my lips, I can barely rub my lips together lol

Oh also, one thing that I hadnt thought about is when washing my face I now have to make sure not to rub my lips on my brackets and cause sores. That was a little weird last night when I went to wash Im sure it will be the same when I go to put makeup on today, just another minor adjustment to my routine...

#6 Post by **onefastchick** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 5:21 am

againbrace wrote:Hi onefastchick,

You're looking pretty cool with the patriotic ligs. YAY for you for going with colors! I always like doing that for whatever special occasion was coming up. It just makes for a bit of fun while you're braced.

Thanks Ken! I am surprised that from a distance no one can see the colors anyway so yeah I plan on just having fun with it... why not

I am loving the red and blue so far, hopefully they wont stain or fade too much!

#7 Post by **msbee** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:25 am

Hey congrats on taking the plunge! Great choice of lig colours!

yeah the chapstick thing. I've decided to just apply the chapstick on both lips rather than try to rub them together!

#8 Post by **onefastchick** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:48 am

againbrace wrote:Isn't it fun getting your molar bands on? NOT! Sorry you had an extra tough time there. You must have had really tight teeth back there. At least it's done now and you're all set to get things moving. Any guesstimate as to how long before you get you lowers SPAM SPAM SPAMMING?

No real estimate on the lowers, 2-4 months could be up to 6 so no not really lol I too am a morning only coffee drinker and I only have one cup so hopefully I dont have too much staining. Warm salt water rinses are doing pretty well, I went to WalMart and bought some more wax and picked up some benzodent in case it gets worse. I would rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it. Of course I forgot to bring my water with me to the store so my mouth got super dry and I ended up having to buy one while I was there. Just another one of those little things that Im sure I will remember in the future. Congrats on the possible debanding next week!

#9 Post by **onefastchick** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:49 am

msbee wrote:Hey congrats on taking the plunge! Great choice of lig colours!

yeah the chapstick thing. I've decided to just apply the chapstick on both lips rather than try to rub them together!

Thanks MsBee! I have been putting it on top and bottom too now but the habit to rub them together is still there so thats gonna take a bit to break lol

#10 Post by **onefastchick** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 8:20 am

Day three is so much better...

Things I have learned thus far:
1. Never leave home without chapstick and water to drink.
2. Just because my teeth don't hurt doesn't mean I can chew yet
3. Wax is my friend

So yeah, I spoke about the water issue yesterday. Number 2... well my teeth do not hurt at all, its definitely an adjustment to learn to chew with these things on my teeth but not painful to my teeth. My cheeks and lips however are a different story, the inside of my cheeks and lips feel like ground beef. Well at least they did yesterday, and that made chewing and talking very difficult even with wax on.

Salt water rinses and constant wax use on the offending brackets has helped and today is a much better day. With that said, having oatmeal for breakfast today was wonderful. I could actually taste the food I was eating and since I didnt have to chew it was perfect! Now if I could just figure out a better way to remove the wax from my brackets and molar bands I would be set.

I am definitely getting much more comfortable with everything. I feel thankful that I found this site and learned as much as I did before getting my braces on, I feel as if I am ahead of the curve and was pretty well prepared for the last couple of days.

#11 Post by **onefastchick** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:53 pm

Finally got a good pic of my upper arch, this was taken today, Day 3 of braces. As you can see there is still blue cement all over my molars by the molar bands and I have wax on a bracket and on my molar bands. I wanted to get a good pic of my arch so I can track my progress so here it is...

#12 Post by **tashacash** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:04 pm

Congrats on your braces onefastchick!

Your story made me want to post pics of my progress too!

It's nice that we were braced on the same day... now I have someone to go through this with... I feel your pain right now lol!

I like your choice on lig colours. I was too shy to put any colours on mine. Maybe next time.

#13 Post by **onefastchick** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 2:56 pm

So today my two front teeth are sore which I see as a good thing, maybe things are starting to move! Im not wearing wax as much today, I can actually go an hour or two without it so I can eat and Im only wearing it on the top molar bands so yay, progress

Thanks for the encouragement and support and yeah Ken I guess I have a big mouth

#14 Post by **onefastchick** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 5:07 am

Haha not at all, takes a lot to offend me!

#15 Post by **onefastchick** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 5:20 am

Some important things I have learned from this forum...

1. A treatment timeline is a complete guess, an ortho can make an educated guess based on past experience but until your teeth start moving there is no way to tell how long it will take.

2. Kind of goes with #1 but TRUST in your ortho, if you dont trust him/her then you need a new ortho. Presuming you did some homework before you chose your ortho in the first place you need to trust in your own decision and trust in your care provider.

3. As helpful as some can be on here there are just as many people who have had awful experiences or in their opinion they have had awful experiences. You cannot base your treatment on what they have encountered.

Thats all for now but Im sure as its only been 5 days I have a lot more to learn...