mikesmile's Orthodontic Journey

[mikesmile]

Thanks Marci...Yes, I do feel like I'm in the home stretch now! This has felt like a relative breeze compared to some stories here!...or even my own first treatment of 30 months!

My story continues...As mentioned earlier, when I went in for my 13th adjustment (the day before my 1 year mark) the power chain that was on top was removed and not replaced. My ortho commented about how my left central incisor is rotated. I had certainly noticed this myself, and wondered what the doc planned to do about it... Well, he added a small gray colored device to that tooth that I've never even seen or heard of before. It's called a 'rotation wedge', and it's a little rubber thing mounted under the archwire - next to the bracket.

Here's a pic...


By mikesm at 2011-02-12

This was the only change made, other than my ligs being changed out for teal. I could feel tightness around that area right away...My appointment was in the morning, and by lunchtime when I took my first bite of a sandwich, I couldn't believe how much that tooth hurt and throbbed! I had to bite sideways using my molars, which ache from the elastics, but not as much as my left front tooth did!!! I also noticed that the tooth rotated very quickly - and too much the opposite way.

The pain was intense, and eventually spread into the other incisors as well, and lasted close to a week. It had to be among the worst pain I ever experienced during both my rounds of ortho treatment!

At this adjustment, the ortho also announced that he wanted me to schedule a consult w/ my regular dentist to make sure everything meets with his approval. As mentioned earlier in my story, the dentist is going to fit me with a bridge to replace a missing molar, as well as crowns on several incisors eventually. The space for the missing molar was widened/maintained by a spring mounted on my archwire throughout most of my ortho treatment. The work on my new bridge will happen shortly after I'm debanded, and this all means that things are getting close.

Next time I'll talk about my 14th adjustment.....



Second Time In Braces - Estimate 12-14 Months

[mikesmile]

RE: ELASTICS.....

I've been wearing elastics (to help fix an underbite) for about 6 months now. They are amazing little devices that seem to work non-stop in your mouth. I've gotten so used to having mine in there that I feel a tiny bit naked without it lol... In the beginning I had to wear them on both sides, but now I only have to wear one on the right side. I was supposed to be all done with wearing them a couple of visits ago, but my ortho had me continue because my bite's not finished being corrected yet on that side.

I have a little tid bit to share :

My 3 year old daughter - who has taken a keen interest in my orthodontic treatment right from day one - recently discovered a new game. She loves to check me after adjustments to see what 'color' braces I have each month, and gets right up close to stare and point. Well, one day while she was pointing into my mouth, she touched my elastic by accident and it 'twanged'! She found great delight in that and twang-twang-twanged a few more times. We were cracking up about daddy's new musical instrument. Then she found the spring on the other side of my mouth and ran her fingernail along it, and we almost had a band going... ...aaaaahhh, the joys of having a curious little one...and at midlife no less!



Second Time In Braces - Estimate 12-14 Months

[GypsyinBraces]

I love your elastics story! I will have them on both sides too, to rotate canines. I think it's going to be hard to not play with them with my tongue!

And congrats on being so close to done! I just started, so I love to read everyone's journey. Much luck for your dental work after, I'll have some of that too.

~Gypsy

[drgnchsr36]

RE: ELASTICS.....

I've been wearing elastics (to help fix an underbite) for about 6 months now. They are amazing little devices that seem to work non-stop in your mouth. I've gotten so used to having mine in there that I feel a tiny bit naked without it lol... In the beginning I had to wear them on both sides, but now I only have to wear one on the right side. I was supposed to be all done with wearing them a couple of visits ago, but my ortho had me continue because my bite's not finished being corrected yet on that side.

I have a little tid bit to share :

My 3 year old daughter - who has taken a keen interest in my orthodontic treatment right from day one - recently discovered a new game. She loves to check me after adjustments to see what 'color' braces I have each month, and gets right up close to stare and point. Well, one day while she was pointing into my mouth, she touched my elastic by accident and it 'twanged'! She found great delight in that and twang-twang-twanged a few more times. We were cracking up about daddy's new musical instrument. Then she found the spring on the other side of my mouth and ran her fingernail along it, and we almost had a band going... ...aaaaahhh, the joys of having a curious little one...and at midlife no less!



Second Time In Braces - Estimate 12-14 Months

That's a great story about your daughter

[jensceana73]

Hey Mike,

I love your story about your 3 year old. I too have a 3 year old, and he loves it when I come back from the ortho's office. He runs up to me and yells "open your mouth mom, so I can see what color your train tracks are!!!!" Too cute.

Hey, at least somebody loves them as much as I do!!

[mikesmile]

Hi

Thanks Gypsy, drgnchsr36, & Jen. I'm glad you all enjoyed my little story. Yes, children...part of the fun side of having braces as a parent! There's more to tell... The other day my little princess was on the potty and called me in to wipe her. As I was bending down to do it, my face was kinda close to hers...and...she says "Daddy, open your mouth for a minute. I wanna look a something." So I did...and she reaches in real quick and 'snap' she gets my elastic good! The other day I informed her that I'll be getting these braces off soon. I couldn't believe how sad she got She pouted! I asked her, "You don't want my braces to come off ?" "No!",was the immediate answer. I honestly think that after my being braced over 14 months - at her young age she probably can't remember me not having braces!



Second Time In Braces - Estimate 12-14 Months

[mommy]

Hi Mike,
I also enjoyed reading story about your daughter. I have 18 months old son and I was wondering what will be his reaction to my braces. He also likes to "investigate" everything

[mikesmile]

Thanks Mommy, good luck with your treatment. It should be a lot of 'fun' !

So I'm feeling a bit frustrated by my not finding time to update the treatment details of my story.
Since I'm going in to see the ortho shortly (this morning), I'll try now to give a summary from where we left off...Today is probably my last adjustment! There's even a chance that I'll be de-banded this morning!!...but more likely in another week, which will mark 15 months - to the day!!!

Between my 13th and 14th adjustments, I scheduled another consult with my dentist - for a final inspection of my ortho's work - in preparation for my bridge. The dentist said everything looked ready except he was a little concerned with my rotated left front incisor. I was too! This was a couple of months ago, and that tooth has really been a ''trouble maker''. At that consult, my appointments were also set up for the bridge work. This meant that we now had a deadline for de-banding. The first appointment is April 26th. I called my ortho's office to run the date by him, and he was fine with it.

At my 14th adjustment, the rotation wedge on my left front incisor was moved to the other side of that bracket.? The doc said it had rotated too far (yeah I noticed). I was instructed now to wear my elastics only at night, but was handed a bag of extra-heavy ones. Because of that big ugly gray wedge on my incisor, I decided to go w/ silver ligs this time as they blended in...

At my 15th adjustment, the rotation wedge was switched back again to the other side of the bracket. You guessed it...it rotated too far again! By this time, I was starting to get nervous w/ the timeline...this tooth was not cooperating! I asked the ortho if he wanted me to reschedule my dentist appointments. He insisted we'll still be make it by April 26th, but I was starting to get even more nervous!
At this appointment, I decided to go with the wildest lig color I've ever done - yellow ! The tech just looked at me, like...okay buddy . I told her I was having some fun with my daughter - which was true!

At my 16th adjustment, the rotation wedge was finally removed and placed on my bottom left canine. Apparently, that tooth is rotated as well. A power chain was added to my top arch. The tech said it's the heaviest one they got. Needless to say, I was in considerable pain for days.

Today, I don't know what awaits, but my teeth look done to me and my bite is awesome! We'll see what the ortho says...




Second Time In Braces - Estimate 12-14 Months

[lilone]

Congratulations on being at the end! I hope you get them off today, but if not...a week isn't too long to wait! Woohoo!

[SilverGirl]

Oh - I hope it went well! Can't wait to hear if they are off!

I have what will most likely be my last adjustment this Wednesday - I should get a de-brace date then. I don't know about you, but time seems to slow when you know the end is near!

Let us know what happened yesterday!

[catgyrl]

Oh - I hope it went well! Can't wait to hear if they are off!

He replied to me in my story thread: Mike's naked!!! Uh... I mean... Mike's TEETH are naked!! Can't wait to see the pics and hear your story!

-Cathy

[jensceana73]

MIKE, c'mon....you can't leave us hanging like this!!!!

What do you look like??? How do you feel?? Is it as AWSOME as I think it is???!!!! You are so fa-reek-in lucky!!!! Oh, ohhhhhh and please do tell what it is now like....to floss with out those things on. And slowly. Describe it very....very...slowly and don't leave one single thing out!!!!!
Congratulations!!! So happy for you and yes....please do keep us posted and up to date on all you have done!!!

You lucky duck

[mikesmile]

.....Hello Everybody

First I'd like to thank Lilone, SilverGirl, Cathy & Jen for all of your well wishes! I Know I leaked the news out a couple of days ago. Sorry to leave you all hanging like that .....I needed a little time to kind of prepare my story, since the deed happened so fast! I came on here yesterday morning and spent almost 2 hours writing a very long and detailed account.....then quess what happened? When I pressed 'send', the site timed me out and I could not retrieve my post. It disappeared into cyberspace!!!!! I was not a happy camper.....and since I had to go to work, this had to wait yet one more day. Sorry.

.....Here's the news - straight from the horse's mouth: Yes, I am indeed UN-BRACED!!!!! I have made the journey to retainer land. The whole thing happened rather suddenly.

Since I'm now super paranoid about a repeat of yesterday's disappearance, I will have to divide my story into installments. I'm not a real fast typer, so please bear with me. I'm excited to finally tell my story!

[mikesmile]

Well, last friday morning I went to the ortho's for what was supposed to be my 17th adjustment. I was excited and a little anxious knowing it was probably my last one. The offic was busier than usual for a morning, so I had to wait longer than I normally do. That always helps the anxiety! When I got called into the main treatment room, I saw that my ortho had 2 new techs, in addition to the 2 long time ones. Boy, business must be great! One of the techs was in training, and she was pitting ligs on and off a set of model teeth. The other new girl, who was very pleasant and reassuring, was assigned to me. After a brief introduction, she went through the usual process of taking everything apart; removing ligs and power chain, then waiting for the ortho to walk over and take a look. He liked what he saw, them declared "You're ready. Everything looks good. I'm going to take them off in another week!" Then he gave the tech some instructions, and resumed his work on another patient. I heard him tell the tech to put another power chain on top, and so forth...I was just picking a new lig color...

...when I heard the doc say from across the room: "Do you want to get them off today?" I thought he was talking to another patient, so I didn't pay attention...then he repeated it. I turned my head around toward him and saw that all eyes in the room were on me!!! He was definitely talking to me! I wasn't ready for this, as he had just said "in another week". I was suddenly put on the spot, and said tenatively "If you think I'm ready..." I didn't have time to think about it. I know this must sound so silly, but I would have liked the extra week to prepare myself. I didn't even have time to say goodbye to my braces! As much discomfort as they can cause, (and as much complainin' we do) they are ingenius devices performing wonders on our teeth...and somehow we "bond" with them in the process.

My tech looked at me kind of puzzled, then said "We only just met today for the first time. I didn't know I'd be removing your braces today !"

[mikesmile]

After about 15-20 minutes, where all I could hear was the clicking and snapping of the tech's instruments, all the hardware was out of my mouth. We moved on to the glue removal, which took another 15 minutes with a high powered air tool. The smell of the glue coming off was nasty. I had smelled this aroma before, when other patients were being de-banded. The ortho took over at the end. Some of my teeth are very sensitive, so the doc had to use water with the air tool, with the tech suctioning the excess water out. The process made quite a mess. I was literally showered with water, while the tech kept wiping my face and neck with a towel. After the polishing, the ortho filed my 2 front incisors down a little. They are really, really jagged from all my prior damage (and will eventually be crowned) but the ortho just wanted to level them off a bit before impressions were taken.

At this point, I finally ran my teeth over my tongue. How smooth and sensual they felt...but so weird! It didn't feel right without all that hardware to rub up against. This moment was very surreal for me...suddenly after almost 15 months, I was DE-BRACED!!! I actually felt kind of giddy to be honest with ya...

Next, the molds were taken of my (now naked) teeth in preparation for my first set of retainers. After rinsing remnants of the goopy mold jell out of my mouth, I was instructed to return to the office late in the afternoon for my retainer fitting.

When I got home from my appointment, I presented my naked smile to my 3 year old. She exclaimed, "Daddy, you don't have any more teeth!" She'd gotten so used to my braces that she considered them part of my teeth. I guess I did too... Throughout the entire day - when talking or smiling - I kept forgetting that I was no longer braced!!! It took a while for reality to set in.