Whilst most people would be horrified to have a mouth like mine, my biggest concern of late has been that my teeth have started to develop hairline cracks from the stress of them being so crooked and maloccluded. I'm not bothered about 'pretty' teeth, but I do still want to have teeth!
I had braces as a teenager, briefly - Two months with fixed lower braces, which "fell off" three times. Six months with a palate brace and headgear. I broke the palate brace several times and never wore the headgear. Kids, eh? My mum got fed up with taking me back to the orthodontist and asked him to take it all out and forget it.
Roll foward 18 years of laughing with my hand over my mouth, and I heard that it's possible to get free treatment as a 'guinea pig' by a local teaching hospital, if you're a bad enough case. After a referral by my dentist, it seems I am a bad enough case.
After x-rays they tell me that the root of my problems is my jaw - it is underdeveloped on one side, and underdeveloped in general, and my upper jaw has overgrown (a 'cant') on one side to compensate for this. Aha! The root of my 'wonky face':
![Image](http://www.quinnster.com/braces/facefrontbeforet.jpg)
They tell me treatment will involve 2 years of fixed braces, plus extractions of lower wisdom teeth and orthognathic surgery. I willingly agree.
Brackets went on on 27th May 2005, molar bands and upper archwires went on a week afterwards, and both lower 4s were extracted on 7th June 2005. Because of my deep overbite, I have 'molar putty' on my back teeth to stop my upper teeth knocking off my lower brackets (I think this is what hapened the first time round, when my lower braces fell off as a kid).
Until my front teeth push outwards, I have to keep the molar putty on. This means no chewing, and lots of mashed potato, soup, milk etc
On to photos - I drink a lot of tea, hence the staining.
![Image](http://www.quinnster.com/braces/teethbeforet.jpg)
My teeth before the braces.
![Image](http://www.quinnster.com/braces/overbitet.jpg)
A very bad picture of my normal bite - can you see lower teeth? No. I have marked the midlines in red.
![Image](http://www.quinnster.com/braces/top270505t.jpg)
My top teeth, with brackets on, and spacers in. No molar bands yet. You really don't appreciate just how wonky teeth are until the braces show you, do you?
![Image](http://www.quinnster.com/braces/lower270505t.jpg)
My lower teeth, with brackets on. The teeth without brackets have now been removed.
![Image](http://www.quinnster.com/braces/front270505t.jpg)
The overall look from the front.
I love my ibuprofen, that's all I'm saying. The worst part so far was getting one of the molar bands on, which was excrutiatingly painful for some reason.
More pictures when my teeth start to move!