Kitsune's Amazing Adventure with Braces

[EbonyQ]

Love reading your story Kitsune, and what a progress! They are so white!! And I wish I had your bottom ones! Mine look like, to use everybody’s explanation, like someone has tossed them in .

Regarding the power chain: they do some wonderful work but sometimes they can overdo things… If left on the two front teeth for too long they might start to overlap each other. Therefor some orthos tend to put power chain on the pt's two front teeth for some time before taking it off to see if they will stay in place or if additional force is needed.
Orthos work differently, so yours might do it for a different reason

[kitsune]

EbonyQ, thank you so much for your reply! That does make sense. My ortho is all action and bare minimal explanation (although I do still like him a lot...that's just his MO), so I really have no idea what his reasoning could be.

I just get tired of getting a tastebud caught in between my teeth if I slide my tongue around behind them (only the front teeth). Does that make sense? Please oh PLEASE let other people have this problem, because I would feel like a super weirdo if I was the only one!

I've enjoyed reading your story as well. I need to catch up on it since I have been MIA from these boards, but I admire you a lot.

[kitsune]

I'm getting close to one year in these things! I hardly think about them except for the times when my teeth are sore after an adjustment, or when there is something poking me (like right now...grumble!). I will post comparison photos on the actual date of my brace-a-versary, but for now, here are some more recent photos:

This is from a few weeks ago when I got my first full powerchain. Hooooooly smokes...that was SUPER NOT FUN. I happened to be visiting my in-laws for the weekend right after getting it on, so I was not a pleasant person to be around. Sorry in-laws!



I took this photo last week, after my appointment on the 24th. It's kinda hard to see, but I have two kinks in my lower archwire to continue coaxing those bottom teeth to be on the same playing field.



I'm a bit embarrassed because it looks like all of my coffee/tea/other naughty things guzzling is catching up with me. Oh well! That's what tooth whitening is for, yes? Something to "look forward to"...

[BetsyBug]

Kitsune, your teeth look great!!! You have such nice shaped teeth too, and I wouldn't worry about the staining I think they look fine. I have a couple teeth that need to extrude to get up in the "right playing field" as well. Though I have been promised the torture of some elastics to do the job for me next trip to the ortho.
either way I just wanted to tell you how great your teeth are looking

[kitsune]

Kitsune, your teeth look great!!! You have such nice shaped teeth too, and I wouldn't worry about the staining I think they look fine. I have a couple teeth that need to extrude to get up in the "right playing field" as well. Though I have been promised the torture of some elastics to do the job for me next trip to the ortho.
either way I just wanted to tell you how great your teeth are looking

BetsyBug,

Thank you very much!!

I used to be rather fanatical about making sure I only drank staining liquids with a straw (including red wine...classy!), but over time I decided that it wasn't worth having a panic attack over. Life is too short to run around in a frenzy over something like that, methinks.

[kitsune]

It's been a year in braces...whoooo!

As promised, here are some one year comparison photos. I actually wish I had taken a whole lot more photos last September, but I was too traumatized to think clearly. Oh well!

Here I am RIGHT after getting home from the ortho. My poor lips are so swollen from getting beat up by the mouth spreader thing.



And I just took this photo a few minutes ago. I couldn't get my camera to focus clearly for some reason, so sorry about the fuzzy photo.



Anyway, I obviously am not at 100% yet, but I love seeing this progress! I think this is some of the best money I have ever spent!

[GillyWeed]

Congrats Kitsune on making it to a year

Your teeth look amazing. Looks like you're pretty close to being done! I hope the rest of your *braces* ride is smooth and please do keep the updates coming

[Kipepeo]

Hi Kit. I just read your story. I don't know how I missed it over the last year. To reiterate everyone's comments...Amazing, beautiful. I was reading recently about what makes a 'perfect' smile. Basically, the upper lip line should run just at the upper teeth gum line, and the bottom edge of the uppers should run just along the lower lip....exactly like yours is.

I'm hoping, hoping, my ortho can pull the line of my uppers down so I have some semblance of this, without exposing too much gum during a smile. My upper lip shape is not as pretty as yours and has a weird shape depending on how I flex my smile muscles. (gosh this is hard to describe!)

[Mitch11]

Kit,
Your teeth look fabulous. In one of your posts you made the statement that your 2 upper front teeth aren't the same length. It's really not noticeable in your pix. How does your doc intend to correct that? I've developed a longer tooth and I'm really worried.

[BetsyBug]

Kitsune- Congratulations on your one year anniversary

Your teeth are looking great!!! Not too much longer before you will be all done.

[kitsune]

How odd...I stopped getting e-mail notifications when a new post was added to this thread. Thank you very much for all of your kind comments! Individual reply time!

GillyWeed - According to the original estimate, I was supposed to be in braces for about 14 months. However, since I got 3 out of 4 of my molar bands removed, I know this has probably added a considerable amount of time to my sentence. I am actually going to see about getting at least one more molar band added at my next adjustment, since my top molars are still tipped outward. I have a feeling that I will be in braces for 16-18 months in total, but what do I know!

Kipepeo - I had no idea about what makes a good smile...very interesting. Personally, I have always wished for bigger teeth! How do orthos pull the line of upper teeth down? I need to go catch up on your story now.

Mitch11 - You know, I haven't really asked my ortho about how he intends to correct the unevenness of my front teeth. I probably should ask more questions, but I usually just let him work his ortho magic on me and then pop back to work. I've already had some IPR done along the bottom of one of my front teeth after he mentioned the length disparity, so I was just assuming I would get more done when we are ready to deband. Do you know of any other methods to correct for unevenness?

BetsyBug - I really can't wait to be done!!! I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and have been doing some hardcore planning about my first meal post-braces.

[kitsune]

Just got back from the ortho!

Let's see...what did we do? More kinks in the lower wire plus some "tightening" of the wire itself, and a "gentle" powerchain on top. Hah...gentle...very funny. Every time I get a powerchain I end up so sore and owwy and grumpy! This does not bode well for my birthday weekend!

We had a discussion about my two upper molars that aren't quite straight. My ortho took a good look around my mouth and we did the whole "bite, open, bite" thing a lot. He said that there is no REAL reason for me to get them entirely straightened out, since they align well with the bottom molars. He said that I could get the molar band back on if I wanted to, but that it would probably leave a gap? I am not in any particular rush to get those molars at 100% (nobody will see them except my dentist anyway), so I am fine with leaving those teeth where they are.

Did I mention the fact that I was told by both my dentist and ortho that I will need a gum graft on my right upper canine? The recession isn't THAT bad, but they recommended that I get the surgery before it becomes worse. I don't want to do too much research online and scare myself with horror stories, but I was wondering (I think I'll post a thread about this later) if it is possible to get the surgery while still in braces. I know people tend to wait until the braces come off to get the surgery (since braces can make the recession worse), but mine seems to be pretty stable. Does anyone know about this?

I'm at work now and can only take creepy phone pictures, so I will take some with my good camera when I get home.

Oh, here's something funny my favorite assistant told me while putting on my powerchain/changing ligs. She said that it is always "such a joy" to work on my teeth because they have a lot of patients come in with tons of stuff stuck in their braces. She was saying she could tell they hadn't brushed in quite some time. Eeeeeek! I couldn't imagine going to the ortho with a bunch of crap in my grill...at least swish a bit if you can't brush first!