Braces for the first time at 26

[Candyland]

Hello everyone! I finally decided to share my story after reading so many others. I just got braces in February of this year to correct an overbite, overjet, and close gaps from 2 molar extractions on the bottom. I had 2 failed root canals, one 2 years ago, and one 5 years ago. Because of this I have 2 very large gaps on the bottom were my molars were. On the bottom left side my wisdom tooth has come in, and the bottom one on the right is starting to surface. My ortho decided to just pull my back molars up to fill the gap and keep the wisdom teeth to make up for the 2 extrations.

I got full braces on February 6th (all ceramic self ligating except for the back teeth). About 2 months in my overjet had become pretty bad from where my arch was rounding out so my ortho put power chains on the top.

On May 30th I had my first upper bicuspids pulled in order to begin moving my top arch back. At this appointment they pulled both teeth, put another wire on, and a new power chain.

On June 20th I had another power chain put on the bottom and elastics going from my bottom back teeth to my canines on top. These have been very painful but I have already noticed a big difference in my overjet.

So, that brings you to where I am today

I have posted some pictures of my journey. I did not take any before I got my braces but I do have one from the day they were put on. Sorry the quality is not good, I had to crop these from cell phone pics. These pictures are pretty embarassing as well (my teeth are very yellow looking, I have tried everything and nothing will whiten them)

[Kurisu]

Oh wow, looks like quite a journey in the last 4 months!

Your ortho may have some more knowledge on whitening options when you're done with braces.

I don't know many people who still have their wisdom teeth. You're fortunate they are growing out (normally?). Mine never ruptured and were under the gumline, so they would get swollen occasionally.

[Candyland]

Surprisingly my wisdon teeth on the bottom are coming in pretty straight. The ones on top are staying put. My ortho doesn't think they will ever move down so that is a relief. I would hate to add more extractions!

Here is a more updated picture from this week.

[KLM1996]

I had to get 4 teeth extracted for my braces, not the best feeling! Haha good luck with your braces!

[Candyland]

Today makes exactly 5 months since I got my braces! Whoo hooo! So, I thought I would do a comparison photo.

2013-07-06 13.26.34-1.jpg

[Candyland]

I go for another adjustment tomorrow I look forward to seeing what they will do next, but I dread the pain. Last time I cried it hurt so bad when the assistant stretched the powerchain around the teeth next to my extraction gaps. I think the gaps have closed some now so maybe it won't be so bad. I am think of going with lavender power chains on top and a darker purple on the bottoms. I always thought I would be too self concious to do any colors until I went with blue last month. I love them! I almost wish I didn't have the self ligating so I could do a rainbow, a different color on every tooth! I will post pics of the new colors after my appointment.

[SunshineRay]

Thats awesome that you went from being self consious to wanting a rainbow. I cant wait to get there. lol

[Candyland]

Just finished with my adjustment! No new wires this time. Just new power chains. I asked my ortho if TADs would be an option for me to try to close the molar gaps and he doesn't seem to think so. He doesn't put them in so if it were an option he said it would be very expensive as I would have to go to an oral surgeon. I worry that the molar gaps on the bottom won't be able to close. He said that as long as there is still extra wire to clip in the back that means the teeth are still moving forward. He went into some long spill about how the bone is thin where the teeth were extracted and the molars have to be pulled through that bone and that new bone has to grow to fill in behind them and we have to go slow and steady to allow this new bone to form. If he tries to go too fast and the bone doesn't have time to fill in the whole tooth could be pulled out! He also said I have a class 3 bite?? I don't know what that means. Looks like I will need to do some research.

I decided to go with light purple on the top and darker purple on the bottom (at least thats what I asked for). I don't really consider this top color light purple. It looks very pink in real life. I also think it makes my teeth look an awful orange color. Oh well, its only for the next 4 weeks.

[Candyland]

I had to go in for an "emergency" appointment today. My right bottom molar has been killing me this past week. I have learned to expect some pain after each adjustment but it usually gets better as the days go on. This has just been getting worse. It also felt pretty loose so I was concerned, and this tooth has a rather large filling in it so I'm imagining all sorts of things that could be wrong. The pain seemed to be much worse when I took my elastic off which seemed strange. I called first thing this morning and was given an appt for 4:30 today. I was very please with this as I haven't had to go in for anything other than my regular appointments so I was happy they could get me in so quickly.

I got there and the assistant poked and prodded to see if she could see the tooth moving. Then the ortho did the same. He decided that I would stop wearing elastics for a week and clipped the power chain from that tooth only. He said we needed to "let it calm down". I told him if this was going to delay things I could just deal with the pain, but he said that although nothing is wrong with the tooth right now, this could lead to a problem and that it was best to take pressure off the tooth for now. Oh, and the reason it hurts worse when I take the elastic off is because the elastic is helping to stabilize the tooth by putting tension on it.

So now I'm kind of upset that I went through all the pain of getting used to wearing elastics and now that I have to leave them off for a week I'm going to have to go through that all over again. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut. The pain wasn't unbearable. I mostly made the appointment because my husband said we have too much money invested to have something go wrong now. Oh well, maybe I'm just having a pitty party right now because my mouth hurts so much.