Starting Braces at 26!

[Klaudia96]

Poor you! But the worst thing is after you now How are you feeling after operation? I will have a similar process soon, so I'm quite interesting what's up

[catchafallingstar9]

It's really not too bad. It's mostly discomfort as it's still bleeding a bit and the swelling which won't go away. I think the level of pain that remains is up to your oral surgeon. I experienced no difficulties with my first surgery which was amazing. So I suggest you find a surgeon that comes highly recommended!
Good luck!

[Klaudia96]

Thanks for response! I'm looking for some good surgeon, but it's not easy. I think that Internet is able to help me When I see or hear the word: bleeding, in the moment, I feel bad, haha

[catchafallingstar9]

Sorry I didn't mean to scare you! it's normal to taste blood after these procedures since it's still healing, but it isn't as bad as it sounds, I promise!
You will be fine!!!

[Klaudia96]

I'm not scared! No more And thanks for support

[catchafallingstar9]

Adjustment #2 / Bracket Completion + Surgery Update

Hello all,

As you may have read, I had surgery on the 15th to remove an impacted canine. Swelling took over a week to dissipate but there was no pain whatsoever.

It feels bulky under my gums but I’m told it’s due to the bone graft that was placed to keep the area from looking droopy.

My 2nd adjustment was on 7/30/14. In reality, it was more like “bracket placing part II” as the ortho finished putting brackets on ALL of my teeth. Because my canines have retracted significantly, there is now space for my front teeth to straighten out. So placing wires and brackets on my front teeth was finally okay. The focus now is on getting my teeth straightened rather than retracting the canines, so no more elastics and funky loopy wires for now. Once the teeth have straightened, we’ll work on finishing closing my extraction gaps, which have already closed a lot, so no big deal.

PAIN

Oh yes, I won’t sugar coat it.

I took 2 advil before my appointment because I knew what was coming. Sadly however, I don’t think it helped much. The pressure placed on my front teeth is bad. The meal of the day yesterday was soup while attempting to bite into a soft donut was futile.

The pain is bad and I think having the bottom fro​n​t braces is causing my speech to sound funny when I pronounce certain words, like “subscription” “lotion”, etc.

But I’m happy to see the results at the end of August to see how straighter my teeth will be. Hopefully I’ll see noticeable change in the next two weeks since I’m going on vacation. Oh what I wouldn’t do to finally show some teeth in pictures

Pictures after the 2nd adjustment below:

[bbqmax]

Good luck , and any updates on your surgery`?

[catchafallingstar9]

Adjustment #3

Hi All,

Apologies for the late update.
To answer your question @bbqmax, recovery was a breeze. Since all the wires went on shortly after, the pain of those overcame any discomfort I felt following surgery at the time
But overall, it's been great, no infections, no pain though some awkward sensations when I shift my mouth at a certain angle - which I presume is where the incision on the front of my gum was made, but nothing to be concerned about (I still am sensitive around my jaw where my lower wisdom teeth were extracted and that was back in May!).

Now for the braces:

I (and the orthodontists) noticed great improvement. My top front teeth have definitely shifted, and the 2 front ones are aligning well and not protruding as much as they did, so now I can half smile (picture below) without them looking so ugly!
When I rub my tongue against the back of the teeth, they definitely feel nice and pretty

My lower teeth however, haven't moved much in the last month. The focus there is to rotate both canines into a better position and that seems to be a slow process. Until they rotate into a desirable position, the orthodontist won't close the gaps on the bottom (which are annoying since it's where most of the food particles get stuck

I was told that it probably won't be until right before xmas when they will start closing all gaps.

They replaced both wires. The top one is now a bigger (or stronger?) wire. They went from a 14 something to a 16 (sorry, not sure what the precise specifications were). The bottom remains a 14 like last month.
My next appointment is on Oct. 15th.

I already feel more confident with my smile!

Oh and another little odd thing - I have noticed certain differences lately about the frame and shape of my face, not sure if this is due to weight loss (11 pounds since extractions and surgery!) or due to the shifting + extractions of the teeth...?

[mapleleafman888]

Wow very nice improvement!

[catchafallingstar9]

Long overdue update!
My last adjustment happened on 10/15/14.
The pictures below were taken immediately after the appointment.
The big news this time was that my lower canines have pretty much closed the gap where my premolars once were. They have also rotated to a better position (see the before pictures from some months back). They increased the size of my wires, I *think* I’m now wearing 18s both top and bottom. They wanted my teeth to straighten out a bit more before they begin bringing everything closer together to close the gaps on top and between my lower front teeth (this won’t happen until next month!).
The bad news is that my next adjustment is on 11/12/14 and they’ll have to replace at least 3 brackets! I’ll have to brace myself for the pain (no pun intended).
Thanks for reading

[BeautifulDisaster]

Great progress! Your teeth have come a long way in just 2 months!
Must be exciting to see so much improvement.

[nicolie825]

Wow great progess on both top and bottom!!

[catchafallingstar9]

Thank you for your comments! I too have noticed the improvement and it's totally exciting
Now for my update...

Adjustment #5 on 11/11/14

Prior to arriving to my ortho's office I took 600mg of ibuprofen thinking the pain caused by removing the 3 brackets she needed to replace would be unbearable (I had 1 bracket replaced about 3 months ago and she pulled and tugged at my tooth I was almost in tears!). However this time around she had me bite on some cotton things and it was all a breeze. The ibuprofen did come in handy though, these were the adjustments made:

Bigger wires! I went from 018s to 020s both top and bottom, with some double wiring system on my top right side to pull the upper canine back to close the gap on that side. This caused an awful amount of pain once the 600mg wore off later at night. For the next 2-3 days I could not bite or have solid food, and the pain along my right side jaw climbed up to my ear (similar to pain caused by an ear infection). It was not fun! However now, a week later, I think I'm pretty much back to "normal" and can bite into things with relative ease.

The wire on my front teeth was placed in a sort of of criss-cross way, to keep them together while we move the canine back (this will keep spaces between the front teeth from forming - gaps on front teeth are not a good look!).

My next adjustment is Dec. 17th!

Thanks for reading!
And now for some pictures....

[catchafallingstar9]

Well here we are, 2 months since my last update.

Adjustment #6 on 12/17/14
We went for even bigger wires top and bottom. This time I got to wear a tiny elastic that hooked from my upper right canine to the bottom molar. The purpose of this is to pull the canine back and close the gap of the tooth that was there previously.

Dental cleaning on 1/20/15
I went for my regular cleaning and it all looked great (health-wise)!
In case you were wondering, my dentist worked with the wires on, which is super convenient.

Adjustment #7 on 1/21/15

-Top Teeth-
I'll admit I wore the rubber band only about 85% of the time - ideally this should have been 100% but with the holidays I was eating all the time and this band got in the way. I eat with them on about half of the time, but sometimes they break or unhook themselves. I think I might have eaten one at some point
Well this 85% made a difference but not enough to move the canine completely. So this month I'll have to keep wearing it and hope things look like they should by my next appointment. If I do good we can start on closing the gaps on top and pushing my 4 front teeth back. So the wiring configuration on my top teeth stays the same this month.

-Bottom Teeth-
On the bottom however, we've started moving teeth so that we can finally close the little gaps between my teeth. HOWEVER, my midline is a bit off so they have to shift my left side front teeth more to the left. The ortho has wired my lower back teeth to the left central incisor. This has already started to create a gap (which I suspect will only get BIGGER) between by 2 lower front teeth - yuck! At the next appointment they'll hook the wires to the right central incisor and then the next tooth over, moving one tooth at a time until the gaps are closed and my midline is perfect! I'm very sore and can not chew at the moment. I'm really scared of having a huge nasty gap right there front and center for the world to see !!!!

My next appointment is on the 25th of Feb. Pictures below.

[mapleleafman888]

I am amazed again at the improvement! Looking really great!!!!!