The Professor's Story of Braces at 40 (with pics)

[jem]

Hi Prof,

Your teeth are looking good-great improvement in short time.

Re the "stops" on your Damon archwires, I think you can probably expect them to be on a front tooth for most of your treatment. My first 3 wires were white coated and I had composite blobs for stops. After that I had Damon silver coloured niti wires for most of the time. The stops were between my laterals and centrals for the first one but then alternated on each of my centrals after that ( with a brief return to centrally- placed composite for one stint with a TMA wire and 3 periods with stainless steel).

All he best

Jem

[newbite]

I hope you don't develop too much pain from your new wires! Your next appt sounds pretty awesome when you can have a cleaning without your wires! I could never do that since mine are 2 hr apart but it sounds ideal.

I have two stops around the tooth to the right of my right front tooth. They've been there the whole time but I've only really noticed them since getting the rectangular wire. They seem so much bigger now! I feel like it's so noticeable and ugly but, still, people don't notice my braces so I guess they're not that bad.

I have a slight open bite, too, but on my right side, which I didn't have before braces. I assume it will close eventually!

Good luck! I hope you feel good for Christmas!

[NeilH]

That's great progress, it took me 15 months to progress to rectangular wires. I certainly noticed changes really quickly after starting with these wires and my bite has improved almost daily. Getting to attend a dental appointment wire free must really nice, the longest I have been without a wire since May 2013 is about 2 minutes!

Have a lovely Christmas.

[TheProfessor]

My first week with a rectangular wire has been interesting. My teeth definitely feel more "secure" with the thicker wire. As I mentioned before, my whole left side opened up a few hours after my adjustment on Monday. On Tuesday, I had sore molars and only 2 points of contact on my right side and none on my left side, not too nice when trying to eat road food on an 11 hour drive. On Christmas Eve, only my right canines touched! Luckily, my sister-in-law served lasagna for dinner- I could half-way chew it on sore molars. My bite started to come back together on Christmas and was back to "normal" on Saturday. It seems like my teeth are a bit less flared out now. The only problem is that I now have a pretty big gap between my upper front teeth! I hope it closes back up soon!

Have a Happy New Year!!!

[newbite]

I'm glad the rectangular wires weren't too traumatic for you, it's funny your bite changed so much, though! That's weird you have a gap between your front teeth, now, I wonder where the space came and why it decided to settle there?

Happy new year to you, too! We're all making progress, woohoo!!

[TheProfessor]

I'm glad the rectangular wires weren't too traumatic for you, it's funny your bite changed so much, though! That's weird you have a gap between your front teeth, now, I wonder where the space came and why it decided to settle there?

Happy new year to you, too! We're all making progress, woohoo!!

Good question! I had some spaces between my premolars and first molars that seem to have closed up- I noticed that it was harder to floss in those spots. I just hope the front tooth gap doesn't get any bigger-I've never had a gap there and it looks so weird to me

[nicolie825]

Your teeth are really looking great!

I would ask next time if its necessary that your stops have to be in front. I started my treatment with them in front and i found that i dont like the way they look in front. At my first adjustment, the assistant automatically put them on the side so that led me to believe they didnt have to be in front. My adjustment after that, the assistant started putting them on the front and i stopped her to ask if they could be put on the side and it wasnt an issue at all.

[TheProfessor]

Hi gang,
I've had my braces for almost 11 months now. The last couple of months have been the roughest since the initial couple of weeks. I still have an achy jaw sometimes, but it is a lot better than it was at the end of January. I have a cleaning and checkup at my normal dentist on Thursday morning, I'll see what she says about it.

The space that opened up between my two front teeth 5 days after my last adjustment on Dec 22 is still there, it might even be a bit larger now. Looks like I'll be needing a power chain soon! My lower inscisors were flaring out a lot before I got the rectangular wire at my last adjustment, but they seem to have straightened up quite a bit now. I have one wayward tooth that is still tilted out more than the others, but this is the tooth that had the most movement to do from the beginning.

Aside from the jaw issues, I'm still happy with my decision to get braces. The time has gone by pretty quickly, but I'm starting to get bored of all the extra cleaning, watching what I eat, etc. Hopefully my teeth will keep cooperating and I'll get them off before the 24 month estimate (if not, only 13 months to go....) I have an adjustment on Thursday and will ask my ortho if my teeth are still on schedule to finish at the two-year mark.

[newbite]

I hear you about the boredom with the cleaning and everything. I hope you get good news from your ortho! Maybe they can also talk to you about the mystery gap and what their plans are to fix it. Maybe if they bump you up to the next rectangular wire that will just fix it, in itself. Post some new pictures after your wire change!

[TheProfessor]

Today was a big day for my teeth!

8:30 am: Popped in to my ortho to get my wires removed

9:00 am: Checkup and cleaning at my dentist. I had X-rays taken and noticed that it was much more comfortable to have the X-ray thing in my mouth- I guess it is because my arches have expanded and rounded out, making more space in my mouth. My regular dentist was dealing with an emergency, so the head dentist in the practice did my exam. I hadn't met her before- she was really nice and explained things really well. My X-rays looked good- no cavities! I talked to here about my jaw pain and she took it really seriously and said that she would call my ortho to discuss it. Then I moved on for cleaning- I got the cheerful hygienist who tells stories nonstop while she works on my teeth. She was really happy with how clean my teeth were and told me to keep up the good work.

10:00 am: Arrived back at the ortho for my adjustment. Got called back to the chair pretty quickly, but then waited 20 min for my ortho to come and take a look. I could tell that she was a bit annoyed that my dentist had called her- I guess she didn't like it that I told my dentist that I didn't think they took my jaw pain seriously at my last adjustment (it was actually the other ortho in the practice who did my last adjustment, so it wasn't her fault). She then explained what she thinks is happening. As my lower teeth have unraveled, they also tilted out which means they are contacting my upper teeth in a weird way that is pushing back my lower jaw to an unnatural position. She said that even a few mm can irritate the TMJ and that my symptoms will likely go away when those teeth get pulled back where they are supposed to be. Then she had me open my mouth as wide as possible and move my jaw around to different positions while she took some measurements so that we can compare them later and see if my jaw is getting worse. I would have been much happier if all of this would have been done at my last appointment, but I feel a lot better about the situation now.

Next she told me that she would do some IPR on my lower teeth to make some room for them to tilt back in. She brought out a little sanding wheel thing and showed me how it worked and she proceeded to shave off the sides of my lower teeth ( I think she said that she was doing 4 to 4, so 8 teeth!) It didn't hurt at all, but it did feel weird and there was a distinctive burning teeth smell. Then she gave me a mirror and showed me the small gaps between those teeth. Finally, she told the assistant to put a power chain on my lower teeth and an elastic tie between my top centrals to close up that gap! the assistant offered me an Advil when she finished, never a good sign... I was finally finished with all the teeth stuff at 11:00 am! My next adjustment will be in 8 weeks.

Here are some pics (sorry for the quality) of today's progress. I'll try to take some nicer progress pics in the next few days.

8:40 am: teeth with no wires: Mind the gap!


11:30 am: gap is already smaller. I didn't get a power chain color choice- I think it is silver or maybe smoke? I'm worried that the clear elastic tie on top is going to get really stained.



7:30 pm: gap closed completely sometime in the afternoon! Those teeth are really tender this evening and I can feel the power chain effects on the lowers. Dinner was lentil soup with ice cream for dessert...

[newbite]

Congrats on the gap closing! Your teeth are looking great! I hope they're right that your jaw pain will go away when your bottom teeth are pulled in. Did they give an update on how many months they think you have left?

[TheProfessor]

Thanks, newbite! I asked if my teeth are on schedule to finish on time and my ortho checked when I saterted and said yes, you're on schedule. She didn't volunteer any more info. I'll ask again in a couple of adjustments

[killou]

very inspirational, your teeth are looking great.

[shredie79]

Looking good!

[TheProfessor]

In 11 days I will have my one year braces anniversary! The IPR and power chain from my last adjustment 4 weeks ago seem to be working, the IPR gaps have already closed up and my lower front teeth seem more upright now. The wayward tooth also seems to be straightening up, but I can tell it will still take a while for its root to be in the right place.

My jaw feels a lot better since my bottom teeth are farther back, so maybe the ortho was right! I'm still avoiding chewy foods that might irritate my jaw, but people have been trying to sabotage me in the last few weeks. My grad student offered me a homemade cookie- it was so hard that I couldn't even bite into it ( plus it was full of nuts!) Another student in my department brought me a present for writing recommendation letters for her. It was the worst present ever for a brace face--a chocolate covered caramel apple! It sat on my desk all afternoon- such torture since I've really been wanting to bite ino an apple and I really like the caramel and apple combination! I decided to take it home and cut it into very thin slices. I ate one sticky slice and then gave up-caramel apples really don't get along with braces (especially the day after an adjustment!) I was at a dinner party with close friends last Saturday-between the salad and dessert courses there were 4 different kinds of nuts on my plate (I very gingerly ate them with no ill effects!) These incidents made me realize two things: people really have no clue what it is like to wear braces and/or they are so used to me with braces that they don't even notice or think about it.