Lin's Story - Extractions, Canine Exposure, and Weirdness :)

[Lin]

Once upon a time, there was a girl. She had a small mouth, and too many teeth to fit in it. So the teeth were crooked. And she had a slight overbite. When she was 17, she had all 4 impacted wisdom teeth removed. It was not fun. She vowed that she would not get braces because she would have to go through oral surgery again to get her impacted, unerupted top right canine removed first. And that would probably not be fun.

Now that girl is 25, and she's going back on her old vow and going for the braces and second oral surgery. Yeah, that girl is me. I'm going to keep a log of my adventure here, because spending time doing this is a bit more pleasant and productive than all those sleepless nights worrying about it all with nowhere to get thoughts off my chest.

I'm tired of being that girl who is afraid to show her own smile. My crooked teeth make me feel insecure, and I want to work on that now.

The culprit (my "before" photo, pre-braces):


I had my first consultation with my new orthodontist about a month ago. He said that we would have to pull two bottom premolars, my top right canine baby tooth, possibly some other normal top tooth, and also remove my impacted top right canine. All of this, though, would happen after 4 months of wearing braces and elastics. Then I would continue with the braces and elastics until I reach the 27-month mark or so. The braces will be ceramic on top and metal on bottom.

I wanted to get a more detailed story on the extractions, so I went to a consultation with an oral surgeon a week ago. He said that, to get the top right canine out (which is positioned in a diagonal line behind adjacent front teeth roots), he would have to cut through bone in my hard palate (roof of my mouth) and then fish around for the tooth, section it, and remove it. He would then stitch the gums back up, and the bone should take about 4 months to grow back.

Needless to say, I am quite worried about the oral surgery, for which I would go under general anesthesia. I do have a phobia of anesthesia, which manifested in something of a hysterical psychological breakdown at my last oral surgery. It is an understatement to say that I am facing almost all of my worst fears by choosing to do all of this. I was so happy to find this forum for others taking on similar challenges. It makes me feel like maybe I'm not so alone in all of this.

I know that everybody has a unique experience... some people heal well and handle the fear really well, recover fast, some people don't. I had a college buddy tell me before my oral surgery that he had all four of his wisdoms out in a day, ate a sandwich that evening, and was fine. I, on the other hand, had a mental breakdown, vomitted into the raw wounds in my mouth after my surgery due to nausea from the anesthesia and painkillers, and it took me until two or three months afterward to be able to eat solid foods again. I remember, about 6 weeks after the surgery, going out for pizza with some friends, absolutely starving to death and wanting to dig in. I was so hungry because I had lost at least ten pounds. And I cut that pizza up into little pieces and tried to chew and eat them. But the pain was too much, even then, I couldn't even chew it up. I remember crying over not being able to eat pizza. It was a pretty low moment.

I guess my point is, while experiences vary, they are subjective to the individuals experiencing them. And I think that if I go into all of this with an attitude more positive than the one I had last time (which was more abject terror than anything else), the struggle may not be quite as traumatic. Accordingly, the healing & recovery time may not be as dramatic, either.

So I'm going to try to have a little fun with this journey by writing my thoughts here. For those of you brave enough to read on... thank you I will always welcome your comments, perspectives, and advice.

I am getting my spacers put in this coming Wednesday. The following Tuesday, I am having the braces put on.

I keep reading the things people say on this forum, and apparently adjusting to all of this (the spacers & braces) is typically a bit painful, and eating soft foods becomes necessary... some folks even lose weight after it's all on, because it is more painful to eat foods that they are used to. It is also my understanding that while some people carefully manage to eat any kind of food they want with braces on, many others are limited in their diet.

So........

I have 5 days left to eat all of the hardest, gooiest, naughtiest foods known to humankind and pack on all the pounds I want before sitting back and "enjoying" the ride that is bracedom, surgery-sagaland, and all those savory rubber bands in between.

Pre-braces SinFest game plan:
1. Plan on going out for Thai curry tomorrow night. Can't stain any ceramics yet, baby!

2. Plan on having a big steak dinner Saturday night. My ortho said something about not being able to eat beef, at least tougher cuts. I'd better enjoy this one!

3. Eat lots of Doritoes.

4. Eat a bunch of apples.

5. Eat gummy bears.



6. Eat caramels.

7. Eat toffee bars.

I'm thinking I'll throw a Taco Bell run in there somewhere, too. And of course, if you have any last suggestions for "last chance before braces" ideas, hit me up.

My braces-unfriendly junk food binge tribute:

( or the hi-res version: http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4928/jun ... ute4zb.jpg )

It's all fun and laughs now, but the real adventure starts Wednesday when they start to play slow-motion billiards with the rocks in my mouth. I'll keep you posted!

And..... I really hope I don't regret all of this. I keep telling myself that 3 years from now I won't. And 20 years from now, I especially won't, when otherwise my impacted tooth might spontaneously decide to create some unexpected drama in my life. Right now, I'm not completely convinced of all this, though.

Well, here goes nothing...

[Lin]

Thanks, KK!

I am so glad that I can still eat curry after I get the braces. I may have to try colored ligs to accomodate that. I just discovered a great Thai restaurant last night... so this is good news.

I guess corn on the cob will be out with braces?

I have been taking your advice and having fun eating without having to deal with the difficulty cleaning around foreign objects in my mouth. Though truth be told I'm about ready to get on with all of this so I am closer to being done. Almost wish I could get the oral surgery out of the way first and then not have to worry about it for the next few months (it has turned me into an insomniac). But I'll have to trust my orthodontist knows why he wants to do it this way.

I am wondering if after all is done whether my jaw will feel less tight from TMJ... I probably won't even notice the gradual change...

More to come after the spacers go in...

[Kell]

Nice to meet you Lin. Your blog was very entertaining. I wish you the best of luck with your surgery. I think this group will help a lot. It always helps to know you aren't the only one going through something that really scares you.

[Lin]

It's nice to meet you too, Kell! Thanks for the wishes. I'm so glad I found this forum, I think I would be even more nervous otherwise. Somehow it is reassuring to know that probably no matter what comes up, someone out there somewhere has had a similar issue... so it's probably survivable after all.

[angelxdevil]

congrats Lin on going ahead with braces and the surgery im sure it'll all be worth it in the end.......By the way i love your pictures theyre really neat!

[Lin]

Thanks, angelxdevil! And I had fun making the pix... it was a relief to fixate on pixels for awhile instead of on all my worried thoughts about braces. But it's getting better!

As for corn on the cob, KK... sadly it's one of my favorite foods! With summer coming up here, I know I'll go nuts without fresh sweet corn on the cob. I think I'll have to settle for one of my mom's old recipes... she cuts the corn off the cob and fries them lightly in a skillet with olive oil, potatoes, onions, and herbs. It is absolutely delicious... less chance of breaking brackets, that way, too I would imagine.

You know, I bought all this caramel to go crazy with before Wednesday, but I haven't gotten around to eating it yet. I really haven't even had any caramel in years... so it's kind of funny. I'll just miss it out of principle after braces probably, *lol*!

I'm planning on eating a lot of tofu/soy after braces anyway, and I'm thinking that won't be too terribly messy. I enjoy eating organic/soy, so maybe we will have to swap vegetarian recipes sometime, KK! If you are interested.

Right now I'm wondering what color ligs to ask for, or if I should get clear/white(?) to baseline how much I would actually stain them given my diet. Hmmm....

[Lin]

I had my spacers put in today, and they will stay in (hopefully) until Tuesday when I get those teeth emBRACED! Yes, the experience does have me inventing new meanings for words like emBRACED.

Following some hints on this forum, I took an extra strength Tylenol before I went and had plenty of lip balm with me. I was extremely grateful for both.

First, the assistant took all kinds of photos of my teeth which involved a plethora of plastic implements stretching my lips into contortions last visited by me during elementary school. She took the photos on two cameras, no less.

Then I did the teeth impressions. She flavored the stuff stuff with raspberry, which helped (believe it or not). It turned the material pink, which was amusing to me. I can't say I really even managed to taste it, but I remember the process being so much more horrible when I was a kid... I recall instances of having this awful mud in my mouth (back then) for 5 minutes at a time each, top and bottom. The impressions today each took only ten seconds to fix with the assistant holding the mold cup in place. Not bad at all.

Next up the spacers themselves went in. I was expecting this to be uncomfortable, but the first few snapped in quite easily and weren't much more painful than extremely rigorous flossing (and believe you me, my teeth are EXTREMELYTIGHTLYPACKEDTOGETHER). One stubborn molar on the bottom required having the spacer flossed in. This was slightly less pleasant, and I had to visualize happy things in my mind to distract my focus from what this felt like, which wasn't still all that bad.

The worst part was getting one spacer in on the top. She tried twice to get it in, and twice the band snapped HARD on my gums as it broke. It was actually hard enough that I jumped in the seat, and thought maybe part of a tooth had broken. It didn't hurt as much as that, certainly, but the sound is what made me think that. Well, she tried again with another one, and this one snapped EVEN HARDER on the exact same spot on my gums as it broke. This time I think my rear end actually left the chair with the shock of it as I jumped in the air, and my hands took a death grip on each other.

Apparently all this abuse on my gums caused a little trouble, so she had to hold cotton against the wound for a few mins to stop the bleeding from the double-snapped spot. Finally she decided to floss that last troublesome spacer in, which was also unpleasant, but I just tried to focus on how happy I might be 3 or 4 years from now when this is all over. I wondered, once again, if doing this is a good idea, or whether I have gone completely out of my mind. I mean, this morning, my teeth felt great. I think it will be awhile before they stop aching now.

Done with the task of getting spacers in, the assistant relented as how I would probably be hating her tomorrow morning when the REAL ache sets in. Apparently waking up tomorrow might feel interesting... I'll be sure to keep the Tylenol and other OTC painkillers on hand. All in all, it does feel a bit like somebody slugged me in the jaw and my teeth came loose, a little bit of throbbing... so I can't imagine what tomorrow will be like.

I actually think that the initial pain of the bands snapping my gum in the same place twice was worse than the ache of the spacers (headache slowly setting in). I know it hurt when it happened and that it bled a bit, but I took a closer peek in the mirror with a flashlight after I got home, and the roof of my mouth actually has a 1"+ lash mark from where the bands lacerated me... it looks slightly nastier than I thought. See:

(top):


(bottom):


I rinsed my mouth out with Colgate's "Peroxyl" wash for cleansing oral abrasions. It seems to have helped (a bit) the ache of the broken surfaces where the spacers snapped. I'll probably try warm salt water before I go to bed, too, to help heal it up a bit. I guess I should be getting used to oral abrasions, right? I wonder if I'll snap my elastic bands on myself this bad down the road. Maybe I'll look back at this and laugh that I actually thought it stung a bit, and demean myself for being a wus. I mean, I got 120 allergy skin scratch tests on my back the other day, and I prefer that to today, hands down!

All this said, I'm still really excited to be doing this, and getting the spacers in wasn't really all that bad. Not anything to worry about. I'm more worried about my oral surgery than anything else. And of that, really I'm more worried about the canine extraction than even any of the other extractions.

But I took a gander at the lig colors at the ortho's office, and I have tentatively decided on GLOW-IN-THE-DARK PURPLE. Heck, if the 12-year-olds can do it, so can I. I don't know how they will look since apparently how they do the ligature ties varies (? sometimes figure eights, sometimes something else ?)... so I guess I'll just see. Might as well have some fun with it all, though. I might have to get HOT PINK one of these times just for the sheer reaction value of people (namely family members) I encounter. I know it will look sloppy on my rollercoaster midlines, but then, so will the big missing tooth gaps I'll likely have in my mouth for the entire summer of 2006.

The fun continues! I wonder if emBRACEment day and those subsequent will be more or less uncomfortable than the spacers ordeal. And... I say embracement because if I don't embrace this experience and everything it entails, pleasant or not, I'll never make it through till the end

[Kell]

Ouchie! I hope they don't hurt you too much.

[Lin]

I've had the spacers in for about 6 days now... it's going okay! The peroxyl and salt water rinses healed the roof of my mouth up pretty quickly. Definitely the first day of spacers was the most painful for me, the first few hours actually. I have gotten used to them since then.

It has been really weird not eating as I normally do. I find myself very aware now of what I put into my stomach and what kind of chewing it may or may not involve. I haven't been able to eat anything much tougher than very overcooked pasta, just because the teeth ache so much with pressure. I can't complain, I have lost about 5 lbs since I last posted! But I am trying to get enough nutrients each day and am hoping that once my teeth adjust to all the changes I can eat semi-normal stuff again.

But the big news is that the braces go on tomorrow!!! I hope it goes well and that it isn't as uncomfortable as getting the spacers in actually turned out to be in the end. Hmmmmm........

I'm about ready to get this show on the road, though. I have read some other recent posts on this forum and agree with some of them that part of my guilty motivation is that one day this might mean I have straight teeth in my wedding photos!!! I would like that. I think the thought helped me survive the spacer-mouth lashing hehe.

So does anybody know how likely a risk decalcification marks are after getting braces off? I'm not really sure what causes that/what prevents that.

Well, I'm kind of nervous, but I'll let you know how it goes after these things go on tomorrow morning!

[Granola]

Hi Lin,

I've appreciated reading your funny description(s) of your journey thus far. Best of luck with your brace day tomorrow. I hope you post soon about how it went. I will be getting my braces on a week from Wednesday, so I'll not be far behind you in the initial adjustment period (so far I am getting away with not having spacers, but I'm skeptical about those brackets sticking to my molars so we'll see how it really goes).

[Lin]

I got my braces on today!


I am so happy that they are on and that everything is now underway, even though it will take years for all of this to end (and a lifetime of wearing a retainer--at least at night--afterward).

Getting them on was also a little uncomfortable, but again not too bad. The clinician who put the metal molar bands on had some difficulties with sizing and shaping, since apparently my uppers have "extra cuspids" on them. The pressure of putting them on ached a bit since my mouth/teeth are still tender from the moving that the separators did... (the separators were so tight in with my teeth while they were on that, with my overcrowding and mild TMJ, I could feel the pressure of my teeth moving together whenever I stretched my jaw by yawning. Very weird.)

After the metal molar bands went on, I was dismayed to find that the clinician who had delicately jammed them on/around there had to take them off again. It turns out that she wasn't "putting them on" yet, just sizing them. So she did it all one more time with cement on the bands. I was glad when that was done!

Next she put the brackets on, which was easy enough except for having those lip retractors in for what seemed like forever. They didn't bother me, but what did bother me was that they kept trying to pop out of my mouth. They kept sliding out of my bite, and each time they did, the brackets risked falling off the teeth where she was positioning them before setting the bond.

This was fine, but what really annoyed me was that the clinician kept wandering off, waiting for or looking for the ortho to come verify the positions. For about 5 mins (or 10?) I sat there trying not to gag on saliva and trying to keep the lip retractors in so the brackets wouldn't slide off. Every 20 seconds or so the retractors would try to pop out of my mouth and I would have to push them back in enough to bite them steady. Then I would try, yet again, to swallow instead of gag on saliva. All of this, mind you, is done with an open entryway to the room as other patients are walking by staring in... and I'm thinking that for $150/mo for years on end, the least they can do is buy a door, close it, and have the ortho or whomever pay attention to me while I'm getting the braces on!! Help a girl breathe, would ya? Don't dally like that, after you leave me like that!

So, the clinician and ortho finally meandered back and agreed on the positions and bonded the brackets on. Then the clinician put the wires in and twisted them. She also put a grey plastic tube on to hold the wire in to route past my upper right baby tooth, which was not bracketed, since it will be removed anyway. (But why, then, did they bracket the other teeth that will be removed? Will they take those brackets off and wire out before the surgery?) And they didn't give me elastics today... I guess that comes later?

Oh, and I eventually decided on Lilac ligs, which I knew and had been warned would look silly with the uneven midlines, but that's okay.

I managed to snag the ortho (a rare feat in that office) after the clinician had finished with my braces, and managed to lisp out my questions about my oral surgery to him. I had been worried about why more x-rays hadn't been taken to confirm the position of my impacted canine. He said that it was very clear on my x-ray where the tooth is and that it is not ankylosed, so probably no more were necessary.

He said that I will need 2 premolars on bottom, some other tooth on top, my baby tooth, and my impacted canine tooth extracted during the surgery... 5 teeth! This is supposed to happen in about two months... beginning of April, I guess. Oh dear, does that make me nervous to think about!

I scheduled an appointment for my first adjustment before I left, then came home.

Three things helped in getting braces on:
1) Taking two Ibuprofen before going in,
2) Putting lotion around (not on) my lips/chin/cheeks on my face for the stretching of the lip retractors, and
3) Taking lip gloss and having it in my jeans pocket so I could use it about 4 or 5 times during the whole procedure. I put a tons on my lips before going in, too.

So........ they are on. I came home and spent about ten minutes gawking around in the mirror with a flashlight shining in my mouth, like some building safety inspector checking out metal scaffolding for any serious violations that might result in some kind of disaster.

My first, instinctive reaction when I showed my teeth in the mirror though, was to laugh at myself. I couldn't help it! I honestly look like I'm 13. Most other people in braces I have seen in real life or in photos.... their braces and teeth seem so much more... uh, organized? Uncrooked? Nicer. Something. It looks roughly like my mouth had an awful run-in with the innards of a grand piano, and the piano won. That or the grill of a semi, I can't decide. The lilac ligs soften the appearance a bit, but also evoke images that stray between purple Care Bears and that mean girl Lauren in the fourth grade who always grimaced and growled at me hatefully with her own neon pink-and-purple ligs.

I do, however, have a whole new respect for kids and teens who do all this braces stuff. The whole time today, I just thought... you all are wicked brave. Maybe it isn't so nerve-wracking for them? Or maybe their teeth are a bit more obliging about the concept of being moved around? Or maybe they don't have to have all kinds of extractions done shortly down the road? Or maybe they are just really cool kids who can handle anything because nobody has told them they can't. I have to respect them! I am a mouth-teeth wus, always have been. Honestly, I respect anybody who faces any of his fears to help make himself a better person and his life better for the living.

The teeth don't hurt much at all yet, and no wires are poking me right now. The metal bands on the bottom molars are making my mouth salivate as though a sixteen ounce prime cut of steak had been laid out before me. Sorry mouth, it's just a ruse! Teeth, I hope you survive whatever happens these next few days/weeks. Baby tooth, your time is nearly up... I've loved ya all these years, but rest assured I'm taking the issue of your demise up with the tooth fairy. With any luck, after that surgery, she'll bring me a few cans of Ensure on the house. Although... a few shiny quarters would put an ant-sized dent in my dental bills...

Enough talk, you say, show me the pix! Here they are... and if anybody has any idea why there are tiny colored dots on my ceramic brackets (upper), please enlighten me. They look kind of odd. Color coding of some kind I guess. But for whom?







Hope I get used to these funny things! Meanwhile, my ortho should definitely be giving a cut of his cash to Weight Watchers. If I keep losing almost a pound a day, I'll have starved to death in no time. Gah!

PS - Thanks for reading along and for the wishes, Granola! I hope everything goes really well for you when you get your braces on next week. Keep me posted!!

[Granola]

First, congrats on getting your BRACES on!!

Second, I think the lilac ligs look fantastic--and not silly at all. I think you made a great choice.

You have really nice teeth and I think when all is said and done, you will have a great result.

Sorry the assistant kept wandering off leaving you stranded, but luckily that is all behind you now.

From what I've read here, elastics will be used sooner or later, but it doesn't seem like most people here got them initially.

I'm a wus also when it comes to teeth, though I don't remember being afraid of getting braces the first time I wore them as a teenager (but having extractions back then freaked me out). I do think teeth move much more easily in younger people because the jaw is still growing then.

I'm not sure about the dots--they probably designate which brackets go on which teeth, but I'm just guessing. I'm sure someone here will know--I do think they will wear off pretty quickly.

Congrats again!

[Lin]

Thanks, Granola!! You have made my whole day with your compliments and thoughts

I admit I am glad today is over. I just realized that when I bite down, my top front teeth hit a bracket on the lower teeth, so much so that I can't actually fully close my bite. I think I'll get used to it eventually, but I hope it doesn't cause too much drama... my bet is that that bracket will break off first, if any of them ever do!

[Kell]

Congratulations! I like the lilac. I just noticed that you are in NC. That is where I live too. I also wanted to add that my upper teeth hit the brackets on the bottom too. I can't bite all the way down and it feels weird when I try. I've sort of gotten used to it and was going to wait and ask at my next appointment. I can eat now so I wasn't worrying about it. I don't think I'm going to bite down hard enough to break it off but you never know. If you ask sooner I'd love to hear what the ortho has to say.

[jennielee81]

I guess corn on the cob will be out with braces?

I ate a few cobs last summer. My kids (who all had/have braces) encouraged me to give it a go.

I had no trouble EATING...it was the cleaning after that may or may not be worth the trouble for you.

It depends on how much you love corn on the cob....I love it enough to clean up afterward...

WELCOME!!