PrincessMelody's journey - adjustment #14 update! Now w/pics

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Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:33 pm

Ok wow, hadn't really looked at these side by side until now, but my upper arch has rounded out more just ever so slightly. And is just me, or does it look like WM has moved some. Maybe I am going crazy or its just the light/angle, but it really looks like it has. I will await some unbiased analysis.

#122 Post by **SDFD TSchott** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 12:25 pm

Your arches are looking great, and I find that the complaint to corporate amussing as I had the same problem with Nissan, I purchased a brand new car and a package where I get all my maintence done to the car free until I reach 100,000 miles on my car. Well last time I went in to have maintence done to my car they wanted to charge me 450 dollars. I said forget it went to my dads mechanic who did it for 50 bucks and then I sent my complaint to corporate and got a letter and a card for lifetime *FREE* maintence done to my vehical as long as I own it.

Sorry about the spelling I'm using a different computer that has a weird keyboard.

~Tim~

Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:20 am

Thanks to all for stopping by and for the encouragement especially.

Karen: Yes, I am SO SO happy with my lowers. Before I got braces I really didn't think there was much they needed and then they got put on and started doing their work. I can't believe how much denial I was in

But they look absolutely wonderful now! It is really hard to tell with the lighting with WM what's going on with him but it is going to be extremely exciting once he's in with everyone else... must be lonely out there

Tim: Thank you for the boost with my teeth

and yes car companies can be quite annoying. I am still peeved whenever I think about it. I probably should have been more proactive about it when I was actually there rather then waiting until after the fact. Nothing I can do about it now, but I have learned for next time.

Rage: Thanks for stopping by and the encouragement! And yes, you really don't grasp the full progress until you put those pictures side by side. Make it all worth it! I've been meaning to come leave you a note and check your story out but I have just been so busy. I have been trying to hit the gym a lot more to get in better shape when I finally get back on the ice. I know I will still be dying my first night out there. This hasn't been my first hiatus from hockey (school caused quite a few breaks). A lot of muscles you don't realize you use in hockey until you actually need to use them again.

Linda: Thanks to you to for stopping by and for the boost, and funnily enough I do refer to our garage as the stable. Mostly because there are TWO Mustangs in our garage. My mom's '05 GT (the reason I fell in love with the car) and my little '06 V6. I wasn't able to convince her to let me get the GT. She mumbled something about insurance and a 22 year old... can't imagine what she was talking about

. We are quite the pair though...

I will be out of town this coming weekend in Arizona. River season for my family and I has now arrived! We go out there at least every other weekend from April through the end of October. I LOVE it. Can't think of anything better than Easter weekend spent out at the river

Other excitment... the cover for the last Harry Potter book has been released (I am a Harry Potter junkie).

Much speculation will begin now because of it. And since the book's release is nearing I must reread the whole series. I've got a little over 3 months to complete this feat, but it is after all the last one!

Sat Apr 14, 2007 12:59 pm

Adjustment #7 was yesterday and my teeth are a little sensitive right now. I now have a rectangular archwire on the bottom to match the top. Still the same wire on top, however, the girl that was working on me noticed the archwire had shifted a little so she adjusted it and moved it more to the left so that is causing a little discomfort. She also couldn't get a lig on my last bracket on the bottom left so she ended up putting one around my molar band. It looks pretty interesting and my tongue keeps finding its way over to that bracket and it doesn't feel to good. My ortho was pleased with the movement which is always nice to hear. You know you are making progress.
I went with light pink and light blue ligs for spring. I think it's pretty girly, but I look like I have a baby shower going on in my mouth

I don't think I'll choose this combo again. Anyways, here are the pictures.

Here is the ligless bracket and the molar band with the lig on it. Sorry for the food... I hadn't brushed my teeth yet

More pictures at my 8 month anniversary!

Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:42 pm

Thanks Karen, Meryaten, Linda, and Ken for popping in! I appreciate your support so much. I have recovered from my initial "grumpiness" with my lig choice. I have come to accept them and am moving on

My mom thought they were "cute"

and thought I was silly for making the baby shower referance. She gets a kick out of my ligs and likes to offer suggestions for my color choices. Hot pink and neon green is her vote for my next adjustment in May.

So onto the latest tooth news. The discomfort with my new wire on bottom and adjustment in the wire on top has quickly passed. No discomfort to speak of anymore, although a new development has occured in my mouth that is keeping me from eating without pain.

A lovely canker sore has decided to spring up in my mouth. Haven't had one since my run in with Crest ProHealth rinse (I definately had a bad reaction to something in that rinse because I got 5 canker sores in the week I started using it) and only two braces related (one came from a chunk of my cheek getting gouged by some pokey wire). Those salt water rinses really do help. This one however is DEFINATELY not braces related as it is located in the back of my throat. Not kidding, it is literally in the back of my throat. Here, take a looksy for yourself (sorry... pic is a little blury)

Well my experience can be summed in one word... OWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!! It hurts to talk, eat, swallow, drink... heck it just hurts all the time. It popped up about a week ago (last Monday) and it started out as a little sore. Kinda irritating but I dealt with it and thought it would go away like any other canker sore (although I had no idea you could even get them in the back of your throat like that). I started gargling with warm salt water several times during the day, but then it got bigger and got to the size it is now, roughly the equivalent of a US nickel. I got worried and feared it might be strep (even though I presented no other symptoms... no runny nose, cough, fever, etc) so I called my doctor. He couldn't get me in until Thursday of this week. There was NO way I could wait that long so I went to Urgent Care Sunday. Very sweet doctor comes in and checks it out. Here is about how the conversation went.
Doctor :"What can I help you with today."
Me: I proceed to tell her about the sore and my fear of strp
Doctor: "Well let's take a look." She has me open my mouth, peers inside. "Yup, that's a pretty gnarly canker sore. Does it hurt?"
Me:

thinking *no, I just have a huge sore on the back of my throat, no discomfort at all* "Yes it hurts pretty bad"
Doctor: "Well it looks like it's healing, but just to make sure I'm going to give you some antibiotics"
She then proceeded to prescribe me Amoxicillan and instructed me to dissolve one in a bottle of liquid (recommended juice since it will taste pretty gross) and to replace my salt water gargles with it. She cringed and replied "ouch" when I told I was gargling with salt water. It actually didn't hurt, although maybe I couldn't feel it because the actual pain of the sore hurt so bad. So it's been 3 days on antibiotics, 2 left to go, and there has been absolutely no improvement on the pain and the sore is still as big as ever. I am, to say the least, in absolute agony now and pretty hungry too. I'd take spacers over this thing any day (yes, that is how bad it hurts). All she told me to do for the pain was lots of ice water and Ibuprofen. None of which help at all. It's really put a damper on my work because I have to talk on the phone ALL day at work and it hurts like heck to talk. I am sucking on the Cepacol anesthetic lozenges like they are candy. They are pretty much the only thing getting me through the day. So sorry to stray away from my braces (although it is mouth related

) but I really had to let this all out. I am trying to take this in stride and deal with it but like I said, I am in agony. I will give it until the end of the antibiotics (so about Friday) and if no improvement I am going back.

Anyways, thanks for your support and thanks for letting me vent. I feel a bit better now...

Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:25 pm

Thank you for the sympathy Karen and Ken. It feels quite a bit better today. I was able to enjoy some fajitas for dinner without too much pain. They sure were tasty... the grilled onions especially hit the spot. It was definately worth the discomfort

I knew it was a good sign when I woke up this morning and my throat actually felt normal. The past days with this sore had me waking up feeling like my throat was on fire. I would quickly douse it in Chloraseptic spray just to numb it to the point that I could actually swallow my saliva. I'm sure part of the problem is I tend to be a mouth breather at night. I sleep on my side/stomach in a very odd position and it smooshes my nose a bit so I resort to breathing through my mouth in my sleep. So that ends up leaving my throat very dry which probably exasperates the pain in my throat.

... unfortunately some docs don't understand (or maybe accept) the healing properties of salt. I recommend you do what the doc has asked, but still do as many warm salt water rinses as you can per day ... as this will soothe and heal!

I still am doing my daily salt water rinses but she was wanting me to focus more on gargling with the antibiotics because she was concerned about it either being or getting infected (especially since it was getting bigger). She wanted direct contact of the antibiotic onto the sore to help fight any potential "bugs". I will say that it feels better everytime after gargling with the antibiotic.

So I'm aiming (although I really don't have much control) for it to be okay by the weekend. In which case copious drinking will be in order

#127 Post by **PrincessMelody** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:04 pm

Well my sore was pretty much healed by this last weekend so I was able to go out and get on with that "copious drinking"

It was such a relief to finally not be in constant pain and to actually be able to swallow.

So anyways my 8 month anniversary just passed and as always i have pictures. Nothing to exciting as progress goes... mostly the changes I've noticed are in my bite and a few spaces. The gap that had popped up between my upper centrals has gotten smaller and the one between my upper right lateral and central has disapeared. I would presume its from my wire getting adjusted since it had shifted over. Anywho, I've gotta run so here are my pics...

8 months

3 months

lower 8 months

lower 3.5 months

upper 8 months

upper 3.5 months

#128 Post by **smallbutmighty** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:09 pm

Looking really great, PM. Those lowers have really come into a nice curve. Hope all else is going well for you and you (and your car) stay healthy!

#129 Post by **PrincessMelody** » Tue May 01, 2007 6:39 pm

Thanks Linda, Ken, SBM, and Meryaten.

I was sorry to hear you ended up with that canker sore . By the sounds of it, it was strep related if she prescribed you anitbiotics.

Actually, the antibiotics were just precaution to ward off any infection of the sore, but she said I didn't have strep. I figured I didn't either since I had no other symtoms.

Any word when your ortho will be working on it?

Nope, nothing yet. Trying to take the stance of, "It will get taken care of when it gets taken care of." Although that requires a great deal of patience (which I only have in small quantites) from me. I still have quite a ways to go in my treatment especially with the sorry shape my bite is in

At least I have my lovely lowers to admire

Sat May 12, 2007 11:20 am

I am so angry right now I can't even think! I had my 8th adjustment yesterday afternoon. The first few minutes seemed like it was going to be a great visit. I had barely sat down when they called my name (sometimes it takes a little bit until I'm seen). I go back there and the orth comes over to see me. He has me do the usual bite down and then has me open. He starts looking at WM. In my mind I am getting really excited thinking that something is finally going to happen with that tooth! He checks further back in my mouth and then says what happened with your wisdom teeth back here? I tell him both of my left wisdom teeth were removed, the lower because it was sideways and the upper because the oral surgeon had not only stated it was on my chart but said it needed to be removed because it would start coming down further because there was no tooth below it. He goes to my chart and pulls out my initial x-rays and starts saying it shouldn't have been removed and WM now needs to be pulled because it was removed. To which I respond with the extremely intelligent words of "What?! Why?!" He starts going into this explenation (of which I understand what he is saying but doesn't mean that it makes any sense to me at all) about how because that 3rd molar isn't back there he no longer has an anchor to move WM back with. His initial plan (which it seems I never understood when I had my consult) was to keep my 3rd molar, pull my second molar and use my 3rd molar to pull my 1st molar into where my second molar used to be. That would then open us space for WM (my second premolar) to move into. It takes me a couple minutes to fully process what he is saying (I have a learning disibilty, more specifically a processing disorder so it takes me a little longer to grasp things). He then adds as a last note, as though this makes some huge impact, that WM is also twisted at a 90 degree angle. I asked a few more questions to which he continually insisted WM needs to be removed, gave the asistant directions of what to do with me, and left to see the next patient. I didn't further the conversation because I felt myself losing my cool. I knew I would have started saying a few choice words and may have even raised my voice to an unacceptable level. I didn't think it would have been appropriate in the setting to do that (a whole bunch of teenagers near me).

I am unbelieveably angry right now. What he is saying didn't even make sense to me. To me, it seems as though the missing wisdom tooth is better because there is now room for WM. That aside, even if what he is saying makes sense, there is the matter that the oral surgeon removed a tooth that shouldn't have been removed. Either it wasn't on my chart, or someone wrote down the wrong tooth number, or whatever. Somewhere, someone made a mistake... a costly mistake at my expense! Not only physically but financially too because if I do have WM removed I am going to have to pay for it! AND I had my wisdom teeth extracted 8 months ago and he is just now noticing this! I don't understand how something could have gone unnoticed for that long. It seems as though I have been wasting my time with this ortho for 8 months.

So my plan is to go to some consults to get another opinion. If you recall my mom had two wayward second premolars. She had them extracted when she was in her mid 20's and had braces in her 30's. Her ortho stated that those molars shouldn't have been removed because it ended up messing her bite up. And he stated that he could have moved them in, but she didn't have her wisdom teeth... they were all removed when she had her wayward molars removed. It just doesn't make sense plus I am just angry with how nothing has been mentioned until now.

It should have been a great adjustment, but it was jaded by this awful experience. I got a new 16x22 steel wire (actually heard him say the size) on top and because I now have a steel wire he was able to put power chains on. So my teeth are aching pretty bad, especially this morning. So that combined with the conversation with my ortho has put me in a thorougly bad mood. I am a bit better this morning. I was an absolute wreck last night. Trying to not let it bother me. There is nothing I can do about it right now so fretting over it during the weekend isn't going to help. SO, I mostly needed to come here to vent so that I can put this aside for now, and come back to it when appropriate. So thank you for being my support group! I can't even begin to describe how appreciative I am!

Oh, and here is a picture of the latest aditions to my mouth. Pink powerchain and new wire on top, and green ligs on the bottom... wen't with my mom's color suggestion. Sorry it's a bit blury but I got a lot on my mind.

#131 Post by **platinum** » Sat May 12, 2007 7:57 pm

I can understand that you are angry. Your ortho's first plan sounded good, but now...

I have to admit that when I have been reading your story, I have been wondering why they just dont pull that premolar off, because your teeth look very nice as they are.

#132 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Fri May 18, 2007 5:03 pm

Hey...I have a WM like yours...They haven't been able to put the bracket back on since it came off. but I do have room for it since my 1st premolar was extracted. I'm starting to worry that it will have to come out and I will need to get an implant restoration!

We should just go to Disneyland with our WM and spend some quality time with it! I love going to Mickey's house, I have a pass too!

Tue May 29, 2007 11:27 pm

Thanks to everyone for their support. I appreciate it. MissSmiley, I definately think we should take our WM's to Disneyland. I haven't been in a good month (MUCH too busy) so I've been itching to go

I've got to dish out that $330 for a new pass (prices have gone up again

) in about a month here. Yes, I am a sucker and pay for the premium, but hey that means I can go anytime I feel like it!

In light of some serious movement I have seen this week I am holding off on the consulations until after my next adjustment (Jun 15th). I want to see what my ortho says in response to how my teeth have moved. The power chain that was placed on my uppers went across all of my teeth except my last banded molar which is one of the teeth that WM is behind. Because the power chain wasn't on that tooth a sizeable gap has been created which was actually much to my pleasure. I highly doubt this was placed this way to create the gap, but rather to get my midlines more lined up (since they are now lined up and it was something he mentioned at my last appointment). I am just very frustrated at this whole situation and I am hoping it can be rectified. Especially since I highly doubt I would be able to afford switching orthos. With how much I know treatment runs in the OC and the fact the my insurance has already dished out the amount they cover the outlook doesn't look too good. But we will see once I get to that point. Anyways, onto my evidence of the movement I am boasting about...

Here is the recent picture of my uppers

and compare it to last month (I'm sure you will be able to see the movement I'm talking about)

My now lined up midlines (not the first time I have seen them lined up during treatment)

And alas my perfectly problem free lowers

#134 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 5:18 pm

I hope your WM starts to make some progress! I had tons of room since my 1st bicuspids were pulled.

Awww!! I entered for the drawing for Nemo Preview too!! Good thing I didn't win your tickets

I would have had to come back the next night. Hahaha! The mister was a good sport about waiting 4 hours. Chicken strips from Tomorrowland Terrace!!! You have to find someone else to buy a pass so that you can renew it! YAY Disneyland!!!

#135 Post by **PrincessMelody** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:06 pm

Yes all, I am still alive and kicking. Been about two months since I was last on here. Life has been VERY busy. Beginning of July I was on a cruise in Hawaii which was a ton of fun. I had only been to Maui before, so I was very excited to see some of the other islands. We started in Honolulu on Oahu, then made our way over to Hilo on the big island, then over to Maui, lastly we ventured to Kaui, and ended back to in Honolulu where we flew back home. We were able to see Pearl Harbor which was something I had always wanted to do. That was a very humbling experience, but definately something as an American I felt was good to see.

At the beginning of this month I was in Vegas for 4 days. First time I had been since I turned 21 so that was a lot of fun. Went with 4 of my friends and we spent most of the weekend in a drunken stupor throwing money away on food, alcohol, and gambling. But it was totally worth it

That is the update on the personal front, now onto the braces front.
I've had two adjustments since I last posted. On June 15th I got powerchains again, but nothing else new besides that. Those last powerchains pretty much closed the gap between my left central and canine. Had another adjusment on July 20th and was rid of the powerchains and went back to ligs. I was very grateful to be rid of those things, but some minor gaps reopened so I know I was only getting a break from them.

As for WM, well she was pulled on Saturday. My ortho wouldn't budge and said that it needed to be pulled and switching orthos was not financially doable for me. Between the cost of what I would still owe my ortho and then adding on the cost of the new ortho, I wouldn't be able to cut it. I came to terms with it and decided to have it pulled. My Jaw is substantially smaller on the left side so I know there is limited room in there. I did speak with one of my friends about it (who works as a tech in an ortho's office) and while she is not an ortho, she did think it best to have it pulled anyhow. I certainly am enjoying at this point having that tooth gone. One benefit of it being gone is I can actually breathe through my nose better. The root of that tooth pressed on my sinus cavity and instantly I was able to notice the difference. I already can tell that I am no longer mouth breathing at night as well.

My one year b-day anniversary is coming up (Saturday) and my next adjustment coincides with it as it is on the 24th.

I'll try and get around to posting some pics tonight. The "hole" in my mouth is very intriguing to me and looks really interesting. It's odly shaped, but defiantely is already healing quite nicely. My molars (#12 and #14) in front of where WM used to be are quite tender as they were only able to move so much with it in the way. Now that WM is gone they can move unihibited and boy can I feel it.

Hope all is well with everyone. I can definately see I've missed quite a bit in my two month absence.