Hi Lin,
Glad to hear things are going well. Soon the surgery will be a distant memory. I know what you mean about facing your fears. I feel that if I can go through this I can conquer anything! I'm feeling very empowered these days.
So Dawg is attached to the archwire, but it's loose already. When is your next adjustment? Maybe you should call your Ortho just to make sure, they may want you to come in sooner to make the chain tight again. I had to go in sooner because the elastic thread had gotten real loose. I've been going every other week. It's a good thing it's loose though, means things are moving.
Sorry to hear that you are sore after your adjustment. I went in on Monday too, and my upper teeth were pretty sore for about a day and a half. Instead of using the elastic thread this time they (hope this makes sense) put a power chain on the uppers, but when they got to the baby canines they went behind them and wrapped the chain around Laverne and Shirley. Boy did I feel alot of pressure. Next time they said I'll be getting some heavy duty wire that the Ortho is putting some special bends in it and somehow attaching the wire to Laverne and Shirley.
Here's to all of us impacted canine people! Hope all these canines move.
Take Care
Shawnie
Lin's Story - Extractions, Canine Exposure, and Weirdness :)
Moderator: bbsadmin
Karen: The Dawg is whining, he knows how much work he has ahead of him!!
Flora: The pain is a pain! You're right though, we just have to deal. If it were easy and painless, maybe it wouldn't mean as much to us in the end...
The new bumper ligs aren't staining so much yet, partly because I have been drinking my coffee through a straw! Doing so means the coffee doesn't get in my teeth/sockets/exposure site so much, which makes everything a bit better. And prettier
Linda: I'll grin and bear it, but the gap-toothed grin must be really horrific
Pam W.: Yes, I do have a pic of the mostly-healed exposure site. There is still a little bit of white-scabbiness, but I'm really happy with how it's shaping up. The sockets are getting better, too (except when I accidentally brush them with my toothbrush and start the bleeding again, like last night... oops).
Here is the exposure site (i.e. Dawg's crib) 2.5 weeks post-op:
Not too bad, huh?
Shawnie: Strange thing, the chain with Dawg was always loose, even since they attached it... it's just that she had slid the chain so far back on the wire when she attached it that it naturally slid more to the front later on (see above pic). I think she was afraid of pulling on it, even enough to truly make it tight. But honestly, it's going to slide if they leave it like that without tying it in place to something, just because of where Dawg is... I'm calling my ortho Monday to ask if they can fix that. Plus, I already have wires that need clipping!! Say, when do your baby teeth come out?
~
All in all, this whole thing is working wonderfully... I feel like the worst is over. It has translated into much, much better health in the rest of my life. My acupuncture/chiropractic lady even thinks so... I guess I'm about done with all the needle jabbing. It was well worth it, too, though it was a bit painful at times as well.
Today was fantastic, though. Suddenly, some things are clicking into place in many aspects of my life. I feel like I am finally seeing returns on a lot of the pain & energy I have invested. Something amazing happened today that will change my life a bit, and it had everything to do with intuition, destiny, and being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Sometimes I forget to believe and trust those things that tug me forward. Even when I think I lose, I think (in retrospect) I actually win. But today was just pure serendipity. I'm not willing to put ALL of the details of my life on this Internet thingy, because who knows who's reading it, but suffice it to say that I'm taking on more challenges for what I hope will also precipitate greater returns later in happiness, health, and more.
I think I am absolutely learning to live according to the no pain, no gain mindset. It's ridiculous, but being in braces has really helped teach me that. Because it's something that I chose, not something that was "inflicted" upon me by "ill fate." I have for many years made risky choices and taken leaps of faith in my life, with nothing to reassure me except my intuition. I have knowingly walked the paths of greater resistance, thinking that maybe that field of dreams in the next meadow will make it all that much sweeter a place to rest and revel awhile, that maybe I'll be stronger for having fought to get there. I often think myself a fool for not taking the shortcuts, the easy ways, but really I am getting somewhere that I think is good for me, and I am not falling into the same traps I once did.
Truly, though, the mysterious element that never ceases to amaze me is that which can fork my path and take me in an entirely new direction, simply by being in a certain place at a certain time, and not a nudge or nanosecond sooner or later. Beautiful!
I never want fear to rule my life. I'd rather walk face first into death itself and never bat an eye.
Flora: The pain is a pain! You're right though, we just have to deal. If it were easy and painless, maybe it wouldn't mean as much to us in the end...
The new bumper ligs aren't staining so much yet, partly because I have been drinking my coffee through a straw! Doing so means the coffee doesn't get in my teeth/sockets/exposure site so much, which makes everything a bit better. And prettier
Linda: I'll grin and bear it, but the gap-toothed grin must be really horrific
Pam W.: Yes, I do have a pic of the mostly-healed exposure site. There is still a little bit of white-scabbiness, but I'm really happy with how it's shaping up. The sockets are getting better, too (except when I accidentally brush them with my toothbrush and start the bleeding again, like last night... oops).
Here is the exposure site (i.e. Dawg's crib) 2.5 weeks post-op:
Not too bad, huh?
Shawnie: Strange thing, the chain with Dawg was always loose, even since they attached it... it's just that she had slid the chain so far back on the wire when she attached it that it naturally slid more to the front later on (see above pic). I think she was afraid of pulling on it, even enough to truly make it tight. But honestly, it's going to slide if they leave it like that without tying it in place to something, just because of where Dawg is... I'm calling my ortho Monday to ask if they can fix that. Plus, I already have wires that need clipping!! Say, when do your baby teeth come out?
~
All in all, this whole thing is working wonderfully... I feel like the worst is over. It has translated into much, much better health in the rest of my life. My acupuncture/chiropractic lady even thinks so... I guess I'm about done with all the needle jabbing. It was well worth it, too, though it was a bit painful at times as well.
Today was fantastic, though. Suddenly, some things are clicking into place in many aspects of my life. I feel like I am finally seeing returns on a lot of the pain & energy I have invested. Something amazing happened today that will change my life a bit, and it had everything to do with intuition, destiny, and being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Sometimes I forget to believe and trust those things that tug me forward. Even when I think I lose, I think (in retrospect) I actually win. But today was just pure serendipity. I'm not willing to put ALL of the details of my life on this Internet thingy, because who knows who's reading it, but suffice it to say that I'm taking on more challenges for what I hope will also precipitate greater returns later in happiness, health, and more.
I think I am absolutely learning to live according to the no pain, no gain mindset. It's ridiculous, but being in braces has really helped teach me that. Because it's something that I chose, not something that was "inflicted" upon me by "ill fate." I have for many years made risky choices and taken leaps of faith in my life, with nothing to reassure me except my intuition. I have knowingly walked the paths of greater resistance, thinking that maybe that field of dreams in the next meadow will make it all that much sweeter a place to rest and revel awhile, that maybe I'll be stronger for having fought to get there. I often think myself a fool for not taking the shortcuts, the easy ways, but really I am getting somewhere that I think is good for me, and I am not falling into the same traps I once did.
Truly, though, the mysterious element that never ceases to amaze me is that which can fork my path and take me in an entirely new direction, simply by being in a certain place at a certain time, and not a nudge or nanosecond sooner or later. Beautiful!
I never want fear to rule my life. I'd rather walk face first into death itself and never bat an eye.
Hi Lin,
My Ortho hasn't given me the go ahead on the extractions yet. My theory was to keep them in untill we knew for sure that the teeth were not ankylosed. That way if they were ankylosed then at least I would have teeth, even if they were baby teeth. Then at some point if the baby teeth fell out I would deal with implants at that time.
So I guess when they move enough then it'll be time. On this past Monday at my adjustment they took x-rays to check on the movement. My ortho said it looked like they both had started to move, but that we should wait a little while longer.
Dawg and Laverne look like they are showing the same amount of tooth. Shirley on the other hand, I can't see any tooth yet.
Well, it sound like something fun and exciting has come into your life! I'm glad for you.
Shawnie
My Ortho hasn't given me the go ahead on the extractions yet. My theory was to keep them in untill we knew for sure that the teeth were not ankylosed. That way if they were ankylosed then at least I would have teeth, even if they were baby teeth. Then at some point if the baby teeth fell out I would deal with implants at that time.
So I guess when they move enough then it'll be time. On this past Monday at my adjustment they took x-rays to check on the movement. My ortho said it looked like they both had started to move, but that we should wait a little while longer.
Dawg and Laverne look like they are showing the same amount of tooth. Shirley on the other hand, I can't see any tooth yet.
Well, it sound like something fun and exciting has come into your life! I'm glad for you.
Shawnie
Braced - 10/04/05
Treatment - 30 to 36 months
Ceramic uppers, Metal lowers
Impacted canines-Crowding-Crossbite
6 baby teeth!
Canine exposure surgery of two teeth 3/29/06
2nd canine exposure of one tooth 11/15/06
Treatment - 30 to 36 months
Ceramic uppers, Metal lowers
Impacted canines-Crowding-Crossbite
6 baby teeth!
Canine exposure surgery of two teeth 3/29/06
2nd canine exposure of one tooth 11/15/06
Lin!
Yikes, where have I been?! Your post to my journal today brought me back. Thank you for that!
I have been so disconnected ever since I came back a few weeks ago (disrupted sleep, colds, being a mom, and post-vacation catch up will do that, not necessarily in that order 
).
It's nice to "meet" Dawg.
I have only read this page, and need to go back a few pages and catch up on all that I missed while away (and since). I can see from what I've read so far that you sound really good, albeit you are in a lot of pain (but it is good pain at least, the kind which you can attribute to positive change, rather than pain with no reward at the end). I hope the soreness from your adjustment fades soon and you get to have some weeks of relative comfort before the next adjustment.
Your mouth/extraction sites look pink and healthy. Things look to be healing really well! You go, girl!
Now I will read backwards and get caught up.
Yikes, where have I been?! Your post to my journal today brought me back. Thank you for that!
I have been so disconnected ever since I came back a few weeks ago (disrupted sleep, colds, being a mom, and post-vacation catch up will do that, not necessarily in that order ). It's nice to "meet" Dawg.
I have only read this page, and need to go back a few pages and catch up on all that I missed while away (and since). I can see from what I've read so far that you sound really good, albeit you are in a lot of pain (but it is good pain at least, the kind which you can attribute to positive change, rather than pain with no reward at the end). I hope the soreness from your adjustment fades soon and you get to have some weeks of relative comfort before the next adjustment.
Your mouth/extraction sites look pink and healthy. Things look to be healing really well! You go, girl!
Now I will read backwards and get caught up.
Uppers placed 2/8/06--Inspire ICE ceramics
Lower (stainless) placed 2/23/06
Treatment time: 17 months (estimated was 12-18 months)
Debonded: July 11th, 2007
Next appointment: June 2008 for retainer & nightguard check
Lower (stainless) placed 2/23/06
Treatment time: 17 months (estimated was 12-18 months)
Debonded: July 11th, 2007
Next appointment: June 2008 for retainer & nightguard check
I visited the ortho's office yesterday and the assistant told me that there will be no Dawg-tugging yet 
I guess they might start at my next adjustment. I'm a bit disappointed, since it seems like everything will take longer, now, and since I would love to not be gap-toothed for the wedding I'll be in next year. But, that's just the way it goes! She clipped a pokey wire for me, so at least the visit was good for something.
I just found out why my health/wellness has been so bad for the past half-year. I've been sleeping in a bedroom with toxic black mold (stachybotrys) in its closet! Yeah, the one that kills babies/infants, can cause cancer and all kinds of illness, and means some houses actually have to be burned down after they are contaminated with it. The one in all those horrifying real-life-story TV programs. I took a sample of the scary mold and had a laboratory analyze it microscopically to be certain that it is the dangerous stuff. The amount that's in my house might not affect the common person as much, but I have severe allergies and moderate asthma. A couple months ago, my allergist even noted that my lung capacity had been diminished by 30%. This also explains a lot of my fatigue, weird rashes, and likely some of the insomnia and nightmares I had for awhile there. Suffice it to say.... no more!! Now that I know, I can address the issue. Crazy times indeed. Hey, I bet my teeth will move faster after I'm not breathing scary toxic death mold of ultimate doom anymore!
Shawnie: I hope you don't have to wait too long for your baby teeth to move! Still, your game plan sounds pretty smart. It seems like the waiting game is a big constant for orthodontic treatment...
Granola: I'm glad you're back! I'll probably be more of a stranger here, too, as summer wears on... there is just so much going on right now. I certainly hope you don't have a cold anymore! And thanks for checking in again, too... I'm healing up pretty well! Interestingly, the rate of my healing decreased notably after I moved back into my own house... I honestly think it has something to do with the toxic mold. But, still, it really doesn't hurt at all anymore I hope you're doing well!!
I guess they might start at my next adjustment. I'm a bit disappointed, since it seems like everything will take longer, now, and since I would love to not be gap-toothed for the wedding I'll be in next year. But, that's just the way it goes! She clipped a pokey wire for me, so at least the visit was good for something.I just found out why my health/wellness has been so bad for the past half-year. I've been sleeping in a bedroom with toxic black mold (stachybotrys) in its closet! Yeah, the one that kills babies/infants, can cause cancer and all kinds of illness, and means some houses actually have to be burned down after they are contaminated with it. The one in all those horrifying real-life-story TV programs. I took a sample of the scary mold and had a laboratory analyze it microscopically to be certain that it is the dangerous stuff. The amount that's in my house might not affect the common person as much, but I have severe allergies and moderate asthma. A couple months ago, my allergist even noted that my lung capacity had been diminished by 30%. This also explains a lot of my fatigue, weird rashes, and likely some of the insomnia and nightmares I had for awhile there. Suffice it to say.... no more!! Now that I know, I can address the issue. Crazy times indeed. Hey, I bet my teeth will move faster after I'm not breathing scary toxic death mold of ultimate doom anymore!
Shawnie: I hope you don't have to wait too long for your baby teeth to move! Still, your game plan sounds pretty smart. It seems like the waiting game is a big constant for orthodontic treatment...
Granola: I'm glad you're back! I'll probably be more of a stranger here, too, as summer wears on... there is just so much going on right now. I certainly hope you don't have a cold anymore! And thanks for checking in again, too... I'm healing up pretty well! Interestingly, the rate of my healing decreased notably after I moved back into my own house... I honestly think it has something to do with the toxic mold. But, still, it really doesn't hurt at all anymore
I hope you're doing well!!Hi Lin,
I'm going through the same black mold stuff in my bedroom too! My bedroom flooded when there was alot of rain one month. My bedroom used to be a garage, so there is a part with no foundation by where the garage door used to be.
Anyway, I'm going to try to get the mold off, which we found when we removed the base trim. I've been stalling on taking care of this stuff, so I've been sleeping in our TV room. I'm getting tired of sleeping on the two loveseats that I have pushed together to form a square. My daughter and I call it "the boat." I'm going to use bleach to get the mold off, as long as it isn't all the way through the drywall. Then it's on to the carpet, pad, trim and paint. Just when this room was all finished too.
Sorry to hear that you have to wait to get Dawg pulled on, but I'm sure your Ortho has a reason. Funny how they all do this differently. I go back in to see my Ortho on Tuesday, curious to see if he thinks things have moved since my prior appointment two weeks ago. It hasn't been very long though, surgery was on March 29th. I know I need patience with this slooooow procedure.
Take Care
Shawnie
I'm going through the same black mold stuff in my bedroom too! My bedroom flooded when there was alot of rain one month. My bedroom used to be a garage, so there is a part with no foundation by where the garage door used to be.
Anyway, I'm going to try to get the mold off, which we found when we removed the base trim. I've been stalling on taking care of this stuff, so I've been sleeping in our TV room. I'm getting tired of sleeping on the two loveseats that I have pushed together to form a square. My daughter and I call it "the boat." I'm going to use bleach to get the mold off, as long as it isn't all the way through the drywall. Then it's on to the carpet, pad, trim and paint. Just when this room was all finished too.
Sorry to hear that you have to wait to get Dawg pulled on, but I'm sure your Ortho has a reason. Funny how they all do this differently. I go back in to see my Ortho on Tuesday, curious to see if he thinks things have moved since my prior appointment two weeks ago. It hasn't been very long though, surgery was on March 29th. I know I need patience with this slooooow procedure.
Take Care
Shawnie
Braced - 10/04/05
Treatment - 30 to 36 months
Ceramic uppers, Metal lowers
Impacted canines-Crowding-Crossbite
6 baby teeth!
Canine exposure surgery of two teeth 3/29/06
2nd canine exposure of one tooth 11/15/06
Treatment - 30 to 36 months
Ceramic uppers, Metal lowers
Impacted canines-Crowding-Crossbite
6 baby teeth!
Canine exposure surgery of two teeth 3/29/06
2nd canine exposure of one tooth 11/15/06
-
Way Too Old For This
- Posts: 668
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:23 am
Oh my gosh Lin....where have I been? I just can't seem to keep up with all the threads on this forum!
Are you sure you're not my daughter? I can't believe how similar Dawg is to Ruth. And I had the same reaction to the pain medication. SAME! I will never take that again either. My OS didn't even offer me any though. I had the reaction after carpal tunnel surgery. Woke up scratching my neck and chest raw.
I wonder why they aren't going to pull on Dawg yet. They started pulling on Ruth 4 days post op. She is almost in now...she is actually touching her matey on the bottom! A little over 6 months. You know now that he is uncovered, he might start moving down a little on his own. Maybe they are waiting for that.
I predict that when they do start pulling on Dawg, they attach him to the molar to get him moving a little to the back. That's what they did to Ruth. For the first couple weeks they put a spring on the wire, attached her in the middle, then they tied her directly to the bracket on the first molar till she headed that way. They used the plastic thread and like Shawnie said, it only seemed to pull for about a week, then it got loose. My gold loop broke 2 weeks post op and they put a real bracket on Ruth. That was fun....don't want to do THAT again.
I'm glad that you are feeling better. Do you agree with me that the oral surgeons don't give this procedure enough credit? I though it was one of the more painful recoveries I've ever had.....knocked the cr*p out of me! I don't like to scare people, but I think the OS should prepare us a little more. Having a big uncovered raw hole in the roof of your mouth HURTS. I ate nothing but liquid and ice cream for a month and that was AFTER I could finally eat ice cream.
My OS just kept telling me that the 13 year olds never complain. I do think I was the first adult he ever did this to.
But it is behind us now. I agree with getting the pah-tay going! I'll try to keep up with you a little better.
Are you sure you're not my daughter? I can't believe how similar Dawg is to Ruth. And I had the same reaction to the pain medication. SAME! I will never take that again either. My OS didn't even offer me any though. I had the reaction after carpal tunnel surgery. Woke up scratching my neck and chest raw.
I wonder why they aren't going to pull on Dawg yet. They started pulling on Ruth 4 days post op. She is almost in now...she is actually touching her matey on the bottom! A little over 6 months. You know now that he is uncovered, he might start moving down a little on his own. Maybe they are waiting for that.
I predict that when they do start pulling on Dawg, they attach him to the molar to get him moving a little to the back. That's what they did to Ruth. For the first couple weeks they put a spring on the wire, attached her in the middle, then they tied her directly to the bracket on the first molar till she headed that way. They used the plastic thread and like Shawnie said, it only seemed to pull for about a week, then it got loose. My gold loop broke 2 weeks post op and they put a real bracket on Ruth. That was fun....don't want to do THAT again.
I'm glad that you are feeling better. Do you agree with me that the oral surgeons don't give this procedure enough credit? I though it was one of the more painful recoveries I've ever had.....knocked the cr*p out of me! I don't like to scare people, but I think the OS should prepare us a little more. Having a big uncovered raw hole in the roof of your mouth HURTS. I ate nothing but liquid and ice cream for a month and that was AFTER I could finally eat ice cream.
My OS just kept telling me that the 13 year olds never complain. I do think I was the first adult he ever did this to.
But it is behind us now. I agree with getting the pah-tay going! I'll try to keep up with you a little better.
Wired on Sep 16, 2005, left canine exposed on Oct 5, 2005, at 52 years old.
Hi rage31, Karen, Shawnie, and Pam!
Yikes, where have I been? The past month or so has been really busy for me! I haven't disappeared for good though, honest
My exposure site and extraction sites have healed up really beautifully. The extraction sites have mostly filled in, now, which makes the gaps slightly (but only slightly) less conspicuous. The tip of Dawg is still clearly visible and sporting his fancy gold bling.
I had my latest adjustment yesterday, which wasn't too bad. I got the Best Orthodontic Assistant (in my opinion) on the staff, which was so relieving. Whenever I know I have to see the BOA, I stop worrying since I know she causes the least amount of pain of any of the assistants. Plus, she is just delightfully friendly. I think I trust her more than anybody else at my ortho's office... possibly including my ortho I guess that says something.
BOA did the true tying of the Dawg. I was wondering if it would ever happen. As nice as the tuglessness (yes, this is now a word) can be, I've been ready to get this show on the road. So my uppers got what is apparently the second strongest non-flexible wire, and my lowers got a slightly stronger flexible wire. The ortho explained as how I should "take lots of drugs" since it would really hurt later, so I took enough aspirin to completely turn my stomach, but it prevented the pain from getting too out of hand last night, and today it all feels okay. Sore, but nothing remarkable.
I have to say, my uppers look really absurd the way they are wired up. Besides the really strong, thick wire that's in there now, there are little diamond criss-cross wires laced above and below, around my front brackets. I look a bit more metallic as a result... and just about every food particle gets lodged beyond any hope under all those wires (it's effectively three times as much wire per upper tooth). And it's three times as much wire cutting up my cheeks. But maybe all of it will get the teeth racing!
Dawg is now officially wired, with FORCE -- the wire runs through the second link in the bling chain. Then that wire is connected to the brackets of my upper right lateral incisor and upper right second premolar, i.e. the teeth on either side of where Dawg will eventually go. It looks like a little pyramid of wire there, but BOA said that the force should direct the tooth directly downward. Pam, I guess they start directing it backward later, for me!
Oh, I totally forgot to mention that the ortho ended up having to shave the side of one or two teeth. Apparently my lower left central incisor was snagging in its rotational and separational efforts on my lower left lateral incisor. Well, that sure taught them! The ortho said they should move fine now. It didn't even hurt, so I was happy enough to sit there smelling burning tooth enamel dust.
I have to laugh, because I am still getting a lot of comments and confusion on the part of strangers and new folks in my life about how young I look. I was that way before, but I think the braces have really amplified that. The braces themselves feel more visible now that it's summer and basically the season to be out and about. But regardless of the gaps and the funniness going on in there, I just decided awhile ago to smile naturally and be myself, since people seem quicker to sense discomfort and insecurity (or the lack thereof) than funny gaps and metallic cat's cradle antics inside my mouth.... most of all though, it feels better to finally just not worry about it so much. I have a long way to go yet, but I think the worst is over.
As for that toxic black mold thing in my house... can you believe my landlords just don't get it? They didn't seem to see what the big deal was about when I told them. I recently spoke to someone whose friend had tried to clean up the stuff in her house herself, and she ended up getting sick for a full year afterward because of it. AND she had even taken the precaution of wearing a mouth/nose mask and gloves before cleaning it. So Shawnie: be careful!! The stuff can be truly dangerous. Make sure, too, you (carefully) remove anything like wood or cardboard that the mold has soaked into, or the latent, remaining spores will cause it to grow back if the humidity levels get too high... How is it going?
Pam, you're right about the exposure surgery not being a walk in the park. I think I got really lucky with the surgeon I ended up with though, insofar as he was able to address my questions. Not to the point I completely understood everything about the surgery, but enough to feel comfortable with him as my surgeon. I also really mentally steeled myself for the surgery, and with that and my surgeon's skill, recovery was painful but survivable. Eating was definitely tricky for awhile, though!
I get frustrated when I hear that there are surgeons and orthodontists and orthodontic assistants out there pointing out how little the kids and teens complain. Pain is pain, regardless of age or procedure, and they should really respect that the experience varies for everyone. But you're right, it's behind us... I'm so happy to look forward without dreading something like that coming up. Funny thing is, I think I could do it again if I had to, now. Not that I ever will!!!!
And, Pam, I can't believe you had the same allergic reaction to the medication. That is SO strange! Did you get the hiccups and all? I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was hiccuping and itching like mad for hours... not until later anyway.
I hope all who are reading this are doing well! Life is chaotic for me right now (remember that bit about facing other challenges?), so I haven't been able to check in much, but I figured I needed to drop by and let people know that the Dawg and I are alive and kicking.
I'll leave you with a thought I shared with a friend the other day. I'm sharing it mostly for myself, because I really want to keep it in my thoughts for awhile, but maybe some of you will appreciate it too:
Sometimes the mind can't face what the spirit can. That's where faith comes in.
Yikes, where have I been? The past month or so has been really busy for me! I haven't disappeared for good though, honest
My exposure site and extraction sites have healed up really beautifully. The extraction sites have mostly filled in, now, which makes the gaps slightly (but only slightly) less conspicuous. The tip of Dawg is still clearly visible and sporting his fancy gold bling.
I had my latest adjustment yesterday, which wasn't too bad. I got the Best Orthodontic Assistant (in my opinion) on the staff, which was so relieving. Whenever I know I have to see the BOA, I stop worrying since I know she causes the least amount of pain of any of the assistants. Plus, she is just delightfully friendly. I think I trust her more than anybody else at my ortho's office... possibly including my ortho
I guess that says something.BOA did the true tying of the Dawg. I was wondering if it would ever happen. As nice as the tuglessness (yes, this is now a word) can be, I've been ready to get this show on the road. So my uppers got what is apparently the second strongest non-flexible wire, and my lowers got a slightly stronger flexible wire. The ortho explained as how I should "take lots of drugs" since it would really hurt later, so I took enough aspirin to completely turn my stomach, but it prevented the pain from getting too out of hand last night, and today it all feels okay. Sore, but nothing remarkable.
I have to say, my uppers look really absurd the way they are wired up. Besides the really strong, thick wire that's in there now, there are little diamond criss-cross wires laced above and below, around my front brackets. I look a bit more metallic as a result... and just about every food particle gets lodged beyond any hope under all those wires (it's effectively three times as much wire per upper tooth). And it's three times as much wire cutting up my cheeks. But maybe all of it will get the teeth racing!
Dawg is now officially wired, with FORCE -- the wire runs through the second link in the bling chain. Then that wire is connected to the brackets of my upper right lateral incisor and upper right second premolar, i.e. the teeth on either side of where Dawg will eventually go. It looks like a little pyramid of wire there, but BOA said that the force should direct the tooth directly downward. Pam, I guess they start directing it backward later, for me!
Oh, I totally forgot to mention that the ortho ended up having to shave the side of one or two teeth. Apparently my lower left central incisor was snagging in its rotational and separational efforts on my lower left lateral incisor. Well, that sure taught them! The ortho said they should move fine now. It didn't even hurt, so I was happy enough to sit there smelling burning tooth enamel dust.
I have to laugh, because I am still getting a lot of comments and confusion on the part of strangers and new folks in my life about how young I look. I was that way before, but I think the braces have really amplified that. The braces themselves feel more visible now that it's summer and basically the season to be out and about. But regardless of the gaps and the funniness going on in there, I just decided awhile ago to smile naturally and be myself, since people seem quicker to sense discomfort and insecurity (or the lack thereof) than funny gaps and metallic cat's cradle antics inside my mouth.... most of all though, it feels better to finally just not worry about it so much. I have a long way to go yet, but I think the worst is over.
As for that toxic black mold thing in my house... can you believe my landlords just don't get it? They didn't seem to see what the big deal was about when I told them. I recently spoke to someone whose friend had tried to clean up the stuff in her house herself, and she ended up getting sick for a full year afterward because of it. AND she had even taken the precaution of wearing a mouth/nose mask and gloves before cleaning it. So Shawnie: be careful!! The stuff can be truly dangerous. Make sure, too, you (carefully) remove anything like wood or cardboard that the mold has soaked into, or the latent, remaining spores will cause it to grow back if the humidity levels get too high... How is it going?
Pam, you're right about the exposure surgery not being a walk in the park. I think I got really lucky with the surgeon I ended up with though, insofar as he was able to address my questions. Not to the point I completely understood everything about the surgery, but enough to feel comfortable with him as my surgeon. I also really mentally steeled myself for the surgery, and with that and my surgeon's skill, recovery was painful but survivable. Eating was definitely tricky for awhile, though!
I get frustrated when I hear that there are surgeons and orthodontists and orthodontic assistants out there pointing out how little the kids and teens complain. Pain is pain, regardless of age or procedure, and they should really respect that the experience varies for everyone. But you're right, it's behind us... I'm so happy to look forward without dreading something like that coming up. Funny thing is, I think I could do it again if I had to, now. Not that I ever will!!!!
And, Pam, I can't believe you had the same allergic reaction to the medication. That is SO strange! Did you get the hiccups and all? I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was hiccuping and itching like mad for hours... not until later anyway.
I hope all who are reading this are doing well! Life is chaotic for me right now (remember that bit about facing other challenges?), so I haven't been able to check in much, but I figured I needed to drop by and let people know that the Dawg and I are alive and kicking.
I'll leave you with a thought I shared with a friend the other day. I'm sharing it mostly for myself, because I really want to keep it in my thoughts for awhile, but maybe some of you will appreciate it too:
Sometimes the mind can't face what the spirit can. That's where faith comes in.
Hi Lin,
Glad to hear that Dawg is all hooked up now. My Ortho is also doing something to pull Laverne and Shirley directly down out of the pallet. He fashioned something called Ballista hooks to pull the teeth down.
Well, I almost got my bedroom back together! I was able to get the black mold off with bleach. It was only on the suface of the drywall, so we did not have to cut out any of the drywall. Got new carpet pad to replace the part we had to cut out that was soaking wet. Patched and sanded where the trim was taken off, and I primed and painted the wall. Then I painted the new trim, and this weekend my boyfriend will put it up for me. Then all I have to do is clean the carpet, and I think I'll re-arrange the room. Then I'll be back in my bedroom, no more sleeping on the love seats in my TV room YAY! I could have always slept in my bed which was pushed in the middle of the room, but with the black mold I didn't want to get sick or have it irritate my sinuses. So all that stalling and it actually didn't take too long to do. Sometimes all the thinking I do about something is much worse then actually doing the thing that I'm stalling on! Kind of like all the years I thought about braces and then finally doing it!
Well back to teeth talk. Hope Dawg responds well to the new hook-up, keep us posted.
Take Care
Shawnie
Glad to hear that Dawg is all hooked up now. My Ortho is also doing something to pull Laverne and Shirley directly down out of the pallet. He fashioned something called Ballista hooks to pull the teeth down.
Well, I almost got my bedroom back together! I was able to get the black mold off with bleach. It was only on the suface of the drywall, so we did not have to cut out any of the drywall. Got new carpet pad to replace the part we had to cut out that was soaking wet. Patched and sanded where the trim was taken off, and I primed and painted the wall. Then I painted the new trim, and this weekend my boyfriend will put it up for me. Then all I have to do is clean the carpet, and I think I'll re-arrange the room. Then I'll be back in my bedroom, no more sleeping on the love seats in my TV room YAY! I could have always slept in my bed which was pushed in the middle of the room, but with the black mold I didn't want to get sick or have it irritate my sinuses. So all that stalling and it actually didn't take too long to do. Sometimes all the thinking I do about something is much worse then actually doing the thing that I'm stalling on! Kind of like all the years I thought about braces and then finally doing it!
Well back to teeth talk. Hope Dawg responds well to the new hook-up, keep us posted.
Take Care
Shawnie
Braced - 10/04/05
Treatment - 30 to 36 months
Ceramic uppers, Metal lowers
Impacted canines-Crowding-Crossbite
6 baby teeth!
Canine exposure surgery of two teeth 3/29/06
2nd canine exposure of one tooth 11/15/06
Treatment - 30 to 36 months
Ceramic uppers, Metal lowers
Impacted canines-Crowding-Crossbite
6 baby teeth!
Canine exposure surgery of two teeth 3/29/06
2nd canine exposure of one tooth 11/15/06
Just when things were starting to seem routine....
...then it happened...
THE UNLEASHING OF THE DAWG
Yes, it's true. I guess I needed some new orthodontic drama in my life, so here it is...
It all started last week on a Friday morning. I had already brushed my teeth, but the rear endpoint of the Dawgwire was starting to feel pretty sharp against my cheek. The Dawgwire is the short wire that runs between the brackets of my upper right lateral incisor and upper right second premolar, i.e. the teeth on either side of where Dawg will eventually go. Just before it ends, the Dawgwire covers the bracket of my upper right second premolar (overtop my regular archwire) and is held down with a regular ligature. I know this is confusing, and I will try to photo-document soon, but I misplaced my camera!
So, the end of the Dawgwire was feeling frustratingly sharp. I decided to call the ortho to see if I could make an emergency visit to have the wire clipped somehow, since it was really slicing up my cheek. The receptionist answered and said that they were booked solid through the day with emergency appointments, and that I could come in Monday morning. I said okay, thinking I could survive the weekend with a whole lot of wax and annoyance, but it still wasn't a huge deal at that point. Until...
After hanging up the phone, I went into the bathroom to put some wax on the sharp endpoint of the Dawgwire. I had been doing this for a week without much of a problem. But this time, when I applied pressure to stick the wax overtop the wire, the whole wire popped loose of the lig, and lo and behold, there was a wire sticking out of my mouth (perpendicular to my archwire, i.e. the same direction my nose points) by a whole centimeter. A very, very sharp wire. No matter how I moved the wire, it was so strong/high-tension that I couldn't get it to stay put inside my mouth... it was literally just popping out. Sure, I could close my mouth around it, but not without a centimeter of sharp wire digging through my cheek and lips.
I called the ortho office again. This would be a good time to point out that my orthodontist himself is conveniently out of this office and at another office location for half the week, and of course that day was one day he was out. So only one assistant was on hand taking emergency appointments all day. The second receptionist picks up, and I tell her that I really need to come in now, that a wire essentially broke and that I couldn't even close my mouth. She blandly replied that I could come in in an hour and a half. I start to panic, thinking, "how am I going to survive this wire for that long?" but I just say "fine," knowing that with this office, that's as good as I'll ever get.
So I covered the end of the wire with a big glob of paper towels and tried to keep my mouth closed around the paper towels for the next hour and a half, with the wire digging into all the paper towels instead of my cheek. This tastes really great, by the way. Sort of like a TV dinner microwaved too long in cardboard packaging.
I get to the ortho office just before my alotted emergency time, and I go to sign in at the desk. The first receptionist is sitting there, and she looks up at me (my cheek is bulging with the paper towel).
I say, "Thank you for fitting me in today." It comes out more like "Thbwank you fawh fing me ihng dhay."
She blinks and replies something to the effect of, "That's fine. The assistant will see you shortly. And just so you know, while you're here today, she's going to go over some tips with you so you can know how to take care of minor problems that come up on your own to hold you through when need be."
I just about lost it. Thanks, I know about minor problems. Minor problems are when NORMAL archwires start poking in NORMAL ways and can be covered by WAX (yes, I know about the miracles of WAX). But "minor" would NOT be a wire poking perpendicularly out of your mouth by a centimeter such that you cannot even CLOSE YOUR MOUTH.
I felt inside that I must have looked to her like I was flapping my wings like a chicken, but I'm feeling pretty ticked off by now. I open my mouth and try to show her and say, "NO, there is a wire PROTRUDING from my mouth and this is NOT minor."
She cuts me off and says I will be seen shortly and have I signed in? So then I go to sign in, after trying to show her the non-minor problem going on in my mouth by touching my fingers to the wire. Now this is where I point out that I only ever bring and touch my own pen in doctor's offices of any kind, as a germ avoidance kind of thing. So I go to use my own pen to sign in (yes, my own germs are touching and contaminating my own pen), and she flips out. She thought that I was touching the office pen with my GERMS and she snapped, "Don't touch that after you touch your mouth."
By this time, the receptionist had been painted in so many colorful words in my mind, that if I were to share them with you here, you would no longer suffer from the delusion that I am a sweet (albeit weird) young woman, but rather that, when pushed too far, I am a person whose mental language is rife with colors that would rival the palette of Picasso. Small children would run, wide-eyed, to hide behind their mothers' skirts. Plump, chirping birds would freeze in midflight and plunge to the earth, dead. White fluffy clouds would stop scudding through the sky, and start racing in the complete opposite direction.
Fine. I didn't sign in. Ten minutes later, they called my name anyway.
The assistant pulled the wire back into place and tied a new lig down over it to hold it down. Problem solved.
Or so I thought.
A week goes by, and then it's yesterday afternoon. I'm about to go out to a father's day picnic thing with my parents. The endpoint was feeling sharp again, as it always feel sharp. I just accept now that there are always open wounds in my mouth, and literally go through a case of wax a week.
Just before leaving for the picnic, I go to put wax over the endpoint, and the whole darn Dawgwire pops out again... ligature and all. Great. It's the weekend, so no orthodontic offices are working. Sure, I can call the emergency weekend number, which is in a completely different area code, and put up with the same crap from those people again about how sharp wires protruding in the degree of centimeters from one's mouth is not a really notable orthodontic emergency. About how wax can "patch" "minor problems." Sorry, but no amount of wax can fix a wire problem like that.
You know what, I really didn't feel like sacrificing my nice family weekend, and picnic, by calling up and hearing from some attitudinal receptionists or otherwise who would be offended to have their weekend interrupted by what they thought was some minor deal. It is a minor deal to fix, when you have the orthodontic tools, yes. But when you can't eat or even close your mouth and it's that painful, it is not minor to live with.
So, what else could I do? I asked my dad to try fixing it.
My dad and I went into his workshop, and I explained "Case 1" - the best case for getting the wire back under the lig on the bracket it was supposed to be on, and "Case 2" - failing Case 1, the backup case to allow me to survive the weekend.... clipping the doggone Dawgwire off.
I swear my dad has been waiting all his life for a moment like that. He even has dental tools in his workshop... mostly he uses them for detailed woodworking, though.
"Let's get started!" He tells me, brandishing a 2-foot-long handsaw and a maniacal grin. I think I kicked him and told him to act serious
And there I was, leaning backward on my dad's workshop bench, and honest to god he's rooting around my mouth with his fingers and these dirty sets of pliers, needlenose pliers, metal dental pick, and who knows what else, blackened from years of use in his workshop. He tried to get the wire back over the bracket and the lig back overtop it, but the strength of the wire just made it impossible to do so, as it would pop back out and through my mouth at every attempt. I mean, it's a really thick wire.
Finally, he managed to get the lig back over the regular archwire on the bracket it belonged to. We had given up on getting the Dawgwire back in place by that point. So then he got his wire clippers out and clipped the Dawgwire back to the face of my upper right lateral incisor. Even though he was holding the other end of the Dawgwire with pliers when he did that, the whole wire snapped and recoiled when he clipped it, so the wire fell down in my mouth toward the back of my throat. I had anticipated this, fortunately, and closed my throat off. He warned me not to swallow while he fished the 2" snipped Dawgwire out of my mouth with the needlenose pliers. And that was that!
He actually did a really amazing job in clipping the Dawgwire and getting the lig back on. It was probably really dangerous to take things into my/our own hands like that, but honestly, I didn't feel as though I had any choice at all. I certainly could not have survived the weekend with the Dawgwire protruding and stabbing me like that, and had I even tried to sleep like that, I would have gagged on 2.5" of sharp wire, as the wire actually started to rotate after the lig had popped off. The wire was really scary, and I'm glad he clipped it off.
My upper right central and lateral are sore today, because I think there is some very incorrect tension stuff going on in my mouth after messing with the wires unprofessionally like that. I do not, by the way, ever recommend anybody taking matters into their own hands quite like that! I knew it was risky but I really felt I had to do it.
I think it's really suspicious that this has happened to me twice now. I think an orthodontist should know better than to so obviously apply an unreasonable amount of force to a wire so short that it can repeatedly pop the same lig off. I don't think any lig can withstand that much pressure. The one from yesterday was completely bent out of shape by it. I figure the ligs can handle about a week of the pressure before they give enough for the wire to pop loose and create a nightmare in my mouth.
I have put up with a lot of crap from this orthodontist and his office. My complaints against him include:
1) His recommending that I extract my impacted canine, rather than expose and bring it down, without explaining to me the negative but very serious implications on my bite of doing so.
2) Referring me to an oral surgeon whom I got a very negative feeling about upon meeting, and whom I later discovered from my dentist (whom I trust more than any other dental professional I have ever met) is actually not a very good oral surgeon since he is a cosmetic surgeon who only does oral surgery as a subspecialty.
3) His unavailability - attempting to get extra x-ray copies and a second referral card for an oral surgeon (of MY choice... and my good one at that) from him took 2 weeks and over 5 phone calls. After asking to speak with him about some of my concerns before my surgery, he made himself available, in the office hallway, for all of 50 seconds. Speaking to him in private for over 5 minutes is apparently out of the question.
4) A pre-surgery debanding and degluing experience, performed by an inept assistant, that was the second most painful experience of my life... the most painful was my wisdom teeth extractions... the third most painful (after this degluing) was my exposure/extractions surgery. Only after the degluing did I find out that the assistant could have gently buffed and sanded the glue off rather than roughly manually grinding as he did, as I wept from the pain.
5) A consistently snippy staff of receptionists who are very quick to demean my emergency concerns.
6) Questionable treatment plan (in particular, how he is attempting to deal with my impacted canine).
Am I missing anything?
Perhaps it is needless to say, but I am going to get my dentist's recommendation for the best orthodontists in town, and go have consultations with them. I have only held off this long because I know the financial implications will be horrible... I think I will need to come up with thousands of dollars in cash to do this. But at this point, I think I need to focus on getting the best care. I am hoping that I can get a good loan from my bank if I need to. But this is getting ridiculous. It's not right to have to resort to taking orthodontic fixes into your own hands so drastically and dangerously when you know you aren't welcome to make an emergency visit in the case of a real emergency.
Maybe it's only a real emergency to them if the wire pops out far enough to strike a jugular vein in the neck and start gushing blood. I mean, sure, you can try to blot the hole in the vein with wax, and that is probably what the receptionists there would suggest, but I'm still guessing the end results could be pretty messy.
I can see this woman working in the ER in her other life. It would go something like this: a construction worker walks in after a horrific nail gun accident to the skull. He asks for help. She tells him that she's sorry, they can't help him, because he's bleeding, and the germs from his blood might contaminate the sign-in sheet, and oh, by the way, he should just stuff the hole in his skull with a little wax, because really, it's a minor deal, and he should be responsible enough to patch it until the timing is convenient to the doctors, who are probably out playing golf and driving their gas-guzzling, patient-funded SUVs on roads as rugged as a newborn baby's bottom after a sprinkling of talcum powder.
But enough vitriol. It's time to look on the lighter side of things. After all, today IS father's day.
Metal Dawgwire: $1
Changing orthodontists: $1500+
Your own father performing emergency orthodontic procedures on you in his basement workshop: PRICELESS
...then it happened...
THE UNLEASHING OF THE DAWG
Yes, it's true. I guess I needed some new orthodontic drama in my life, so here it is...
It all started last week on a Friday morning. I had already brushed my teeth, but the rear endpoint of the Dawgwire was starting to feel pretty sharp against my cheek. The Dawgwire is the short wire that runs between the brackets of my upper right lateral incisor and upper right second premolar, i.e. the teeth on either side of where Dawg will eventually go. Just before it ends, the Dawgwire covers the bracket of my upper right second premolar (overtop my regular archwire) and is held down with a regular ligature. I know this is confusing, and I will try to photo-document soon, but I misplaced my camera!
So, the end of the Dawgwire was feeling frustratingly sharp. I decided to call the ortho to see if I could make an emergency visit to have the wire clipped somehow, since it was really slicing up my cheek. The receptionist answered and said that they were booked solid through the day with emergency appointments, and that I could come in Monday morning. I said okay, thinking I could survive the weekend with a whole lot of wax and annoyance, but it still wasn't a huge deal at that point. Until...
After hanging up the phone, I went into the bathroom to put some wax on the sharp endpoint of the Dawgwire. I had been doing this for a week without much of a problem. But this time, when I applied pressure to stick the wax overtop the wire, the whole wire popped loose of the lig, and lo and behold, there was a wire sticking out of my mouth (perpendicular to my archwire, i.e. the same direction my nose points) by a whole centimeter. A very, very sharp wire. No matter how I moved the wire, it was so strong/high-tension that I couldn't get it to stay put inside my mouth... it was literally just popping out. Sure, I could close my mouth around it, but not without a centimeter of sharp wire digging through my cheek and lips.
I called the ortho office again. This would be a good time to point out that my orthodontist himself is conveniently out of this office and at another office location for half the week, and of course that day was one day he was out. So only one assistant was on hand taking emergency appointments all day. The second receptionist picks up, and I tell her that I really need to come in now, that a wire essentially broke and that I couldn't even close my mouth. She blandly replied that I could come in in an hour and a half. I start to panic, thinking, "how am I going to survive this wire for that long?" but I just say "fine," knowing that with this office, that's as good as I'll ever get.
So I covered the end of the wire with a big glob of paper towels and tried to keep my mouth closed around the paper towels for the next hour and a half, with the wire digging into all the paper towels instead of my cheek. This tastes really great, by the way. Sort of like a TV dinner microwaved too long in cardboard packaging.
I get to the ortho office just before my alotted emergency time, and I go to sign in at the desk. The first receptionist is sitting there, and she looks up at me (my cheek is bulging with the paper towel).
I say, "Thank you for fitting me in today." It comes out more like "Thbwank you fawh fing me ihng dhay."
She blinks and replies something to the effect of, "That's fine. The assistant will see you shortly. And just so you know, while you're here today, she's going to go over some tips with you so you can know how to take care of minor problems that come up on your own to hold you through when need be."
I just about lost it. Thanks, I know about minor problems. Minor problems are when NORMAL archwires start poking in NORMAL ways and can be covered by WAX (yes, I know about the miracles of WAX). But "minor" would NOT be a wire poking perpendicularly out of your mouth by a centimeter such that you cannot even CLOSE YOUR MOUTH.
I felt inside that I must have looked to her like I was flapping my wings like a chicken, but I'm feeling pretty ticked off by now. I open my mouth and try to show her and say, "NO, there is a wire PROTRUDING from my mouth and this is NOT minor."
She cuts me off and says I will be seen shortly and have I signed in? So then I go to sign in, after trying to show her the non-minor problem going on in my mouth by touching my fingers to the wire. Now this is where I point out that I only ever bring and touch my own pen in doctor's offices of any kind, as a germ avoidance kind of thing. So I go to use my own pen to sign in (yes, my own germs are touching and contaminating my own pen), and she flips out. She thought that I was touching the office pen with my GERMS and she snapped, "Don't touch that after you touch your mouth."
By this time, the receptionist had been painted in so many colorful words in my mind, that if I were to share them with you here, you would no longer suffer from the delusion that I am a sweet (albeit weird) young woman, but rather that, when pushed too far, I am a person whose mental language is rife with colors that would rival the palette of Picasso. Small children would run, wide-eyed, to hide behind their mothers' skirts. Plump, chirping birds would freeze in midflight and plunge to the earth, dead. White fluffy clouds would stop scudding through the sky, and start racing in the complete opposite direction.
Fine. I didn't sign in. Ten minutes later, they called my name anyway.
The assistant pulled the wire back into place and tied a new lig down over it to hold it down. Problem solved.
Or so I thought.
A week goes by, and then it's yesterday afternoon. I'm about to go out to a father's day picnic thing with my parents. The endpoint was feeling sharp again, as it always feel sharp. I just accept now that there are always open wounds in my mouth, and literally go through a case of wax a week.
Just before leaving for the picnic, I go to put wax over the endpoint, and the whole darn Dawgwire pops out again... ligature and all. Great. It's the weekend, so no orthodontic offices are working. Sure, I can call the emergency weekend number, which is in a completely different area code, and put up with the same crap from those people again about how sharp wires protruding in the degree of centimeters from one's mouth is not a really notable orthodontic emergency. About how wax can "patch" "minor problems." Sorry, but no amount of wax can fix a wire problem like that.
You know what, I really didn't feel like sacrificing my nice family weekend, and picnic, by calling up and hearing from some attitudinal receptionists or otherwise who would be offended to have their weekend interrupted by what they thought was some minor deal. It is a minor deal to fix, when you have the orthodontic tools, yes. But when you can't eat or even close your mouth and it's that painful, it is not minor to live with.
So, what else could I do? I asked my dad to try fixing it.
My dad and I went into his workshop, and I explained "Case 1" - the best case for getting the wire back under the lig on the bracket it was supposed to be on, and "Case 2" - failing Case 1, the backup case to allow me to survive the weekend.... clipping the doggone Dawgwire off.
I swear my dad has been waiting all his life for a moment like that. He even has dental tools in his workshop... mostly he uses them for detailed woodworking, though.
"Let's get started!" He tells me, brandishing a 2-foot-long handsaw and a maniacal grin. I think I kicked him and told him to act serious
And there I was, leaning backward on my dad's workshop bench, and honest to god he's rooting around my mouth with his fingers and these dirty sets of pliers, needlenose pliers, metal dental pick, and who knows what else, blackened from years of use in his workshop. He tried to get the wire back over the bracket and the lig back overtop it, but the strength of the wire just made it impossible to do so, as it would pop back out and through my mouth at every attempt. I mean, it's a really thick wire.
Finally, he managed to get the lig back over the regular archwire on the bracket it belonged to. We had given up on getting the Dawgwire back in place by that point. So then he got his wire clippers out and clipped the Dawgwire back to the face of my upper right lateral incisor. Even though he was holding the other end of the Dawgwire with pliers when he did that, the whole wire snapped and recoiled when he clipped it, so the wire fell down in my mouth toward the back of my throat. I had anticipated this, fortunately, and closed my throat off. He warned me not to swallow while he fished the 2" snipped Dawgwire out of my mouth with the needlenose pliers. And that was that!
He actually did a really amazing job in clipping the Dawgwire and getting the lig back on. It was probably really dangerous to take things into my/our own hands like that, but honestly, I didn't feel as though I had any choice at all. I certainly could not have survived the weekend with the Dawgwire protruding and stabbing me like that, and had I even tried to sleep like that, I would have gagged on 2.5" of sharp wire, as the wire actually started to rotate after the lig had popped off. The wire was really scary, and I'm glad he clipped it off.
My upper right central and lateral are sore today, because I think there is some very incorrect tension stuff going on in my mouth after messing with the wires unprofessionally like that. I do not, by the way, ever recommend anybody taking matters into their own hands quite like that! I knew it was risky but I really felt I had to do it.
I think it's really suspicious that this has happened to me twice now. I think an orthodontist should know better than to so obviously apply an unreasonable amount of force to a wire so short that it can repeatedly pop the same lig off. I don't think any lig can withstand that much pressure. The one from yesterday was completely bent out of shape by it. I figure the ligs can handle about a week of the pressure before they give enough for the wire to pop loose and create a nightmare in my mouth.
I have put up with a lot of crap from this orthodontist and his office. My complaints against him include:
1) His recommending that I extract my impacted canine, rather than expose and bring it down, without explaining to me the negative but very serious implications on my bite of doing so.
2) Referring me to an oral surgeon whom I got a very negative feeling about upon meeting, and whom I later discovered from my dentist (whom I trust more than any other dental professional I have ever met) is actually not a very good oral surgeon since he is a cosmetic surgeon who only does oral surgery as a subspecialty.
3) His unavailability - attempting to get extra x-ray copies and a second referral card for an oral surgeon (of MY choice... and my good one at that) from him took 2 weeks and over 5 phone calls. After asking to speak with him about some of my concerns before my surgery, he made himself available, in the office hallway, for all of 50 seconds. Speaking to him in private for over 5 minutes is apparently out of the question.
4) A pre-surgery debanding and degluing experience, performed by an inept assistant, that was the second most painful experience of my life... the most painful was my wisdom teeth extractions... the third most painful (after this degluing) was my exposure/extractions surgery. Only after the degluing did I find out that the assistant could have gently buffed and sanded the glue off rather than roughly manually grinding as he did, as I wept from the pain.
5) A consistently snippy staff of receptionists who are very quick to demean my emergency concerns.
6) Questionable treatment plan (in particular, how he is attempting to deal with my impacted canine).
Am I missing anything?
Perhaps it is needless to say, but I am going to get my dentist's recommendation for the best orthodontists in town, and go have consultations with them. I have only held off this long because I know the financial implications will be horrible... I think I will need to come up with thousands of dollars in cash to do this. But at this point, I think I need to focus on getting the best care. I am hoping that I can get a good loan from my bank if I need to. But this is getting ridiculous. It's not right to have to resort to taking orthodontic fixes into your own hands so drastically and dangerously when you know you aren't welcome to make an emergency visit in the case of a real emergency.
Maybe it's only a real emergency to them if the wire pops out far enough to strike a jugular vein in the neck and start gushing blood. I mean, sure, you can try to blot the hole in the vein with wax, and that is probably what the receptionists there would suggest, but I'm still guessing the end results could be pretty messy.
I can see this woman working in the ER in her other life. It would go something like this: a construction worker walks in after a horrific nail gun accident to the skull. He asks for help. She tells him that she's sorry, they can't help him, because he's bleeding, and the germs from his blood might contaminate the sign-in sheet, and oh, by the way, he should just stuff the hole in his skull with a little wax, because really, it's a minor deal, and he should be responsible enough to patch it until the timing is convenient to the doctors, who are probably out playing golf and driving their gas-guzzling, patient-funded SUVs on roads as rugged as a newborn baby's bottom after a sprinkling of talcum powder.
But enough vitriol. It's time to look on the lighter side of things. After all, today IS father's day.
Metal Dawgwire: $1
Changing orthodontists: $1500+
Your own father performing emergency orthodontic procedures on you in his basement workshop: PRICELESS
Lin,
Holy crap, they don't deserve you, or anybody, as a patient. All of them should be lined up and verbally blasted, one by one.
I am sorry that, first of all, you've had to deal with this incredibly painful and annoying wire popping out, and secondly that you've been treated the way you have.
Words don't suffice.
Thank goodness for your dad and his tools (he sounds like my dad I hope you can get in early tomorrow to get things settled, and that you can start looking around at other offices ASAP. Who knows, maybe the change won't be as expensive as you think (my fingers are crossed). Perhaps if you share with the orthodontist, should you decide to switch, all of your concerns, they will have to give you any monies back that you haven't had services rendered for yet, if you know what I mean.
I am sending you so many vibes for a quick resolution to that wire problem, and for resolving this entire situation!
Holy crap, they don't deserve you, or anybody, as a patient. All of them should be lined up and verbally blasted, one by one.
I am sorry that, first of all, you've had to deal with this incredibly painful and annoying wire popping out, and secondly that you've been treated the way you have.
Words don't suffice.Thank goodness for your dad and his tools (he sounds like my dad
I hope you can get in early tomorrow to get things settled, and that you can start looking around at other offices ASAP. Who knows, maybe the change won't be as expensive as you think (my fingers are crossed). Perhaps if you share with the orthodontist, should you decide to switch, all of your concerns, they will have to give you any monies back that you haven't had services rendered for yet, if you know what I mean. I am sending you so many vibes for a quick resolution to that wire problem, and for resolving this entire situation!
Uppers placed 2/8/06--Inspire ICE ceramics
Lower (stainless) placed 2/23/06
Treatment time: 17 months (estimated was 12-18 months)
Debonded: July 11th, 2007
Next appointment: June 2008 for retainer & nightguard check
Lower (stainless) placed 2/23/06
Treatment time: 17 months (estimated was 12-18 months)
Debonded: July 11th, 2007
Next appointment: June 2008 for retainer & nightguard check
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samantha_lou
- Posts: 240
- Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:49 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
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