Shannah's Braces Adventure

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#16 Post by **Sbebs** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:48 pm

I just got back from having my yellowed ligs changed, and my ortho decided to bump up my wire as well. He said with adults they generally do a really light wire initially. My new wire is much stronger.

I must say my first unofficial "adjustment" was not much fun. My friend is his hygenist and she is the one who changed out the ligs and wire so I felt much more comfortable yelping out in pain on a few of those new lig attachments.

I went with "smoke" ligs this time and its amazing how clear they look once they are on. I've included a close up for those that are curious about how they look on ceramics.

One Week in with Smoke Colored Ligs

Day One with Clear Ligs

#17 Post by **Sbebs** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:11 pm

Thanks Linda, luckily my boyfriend gave me a really nice didgital camera for Christmas just in time to take weekly tooth pictures. He thinks i'm a bit over the top about it...and i am.

I really hope these smoke stay the same color until my official first adjustment in 3 weeks. I'll be sure to post if they don't. I appreciate the encouragement KK!

Denise you'll have to let me know which "clear" color works best for you. Hopefully out of smoke, clear, white or pearl there is at least one that has a longer stain resisting time frame. I figure next time I'll be adventurous and try silver

#18 Post by **Sbebs** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:40 pm

Wow. I can't belive its been a month already! I went in yesterday to have my first adjustment. They kept the same wire for now and I got smoke ligs again too since they worked out so well the last time.

My ortho was very happy with how much movement I had on my "straighter" side. In 3 weeks I will be having my lowers braced and be completly metal mouthed. He is also going to place a spring on my upper to make more room for my incisor that is behind, and place bonder(?) on my back molars like a bite plate to allow that tooth to move in line. Not sure if that will be on my next visit or not.

It was funny when I emailed my boss to let him know i would be in late on the day my lowers are braced. My boss came out of his office and said "you have braces?". He hadn't even noticed....the ceramics are working

#19 Post by **LithpingLitha** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:55 pm

Congratulations on getting braced...again.

#20 Post by **Sbebs** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:44 am

Well today was my lowers b-day! In two weeks I will have a spring put in in order to make room for my stubborn incisor "Trixie". Hopefully the space will open up fast so she can be bracketed and put into line with the rest of them.

I also went with silver ligs this time. Kind of fun!

Lowers quite a bit of crowding

Trixie

PROGRESS:

Fronts Today

Fronts Day One Yay! Big differences already...

#21 Post by **Marley** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:10 pm

Looking good! It must be nice to see progress!

#22 Post by **mighty mo** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:52 pm

Wow Sbebs, that's wonderful progress. I love your clear brackets - you can hardly see them.

You have a great attitude, and I'm certain that that will help with your braces journey.

#23 Post by **Tin Indian** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 3:22 pm

Shannah, Congratulations on your bottoms being braced. And quite the impressive movement on the uppers too. keep up the good work.

#24 Post by **Sbebs** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:46 am

Thanks everyone. Its very exciting to see the progress. Even my ortho gets really excited to see my progress pictures

Unfortunatly I am not very happy right now. I am still in pain after 5 days of having my lowere brackets on. I have canker sores, and scrapes and I still cannot chew anything more solid than a grape. If i had done my lowers first I doubt I would have done the uppers...ugh! Time for more advil.....

Pain=Progress?

#25 Post by **Sbebs** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:12 am

Happy "Spring" everyone. Thought I'd share my latest addition. I had a spring placed on my uppers to make way for Trixie. Not sure how long it will take to open things up for her but I have an appointment in 4 weeks to check my progress. I also had part of a bracket chip during my last lig change. Not sure how soon or if they will be replacing it. Its just the upper left part of it and it makes the lig slip....

"Spring" time

#26 Post by **acd** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:09 am

It took about three months for my spring to make enough room for my upper incisor to join the wire. Now--about a month and a half later--you'd never know by looking at it that it was ever back behind my other teeth. I'm sure you'll see some nice progress with it soon. Your other upper teeth have already started to straighten out nicely as well.

#27 Post by **Sbebs** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:11 am

Thanks for the encouragement Denise, Karen and Linda!

And thank you ACD for the information about your spring and incisor. That gives me some great perspective

Luckily my uppers seem to respond quickly to treatment. My lowers are another story. Hopefully they will get with the program quickly.

#28 Post by **acd** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:37 pm

My lowers look a lot like yours but with more crowding. I finally had braces put on them last Tuesday and they've been a lot more painful than the uppers. I hardly felt anything on top even with the spring but the bottoms have been another story. How can they throb and feel numb at the same time? I thought for sure he'd have to put at least one spring on with all the crowding down there (especially considering how well the uppers responded to the spring) but there's just an ugly zig-zagged wire on metal brackets with teeth pushing against each other with nowhere to go. Seeing my crooked lowers in metal really makes me glad I sprung the extra $$ for ceramics on top (and they don't have ligs that stain so at least I can still drink red wine without staining).

#29 Post by **Sbebs** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:14 am

I took a few pictures at my cleaning last week to compare movement over the last 19 weeks. Pretty impressed. In two weeks the spring should have done its job well enough to get Trixie bracketed - Can't wait for that one :0)

Uppers Day One

Uppers Now You can really tell how well they have rounded out and been rotated into place

Lowers Day One

Lowers Now My dental assisant is very happy to put new ligs on now that she can fit the wire without doing houdini maneuvers to it.

#30 Post by **Laurie** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:50 am

Trixie's bracket day will soon be dawning!

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Shannah's Braces Adventure

Almost 4 1/2 month update