Catgyrl's (Cathy's) Journey at age 42...

[catgyrl]

Hi Msbee

The appointment went just fine. No wire changes on either top or bottom. He removed my ligs and mini-power chains, and replaced them all with one regular, loooooong Obscure-colored powerchain across the top. I guess he's done yanking back that poor canine...at least for the time being. He said everything looked good. My eyes must be playing tricks on me, because for the life of me, I can't see how squashed to the right my upper teeth are, and can't see how far over to the left they need to be moved. He told me to look in a mirror. LOL Yeah, like I haven't done that about a million times in the last 8 months!! Oh, and I got my original assistant, who caused me no pain whatsoever.

Here are a couple of pics:

Left side (looks like the canine straightened out a bit):



Front (wish the ligs could stay this pretty all the time!)



Next appointment is on 1/29.

Cathy

[iBorg]

I think you're well on your way to having a great smile. Good news that there was no pain!

[HeyBuckey!]

Yay Catgyrl! It looks like it's all coming together! (No pun intended )

[SonyaM]

Things are looking great! Glad you found a minute to pop in and say hello. :O)

[mikesmile]

Hey Cathy

Congrats on the full power chain. I got my first one too...a couple of weeks ago - already noticed a difference within a couple of days!

Looks like you've made some definite progress. I see your gaps are closing up. How about the overjet? How's that coming along?

Mike



Second Time In Braces - Estimate 12-14 Months

[catgyrl]

iBorg, SonyaM, and HeyBuckey!: Thank you all for your well-wishes! I'm sorry I haven't been around very much. My dad was just diagnosed with lung cancer, so I've been busy trying to get all of his appointments set up, and running him around here and there. If I'm MIA for a while, that's why...

Hi Mike! Lucky you - I dont feel like my power chain is doing SQUAT. In fact, it doesn't feel any different from having plain ole ligs. As for the overjet, it's still there, but by no means as big as it was before. Finally, all of my teeth fit inside my mouth. LOL! My smile is a bit crooked on the "gappy" side, but I'm hoping that will straighten out later. If I'm in a good mood at my next appointment, maybe I'll ask him what his plan is for moving these front teeth over.

Take care
Cathy

[ashesgap]

I'm right there with you on the midline...if mine moves any further to the right i might just freak out on my ortho. I know it'll be taken care of at some point, but i'm ready for it to happen now.
So sorry to hear your dad is sick. Just remember while taking care of him to take care of yourself, it can all get muddled sometimes. Wishing him and your family the best.

[catgyrl]

Ashesgap

Thank you for your well wishes. We have a rather large family, so I'm really hoping everyone will step up to the plate and help. If we have to burn out, at least it will hopefully be at different times. I tend to be a worry-wart, so I'm sure I will find a way to make this more difficult than it needs to be.

I'm with you about the midline. I'm so accustomed to taking the super duper CLOSE up pics for this message board, that when I finally pushed the camera away... OY VEY! There is NO hiding the lopsidedness of my teeth and smile. I just set up a webcam so I can Skype with my family, and took one look at a practice video of myself. SOOO BAD. Now I'm seriously second-guessing whether i should just wait until they start fixing the midline. Then again... at that point I will have a crooked midline, elastics AND a lisp!

Cathy

[jensceana73]

Hey Cathy!!!

Missed ya here lately!!! But totally understand....I'll be sending good vibes your way to you and your family!

Glad to hear the gaps are closing....or at least getting smaller, or....smaller yet.. multiplying?

Anyway, stay strong...take care of yourself, those teeth...and dad!! Keep us posted.

[catgyrl]

Hey Jen!

Thank you for the well-wishes. We're trudging along, getting all our appointments scheduled, and moving into the "new normal" life we're about to live. For the first time since I got the braces on, I haven't been obsessed with my teeth, and have been perusing cancer-related websites instead of braces-related ones.

I really shouldn't complain about the two smaller gaps vs. one big gap, should I? But then... what would I complain about? It's so unlike me to not have something to gripe about...

-Cathy

[catgyrl]

Hey everyone-

I know I’ve been MIA for a while. Lots of family things going on; plus there’s not been much progress with my teeth to comment on…

UNTIL TODAY. Had my 9th adjustment and although we kept the same wires and powerchain, he started me on my first set of elastics!! They’re Jaguar (X-Heavy Force, I suppose), and although the formation is the simplest one (lower back molar connected to upper canine), I felt its effect within the first couple of minutes. I’m to remove them for only eating and brushing, and put a new one in every day. The assistant told me the elastics do a good deal of the work, and he WILL know if I’m not wearing them. As I already know not to get on his bad side, I agreed to comply.

He put the first one on himself, threw me another bag of them, and said, “Here, your turn to go to the mirror and practice.” Tough love, that guy… I had a hell of a time putting it on because (1) I have long nails, which were getting in the way; (2) my lower molar doesn’t have a “real” hook on it (not an obvious one like my canines do); and (3) my hands were shaking because I was nervous, for some reason. After a few minutes, and with the help of the little plastic hook-thing I was given, I finally got it on and announced to the room that this would be the first day of my new diet, because heck if I was going to keep taking these things out to eat! I’m going to try as hard as I can to eat with them in.

About an hour has gone by as I write this, and my entire upper row of teeth is KILLING ME! And I'm starting to get a headache (feels like a sinus-type headache, so I'll be taking some more Motrin.) But I’ve waited for this day for 9 months, and now I can really say I’m on my way to a beautiful smile! Khublei - I showed him the pic of your crazy elastic configuration, and he said, "Whoa! Where did you get that?" I told him it was a lady online, and asked him if he was going to subject me to anything like that. He laughed and said he HAS done that to some people in the past, but it all depends on what you're trying to correct (open bite, etc.), and that I probably won't get anything as severe. Anyway, Here are some pics:

RIGHT SIDE:


LEFT SIDE: (With stubborn gaps…)



FRONT:


OVERJET: (Getting there…)


SMILE: (Told him “My smile is crooked,” and he said, “Oh, you wanted it straight? You should’ve told me earlier…!” Funny guy…)


My next appointment is in 4 weeks.

-Cathy

[ashesgap]

YaY Cathy! I am giddy waiting to see if I finally get my elastics next week and can't believe you got yours before me. I bet in a couple days you'll be a pro at putting them in and laugh at how hard a time you're having now. Do you put the same ones back in after eating? That seems to be the biggest question i'm seeing from new elastic wearers.
Hope they work magic for you.

[jensceana73]

Congrats on the ELASTICS!!!!!

You look so....so...so natural smiling with rubber bands in your mouth!

I know that I'm going to have to get them....and I...am not...looking forward to it. NADDA. I'll probably have so much rubber in my mouth you could mistake me for a....um...well someone with a lot of rubber in their mouth...

Hope all is going well with you and your family. Your teeth are looking great!!

[catgyrl]

Ashesgap - thank you! I know my ortho thought I was nuts when he said, "I am going to start you on some elastics," and I squealed,"Today? YAY!" I think he said I should replace them with the same ones, and if I had trouble remembering, I should roll them onto my fingers so I wouldn't lose them. However, in the process of eating my lunch today (with them still in), the right one snapped and I swallowed it. I will add that that's the one HE put on. Mine stayed put just fine.

Jensceana - thanks! I saw your post over in khublei's story. Yep, she IS the queen! But I'm sure you will do just fine with yours when you get them. Believe it or not, I'm already getting used to mine, and my jaw doesn't ache anymore.

Things are going very well for us, thank you. Dad's tolerating his treatments swimmingly. Even his doc said that his bone marrow must LOVE the chemo because his blood work is even better than before!

Cathy

[sadpanda]

Hi -
I was wondering how long it took for your overjet to look like it's made progress? Mine is so much worse than I thought it was. I thought it was only like 5 mm, but I think it's gotten worse during the 6 months I've had braces. I'm supposed to get elastics sometime, but I don't know when. My ortho said there's still a lot of work to do, but gave me no specifics. I also have a giant overbite so my top braces completely cover my bottom ones. It seems very obvious to me, but when I first got braces, people were like, "I never noticed an overbite" even though it was one of the main reasons I got braces. I think it would have been a deep bite, because my bottom teeth can't be seen, but the overjet made it so my teeth weren't digging into my upper palette. Sorry for rambling. I just thought your overjet looked pretty good right now.