Metal Mouth Message Board

Amazing progress! You must be really happy!

Gidday to all

My third adjustment today and more "ooh it's coming along very nicely" from the Dr.
After much whizzing and grinding and drilling ... da-du-du-daaaaaaaa

NO MORE MOLAR PUTTY (yay)

My bite has opened up enough to allow me to chomp without putty lumps, and there'll be no tooth/bracket clash. Nice one!

Same wire on top, needs more time to "torque" my upper central incisors to parallel alignment. I'm noticing that as they straighten there's little gaps opening up between them and the neighboring laterals on each side - something to close up later!

New wire on bottom (finally!) another one of those "white" painted wires with a square profile. Bottom teeth know they're being shoved around! Luckily not painful.

Here'a a snap of the bottom lower teeth for comparison:



You'll notice that my curry noodle lunch has quickly yellowed my nice clear ligs ... best to get that out of the way ASAP!

Next adjustment in 6 weeks, thanks for reading and yes I'm really pleased with the progress of my treatment, definitely a worthy experience!

Wow, Aussie Rob, great things are happening for you! As for the curry stained ligs, why not just get yellow to start with? lol

So glad you posted this story. I was starting to get frustrated and discouraged but seeing your bottom teeth move so quickly is keeping my morale up. Thanks!!

Hi again,

Had another adjustment today - I think that's number 4 (at 22 weeks)

Everything is still "going very well!"

Top jaw: my back teeth (second molars) were bracketed! In contrast to my first molars (with bands) the seconds were bonded with glue-on brackets. Dr says "most people wouldn't bother with these back teeth" but I guess she's a stickler! She mentioned that getting the back teeth moved would help open up my bite a little more.
New arch wire needed of course (longer to reach new back brackets) but the same type/gauge as before.
Front teeth again tied in with wire but the wire is a lot tighter than before and I can definitely see a kink in the archwire - stepping up the "torque" there!

Bottom jaw:
Same wire, canines re-tied a lot tighter with wire ligatures ... these two teeth need to tilt/rotate a little so the archwire was really shoved in there before getting tied off!

Pics:? nah, nothing remarkably different.

And the feelings:
Left back tooth (top) aches a little but the right back one feels nothing except a vague "pull" feeling from the area.
Bottom canines are twinging every once in a while.
I think I'll be chewing lightly again for a while!

Another adjustment in 6 weeks ... before then I'm off to New Zealand for a ski trip! Have fun, I know I will!!!

Hiyas, it's been a while... time flies fast!

Since last entry, I've had 2 adjustments, 6 weeks ago and today.

6 weeks ago: new heavier archwires

today, a few notables:
1) for first time I've got all elastic ligatures! (up until now, I've had at least 2 wire ties)
2) coloured ligatures, finally! Ortho's temp assistant mentioned "why don't you try colours" and when I agreed, ortho offered my choice of over a dozen! Hey lady when we started my treatment you said you just had CLEAR!!!!! argh
3) new "rigid steel" archwires (not ni-ti any more) because my progress is really good and ... (next point)
4) I have only "a few more months" in the braces!
4) new pano xray taken to check root alignment

WELL WELL! It looks like my braces treatment will take only about a year (since Feb 2005) I'm kinda disappointed, was set on having 2 years in the metals. I've become totally used to them and stuff. I've been paying off my treatment with each visit, now I'll have to pay it off faster (meh!)

Never mind, winners are grinners:



Back in 6 weeks to tell you more news.

Congrats Aussierob! Hope things keep going well.

Broke off a bracket yesterday, went in today to have it re-glued.

Asked a few questions "while I was there" about tooth movement, gaps etc.

Ended up with:

1) re-glued bracket
2) re-shaped front teeth (looking great now)
3) powerchain on top canine-to-canine (for gaps)
4) impressions taken of bottom teeth for fixed retainer wire
5) elastics on both sides, top to bottom (to mesh bite better)

NOW I'm getting value !!!!!

The end (for my braces) is nigh, people.

Picture? My pleasure, hate to disappoint the fans:
The tooth that was smoothed-off was the upper "front tooth" on the right of the picture



That top row looks a lot more even than when I started:

Nice!

Your teeth look great!

Wow! THats some great progress Aussierob!

-Hannah

wow that's really a nice progress!! and your time in 'braces' is quite short one! that's good

I'm jealous, but in a good way!

Congrats...your teeth look awesome!

I'm going in for my second adjustment tomorrow...! Advil here I come

Went in for adjustment today and just had a change of lig. colours.

Nothing else to do apart from booking the next appointment ... for 90 minutes ... for braces removal on 20 December!!

That'll make my treatment 45 weeks (since 7 Feb)

Looking forward to chewing the turkey!