Sarahlynn's journey in braces

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#31 Post by **sarahlynn** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:16 am

Heck yeah there's a countdown til I can ditch this retainer!! Two weeks and two days

I'm coming up on 7 weeks being braced this thursday but I'm trying to wait until week 8 to take more pics of my progress. I really want to see some good progress in closing this gap with a power chain, and of course I'm always looking to see more progress on my cross bite canines.

My two front teeth have been doing an odd shifting back and forth - they started out being slightly overlapped, then they nearly separated and there was a tiny gap created, and now they're back to overlapping. I was a little disappointed to see that, but I keep reminding myself that I'm very early into treatment and hopefully these little minor shiftings will work themselves out eventually.

The tooth next to my right front tooth has now perfect aligned and every time I look in the mirror I marvel at how nice that looks and how I can't wait to have them all nicely aligned like that!

My gums are are pretty sore in one spot so hopefully that's a sign that something is going on in regards to movement. I'm very diligent about daily cleaning (I now have a waterpik, a sonicare toothbrush, I floss daily, and brush several times daily) - but the sometimes red and sore gums worry me that I'm not doing something right. The ortho has never said that my hygiene is sub par though. I'm hoping it's just all related to the movement that's going on.

#32 Post by **gracey82** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:39 am

You are really taking good care of your teeth!
I heard of those waterpick before but I cant find it here in Singapore. Is it like a toothpick or something?

Everytime after meal I will have just to drink water and guggle to rid of the residue of food stuck in between my braces! How embrassing

Is the sonicbrushes recommended ?

Your teeth movements is looking good!!

#33 Post by **sarahlynn** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:34 am

gracey82 wrote:You are really taking good care of your teeth!
I heard of those waterpick before but I cant find it here in Singapore. Is it like a toothpick or something?

Everytime after meal I will have just to drink water and guggle to rid of the residue of food stuck in between my braces! How embrassing

Is the sonicbrushes recommended ?

Your teeth movements is looking good!!

Thanks gracey! You will get a little travel kit from your ortho - I have a little kit with a travel sized toothbrush, toothpaste, floss (although I only floss at night at home - but it's there if I ever need it during the day), a proxy brush (REALLY helpful during the day at work if there's something stubborn stuck in there!), and a little mirror.

The waterpik is an electronic device that delivers a fast stream of water. I have a portable one which is still pretty large. It is good for getting out some bits of food and plaque around the gums or in between teeth. As long as you are flossing the old fashioned way you will be fine without a water pik - it's not a replacement for flossing. Someone that I know who had braces recommended it to me and that is why I got it.

I have heard that sonic toothbrushes are recommended over regular brushing - I got one this week as a birthday present from my husband (you know you're a brace face nerd when you ask for a toothbrush for your birthday! HA!). It's really amazing, I love it already! My teeth feel much cleaner after using it, I never realized what a good and thorough job they do. I do recommend one of those if you have them in Singapore.

#34 Post by **PrincessPeach** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:46 pm

I'm dyyyiinnnggg to get one of those waterpik's, was meant to get one today but totally forgot!

Wooo for getting your retainer off though

#35 Post by **mlholl19** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:00 am

Congratulations on 7 weeks! Time really does go faster in these things than I expected. I just finished my first month, 17 more to go! I hope you can get the retainer off soon. Keep up the good work!

#36 Post by **sarahlynn** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:19 am

I'm behind on my pictures, I wanted to take pictures last week (2 month mark) but we had a family emergency and that never happened. Now I'm at week 9 and I forgot to bring my camera with me today.

I had another adjustment yesterday and it went well - BYE BYE stupid blue retainer that made me lisp! Hello to bite turbos which really aren't bad at all. It's odd trying to eat with them, but that is getting better and I'm already used to the turbos. I don't lisp or anything with them and my jaw is comfortable. Yucky taste getting them on with the cleaner stuff that tastes horribly bitter and then the actual cement which isn't much better.

No new wire, the assistant said I probably won't get a new wire until my cross bite canines have come forward. Got new ligs & power chain again, silver again.

The best news - my appoint is schedule (2 weeks from yesterday) for my lowers to go on!!! I'm so excited to get this ball rolling. I was a little confused by my ortho yesterday. The whole reason that I got the bite turbos on was that I had concerns with the retainer (resting on my cross bite teeth) so I inquired about the bite turbos. If I hadn't brought that up I'd still be in the retainer, and at my consult he quoted me as 6-12 months before we would remove that and put the lowers on. So yesterday I asked if I could go ahead and get the lowers on since I now have the bite turbos and he said, "well yes, that's the reason for the turbos." Like it was his plan all along.

Whatever, I'm just happy to be getting a full metal mouth soon and getting my bite on its way to being corrected.

I LOVE how my first 4 front teeth are aligning - they have never been this straight and close together (and they're still not exactly where they should be yet). My largest gap is now just about closed thanks to the power chain. It looked like it wasn't doing a thing for about 2 weeks then BAM, gap closed rapidly. If only my canines could do the same thing haha.

I WILL get up pics soon, I need to see them for myself!

#37 Post by **PrincessPeach** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 2:00 pm

Yay your progress is so fast, you're finally getting your lowers!!!
How are your turbo bites going? Glad to hear theres no pain yet, but i bet its great to finally have your retainer off

#38 Post by **Ladybird** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:39 pm

Hey congrats on getting the blue retainer thing off

I look forward to seeing your pics.

x

#39 Post by **Margie** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:32 pm

Congrats on getting rid of the retainer! Now the countdown for your lower braces can begin!

Can't wait to see your updated pictures!

#40 Post by **sarahlynn** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:13 am

The bite turbos really aren't bad at all. Eating was awkward at first, but that has gotten better. Eating is still a bit slow with the turbos on, but overall it's not bad at all. They are not uncomfortable at all and much easier to deal with than the retainer. Although on one of my teeth that is next to the turbo I think that the space is cemented shut because I can't fit any floss in between there

I'm soooo excited to get my lowers on. I didn't need spacers, he's going to bracket them all, and it's about 1.5 weeks away now. It's funny that before the braces I used to look at my lowers and think that they were the straighter set of teeth (vs my uppers). And now that my uppers are straightening out so much my slightly crowded and crooked lowers bother me

I'll be ecstatic on the day that my upper canines get bracketed, that's my biggest thing that I'd love to fast forward the time with. The assistant says they are tough to move into the arch though, and by reading others' stories on here with similar cases I know that I'm still in the early months and to not expect them to jump up into the arch right away. I hope that by the end of the year they might be close to being bracketed.

Time is going by faster than I ever thought it would though!

#41 Post by **sarahlynn** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:28 am

Finally - new pictures! I am 10 weeks in as of yesterday and here is my progress - I'm really happy with what's gone on in this past month!

For comparison: Week 1, Week 4, and now Week 10

The cross bite isn't moving quickly enough for me, but I have faith that they'll slowly keep chugging along...Now that the large gap up front is closed up I can see that the canine on that side has more room to come forward now. The canines are still popping and clicking so hopefully they're doing something. I keep hoping that one day they decided to start jumping haha! With the power chain on in the front it has really made my front teeth overlap more. Now that the large gap is closed I'm sure that the front teeth can be sorted out eventually, I'm not concerned. Worse before better, right? And besides, my front view of my teeth looks so much better without the gaps that I can handle the overlapping for now.

And since my lowers go on in less than a week, here are some before pics of my lowers - crowding and rotated teeth in the front:

And this is how my bite comes together with the bite turbos on. Midline is way off, it's been like that for a long time:

#42 Post by **Ladybird** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 1:42 pm

Your teeth are looking nice on the top and soon your bottoms will look equally nice.

I'm interested to see how you get on with your lowers as I haven't had mine on yet.

x

#43 Post by **mlholl19** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:00 pm

Sarahlynn I am so excited for you! Your teeth are really looking nice. They look great! Good luck with getting your lowers on, I know you're so excited for them.

#44 Post by **sarahlynn** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:25 am

Thanks ladies!! I'm super happy with how my front gaps have closed up. I can't believe how much I smile now. I am still a little self-conscious about the gaps where my canines are - but in the past day or two I feel the gums getting sore near one canine - I'm hoping this means that it's on the move!! When that large gap in front closed my gums were really tender once that tooth really started booking. You can even see in the pics that my gums are red next to that tooth.

And next up is getting my lowers on in 3 more days! The only bad thing is that I have an important long job interview the day after I get my bottoms. I'm praying that I'm not in too much pain to talk a lot, or for my speech to be affected. But I didn't want to reschedule either appointment so I'm just sucking it up! The really ironic thing is that it's in the Dental School (the interview) and of all people to understand what I'm going through, it should be these dentists that I'll be interviewing with HAHA!

#45 Post by **sarahlynn** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:53 pm

I get my lowers on tomorrow morning - woohoo! Good thing I have the rest of the day off because I have a feeling it's going to be a long appointment as I have several issues that I need to discuss:

1) I'm having some pretty bad sensitivity to cold in one area and brushing with Sensodyne isn't helping at all. The sensitivity has lessened slightly, but it's still most definitely there when I eat or drink something cold.

2) My front teeth are overlapping even more. If you look at my pics above you can see that they overlap some and I wasn't really concerned about it until the past few days - it's getting worse. The wire even looks like it's halfway out of the bracket of the tooth that's sliding behind.

3) I have my usual 3 week appt. next week to get my uppers retied and I'm hoping that they'll just retie my uppers tomorrow while I'm there. I really want my canines retied because I can feel that they are on the move - woohoo! They are sensitive and the gums around them are slightly sore.