My journey (expander, then braces)

[Matilda]

Congratulations on completing the first stage!

[Featheryy1221]

So today was my brace day. Whoo-hoo.
My appointment was at 11:00 am and I got done at 1:30. Mostly because my ortho was busy with other patients, and had a new patient consultation.
It's SOO weird seeing braces on your teeth. And they feel so strange. It feels a lot different than I thought it would.
Here's a pic though. My teeth were still super white from that blue glue stuff that opens up your teeth pores. lol. I think next time I'll go with a different color lig. Silver just looks funny.

Also side note my gums are doing wayyyy better. Completely back to normal. So yay for salt water rinses and great brushing. I'm picking up a water flosser this week more than likely.

[Matilda]

Congratulations on getting your braces!

[parsleysage]

Woooohoooo! You got braced! Awesome hardware I think the silver looks fine - it blends into the metal. Of course I am a colored lig fan so I will say yes, yes, yes, go for colors next time! Hehe.

[Anna5]

Good luck with your braces!!! I am sure you are getting a beautiful smile once you are done, your smile is already so nice and wide!

[Featheryy1221]

Congratulations on getting your braces!

Thank you! I'm so happy to be on this stage finally!

Woooohoooo! You got braced! Awesome hardware I think the silver looks fine - it blends into the metal. Of course I am a colored lig fan so I will say yes, yes, yes, go for colors next time! Hehe.

Haha. Thanks! It's super strange seeing your teeth covered in silver metal, but I think I'm finally getting used to it. Next time I'm definitely getting a color on the bottom just to see what it looks like. Who knows maybe I'll really like it and decide to do it on my uppers as well. The girl that put my braces on was all bummed out because I wasn't getting colors. lol.

Good luck with your braces!!! I am sure you are getting a beautiful smile once you are done, your smile is already so nice and wide!

Thank you Anna! I hope that you're right. I just have to make sure I take extra good care of my teeth, so I don't get the dreaded white spots.



Here's some more photos. Comparisons and just photos of my braces now.

Anyway, that's it. I hope you all are doing well and that your days are going great!

[SpottedPickle]

Things are looking awesome!

[Featheryy1221]

Things are looking awesome!

Thank you, SpottedPickle. I'm soo happy with my progress so far.

[SunshineRay]

Awesome progress on the expansion! I love that you posted pics so new people can see that it worked for you.

[Featheryy1221]

Awesome progress on the expansion! I love that you posted pics so new people can see that it worked for you.

Thank you SunshineRay! Yeah, when I started this journey a year ago, I was looking for information about palatal expanders on adults and I found a couple blogs of people that had successful expansion. I found one of the blogs through this site. So, I figured I should help others that are in a similar case that I was. I wasn't sure about if it would work, if I should really go this route. My family was encouraging me to go through this, but I wasn't sold on the idea. It was so difficult finding information on adult expansion as it's such a debated topic. A lot of people say it doesn't work. Even my own dentist was surprised that the expansion worked. haha. But I'm glad I had found success stories. If I hadn't, I'm not sure I would have gone through with this route. Anyway, I'm glad I chose this orthodontic plan. No matter how much that expander was a damper on my life, and how much I hated it most of the time, it was sooo absolutely worth it.

[Anna5]

Yes, truly amazing: the amount of expansion you got!!! I was wondering do you think you also would have gone this route if it had meant surgery? Anyway, I am so happy for you, you are heading for a truly holywood smile!

[Featheryy1221]

Yes, truly amazing: the amount of expansion you got!!! I was wondering do you think you also would have gone this route if it had meant surgery? Anyway, I am so happy for you, you are heading for a truly holywood smile!

Hmmm great question. I feel like for me personally, the thought of going through surgery would scare me. Medical things in general really freak me out. Haha. Also for financial reasons, I wouldn't be too thrilled with that idea either. I know when I was debating all summer which orthodontist to go to, I almost went to the first ortho I met with. He just wanted to damon braces, and remove a lower incisor tooth. I probably would have gone with it, but then my orthodontist explained why I needed an expander and I found blogs, so I changed my mind. Since I did find success stories, I think I probably would have looked up surgery cases and peoples before and after. I do think I may have considered surgery if that was the only option. But probably only after trying something else first. If something else didnt work, or was super unhappy with my result, then I'd more than likely have no other option.

Its really hard to say though, because now that I have a wider smile, I keep looking at old photos and noticing how narrow my smile really was. I never realized how narrow it was until after going through all this. For some people they notice their narrow smile from the beginning.

[Featheryy1221]

Today I went to the dentist for a cleaning and the hygentist was impressed with how clean my teeth were. Most of the scrapping was just her trying to get the excess cement off my teeth.

I guess I'm doing something right because no cavities for me!

In other news, I had to change my adjustment date from thursday May 29th at 10:30 am to Monday June 2nd at 9:30 am. I'm not too thrilled about it. The reason I changed it was because I have class at 12:00 that day but I have to leave my house by 11 to get there in time. So there would have been no way I could have made it. So what's the problem? I have class the Monday too. Haha. I'm really nervous that my appointment's going to take longer than an hour and a half. I have a quiz that day that I cannot make up and we always take quizzes at the beginning of class. Soo... This should be interesting. Haha.
We'll see how this goes.

[Matilda]

My teeth were still super white from that blue glue stuff that opens up your teeth pores.

What blue glue stuff?

[Featheryy1221]

My teeth were still super white from that blue glue stuff that opens up your teeth pores.

What blue glue stuff?

... I'm not sure now. It might have just been from the polish they used, not glue/cement stuff. I just know she said something about how the pores on my teeth were really open, which makes teeth look super white. So because of that they tell you to avoid eating dark dyed foods for 24 hours.