Manglemouth's ONE MONTH before/after pics page 7

[manglemouth]

I have needed braces ever since my permanent teeth came in. Weird, I had perfectly straight baby teeth, but once my permanent teeth came in, I was headed for disaster! Let me explain the fact that I am originally from Austria, but have lived in the States since '96 now. When I was a kid - unless it was just my dentist who was that incompetent - orthodontic treatment was absolutely nothing like what it is here. I remember my mom telling me over and over agai how expensive it was, and on her single income it was a big treat for me to get braces. All I knew as an 8 yr old (or so) kid was that braces were hideous, none of my friends had them (it is - or at least was - MUCH less common there to get braces) and I did NOT want these things. When you're a kid you are not worried about looks, and I did not care about my teeth coming in crooked. So needless to say, when we met with this dentist (I actually don't think he was even an orthodontist as I can faintly remember seeing all the normal dental equipment there like drills, etc..) and he gave me the choice of having "night braces" and regular "fixed" braces, guess what I chose? OF COURSE the "night braces", anything to not have to be seen with these dreadful things all day long!

What exactly this thing was though, I can hardly describe. He took impressions of my teeth and created some kind of retainer type thing. I remember it was pink, it was all one piece, and on the bottom it had a part in the front which covered my 4 bottom front teeth almost like an essix retainer because it wasn't adjustable. On the top of this thing were all kinds of wires which were nothing more sophisticated than clipped off wires (not even rounded off in the front) that stuck out of this molded piece of (plastic I wanna say?? no idea) and pushed against the back of my teeth. Everytime he adjusted it, he would just bend the wires that pushed against the back of my teeth. Those wires were for the teeth that needed to be pushed to the front (mainly my lateral, which to this day is further behind than the rest), and in the front was just a wire that looked like what you see on a Hawley retainer. It would be much easier to explain if I could draw this thing LOL...I have never seen anything like it here.

As far as progress, this thing did exactly NOTHING. Because in order to work, I had to constantly bite down on it since it was only one piece. So my mouth had to be clenched together so the top and bottom would both be worked on at the same time. Considering I sleep with my mouth open - as much as I tried to fall asleep with it closed - my top teeth didn't move much at all because the thing fell off my top teeth when i slept. My bottoms were somewhat covered by it naturally due to gravity so they did actually straighten out pretty well. But overall this treatment was not effective at all. Looking back, I wonder if my mom should have forced me to get the fixed braces but I think she was somewhat glad I chose the night braces because they were much cheaper. I think though, considering how ridiculous this piece was, that I am probably lucky I did not pick permanent braces with this guy. I can't imagine that he knew what he was doing. All I remember is him always berating me at each appointment, telling me about how another girl would wear her night braces all day long and how proud her mom was...while I simply hated this thing because it was awkward to bite down on something 24/7. My mouth just naturally doesn't really want to stay closed. Still not to this day...when I relax my mouth my lips open a slight bit.

Add to this big mess that he decided to pull my right lateral tooth to make room for the rest. His reasoning for this was that "otherwise, my canines would come out through my palate". That scared me quite a bit, the vision of having teeth coming out through my palate. But it's not like I knew anything back then and I am sure my mom knew just as little so she just trusted what he had to say. After all this research I have done the past few months, I think I probably could have had a great smile with the right treatment without any teeth extractions, due to headgear, elastics, expanders and who knows whatelse. There is so much out there, but he decided to pull my lateral. Didn't even pull a tooth less visible, no he just picked the most crooked one I guess? UGH. That messed me up good for years to come, because when he pulled that lateral, my front teeth shifted over to fill that gap, and now my midline is WAY off (at least I find it extremely noticeable) and I now have to spend lots of money on having that same tooth put back in again, only this time fake with an implant =(

I wanted braces myself for the first time when I was a teen, because that's when you start looking at appearance. However; my mom probably still being very uninformed (can't blame her for that of course), she told me that I missed my chance and that adult teeth can't be moved like kid's teeth can. She probaby thought that because she had never seen an adult with braces in Austria. It is truly extremely rare. In fact I think I have never seen any adult with braces until I came to the US and I thought "whoa!!" First of all this man wore ceramics and I was amazed by the fact that I could barely see these braces, second he was an ADULT and this meant that teeth COULD be moved at any age!

Since she told me that adult teeth couldn't be moved I didn't think about braces again until I came to the US, but it was never really a serious thought, more like a "oh, wouldn't that be nice to have straight teeth". But mainly the cost made it not even an option for many, many years while I was "young" (In my 20's). The closer I got to the big 3-0, I thought about it more and more as my 10 year high school reunion was coming up, and of course I wanted to look totally different! All this time though, straight teeth seemed like something only other people could have. I don't know why. I couldn't even imagine myself with straight teeth, I still had the thought "it's just too late for that" in the back of my mind.

Nevertheless, anxious about my reunion, I went for a free consultation, especially since I had just heard about Invisalign and thought that I could go to my reunion in almost straight teeth and would just take out my aligner for the big event. I went to see a "premier Invisalign provider" (premier according to their site) and had my consultation. I have to say, the office was amazing. They were very "pro" patient...they had an LED sign on the front desk that flashed the names of the new patients for that day. It was great to see "welcome Tina" written on a cool LCD screen. I thought "wow, they really go out of their way to make you feel at home here!". The office was huge, the chairs faced gigantic windows overlooking Florida swamps behind the building. I am sure it's safe to say he pays ALOT to have an office in that location. At first I was thrilled, he guaranteed that I would be done either just in time for my reunion or shortly after (he seemed very accomodating of such a ridiculous reason on my part to get braces), told me it would be best to pull my remaining lateral and just correct the midline that way. He was prohibitively expensive, especially for my financial situation back then, but I was ready to go. I was just gonna work lots of overtime, anything to have a great smile for my reunion! (How very vain and childish on my part. Nowadays I would proudly show off my metal braces!). I had my impressions taken, records were sent to Invisalign for the production of the aligners, xrays were taken. I was locked in - almost. If not aligners were produced yet, I was only out the cost for the records. I am not sure exactly what it was, but suddenly I got an uneasy feeling. The biggest part was the fact that when the assistant took my impressions, her hands were moving back and forth like crazy because she wasn't even standing still herself for them. She kept chatting with a friend of hers and didnt' pay attention to my impression taking at all. I knew from reading up on Invisalign that those impressions had to be absolutely *perfect* or Invisalign would reject them because they could not produce aligners from them. So as she took them, I was getting really annoyed but I didn't say anything (I know, I should have). She took the impressions out and noticed right away that the upper impression didn't completely cover the one side...the last molar wasn't covered by the goop. So she said "well I dont wanna put you through all this again, we'll just put a little more material on the finished impression, put it in your mouth again and "add" that part for the one molar"). I told her numerous times that I wanted it done right and did not mind one bit to have it taken all over again but she insisted to just "fix it up" instead of taking it again. I left there rather unsatisfied, knowing that i was gonna get a call telling me I had to come back for another set of impressions cause the first set was no good. So I sat at home and waited...like a whole two weeks, no call from them, I was starting to wonder if they were doing anything at all and why noone was updating me on anything. Sure enough, eventually I got the call and they said the impressions were not good enough and I would have to come back. I just basically lost all my faith in that office at that point. Maybe I was overly critical...probably was...but I was really upset because I specifically told her I wanted them redone and she insisted that it wasn't needed. That office was really far away and I was annoyed that I had to drive all that way again. After some thinking, I called the whole thing off. Of course they apologized and the girl I was talking to said she would make sure she would take the impressions herself next time, but I had already made up my mind. It didn't bother me so much that they made a mistake, it bothered me that I my plea to have it retaken the first time was unheard. So I thought it wasn't a good fit and cancelled even though I had already been out quite alot of money as I was charged for all the records and then Invisalign charged extra for looking at the records. I think I paid them at least 1K for nothing =(

One year later ..just a few months ago now...I saw my husband's niece for the first time in a couple of years again and she had braces. It stirred up alot of emotions in me. I knew that I could have been well into treatment myself had I not cancelled the first time around. Then I thought that it was ridiculous that I still had crooked teeth at age 30 when here there was this 13 yr old girl - who in my opinion had really cute teeth to begin with, she had such slight imperfections in her alignment that I thought it made her smile look endearing...but she really was far from a truly crooked smile - who had perfectly straight teeth already. For days afterwards I was truly depressed and couldn't get it out of my head. I kept telling my husband that I wanted braces and he kept telling me to go for it already...he was tired of hearing about it without me ever acting on it. So, Christmas came around (xmas '06) and I told him "that's IT. I am getting them for real this time. Consider it my xmas present, I want nothing else!!". He said "OK" and off I went. Saw ortho #2. I wasn't really too thrilled there either even though there was nothing *really" wrong there. Just an overall feeling I had that he just wasn't it. His staff wasn't super friendly and he gave me a really fast look-over while rattling off facts and figures to his assistant. Only because I had read up on alot here on archwired did I have an idea what he was actually telling her. He gave me 24-30 months, 2 premolars pulled, and he liked my idea of creating space for my missing lateral instead of having my remaining lateral pulled. He was friendly enough...but something just didn't "click". I felt like it was a really rushed appointment, to be honest it just really felt like a "free" consultation to me. Free and therefore very rushed.

I was really anxious to get my braces on already so I almost went with him though. Because really there was nothing wrong with him, so I thought i can't let personal dislikes (friendliness of staff, etc) and such get in my way. I set up an appointment to have xrays and impressions taken a couple of days later.

However, the nice and VERY WISE (due to 'been there, done that) folks here on archwired advised me to get more opinions because I had gotten such different opinions so far. So I pushed back my records appointment with #2 and made two more appointments. I thought if those two don't go well I still have my appointment with #2 as a back up and I can get started.

#3 was great. Simply fantastic! I saw a female orthodontist who took all the time in the world looking at my *free* xrays, spent what seemed like an hour looking at my teeth over and over again...kept telling me to open, close, open close...like a million times...asked me if I push my tongue against my teeth when I talk, all kinds of questions #2 never asked me. It seemed SO much more thorough of an evaluation. Her treatment plan was also 24-30 months of metal/ceramic braces, 2 premolars pulled and she also liked the idea of creating space for the missing lateral for the optimal asthetic look, but she wasn't adversed to pulling my remaining lateral either. She said either way would work and listed pro's and con's for both options. Basically by pulling my lateral, I would compromise my outcome because even though canines can be shaped to look like laterals, due to the gums it will never quite look right; and by creating space I would look at more complicated treatment due to then needing an implant. I asked her what she would choose if it was her teeth. She said she would want the implant. I agreed. I left that office really happy and thought I had found my match as far as ortho's. Everything felt right. I set up my date for impressions/spacers and two weeks later for braces. Seeing "brace day" topics here on archwired so much, I cheered "I have a BRACE DAY...A BRACE DAY!!!!". The assistant laughed with me

I wanted to be done with consults because I thought noone could be the wonderful experience I had just had, but the next appt was just one day later and I thought, oh what the heck. It can't hurt to go there for one more opinion. Now that visit I didn't enjoy one bit though. The ortho actually rented a dentist's office for two days out of the month in that location, so I didn't even sit in a dentist chair for the exam. Instead I sat upright in his office with the door wide open while all the other patients kept walking past us with me sitting there with my mouth wide open. It felt weird...kinda unprofessional, even though I kept telling myself that it didnt' matter if I sat in an office chair or a dentist's chair. His opinion was VERY different too than all the other's. He told me that to achieve the best results I would need jaw surgery to bring my lower jaw forward. He did not like the idea of creating space for my missing lateral one bit. He said he "would do it if need be" but I would have to realize that I would only achieve good cosmetic results, while messing up my bite even more. He left the room for a bit and handed me the chart where the ortho's check off things like if you have an overbite or malocclusion. The first thing I noticed was "fair" for oral hygiene. I was so offended by that! I don't know why it bothered me so much but it did! I felt like he was judging me because of my fillings and two crowns. Some people are just prone to cavities no matter how much they brush. My husband is the other opposite. He brushes his teeth once a day, never flosses, and doesnt have ONE cavity in his mouth! So yeah, I didn't like reading that "diagnosis". Plus he said he saw something odd on my xray like a cyst or a tooth trying to come down, and none of the other orthos - or my dentist who I see regularily every 6 months - had ever mentioned this. Also noone ever told me that my lower jaw was too short. Now, looking at my profile though I actually kind of agree. It's just that he made it sound like a severe problem. So to sum it up, I was not thrilled with #4. NO BUENO!!

I had my cleaning set up with my dentist just about two weeks later and he confirmed for me that there was nothing questionable on my xray and my oral hygiene was fine. I didn't have a cavity either. So that made up my mind for good. #3 it was!

I just saw them two days ago (have just posted about that though so I will keep this visit short) and they proved to me that I made the right choice because they again took alot of time when another ortho looked at my teeth again - totally unexpected as I just went in for impressions and spacers - and I got to meet many more of the assistants I had a good feeling about every single person on staff. It's a very upbeat, friendly, "we're here to help you" kind of office.

Now I am on day 2 of my spacers and I am at the most hanging in there. They are awful, there is no doubt about that. It was fine when they first put them in. While uncomfortable, they didn't hurt. Still didn't the next morning. At around noon the next day though, I was actually screaming out loud. (I work from home so noone can hear me LOL). They are so irritating, and the ache is such a weird ache...it's almost like an itch that can't be scatched. I keep feeling the urge to bite down on something because as painful as it is, it's almost a good feeling somehow (must be why teething babies like to bite on stuff) but when I do that, my teeth hurt so much for hours later that I learned to not give in to that. I eventually quit trying to be brave yesterday and took some Advil, because it got to the point where I just wanted to take my fingernails and pop them all out - the spacers - one at a time. I thought they would only hurt right where they are. But my teeth are so tightly together that my molars actually hurt the least. It's the front teeth that are taking the brunt of this because they are being pushed together. In fact I could swear that my lateral is now even further back and my canine even further out. It's probably true...they had to go somewhere, and they chose to move outwards and inwards cause there was no room to move sideways.

It was absolutely awful yesterday, to the point where I was really glad to read that it gets better, because there was a time where I had to take it 10 mins at a time. I could not think about anything but this dull "pseudo itch" kind of ache I was feeling. Today my teeth are only sore when I bite down...but when I don't, I don't feel the spacers anymore. YESSS!!

So here is my novel! Sorry ...anyone who made it this far, I applaude you LOL. But I wanted to make sure I didn't leave out any info =)

As soon as I get pictures where you can actually see something - my mouth just doesn't seem to open that wide - I will post some!

Tina

[Nawners]

FINALLY! I was so curious to know more of your history!!

[joney]

Hi Tina

Great story, really thorough. Glad to hear the spacers are a bit more comfortable now. When is your brace day?

Your dream will come true, your on your way already!

Regards
Joney

[manglemouth]

Thanks, NAWNERS and JONEY!!

Joney, my brace day is 2/22!!

[samantha_lou]

Great story Tina, and I'm glad to hear that you've found such a great orthodontist to go through treatment with. I hope your spacers aren't feeling uncomfortable now, it does usually subside after a couple days. I had mine for two weeks, the second week wasn't half as bad!

[Lisa65]

Thanks for filling us in on your journey so far Tina. What a shame about the Invisalign experience though and the money you lost as a result of poor patient care.

My childhood "brace" experience was similar to yours. I had a thing a bit like a Hawley retainer with added hooks which dragged my canines back to fill the gaps left by extracting 2 perfectly healthy bicuspids, but did nothing to address my overjet or wonky lateral, and has actually made things much more complicated regarding my treatment now. Still, those were the bad old days of orthodontics and things are much better now.

I look forward to seeing some pics once you manage to take some (could hubby help you there?) and to hearing about your B-day when it comes.

Good luck with those spacers!

[manglemouth]

Samantha_lou Thanks! It's nice to hear from someone who had to have spacers in for two weeks like me, 1 week seems to be the norm. I am starting to get used to them in my mouth so if nothing else, at least they give me a little preview of what it's like to have metal sticking out of my teeth (since I have metal spacers). I may even be able to chew today. It's sore but manageable now.

KK Yes I am so glad I listened to the advice to see more ortho's. I was impatient and also felt weird about taking advantage of so many ortho's free consults. But it sure has worked out best in the end cause now I feel truly confident with who I chose. It's a good feeling since this whole process is a little scary! I will follow your list of tips for b-day very closely, I am sure that will make my experience a pleasant one.

Lisa65 Since you are in the UK, I wonder if all of Europe had such bad orthodontic treatment back then? I guess we just weren't as advanced yet. Makes me feel a tiny bit better about my experience, at least I wasn't the only one! (And at least he only extracted one tooth). So you have an overjet and wonky lateral too? I have the same two problems. Well, in a nutshell. It will be much clearer when I finally get pics up. And yes, my hubby actually took them That was an adventure. Me flat on my back with him hovering over me, with the big lens practically in my mouth, and my mouth so wide open that I could swear it would lock any moment! (and I don't have tmj problems). And still we could not get a pic of the biting surface of my teeth like I see on here...since that picture always shows the (mis)alignment so nicely. When he's back from out of town we will have to try this again, maybe I should try it with a little mirror in my mouth like my ortho did! That was a neat trick

[shell1426]

TINA! I am so excited to see you got your brace story up and those spacers aren't still killing you! Only 6 more days til the BIG day! I will be looking forward to all the updates!

[Nawners]

Okay, woman... I want to see pictures!!!

[smallbutmighty]

Hi Tina,
Thanks for the great story. Hearing that kind of detail helps validate the rest of our experiences. The picture taking at my house was hilarious the first time. Glad you thought to start it at the beginning, because I didn't think of it until I think 11 days later, and there was already a slight change. I took the last ones myself, but still haven't made the transition from computer to web. I'm looking forward to cheering you on. I've only been at this for five and a half weeks myself, so our experiences may be similar. Best wishes for all of your toothy dreams to come true!
ruth

[Bluerain]

WOW Great Brace story !!

I really enjoyed reading it

Goodluck with everything and I'm sure u chose the right ortho so no worries there.

Hoping to see pics soon .

Blue

[LithpingLitha]

Tina, I hope your braces odyssey takes a turn for the better with your new ortho. Here's to you getting the treatment you deserve.
I look forward to seeing your photos.

[manglemouth]

I finally have PICTURES!! I still can't get these to look as "professional" as some look on here but it's at least something. Here you can see my problem with my lateral. Now you see it, now you don't! No lateral on the left (my right). So not only do I have to have my front tooth redone when I am done - I broke it right in half when I was skiing and it's now badly discolored - but also of course have to have implant put in. Yikes, lots of expenses coming my way! I am kinda worried about the bracket placement on my front tooth as only the top half is my real tooth...the bottom half is a fake one they kinda stuck in there with a mini screw. Hence the two different colors since only my natural tooth discolored



Here you see my arch...way too narrow and a shocking amount of metal still in my mouth, I didn't know the fillings were that huge, omg! Have to get that replaced with the white fillings for sure



And here my bottom...not too bad, just some minor crowding. I wonder why the braces have to stay on the full 24-30 months there? I can't imagine that it takes that long to fix this little bit



Only TWO more days and I can update with BRACE pictures!!! Surely it's about time for these spacers to come out, I keep having to push them back in because they are really loose now

[manglemouth]

Denise,

Thanks so much, also for the pm support It's greatly appreciated!

Shell,

Only TWO more days now! I still can't believe your progress, glad to have you for one of my two brace buddies And it's good to have you back, your laptop must never break again you hear me? Hehee

Nawners,

My other brace buddy Well here you go! Here I am in all my (un)glory. Give me 2 years though and I WILL finally turn that frown upside down LOL

Smallbutmighthy,

toothy dreams, you can say that again! I literally dream of braces almost every night! LOL I keep dreaming about having them on and then waking up and checking for progress! And yes I plan on taking lots of pictures. I learned from reading posts here that this is often the only way you can see progress...

Bluerain,

Yes, this ortho is the bomb! I am sooo glad I listened to the advice and didn't just stick with the very first one. Even if the results would have been the same, it's not worth the uneasy feeling... thanks for the kudos on my story! took me forever to write, but it was worth it

LithpingLitha

Yay!! I don't even drink beer, but the excitement is getting to me, I think I could use one LOL

THANKS FOR THE GREAT SUPPORT EVERYONE!!!

[manglemouth]

Thanks KK! The pics don't really seem clear enough to me but it's not like the ortho won't have the crystal clear before and after

I will follow the list you so often post closely! Especially the lip balm and toilet is something I would have never thought of