I've been reading your stories for a while, and they helped me to do the move, so I thought I'd share mine with you as well!
I'm 27 years old, and had been thinking for a while about braces.
I've got a deep deep bite, a cross-bite on the back and crowding. My main problem was TMJ and that's why I decided to correct my bite. I've been wearing a splint for a couple of years, after having my jaw 'blocked'. I wore it 24/7 (wll, kind of
) for a few months, and then at night, while driving and while working on the computer (when I clench my teeth more). Once the pain and clicks on the joint went away, the Dr recommended me to get my bite corrected, as it is probably my cross bite that causes, or worsens my TMJ pain. At first, I kind of freaked out, and then I moved abroad for nine months, so I postponed it until now. Finally I decided to go ahead, and visited a couple of orthos. I decided to stay with the one that uses Damon braces, as he didn't wanted to pull any of my teeth, and he said I would not need any palate appliance. The other one wanted to pull two lower premolars, and use a palate expander or something similar. And with the Damons I've been told that m treatment will be only 18 months, while the other one told me it would last, at least, 24.
The only drawback is that they are all metal. At first I was soo convinced that I wanted clear braces, but then I decided that I'd rather keep all my healthy teeth (I already got my wisdom teeth removed) and have a full metal look (my ortho does not use damon 3 braces). I also wanted to be sure I wouldn't have any lisp at all, as my work involves a lot of public talking...
I got my braces, and it didn't hurt that much, just a little pain the first days and now and then I feel some tooth sore. The most difficult part so far has been managing to eat with the molar buildups I got to avoid biting on my lower brackets. My teeth only meet there, so chewing is very tricky. Now I have learned how to eat almost anything (salad is still challenging) and I have worn out a little bit my buildups too. Hopefully I won't get them rebuilt! I also got a ton of canker sores at the beginning, now my mouth seems to be used to the metal.
I got an appointment at the beginning of september, when I got my lower archwire changed, and my lowers were a bit sore for a few days. The next appointment is next week, I will keep you updated!
I have also have been to a couple of emergency appointments because of falling buildups, and I also got a bracket popping out, because I've got a crown on my front tooth and it does not stick well. The ortho put a doughnut on that bracket, so it does not slide around the wire.
So far I'm happy I did it, I've seen my teeth moving a lot, and the braces are not as painful as I expected. I am supposed to get elastics soon, maybe then I'll feel the real pain, but so far it's been ok on that front. Eating has been (and still is)more tricky, as food gets trapped everywhere, and I can barely chew bc of my molar buildups, so I kind of swallow food.
My second day in braces:
My deep bite (sorry for the wax):
2 months later (notice the movement in the lowers!):
My bite now (so far, no big changes except for the worn out buildups):
