Started my brace adventure.

[dodgedarlin]

Hey all, I've previously posted here on Archwired when searching for an ortho & gathering some opinions. Well, glad to say after finally finding one & waiting for what seems like forever, my journey has began!

I'll start off with the lowdown on my treatment.

28-30 months est time
Full Innovation-C brackets top & bottom
Palatal Expander =(
Possible nightly wear of headgear for short time

It was so very hard for me to find an ortho I liked & that was willing to work with me. I was dead against having any teeth pulled as I have hemophelia & the pre-treatment for any extractions would have been costly & quite time consuming. My ortho I chose has actually worked very closely with those with hemophelia & understands my concerns & was willing to work with my case, if I was willing to go for a longer treatment time including the extra appliances....

So after paying my $1200 down payment & bracing myself for $200 a month for the next 18 months I'm glad to say I commenced into the long awaited journey of braces.

-Today was spacers today & even though I was SUPER excited to get the ball rolling I was a bit apprehensive. My teeth are very crowded, my two front teeth with a sizeable protrusion & (excuse my horrible vocab & knowledge of teeth) the 2nd tooth from one of the front coming out my top gum.

I received 10 spacers, 2 of which being those little metal ones since the assistant had such a hard time fitting the little ruber ones in. It's only been 2 hours & my teeth are throbbing, & the metal ones are the absolute worst. Thankfully I go in next Tuesday to have them replaced with the little rubber ones before my ortho office goes on Xmas break & that way I wont have to deal with them over the holidays.

Now I'm a little confused here, from what Ive seen, people only have their spacers in for a week or so...I'll have mine in until Jan 6 when they do the molar bands & impressions for my expander. I then won't get my lower braces on until Jan 16(I believe) & then sometime in Feb(I forget the exact date) I will have my expander placed & then I suppose we'll go from there.

I will get pics up either tonight or tomorrow of my teeth with the lovely spacers(not as exciting as brace pics, I know)

[grneydfairy]

Eh, exciting or not it's always good to see progression from the very beginning of treatment! Congrats on making the decision and starting the journey! We look forward to seeing your teeth get straight.

[SharMarali]

That's fantastic that you were able to find an orthodontist who has done work with other hemophiliac patients. As careful as the rest of us have to be, you'll have to be even more cautious. It's not at all uncommon for me to accidentally give myself a small cut on the inside of my mouth with one of my brackets, but the worst thing that happens is it's a bit uncomfortable for a day or two while it heals up. Sometimes I get annoyed with trying to force floss in between two stubborn teeth so I just JAM it in there and cause a spot of bleeding, which stops after about 5 seconds. I don't envy the challenges you'll have at all, but you'll be so happy with the results!