My name is Margaret and I am 23 years old. I have self-ligating brackets, they are called Speed Braces. I’m not sure how speedy they are though; my treatment time is an estimated 2 years
.My story started back in November 2008 when I went in for a routine check up with my dentist. While the hygienist was cleaning my teeth she mentioned that she thought I might be a good candidate for Invisalign and that my dentist was starting to do Invisalign. After my cleaning I made an appointment to come in for a consultation to discuss how Invisalign works. The dentist said it would be a difficult case but that he wanted to give it a try. So after the consultation I made an appointment to come in and get some impressions taken. After the impressions were taken I was told they would call me once a piece of equipment they had ordered had come in. I was not charged for the impressions or any of the work up that was done, since I was going to be one of his first clients for Invisalign.
At the beginning of February 2009 I still had not heard from the dentist office. I figured they should have received the equipment by now but must have forgotten about calling me, so I gave them a call. When the dentist called me back he told me that after reviewing my case more thoroughly he decided that Invisalign would not be the best way for me to go and that braces would be much better. I wasn’t very impressed that I had waited 3 months for him to tell me we weren’t going to be going ahead with the Invisalign; I really had my heart set on it. So I gave up on the idea of having the perfect smile.
Not too long after that happened I received a pamphlet in the mail about a dental clinic offering free consultations for Invisalign and Speed Braces. I figured this dentist would have more experience and thought I would give it a try. This dentist said that we could to ahead with Invisalign but that the results wouldn’t be perfect. I didn’t care; I just wanted my teeth to look better than what they currently looked like without having a mouth full of metal so I booked the appointment to get all the work up done.
At the appointment for the work up they took quite a few impressions because my mouth is so small, I didn’t make it very easy for the assistant that had to do all the work! And they took quite a few pictures and x-rays. A couple days after that appointment I got a call from the dental clinic asking me to come back in. When I came back in they told me that I have an impacted tooth on my lower left side, I knew about that tooth, when I had my 4 wisdom teeth taken out in 2006 they had discussed taking it out then but they didn’t end up doing that, I’m not sure why. They also said that braces would be the best way to go; they kept mentioning that every time I went in. But I was stubborn and wanted to keep the impacted tooth and still go ahead with the Invisalign, so they sent my documentation to the Invisalign Company and they said they would call me when it was time to go in and review the treatment.
About two weeks later I got a call from the clinic asking me to come in for my next appointment. At that appointment they showed me the Invisalign Clin-Check (I think that is what it was called) which showed what my teeth currently look like and what they will look like when they are finished (ideally). Dr. T’s assistant kept saying that braces would be better for me, and that she would feel so much better working on me if she knew that I had the best possible treatment for me. Her saying that really stuck with me. I knew she didn’t have anything to gain whether I chose braces or not, she just knew what would give me better results and she was so adamant about it. When Dr. T came in and explained everything to me, more about getting the impacted tooth extracted and fixing my midline I no longer knew what I wanted to do. He wasn’t saying we couldn’t’ do Invisalign, it’s just that it wouldn’t give me the best results.
I decided to take the night to think about it. I had no idea what I wanted to do. The next day I decided that I was going to get the impacted tooth out and get braces. I figured in the long term getting braces was the best option. I might feel like a geek for the next two years but at least it would be worth it in the end. I made an appointment to get my impacted tooth taken out, it took two weeks to get in to see the dentist that does the IV sedation (Dr. T doesn’t do IV sedation).
I wasn’t too nervous about getting the tooth extracted, I thought the worst part would be having to fast all day before my appointment at 4:00 and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat anything for a little while afterwards either. I’m not a fan of IV sedation, I woke up before they finished, that wasn’t fun, it didn’t really hurt but they weren’t being too gentle with my lips. They didn’t end up taking out the entire tooth either. I guess the root from the tooth went down into the nerve in my jaw so if they took the tooth and the root out they would have risked permanently numbing that side of my jaw. I didn’t end up getting charged for the extraction because the dentist wasn’t able to accomplish what he had set out to do. I didn’t heal well after the extraction. I wasn’t able to eat much for about two weeks after the surgery and I was in a lot of pain. I had to put off getting braces for a week so my gums could heal.
I finally had my braces put on May 21, 2009. The process wasn’t too bad. The worst part was probably having the expander thing put in to hold my mouth open and having an extremely dry mouth. My mouth didn’t start to hurt until a couple of hours afterwards but it wasn’t too bad. Eating was interesting for the first couple of days. I stuck to soft foods like noodles, Jell-O, apple sauce, that sort of thing. I felt really self conscious going out in public with all that metal in my mouth. I already look really young for my age and having braces didn’t help!
My family, friends and co-workers have all been super supportive, they say I look cute which is nice of them to say. They don’t even notice the braces anymore but I have been getting loads of compliments about how much my teeth have moved already! I have had braces for 5 weeks and 1 day. I am used to having the braces now. I don’t have too many problems eating and I’m not self-conscience about them anymore. My friend’s husband saw me with them for the first time last weekend and he mentioned that he has been thinking about getting braces for awhile now and after seeing me with them he wants to get them even more now.
My first adjustment is July 21st. I am looking forward to it; I can’t wait to find out what Dr. T has to say about my progress!
I am at work right now, but I will post some pictures this weekend! Or attempt to anyway… I don’t have much experience with things like that!
Anyway, sorry for the novel! I figure the more detail I go into the better! You never know how many people might have a story similar to yours!
I'm sure that your current wire is still doing quite a lot of work. Now you can look forward to a new wire at your next appointment!