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dellyfish's story

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 8:16 pm
by Dellyfish
So, I am getting my lowers on Thursday! I will add a before pic and a pic after I get them on. I think the uppers are next week. I am not nervous about getting them on so much as I am nervous about having teeth extracted. Perfectly healthy teeth! It feels like I'm getting a nose job or something - some kind of superfluous cosmetic procedure. It's not pointless, my teeth are hard to clean, but I can't help but make the comparison. I have to go to a Christmas get-together Friday night..... not looking forward to doing that 24 hours after I get them on, but staying home is not really an option.

Overall, though, I'm excited! I'll have pretty teeth to go with my smile!

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 3:10 pm
by Dellyfish
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There I am..... but only until 9:40 tomorrow morning. I just found out they're doing m whole mouth tomorrow. Ugh. Oh, well. Get it over with, I guess. I am almost a little sad to see this smile go! It has a lot of character.... but I am a singer, and every time I get headshots, I tell them to fix my teeth because I always tell myself that I'll get braces. Bye, crooked teeth!

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:32 pm
by whiskers00182
hi! i bet you are excited about your new journey!! you will do great! my favorite food when i first got my braces was mashed up potato salad!! haha. you will be very amazed at how fast things are going to move, i was!! good luck and i look forward to seeing your progress soon!! :)

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 12:48 am
by Dellyfish
I think that right now I feel like those women on What Not To Wear who cry when they get their hair cut. I always thought they were so childish for making ugly hair part of their identity! But, they always look so lovely in the end, right? Ugh, this is hard. Not backing out, though.

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:10 pm
by Dellyfish
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Whew! It was not the ordeal I expected - relatively painless. I am wanting to claw these things off of my teeth right now. I am not in much pain at all, but it feels so weird. I kind of wish I had gotten ceramic brackets on the bottom as well..... I am not in love with the "dual" look. Still, it's not so bad. I'm feeling optimistic about this change, though it's weird to think that I'm going to look like this for 2 years.

Will it ever feel OK to eat harder food? It's not a pain thing - it's just awkward avoiding the brackets. Chewing feels so weird, like I have food on my teeth, even though I don't.

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:12 pm
by Dellyfish
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Whew! It was not the ordeal I expected - relatively painless. I am wanting to claw these things off of my teeth right now. I am not in much pain at all, but it feels so weird. I kind of wish I had gotten ceramic brackets on the bottom as well..... I am not in love with the "dual" look. Still, it's not so bad. I'm feeling optimistic about this change, though it's weird to think that I'm going to look like this for 2 years.

Will it ever feel OK to eat harder food? It's not a pain thing - it's just awkward avoiding the brackets. Chewing feels so weird, like I have food on my teeth, even though I don't.

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 9:56 pm
by whiskers00182
When i first got my braces on I could barely eat a sandwhich, it always feels like im going to break something!! I have gotten ALOT better though and you will be able to eat harder things as time goes on. I was able to eat potato chips after about 4 months, but I think i was just chicken to eat :D
As for the food in your teeth feeling, I totally understand that! The feeling for me has gotten worse as time goes on..but i think thats because i am eating different kinds of things..breads are the WORST. Hope you are feeling OK still! good luck in your first week!

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 5:36 pm
by Dellyfish
So, I have no appetite. It's not that I am in pain - it's pretty minimal. It's just that eating is awkward and I'm honestly just not interested. I have no appetite. This is pretty much the opposite of how I usually operate.... I am always all about food. It's pretty great, because I'm losing weight, but I find it weird. I kinda hope it sticks. Has anyone else had this experience?

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:40 am
by Dellyfish
It's been 2 months! I barely notice them. There are some food that are still annoying to eat, and some that are oddly more fun to eat... like goldfish. Weird.

I'm getting extractions tomorrow - the usual "four on the floor". I am positively queasy, and I am occasionally in panic that it will ruin my jaw or something, but I've talked to lots of people who have had extractions, and they all look fine. I have a pretty severe needle phobia too. Sometimes I wonder why I went to all of this trouble just to change the look of my mouth - but it'll all be worth it in the end.

I have only had one adjustment so far, and he didn't change anything. Adjustments are going to actually start hurting after this, aren't they?

Brace day, 2 months ago:

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Tonight:

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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:46 am
by Dellyfish
Dellyfish wrote:It's been 2 months! I barely notice them. There are some food that are still annoying to eat, and some that are oddly more fun to eat... like goldfish. Weird.

I'm getting extractions tomorrow - the usual "four on the floor". I am positively queasy, and I am occasionally in panic that it will ruin my jaw or something, but I've talked to lots of people who have had extractions, and they all look fine. I have a pretty severe needle phobia too. Sometimes I wonder why I went to all of this trouble just to change the look of my mouth - but it'll all be worth it in the end.

I have only had one adjustment so far, and he didn't change anything. Adjustments are going to actually start hurting after this, aren't they?

Brace day, 2 months ago:

Image

Tonight:

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edit to add: I am also getting my upper two wisdom teeth removed, which are apparently compacted. I did not find the removal of my lowers to be all that painful, but I think these might be a different story. I hope I am not going to have to lay off of singing for more than a week, but he did say that they were way up there. Pray for my sinuses and their resonance!

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:40 am
by Dellyfish
Apparently, you are not supposed to eat before you are anesthetized. I did. Whoops! They rescheduled me for 9:30 tomorrow morning... which is in 7 hours. The anticipation is making this way worse - removing healthy teeth seems INSANE right now.

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:37 pm
by Dellyfish
The surgery was not the ordeal I had imagined - the last thing I remember is greeting the nurse when she came in. I am minus 6 teeth, and it's pretty weird. I'm a little worried - I am still bleeding from my wisdom extraction sites, and it's been 13 hours.

One more hour until I can have another Lortab! This is definitely more painful than I had imagined it would be, but overall, the experience hasn't been too terrible.

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:39 pm
by Dellyfish
I already posted these in another thread, but for posterity's sake, here are my extraction pictures. Look away if this stuff creeps you out!

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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:22 pm
by Dellyfish
I got 6 more brackets on yesterday! I have real braces, now. They're still not connected back. I have no idea why. I don't ask a lot of questions.

Maybe I'm being paranoid about this "sunken face syndrome" that seems to be popular here on this board (yet I can never find a lot of conclusive stuff anywhere else, either online or from my dentist AND ortho.....), but I swear my cheeks do look thinner, 3 weeks post-extraction. Honestly... I kind of like it. I have a lot of weight to lose, so maybe we'll see how I look then. Right now, I just look like a dropped a few pounds. I don't know if it's my worst fears confirmed, or just me moving in a better direction.

I have not been laying off the coffee and tomato soup. My ligs will get stained to some degree either way, so I just go for it. But, they took off my ligs yesterday.... yellow-brown. REALLY discolored. UGH. I might re-think this Starbucks thing.

PICS! Not a ton of change, but for some reason, this is the first time I have looked into the mirror and been pleased by my teeth. Maybe it's the clean ligs, I don't know.

3 MONTHS AGO:

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TODAY:

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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 7:49 am
by cosmo
How exciting, congrats on starting your journey they are looking great. I am going for clear braces to and I am getting them on next week I have quit coffee for three weeks now. :D I figured might as well get used to it early and now drink green tea it wakes me up too. you should swap :)