How do I love thee, let me count the days...

[Jensniffer]

Yes, I am counting days already, more like months, one month down 17 left to go (if I am lucky!!) Probably more like 23 left to go.

Honestly this last month hasn't been that bad, if you don't count the consant dry mouth, inability to bite anything with my front teeth and the wearing of holes in my cheeks I am afraid though that the worse is yet to come...July 4 I am getting my first spacers..dun dun dun... I hear they hurt like a beeotch, can't wait. The assistant actually told me that it was the worse pain she had ever felt, gee thanks, this as she booked my appointment to get them. I have yet to be banded on my back molars top and bottom, with only the top ones scheduled to go on. The ortho said that he wanted to do some work on the bottom before he banded the bottom, whatever that means.

So this is my chronicle of my joys and woes. And there has been joys! On Saturday I was flossing and brushing as per usual and I swear that there was this little speck of pepper right inbetween my two front teeth and for the life of me I couldn't brush it away...turns out it wasn't pepper but a SPACE forming inbetween my two front teeth!! The teeny tiniest of tiny spaces but I'll take it! As you can see from my pre-braced photos my front teeth have always over lapped. I will admit, I whistled air through it most of that day haha (ok and still am doing it today!!)

I am shocked as I look at my 'before' pics and freshly braced shots as compared to just a month in, my arches are widening, does that really happen that quickly?? And my pesky snaggle tooth that was my main motivation for getting braces in the first place is rotating into place quite quickly and nicely I hope the ortho does some shaping of my teeth sooner than later though, I have lots of wear from the angle it sat for so many years.

Anywho, enough for now, hopefully my pics load, pre-braced, brace day and one month in, sorry about the blurry pics, I lent out my camera and am sad now.

Happy chewing everyone!

[klobird]

OMG!! You're teeth, especially your bottom teeth, have straightened out that much in only 1 month???!!!!
That's it, I want your ortho.........where is he?.....Oh wait, since your ortho is open on July 4th, you're probably not in the USA, and I don't have a passport............hmmmpphhhhh.....

NICE!!!

[Jensniffer]

Well I am sitting at 6 weeks today and I had my first 'adjustment' I had my seperators removed from my upper molars and bands put on my back upper 2 molars and they are now hooked up to the rest of my teeth. Still no bands on bottom back molars, he wants to wait still as apparently I have a bit of an open bite and he doesn't want to change anything there yet. I have heavier wires on the top and bottom and the assistant say I will keep them in for 9 weeks as they will be doing a lot of work for me. The banding process was uncomfortable but not totally terrible. It was AMAZING to floss my teeth with the wire out, I will never take that for granted again once these things are off my teeth!

The one sort of bad news thing was my ortho said that if my front top teeth don't straighten out enough by my next appointment that he would put a coil in between them to get them moving faster. I said no thank you I am good and I would be having a firm talk with teeth to get moving. I think I would DIE if I had a coil in between my two front teeth! I am self concious enough with the braces nevermind with a coil waving at everyone! So far my teeth have been moving really quickly so I am crossing my fingers (and uncrossing my teeth!) that they continue to do that.

My teeth are very tender right now, I had to blend up my dinner a bit as I couldn't chew it

Pics later!

[Jensniffer]

omg I thought I would never use wax again one of my top bands is digging into my cheek, a spot previously untouched by a rubbing bracket and I can't get the wax to stick on, lameeeeee

[ladyrastafari]

wow.. your teeth have really changed in a month.. now u have me kinda excited lol..

[Jensniffer]

Well I am about 3.5 months in right now and there is a lot of changes going on in my mouth! I had a large gap develop in my bottom front teeth so at my last appointment I got a powerchain put on to pull them back together...weird but ok...

Nine weeks ago I got a heavier wire put on my top arch and my ortho said that if my front teeth didn't straighten out that I would have to have a coil installed (nooo!!!!) So at this appointment he said that he was really happy how much they weren't over lapping but.....he didn't like the angle that they were tipping out, so on went the coil between my front teeth

The assistant said that it was supposed to stay on for nine weeks but she would schedule my next appointment for six weeks. I also have to go back in five weeks for spacers on the bottom to get my back lower molars banded...sigh...

The good news (I suppose) was that within hours of leaving my appointment my front teeth have a nice little gap forming in between them. Its really weird for me as I have always had my front teeth overlap and now I am sportin a space! Makes me a little nervous how big the gap will be in 6 weeks though...or does the coil hit a certain spot and stop spreading the teeth??

All part of the master plan I suppose....