Overbite, overjet, midlines, & a clicky jaw - Ghotieyes

[ghotieyes]

I am 25, female, and from Massachusetts. I've never noticed anything wrong with my teeth until 3 years ago, a new dentist told me that I have a lot of crowding in my mouth and I should consider orthodontics. That's what got the ball rolling in my head. Here's my original smile from the front:



Not so bad eh? Pictures from different angles doesn't show such a pretty picture, but I don't see those angles very often unless I make it a point to stare and scrutinize.

My teeth stick out:


My front tooth is crooked and wisdom tooth grew out towards my cheek:


And I've got some crowding on the bottom:


2 years later, I book my first consultation. Ortho told me I have a laundry-list of things going on:

Midlines off
Cross bite on back wisdom tooth
Lower jaw under developed
Lower jaw shifts to left upon opening/closing
Deep bite
Severe protrusion of upper front teeth
Jaw popping without pain on both sides
Gum tissue receded on lower front teeth
Moderate upper and lower crowding
Invisalign is definitely out of the question
2 or more teeth need to be removed
Surgery may ultimately be the answer

This is enough to scare me away. Fast forward 7 months. I've decided that if there are this many problems going on in my mouth, I really should fix it even if it means I can't do Invisalign. So I book a second consultation after reading up on Archwired and arm myself with info, and the second ortho basically told me the same things. Pull 2+ teeth, and wear expander on top and bottom for 18 months. Both orthos seemed involved w/ my questions and were very patient explaining things to me. Being more psychologically prepared this time around, I decided to go with the second ortho for convenience. Plus the staff was really nice too.

I put off starting treatment for a month because I was going to be speaking at my cousin's wedding. Then I'm going to be a maid of honor in my friend's wedding in September. Then my brother's wedding will be coming up shortly after that. And probably my own some time next year. But I realize, I can come up with a whole list of reasons to put off starting treatment, but the longer I put it off, the longer I have to live with my crooked teeth. So I decided to suffer the humility of having braces on for everyone else's wedding so that for my own, hopefully I won't have to worry about how my pictures turn out.

11 spacers later, I get molar bands around my back teeth, ceramics on my top and bottom social 6, metal brackets on my 5th tooth, and nothing on my 4's and 6's b/c that's where the expander would go. Originally my ortho said I had to pull 2-3 teeth, but some of them would've been the ones the expander normally attaches to, so he's going to keep them for now and see if the expander will make enough room w/o extractions. He did say I have to take out a wisdom tooth though. No wire yet, b/c they have to wait 3 weeks for my expanders to come in.





The first thing I noticed after they were done putting the brackets on and took the lip retractor off was, MAN, these things aren't very comfortable at all! They felt very abrasive and not quite as rounded as I thought they would be. The bulk didn't bother me much, but the brackets felt really sharp. Plus, seeing the brackets glued on every which way emphasized how crooked and crowded my teeth really are. I'm hoping the brackets don't affect the way I talk much because I had 3 job interviews scheduled for the week after! I went back to work after I had the brackets put on and it was lunch time already. I thought I ate slow before, but it was nothing compared to now with the brackets on! I was definitely chewing up the insides of my cheeks with my brackets and slightly shifted teeth from spacers.

I also realized that I was hiding my smile more the first day or 2. Then I came to terms with myself and stopped trying so hard to hide my teeth because I never did before, and there's no way people wouldn't notice just because I closed my lips when I smile. So, I reverted back to my usual uppity smiley self. Overall response I got from friends and family was positive. Everyone either said they used to have braces and shared their stories, or they'd say they've thought of getting braces themselves. One friend affectionately called me Jaws, after he confessed wanting braces himself.

Interviews came and went and I did fine. Didn't eat much at the full-day interview b/c I was too self conscious about getting food stuck in the brackets. BTW, I got all 3 jobs and now I have the difficult task of choosing one to take. So I guess braces aren't an issue =)

It's been about 3 weeks since I got bracketed. I have in my mouth a second round of 16 spacers. Yes, SIXTEEN, to make room for the bands for the expanders. The first round hurt like heck and my teeth were so tender. This time around, it wasn't so bad, even with 5 more spacers. My mouth had a few sore spots here and there, but for the most part, I've gotten used to the feeling of the brackets on my teeth. The nice part, even though I can't wait to get my wires in and see some movement, is that I got to toughen up my cheeks and tongue without the added pain of moving teeth.

One more week until my appointment to get the wires and expanders in my mouth. I'm look forward to getting my new speech impediment...

[samantha_lou]

Congratulations on getting started with your orthodontic journey! I don't have braces yet...but I can totally relate to the expander. Although I have an RPE (Rapid Palatal Expander), is that the same type as you are having?

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing your photos of the expander and brackets all wired up! Take care! Xx

[ghotieyes]

Seeing as to how I'm scheduled to be fully braced tomorrow, and the ligs on my brackets should be changed out, I decided to test out Indian food and see how bad the staining is. I have tooth colored ligs right now. Went to the local Indian buffet and had my usual, chicken curry, eggplant, mushroom marsala, etc... I get back to work and check out the mirror and LO and BEHOLD, highlighter yellow ligs! Fortunately after brushing tonight w/ toothpaste (I'm currently using Colgate Whitening toothpaste), they're back to the only slightly yellowed color that they were before the curry.

And just for fun, I decided to see how much room I had after 2 weeks of spacers. Floss just slid right in between the spacers and my teeth. I found a lot of gunk there. Gross. I'm glad I tried to floss...

11:00 am tomorrow, I get braced. Have to also talk to them about either changing to the ortho's other office, or changing ortho's completely with my current job situation. Ortho is close to work now, but will be 40 miles away from home and the new job in 3 weeks.

[ghotieyes]

Yes, I got my wires AND my expanders in. Let me tell you, there is a LOT of equipment in my mouth. I've got a DMAX expander, and it's annoying how I can't touch the roof of my mouth any more. Half my dinner gets stuck up there and even after half an hour of cleaning, I'm still finding food particles! I also can't pronounce my t's, ch's, j's, k's or any other sound that requires the tongue to hit the roof of my mouth.



I am glad that I had my brackets for 3 weeks before getting the expanders or else I would have been in total agony trying to get used to the irritation from the brackets on my cheeks AND the expanders on my tongue!

36 hrs since my archwires were put on, and I think it's starting to poke a little in the back. Not sure if it's cuz my teeth are moving already (which would be amazing) or if they just didn't clip it close enough yesterday. I guess I should call my ortho tomorrow to ask.

[ghotieyes]

I just came back from the ortho today to get my poking wire fixed. It wasn't long enough to clip, so they just bent it back so it's not poking into my gums. While I was there, the ortho bent back a few hooks on my brackets/bands to lessen the irritation. He clipped off a hook that was irritating me b/c he said he wasn't going to need it. It came as part of my expander. So hopefully he's right and doesn't change his mind later on about that hook. My mouth feels so much better now that those irritations are removed/bent back, but my cheek still has to heal itself from the weekend. Yes, warm salt water rinses.....

[ghotieyes]

2 weeks post bracing, I think my bottom front tooth has moved. Either that or I'm overly optimistic. Good news though, and I'm definitely NOT imagining this, is that my teeth are loose. I was flossing just now and noticed that one tooth was kind of wiggling as I was sliding the floss in. So out of curiosity, I poked at all my other teeth and found a good HALF of them were wiggly. A bit unsettling, but at least I know they're doing something.

[Joanna20]

Hey! Congrats on starting ur journey! ´
Looking forward to some more pictures! I just luv pics!
Joe

[ghotieyes]

4 weeks post bracing, and they've moved!! I definitely notice that there are gaps between teeth that weren't there before any my top front has made the most improvement. No major pain since the first week, although random teeth get sore here and there. It still feels kind of weird biting into food so I'm cutting up my sandwiches, pizza, and burgers. Here are pics.

Before:


4 weeks later:


Yay teeth! And I went for my consult to have my unbraced wisdom tooth (waaaay back on the left side, if you can tell) extracted. Oral surgeon said it should be easy -- 10 minute process. Although I thought about it and that would leave me with uneven numbers of teeth in each quadrant. Must ask ortho about it...

2 weeks til first adjustment.

[ghotieyes]

I had my first adjustment 2 weeks ago. My ortho decided to give me wire ties instead of ligs b/c they were more aggressive than ligs. Plus one broke off when I tried to chew on my left side b/c there was already so much strain on it cuz it's so much farther in than the other teeth next to it. I was worried about having wire ties at first b/c I wasn't expecting it, and because I had a wedding to be in and didn't want my braces to be too noticeable. Turns out the ties aren't too bad. I don't have to worry about them staining or snapping, and they're really thin so it's not really as noticeable as I though they would be. There was one end that stuck out a bit and it irritated my lip, but I pushed it back in and it's fine again.

Here are pictures:




Ortho also gave me a Rotadent electric toothbrush. It's got these tapered heads so it can reach between brackets and behind the archwire. It's kinda fun to use, and handy too, since I noticed some tartar behind the wire. I got an update on how long I have to wear my expanders. He said a year, 13 months at most, so shorter than I thought at first. Hope all goes well. I definitely see/feel gaps between my bicuspids on all 4 quadrants, so the expander is doing something!

10 days til my extraction. 1 wisdom tooth is coming out. Oral surgeon says it should be easy since it's not impacted. 10 mins! Hope I can still eat after that. I don't need to lose any more weight.

===============================================
3 year sentence
1 extraction
DMAX expanders

[ghotieyes]

I did it! I got my extraction done and over with. After a looong wait in the waiting room, and another wait in the dentist chair w/ a topical anesthesia swab and cotton balls in my mouth, the oral surgeon finally came in 1.5 h after I got to his office. He wasn't kidding when he said it'd take 10 min to take the tooth out. He just injected some novocain in 2, maybe 3 spots, started pushing on the tooth, and the next thing I know, he's done!! No awful noises, no pinching, just a little pressure on my jaw. He was done before the novocain took full effect! I was walking to my car and my tongue kept getting number and number.

Here's to hoping for a fast healing time!

[groovie]

Great progress there!! Can't wait to see more pics as you continue your braces journey!

[Joanna20]

That's some nice progress!!! Congrats!

Joe

[violinist]

thats great progress, I need braces, I'm looking in to getting them so my teeth will be better nd ill like to smile more, and have great teeth.

[ghotieyes]

I'm psyched, and nervous at the same time. I went for my 4th adjustment today, 26 weeks (6 months) into my treatment. I've been getting really fed up w/ my speech impediment w/ the expanders top and bottom and was happy that I'm halfway through my 12 month sentence already. I also got engaged 2 months ago and wanted to discuss my options for my big day.

So sitting in the chair, my ortho tells me that I'm making great progress with the expanders and there's a good amount of space. He also says that he wants to switch me from ceramics to damons b/c damons would be faster. I ask how much faster would they take and he said it'd be another 12-18 months.

Imagine my joy considering that means total treatment time would only be 18-24 months as opposed to the 30+ I was expecting from the initial consultation. Switching to Damons would also mean the end of my expanders! I was just expecting to take my top braces off for my wedding, about 16 months from now, and putting them back on for the remainder of my treatment, but now, my ortho's telling me there's a chance I might be completely DONE by the time I get married!!! WOOT! I wasn't thrilled about the $1000 he quoted me to replace the brackets in case I wasn't done by my wedding day though. He said that he wouldn't charge for the labor, but because the hardware isn't reusable, he'd essentially be using a new set. I'm hoping if I have to, and only take the top ones off, then it'll be $500 instead of $1000. It only makes sense, right =)

But as exciting the prospect of being done early is, I'm very aware of the chance that I'm not done by then, as seems like the case most of the time. And I was kinda getting used to the look of ceramics in pictures and liking how they're not that noticeable. Oh and I'm kinda bummed, cuz I'm out $600 cuz my ortho charged extra for them. So I'm worried about how Damons will look in pictures. I know they're smaller, but there's more metal too. I guess I'll have to take the sacrifice (or rather, everyone else will have to take the sacrifice) and deal with my metal mouth pictures.

Without further ado, 3rd adjustment (16th week) pictures that I've been too lazy to post, with hopefully NEW pictures following soon with DAMONS after my 4th adjustment followup on Thursday.

[ghotieyes]

Linda21,

I had the option at the beginning, but at that time we were planning for a Oct07 wedding. Even with 6 months shorter treatment, I'd still be estimated at 24 months and I wouldn't be anywhere near done when I got married. So I decided to go w/ the ceramics cuz they're less visible from a distance.