mezy - at 23 she's finally got braces (with pics)

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#1 Post by **mezy** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:07 am

hey everyone! I've been reading this site for a while - gathering info about getting braces etc before I finally got them myself on tuesday! Had braces for all of 4 days now. And It's not too bad so far.

The problem I have is that my two lateral incisors (i think i got that right?) are rotated. I hate smiling in photos (unless I'm on an angle) because I'm so self concious about them (my left tooth in particular). Also my teeth sort of lean in on an angle, and they're going to fix that up.

About 2 years ago I went to an ortho for a consultation, they did the xrays etc. The xrays found an infection growing under a tooth I'd had 2 root canal's done too (the first when I was 14, the second time was about 19??) I went back to my endodontist who did the 2nd root canal and she suggested we cut open the gum, clean out the infection and fill it up with bone. I agreed (she offered to do it for free). Man it was the most painful thing ever!

Go forward 2 years, with checkups every 3 months until my root canal tooth got the all clear (healed enough with new bone). My dentist was unwilling to start braces treatment until I got the all clear from my Endodontist. Now it's all good so I go to the ortho & he suggests to remove that root canal tooth and bring the other two teeth behind it into it's place (it's a molar third from back.) Why didn't they just do that in the first place!!??

All that pain for nothing! So got the tooth removed tuesday 12th september, and one week later I got my braces on - september 19th.

Ceramics on top, and metal on bottom (with sky blue o-rings/ligs). I have a small mouth so it took my ortho a bit of time to get the mouth separator thingy on, not a hard plastic one, he said it was a new soft plastic type and way better than what they used to use. It was a fairly quick process - I was quite amazed how fast and relatively painfree it was, and went to work afterwards. I think there's also a fair bit of glue left behind on my teeth! I was told it should come off after a while?

The few people who have seen them so far are fairly interested, think they look alright, my boss even said "I didn't know you had crooked teeth" (here I was being so paranoid thinking that everyone was looking at my teeth?

) My boyfriend says i didn't need braces but thinks they look cute.

The pain's not been too bad so far - it was worse last week for my tooth extraction. I've got heat activated arch-wires (does everyone else have this?) and I start hot water rinses this saturday, which means I'm expecting the pain to start tomorrow. The ortho said if the hot water rinses are done thoroughly and frequently they can see teeth begin to move in 1-2 weeks - YAY!

I think I may have lost some weight only because I wasn't able to eat solid foods last week either due to extraction. I'm being super careful not to bite anything hard and even managed to eat my favourite food ever, sushi today. I cut off all the seaweed (didn't want to have to pick it all out of my braces!) and chopped it into small pieces. yum. Also been using wax a lot for those painful sharp bits at the back.

Here's some before pics and also some first day braces pics!

< kinda shows the spot where my tooth was removed

day 1

That's a huge post - thanks for reading it if you managed to get this far!

#2 Post by **mezy** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:15 am

oh and also where the bracket is placed on on my back left molar, it feels like its been placed too high. The top tooth hits the bracket and doesn't bite down properly because there's not enough room. To bite closed now, i have to move my jaw slightly off centre (before braces it was quite centered). Hope the ortho didn't place it in the wrong spot or anything? I'll find out soon though (have an small appt on monday to get an o-ring fixed)

#3 Post by **sjsarre** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 7:10 am

Congrats on getting braced..

Yes I agree its a shame you didn't have to go through all that root canal just to get the tooth removed anyway....

But I bet you are glad you've finally started the journey!

#4 Post by **lionfish** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 3:10 pm

Hi Mezy, from another Sydneysider, and welcome to this great forum.

I'm a sushi fan too. I slice a roll into 4 smaller pieces and find that much easier to deal with, including the seaweed.

#5 Post by **Muna** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:19 pm

mezy wrote:oh and also where the bracket is placed on on my back left molar, it feels like its been placed too high. The top tooth hits the bracket and doesn't bite down properly because there's not enough room. To bite closed now, i have to move my jaw slightly off centre (before braces it was quite centered). Hope the ortho didn't place it in the wrong spot or anything? I'll find out soon though (have an small appt on monday to get an o-ring fixed)

I've got same issue with my braces..

#6 Post by **belmikry** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:42 pm

welcome Mezy- really you have a fantastic attitude towards braces- cheersa to all who are making this a positive experience for you- nothing better than being called cute by your boyfriend! [mine says the same thing

]

looking fantastic! and about that molar- mine did that too at first, but its actually probably because your teeth are out of alignment in the back- just wait until they start shifting- also, maybe request lifters in the meantime if you are worried about chipping

i have heat-activated wires too

they hurt at first but definately I notice alot of change- listen to kiwi, those warm salt water rinses do wonders!

#7 Post by **mezy** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 3:37 am

Thanks for the great welcome everyone!

linda21 & belmikry - thanks for the advice on my molar hitting the bracket, I've learnt to live with it for now, and I'm only chewing on my right side (still giving the tooth that was extracted on the left a bit more time to heal before I start chewing on it!)

I had to get an o-ring put back on today (fell off on first day!) and the ortho said he was very pleased with my progress so far - he said the teeth at the bottom had even begun to move a fair bit! yay! which is not too bad for just under a week. Not that I can really notice any change...

I have to do the hot/warm water treatment 8-10 times a day (for approx 50 mins a day say my instructions). I've been doing it for about 3 days now and I don't feel a lot of pain yet, but I guess it's still early days.

#8 Post by **mezy** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:49 am

KK: Gain without pain sounds good to me; which is how it's been going so far. Although it's making me a little suspicious, i feel like i should be experiencing a fair amount of pain? All my friends have asked if it hurts and so far my answer is "no" (apart from the occasional wire digging into the back of my mouth, nothing a bit of wax won't fix).

I have noticed I'm beginning to develop a tiny tiny gap between my 2 top front teeth. I'm assuming (hopefully) it's only to make room for the two teeth next to it to straighten. My boyfriend said not to worry, as I've still got at least 18-24 months to go, and that my ortho knows what he's doing. Making a note of here so I can track my progress... I might just be paranoid but I will definitely keep an eye on it.

#9 Post by **mezy** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:48 pm

Thanks for the reassuring words, Karen - made me feel a lot better about the whole thing!

And your progress is amazing!

All that movement without pain is hard to believe

Haha I just have it in my head that pain = movement. I still haven't had any pain so far which is great.

Update: It's only been 2 weeks and 4 days although I think the progress is happening. I'm staring really hard at my before pics and into a mirror for comparison and I'm fairly sure there's been movement. I probably should up my hot water treatments (I've created a little jingle for it, which gets stuck in my head every time I go to do a treatment haha). Although it can be a bit difficult to do them at work.

I feel like my teeth are getting stained???? I can tell my o-rings are slightly, but defintely my teeth. Not sure if it's excess glue left behind (I can see that he didn't clean it all off - will mention this at 1st adjustment Oct 30th) or the fact I'm using a high fluoride toothpaste, one they suggested/gave me.

What toothpaste is everyone else using? Is it ok to use a whitening (or my fav Colgate's Baking Soda & Peroxide) while wearing braces or will there be a colour difference on my teeth when they come off?

I'm totally used to braces now after such a short time although I'm still not chewing on my left side yet (where my tooth was removed).

#10 Post by **cmm1280** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:12 am

MEZY,
Quick question for you... what type of ligs do you have on your cermaics? Are they clear or white or are they something else?

#11 Post by **mezy** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:23 am

Hey - sorry for the delayed reply!

My ligs for the cermics are clear. They're holding up pretty good too (one month in) - not too much staining, although I'm avoiding a things like curries (can't stand them!) and pumpkin soup (love it!) so there's less chance staining.

#12 Post by **sjsarre** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:55 am

I have pumpkin soup and eat lots of red vegetables, in fact I had tomato and sweet pepper soup for lunch, they definately don't stain.

Curry really is awful for staining tho...

#13 Post by **mezy** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:57 pm

That's good to hear sjsarre and Linda. I was told to steer clear of pumpkin soup, coffee etc because they stain. Which means I haven't had a coffee since I got my braces on! Not that I need one everyday, but it's nice to wake up a bit at work sometimes

Do you guys brush your teeth straight after you eat/drink those kind of things, or just brush afterwards when you get a chance?

Update:

I'm trying to do more hot water treatments (supposed to do 8-10 a day), but I'm only doing them as half as much as I should I think... It's been a little over a month now. Not huge changes but here's what I've noticed:

- My teeth definitely still have glue on them and look stained because of it :p Oh well, nothing a bit of whitening can't fix after the process is over.
- The two next to incisors are making some progress, sort of turning out more, although not totally rotating towards front yet (hmm confusing? yes. I'm terrible at explaining things sometimes)
- Bottom teeth not moved a lot, but it's definitely easier to floss in some areas than it used to be! small gaps = movement!
- Can't floss between some teeth because it's too tight. I tried once and got the floss stuck and cut my gum getting it out again :p

Had dinner last night with some friends who haven't seen me with braces on. I didn't say anything - just talked to everyone and waited to see who would notice first

They were all great about it and said they could barely notice them (most of them had braces years ago). One of my friends even said she was thinking of getting them next year!! So glad it's over and went well - I thought showing them for the first time would be hard, but wasn't at all...

Here's some pics:

#14 Post by **mezy** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:15 am

Linda21 - Thanks for the advice on just rinsing with water after meals/coffee etc. I was told to brush after every meal, which I was doing and still do after breaky/din/anything chocolate related

Now I"ll relax a little, rinse with more water and drink more coffee! I had a mocha on the weekend for the first time in a month, that was nice...

KK That's the best tip, the salt water gargles - I had a cut/small ulcer and did a few salt water rinses and it cleared it up really quickly.

I was supposed to go for my first adjustment on monday and was really looking forward to it because I was going to request pink or purple ligs! But I've had a call to say my ortho has had an operation, is recovering and will call me to let me know when he can see me.

I'm being totally selfish here, but I hope he gets better quickly so I can get to that first adjustment milestone

In other news I turned 24 last monday, I might have to change my thread title!

#15 Post by **mezy** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:17 am

thanks for the birthday cheers everyone!

found out my 1st adjustment will be on: 22nd November - that's so far away! :p That means it'll be over 2 months since I had them put on. Hope that's not going to slow my treatment time down, but I have a feeling it will. I feel like there's not a lot of progress at the moment. Although it's partly my fault because it's hard to remember to do my hot water treatments 8 times a day! (well... hard to remember = i'm being a little lazy!)

I'm off to Port Douglas next week for a mini holiday and planning on going snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef! I'm sure I'll be right but am hoping they'll be no mishaps while I'm away. Has any one been snorkelling with braces and how was it?