Mindykatz's Progress- 7/30 UPDATE 1st adjustment

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#16 Post by **Pixel Witch** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:51 am

The assistant scraped off the dots on mine. They were primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and the brackets with hooks had purple dots

I did notice while staring at myself in every freaking reflective surface at the grocery store that she'd missed a dot and it was on my tooth, eep.

#17 Post by **mindykatz** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:07 pm

Ok good, so I can scrape the colors off - I figured they were a code for the ortho but I wasn't sure if they were permanant or not. Phrew! I was like...well if he's going to put colored brackets on, why can' I pick the colors! lol

I'm in a little bit better mood now - I think everyone here at work is a little weary to bring the braces thing up because I look like I'm in a pretty bad mood, which I guess I am. I have really easy-to-read facial expressions so I probably look pretty sour!

My stomach is still a little topsy turvy but I think its just reeling from the taste of that adhesive. Seriously - that was the worst stuff I've ever had in my mouth.

How long did it take you all to get over brushing your teeth in public? I was brushing in the bathroom at work after lunch and someone came in and I felt REALLY embarassed..I sort of packed up my stuff and ran outta there.

I'llbe on here even more often than I have been lately I think, for support. Literally NO ONE else I know has braces! I'm also the only person in my immediate family to ever have dental work like this done. My fiance and best friend had braces but they've been off for over 10 years, so they don't remember too much about them. I'm glad you guys are here to talk to!

#18 Post by **Pixel Witch** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:22 pm

I totally did a quick poke and brush at the grocery store bathroom, because of that stupid yellow dot. Some girl came in and didn't even bat an eye.

#19 Post by **mindykatz** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:29 pm

LOL - actually I went into the same bathroom yesterday and there was a nursing student (I work at a college) on the toilet with the stall door COMPLETELY OPEN! I even made eye contact with her cause I just couldn't believe it, and she didn't seem to care or think it was unusual at all. I was like, pretty horrified, lol.

Soooo I guess if things like THAT occur in public bathrooms, then brushing my teeth in there probably wouldn't cause anyone to bat an eye at me either, Pixel Witch, lol!

#20 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:36 pm

I would rather brush my teeth in public than have little pieces of food in them. Brushing in public never bothered me and it makes me feel better knowing that I have a clean mouth and others don't mind walking around all day with plaque building particles brewing about. I don't care if they look at me, atleast my mouth is fresh and clean!

#21 Post by **mindykatz** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:14 am

Well I'm in a better mood today - and I must look like I am because people at work are all asking me if my mouth hurts and stuff, and telling me their tales of woe from having braces as teenagers lol.

The only sort of painful part so far has been that my bottom brackets literally ripped up the inside of my bottom lip - there are shreds of skin hanging (so gross). But it actually doesn't hurt that bad because I didn't even notice the brackets were hurting me until last night when my lip was already all shredded up - it just felt rough. So now I have a gob of wax on each of those bottom brackets, and I've ben rinsing with that Peroxyl mouthwash stuff (mouthwash with H2O2 in it). Much better already! I've been doing warm salt water rinses for 3 weeks now (since I had my extractions) so I think that is an every-day habit already, and that helps too.

Flossing is challenging....I think some of the adhesive got between my teeth beause I REALLY had to work the floss in between some of my teeth, then when it finally went, a peice of adhesive would fly out. There is still one tooth like that that I haven't managed to get the floss between - I'll try again tonight. Also, there are 2 teeth that I just can't floss between because the brackets of one tooth are RIGHT up against the tooth next to it, so I just can't get the floss between there. I suppose it will be ok to not floss those (not like I have any other choice) until the teeth straighten out and there is more room.

Took me 45 minutes to clean my teeth last night! I'm hoping for 40 minutes tonight!

(I was hoping to add a ticker to count down to my first adjustment, but it lokos like tickerfactory.com is down.....I'll try later hmm.)

#22 Post by **mindykatz** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:44 pm

Ugh - I have a poking wire ALREADY! I tried bending it back with a pencil eraser and the back of a spoon but no luck - its really short so i don't think itll bend, and if I push too hard on it to try to bend it back it causes the whole wire to move and my teeth twang.

I'll see what else I can do with it - I really don't feel like going back to the ortho already but I will if this wire keeps getting on my nerves. Bleh!

Some bittersweet news : my top 2 front teeth and my bottom 4 front teeth hurt to the touch (like when I press wax on them)...so that measn they're moving already! Wee hee!

#23 Post by **mindykatz** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:17 pm

Is it possible to feel when your teeth move? I swear, earlier today I got a sharp twinge in my lower front teeth, and I was like "OMG what was that?!". I'm wondering if my tooth moved a fraction of a millimeter and it just reverberated throughout the adjacent teeth so I felt it.....maybe? lol! Who knows...

I'm sitting here watching America's Funniest Videos and drinking my "girly drink" (a Smirnoff Ice) and thinking that this braces thing might not be so bad after all.

cool!

#24 Post by **mindykatz** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:23 am

Yeah I'm definately getting this pokey wire taken care of on Monday. I was going to wait because I got a card to hang in my bathroom about how to brush, and what to do if your braces break or hurt you...it said for a poking wire just bend it back yourself....but I have a poking archwire and I suppose thats different that just a normal poking wire, and for that it says to just call for an appointment. So thats what I shall do! Now I just have to put up with my little puncture wound till Monday morning lol.

I couldn't resist, and took some pictures of my teeth last night to see if anything was noticable by sight. It's not really...but the movement is noticable in that its a LOT easier to floss between some of my teeth - I don't even have to work the floss in, it just goes right up there! I definately used to have to work the floss in there a little bit last week, so things are moving a little! Hooray!

#25 Post by **mindykatz** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:12 am

I just got back from the ortho - he fixed my poking wires (I ended up having 2 poking wires after the weekend!). He said, "those Damons are the best, but the wires tend to shift a bit, so just keep calling us if they keep poking you!" He's so nice! I also got some silicon wax in funky little glittery containers....I love the stuff they give me thats geared towards 12 year old girls, its so darn cute!!!!

Braces aren't too bad so far - people at work have stopped looking at my mouth when I talk, so I guess they're getting used to them too! I do have a lisp, but I think that's mainly because I have a section of archwire with a spring on it on my upper teeth, and the archwire sticks out a lot (so it can "push down" to spread my teeth apart to make room for my sideways tooth) and my lip has a hard time getting around it. I bet once the two teeth that the spring is pushing apart move enough, the wire will flatten out against my teeth and I won't have the lisp anymore.

I do have a pic of my newly braced-face, but my work computer doesn't seem to want to save it in .jpg format, so I'll post it from home later!

#26 Post by **mindykatz** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:03 am

Well I'm getting used tot he sheer amount of time it takes to take care of my teeth - it usually takes me about 20-30 minutes just to floss at night, so I've just started flossing while I'm sitting on the couch watching TV before bed! I'm still trying to find that child's mouthwash that turns your plaque blue so I can be 100% sure I'm cleaning as well as I need to be - I will check Eckerd for it after work today.

2 things I'm sort of concerned about. #1 is that I have a very sore-to-the-touch, raised bumpy spot on the boney part of my gum that is right above my very back upper molar on one side. I THINK the little "arm" that sticks out of my bracket (I guess this is for elastic bands later on?) is digging up into my gum and causing this painful sore. I've been using warm salt water rinses and trying to brush it very gently (cause it hurts), and have a chunk of wax over it at the moment, which makes it feel a little better. I totally forgot to ask about it when I got my archwires clipped yesterday. If it gets worse or isn't gone by my first adjustment, I'll make myself a note to ask my ortho then. Dental wax is my new bestest friend!

#2 concern is that basically all of my incisors are still really sore, and I can't put much pressure on them. They don't hurt when I'm not eating due to my bite at the moment (only a few molars touch when I bite all the way down), but I still can't use them to bite food with. I tried eating a hot dog yesterday and I couldn't even break through the hot dog skin with them because they hurt too much. Is this normal? I know I've only had braces for less than a week, but I thought I'd be able to eat sort of normally by now. My molars are my only useful teeth right now, lol!

#27 Post by **Pixel Witch** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:33 pm

My incisors are the same. They feel a bit better if I gnaw on the bite wafer, but biting into food is not fun.

I'm just putting the food on my molars after cutting into small pieces.

Actually, my canines felt this way and today they don't, but my premolars do. I guess those are what's moving now?

I'm definitely getting movement because my bite is all wonky now.

#28 Post by **mindykatz** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:38 pm

I can't find those bite wafers anywhere either - I'm having so much trouble finding all this stuff lol. Are they sold in drug stores? If they are, I haven't been lookin hard enough!

#29 Post by **mindykatz** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:36 am

It's my 1-week B-day anniversary!

1 week down and.....lets see...79 to 95 more weeks to go!

Wee hee!!

#30 Post by **minlou01** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:28 pm

mindykatz wrote:Well I'm getting used tot he sheer amount of time it takes to take care of my teeth - it usually takes me about 20-30 minutes just to floss at night, so I've just started flossing while I'm sitting on the couch watching TV before bed! I'm still trying to find that child's mouthwash that turns your plaque blue so I can be 100% sure I'm cleaning as well as I need to be - I will check Eckerd for it after work today.

2 things I'm sort of concerned about. #1 is that I have a very sore-to-the-touch, raised bumpy spot on the boney part of my gum that is right above my very back upper molar on one side. I THINK the little "arm" that sticks out of my bracket (I guess this is for elastic bands later on?) is digging up into my gum and causing this painful sore. I've been using warm salt water rinses and trying to brush it very gently (cause it hurts), and have a chunk of wax over it at the moment, which makes it feel a little better. I totally forgot to ask about it when I got my archwires clipped yesterday. If it gets worse or isn't gone by my first adjustment, I'll make myself a note to ask my ortho then. Dental wax is my new bestest friend!

#2 concern is that basically all of my incisors are still really sore, and I can't put much pressure on them. They don't hurt when I'm not eating due to my bite at the moment (only a few molars touch when I bite all the way down), but I still can't use them to bite food with. I tried eating a hot dog yesterday and I couldn't even break through the hot dog skin with them because they hurt too much. Is this normal? I know I've only had braces for less than a week, but I thought I'd be able to eat sort of normally by now. My molars are my only useful teeth right now, lol!

Hey Mindy!

Do you know what that mouthwash is called?

Good luck in your journey...my b-day was 6/4 so we aren't far off of each other and my name is Mindy too!