Braces in Bolivia: Gaps, Overjet - Photo Journal

[Lorien]

Issues: Gaps, Overjet, Overbite, Small Teeth
Age: 24
Braces: Inspire Ice
Cost: $980 - $1060
Time: Approxmiately 10 - 12 months
Location: Bolivia, South America

I'm a short-term missionary living in Cochabamba, Bolivia, South America. I am from the United States, and have needed braces for several years - but the expense has prohibited things! When I go back to the States I will be attending graduate school, and I'm quite aware that even the best of post-graduate grants don't provide dental. However, in Bolivia dental care is far less expensive for even highly trained, top-notch dentists and orthodontists. I hadn't really planned on attempting it quite yet, but everything fit very easily into place.

I had been idly researching options for my teeth; I looked at self-ligating braces and at veneers. The Damon Braces website listed a distributor in my city. When I went to a fabulous local dentist for a cleaning, I asked if she had heard of any dentists using Damons and I gave her my research. By coincidence, she too was looking for orthodontists for herself! Within a week she had found an orthodontist in the city that used Damons and had excellent reviews within the dental community. My dentist invited me to her next appointment for the orthodontist, and I had an impromptu consultation on 21 July, 2007.

The initial suggestion was 8 months, but after having my xrays taken that was expanded to 12-14 months with the possibility of fewer. I was told that Damon braces are not an option, because Damons/self-ligating pull teeth outwards... and the goal is to pull my teeth inwards.

Damons would have cost $500 for the braces.
Normal, metal, mini-brackets from Ormco would cost $400.
Inspire Ice, which are clear man-made sapphire brackets cost $500.

I chose the Inspire Ice brackets for $500 for the braces. The labor charge is $40 every month, which includes all necessary adjustments. Therefore, my total cost for the braces will be under $1100. The braces were set this morning, 26 June, 2007! As a vain twenty-something woman, I chose the clear ligatures. I doubt I'll ever feel interested in more creative ligs!

After the braces are off, I'll have an Invisalign retainer to wear at night.

The one tricky part of all of this is the language barrier. My Spanish is limited still, and the dental field is an entirely new sub-vocabulary of Spanish! My dentist has been a great help as she has translated and/or re-explained information as necessary. Similarly, my mother is a brilliant linguist who has attended my meetings in order to help me when my Spanish fails! Nevertheless, not being able to ask everything in the painstaking detail that I would prefer has been uncomfortable, but not so much as to sway me from having the braces done.

My teeth feel unbelievably weird. I have Things on my tooth that I Cannot Wash Off, and it's not pleasant. Pain has been sporadic and limited. The roots of my two eyeteeth reach all the way up to just under my nostrils, and they are the teeth that require the most movement - so sinus headaches seem to be an issue! Eating is strange... I'm really left to whatever can be tongued to the roof of my mouth and swallowed. Speech is slightly impaired, as the "ch" sound causes my lower lip to get scrunched between brackets, and "f", "r", and "s" sounds are all still tricky.

I'm a touch concerned about my bite. I have an overbite, but it works quite well for me. I have a fully closed normal bite, as my teeth all fit together quite well as they were. I'm hoping my orthodontist is not trying to make a tradition bite out of my jaws, because the traditional bite would cause a fully open bite on the inside! I'm trying to clarify that, but the language issue is a bit in the way. I'm working on the translation of such questions. Meanwhile, my teeth are just teeny tiny, especially in the back. This is causing one bracket on the bottom to connect with a molar on the top - and that's the *only* contact I have along the bite! Also, the brackets in the far back are scraping and bleeding my cheeks. I can't seem to get teh wax thick enough on the pointy corners!

Another interesting issue is my upper lip frenulum. It's the webbing between my upper gums and my upper lip. Mine is very low, and it is causing my eyeteeth to be pulled outwards and upwards. So, on Thursday I have an appointment to have it snipped away a bit which will cause my upper lip to rise higher when I smile and

All in all, I'm excited to have this opportunity... and I'm ready to have everything fixed and finished! The pain is tedious, but the process is very interesting.

I am very interested in seeing cases similar to mine. I've tried searches and looking through the forum, but it seems that most of the blogs/photos are of cases of crowding and such. These are helpful as well and are very much appreciated, but if anyone has any directions to something more applicable, I'd appreciate it! In the interest of contributing, though, I'll try to update as often as possible with the progress of my braces experience.

[Lorien]

In the interest of contributing as useful of a resource as possible, I've taken several photos... and some are a bit detailed. Fair warning! I am still waiting on the official photos from the orthodontist, so these are just what I tried to take myself. Note that as this is the first day, the ink that the orthodontist sketched on my teeth is still present.

PRE BRACES

My normal smile - toothless:



Lips open:



Lips tucked back in order to view gaps:



Closer view of gaps, lip pulled up:


Another closer view of gaps, with the too-low lip frenulum:



POST BRACES

Lips closed:



Lips open:



Stretching lips up as is possible:



Blurry view of my teeth:



Inside shot showing brackets and the overjet gaps on top:



Closeup of brackets with ink on teeth:



Another closeup of brackets with ink on teeth:



Metal brackets in the far back that secure the archwire:

[Miss Smiley]

Oooh, you do have some petite teeth!! My teeth are as big as a horse's! Congratulations on starting your way to a new smile! The brackets will seem like nothing in a couple weeks. I'm curious about the ink on your teeth, did they use that as a guide to placing the brackets? Will it come off? The novelty of the clear ligs will wear off as they start to yellow.

[Lorien]

Thanks, everyone.

1) The buccal molar bracket hooks aren't bothering me, but the square of the bracket itself is sharp and is tearing up my cheeks in four spots. I'm going to try to salt-water rinses and I am waxing like mad.

2) My teeth were dried and then marked with a pen to guide the brackets to the center. Then as each bracket was applied, I was to bite in order to fine-adjust the bracket location. The ink is already fading with brushing and such.

3) I'm trying to avoid things that stain the clear ligs too much. We'll see how that works out!

[Meloho]

Wow, those are some pretty brackets! I wish I coulda had those...lol! And that braided archwire is very cute...looks very thick though, so that'll speed up treatment time. Good luck!

And boy did you luck out getting treatment for $1100! If they're that cheap in Bolivia, why can't they be that cheap in North America? Maybe our dentists are too greedy...

[hannahwebbo]

Hi Lorien

Congratulations on being braced .
Hope everything runs smoothly for you.

Im currently going through the consultation stage but I think I have similar issues to you. I have an overbite, an overjet and what appear to be small teeth although i think they appear small as i have fairly big upper gums. Instead of having gaps i have crowding in mine.

Ive got to say that your braces look great, which makes me think that i definatly want clear or ceramic braces, i just need to find an ortho in my area that provides them.

Hope your treatment goes well and ill be following your progress from now on.

Hannah x

[Lorien]

the archwire is a braided flexible beginning wire. The best wires at this stage are the small ones ... as they get the teeth moving ... a heavy archwire in the beginning wouldn't achieve what's required ... and definitely wouldn't speed things up ... in fact it'd likely slow things down.

The close shots are taken with a macro setting on my camera, and it easily disguises sizes.

I was wondering why the wire seemed so thin! I've been trying to research the process, and everything seemed to indicate a very strong wire that serves to pull things into alignment. This feels as if it's just applying pressure to my teeth as opposed to pulling them in any given direction. Wildly unpleasant, mind you!

The salt water rinses are helping, and I just keep balling on the wax in the corners. Still, I suspect these brackets are nice compared to other sorts! The Inspire Ice brackets are much smoother than the metal brackets in the back (that secure the wire). I have a tiny bit of wax on my eyeteeth since my lip moves so much on those, and then the Big Balls of Silicone that I'm trying to keep on the metal in back.

[Lorien]

Hannah,

Here is the distributor for the Ormco braces company that carries the Inspire Ice that I'm using. The distributors keep lists of which dentists use their brackets. Good luck!

http://www.ormco.com/index/ormcodealers ... tion/id.61

[Lorien]

Fantastic link, Karen, thanks!

[Lorien]

Ow. People actually put these things on children?

So, I went in today for what I had been told was the frenectomy. Instead, it was the consultation for the frenectomy. Contrary to what my orthodontist had expected, I must first have her take the archwire back off, then allow the surgeon to do the frenectomy. I then have to go back to the orthodontist for the archwire to be replaced. Will the time without the wire (approx. 24 hours) undo any work done this week?

The pain of my teeth is completely bearable. Ibuprofen handles most of that, and I have a high pain tolerance. My cheeks, however, are incredibly swollen! I have four holes being drilled into my cheeks by the metal back molar brackets. The wax I was given is entire insufficient. I have rinsed with warm saltwater, applied hydrogen peroxide, brushed carefully and properly, and am now living with rolled cotton rounds between my cheeks and teeth. Without the cotton barrier, my cheeks are swelling in and around the back brackets.

Meanwhile, my bite still only makes contact (compared to full contact pre-braces) in one spot: one corner of one molar hits one bracket. The corner of the molar which is making contact is already ground down (and I'm only eating soft foods that do not require chewing!) and a bright white color. I asked my dentist about it and she said that that's how hers are, and that it was normal. I cannot help but think, however, that damaging a molar is unacceptable.

I'm going in tomorrow morning in order to a) request more wax, b) see if there is anything that can be done about the metal brackets and my cheeks, and c) address the molar being damaged by the bracket.

Cotton Padding Between Metal Brackets and Cheeks:



[/img]

[Lorien]

New bad habit of the day:

Moving my lower teeth.

My teeth feel very loose. Obviously this has to be a matter of perspective; the slightest loss of tension would feel extreme. So whenever my tongue thrusts forward against the lower teeth, I feel one or two of them moving ever so slightly with a little pop. It feels precisely the way I remember a baby tooth would feel at the very beginning of its becoming loose.

Strange, and it's making my teeth more sore.

[Elyse84]

Hi Lorien,

I have a thick fereneum like you, which has also caused a diastema. Mine isn't quite as large as yours, and I can move my top lip quite freely. I also have impacted canines, and I'm only 5 months into treatment, and my ortho is going to close the gap before the frenectumy and the extractions.

You have fantastic-looking teeth and your brackets look great! You're lucky you could have clear on both the top and the bottom. My ortho prefers to use clear on top and metal on the bottom as apparently the clear are harder than the metal, and when your teeth come together the top ones can be damaged on the harder porcelain surface, whereas metal doesn't have that problem.

Your photos are great. Here's to progress!

[xerxes]

why can't I see the photos?

[Lorien]

It's a six year old thread... I don't know why the photos aren't visible, but it's not abnormal for old threads to not function correctly. Sorry!

[xerxes]

Is there any photos for people with Sapphire braces? like Inspire ice?
Because I am considering wearing braces and I want to see how do they look.
Thanks