I thought I would start sharing my story of my braces journey
Firstly, i have needed braces since I was a kid, but my parents could never afford it. I am now 19.
At my first consultation, my ortho looked at my x-rays, looked in my mouth, made measurements, etc.
She told me my top jaw was too narrow to accomodate all my teeth. We could do surgery, then use an expander, or we could try to get some results with just the expander. I opted to forgo the surgery, and just use the expander.
She also said I had a bad overbite, and severe malloclusion . I don't know if I spelled that right. That's on my top teeth. My bottom teeth have less severe malloclusion.
So the plan was, expander for 6-9 months, then braces on top and bottom for 18 months to 2 years.
I had my next appointment, where moulds were made and photos taken. On this day i also had seperaters in. Talk about a pain in the neck! They were terrible! I couldn't eat for almost a week.
A week later, I had an appointment where molar bands were placed over my molars and another mould made. Then the seperators went back in to keep the gaps open. And one week later (yesterday) I had my expander cemented in.
I was so scared, I had read stories about it being painful and I was sure that having my jaw forcibly seperated would not be fun. But when she activated the expander, it just felt like tight pressure for 30 seconds, then it was fine.
I'm still learning how to eat and talk, and I can't turn the expander myself so that's a bit of a pain. But my brother had an expander as well so mum was well practiced and found the hole straight away.
Today is slightly worse than yesterday, as i can't chew properly on the teeth with the molar bands now. But I assume this will get better. I also have a few scratches on my cheeks but I have plenty of wax.
I have to turn once a day for three weeks, then back to the ortho to see how its going. Then I have towait for 6-9 months to heal, then braces. I'm so excited about having straight teeth. I can't wait!
