MommaDucky: update pg. 13 - nearly 6 mos!

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#91 Post by **hannaheden** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 1:36 pm

wow, you're teeth look great! it's hard to believe so much movement can go on in only 3 months!

p.s. i love those pink ligatures!

#92 Post by **MommaDucky** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 7:22 am

thanks, Hannah! I've been wondering about you -- haven't seen you around for a while. How are things going?

Wow, I feel so loved!

Thanks a bunch everyone, for being so supportive and sharing my excitement!!

#93 Post by **Lisa65** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:51 am

Just caught up with your blog, Katherine. I'm sooo amazed by your smile after just a few short months. It looks fantastic

The pink ligs look really cute on the ceramics.

My ortho hasn't done any bracket repositioning on me yet, either, and I'm a year into treatment. I only just got a bend in the wire last time I went. I guess it all depends on the individual patient's needs. Whatever yours is doing, it looks like he's doing a great job with your teeth.

Looking forward to more updates from you.

Lisa

#94 Post by **MommaDucky** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 12:38 pm

Thanks jt2lang & Lisa65! I realise that everybody's teeth are different, and some braces patients need different things than others, i.e. expanders, etcetera. When it comes to bends in the wires, I don't even understand what that does for the movement of the teeth, or what bending an archwire is supposed to accomplish.

In any case, as I said before, I'm far from disappointed in the way my ortho is handling my treatment, as I'm sure you'll all agree when you look at my before and after photos! I can finally imagine what m teeth will look like when I'm all done. There's still a long way to go, but at this point I don't feel like it will be forever. Once the alignment is taken care of, we can work on straightening up my midlines, talk about some IPR to make my teeth a nicer shape, and then go to work on getting those extraction gaps closed up!

Even though I've always hated my smile all my life, I've also thought that I - shall we say - 'clean up nice'... I think I'm going to be loads more confident when I'm finished fixing up my teeth! Once the braces come off - last step is whitening. I need to do a little research on options for that, and decide what's right for me. Initially, I also thought that gum re-shaping might be in my future, but now that I see how things are coming along, I'll wait to make my decision on that. I think the IPR makes more sense than gum re-shaping, in terms of the look I'm trying to achieve.

Well, I'm rambling now. I thank you all for your kind words and support - it's a great feeling knowing that you all are excited about my progress too! It gives me warm fuzzies whenever I come to visit the forum and I see so many of you posting nice things.

Take care, everyone.

#95 Post by **sgguy** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:30 pm

Wow! Your progress is amazing!! Wish i had your speed of progress... i tink ur age helped to speed up the progress..what brand or type of braces u using?

#96 Post by **overseasmel** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 9:05 pm

Seriously amazing stuff!!

#97 Post by **metalmom** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:45 am

Hey Katherine... I can't remember if I commented on the pink.. I LOVE it!! I've never been much of a pink girl until the last year or so. I think it looks so good!!

I wouldn't be disappointed w/the treatment plan either. Your teeth are looking so good. I can't wait until I'm through expanding so I can start having some progress like that!!

Hope you had a great weekend.

#98 Post by **Sandista** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:13 am

Hi Katherine,

Wow, your teeth look AMAZING! I can't believe all of the movement you have had in 3 short months. Love the pink ligs byt the way - very cool!

I have my 1st adjustment tomorrow and am going to try a different color. I have pearl now and the staining is horrible. I haven't had berries, red wine or curry for 6 weeks, but I'm a coffee drinker and now the ligs are a dingy brown color - yuck!

I think I'm going to play it conservative again and try either smoke or silver and see how that goes (a new grille to match the grille of my new car!!!!). I definitely want to try a color, but am thinking I will do that when I get my powerchains (I'm thinkin' teal), but we shall see.

Anyway, I haven't been on very much lately and wanted to see how your progess was doing, especially since we're almost neighbors!

Keep it up and best of luck to you!

Sandy

#99 Post by **AmybettyB** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:50 am

Hey MD,

Your teeth are looking great! so much change in only 3 months, no wonder you are over the moon!! I'm loving the pink ligs, they look really good... I keep considering getting colour, but I don't think I'm brave enough yet!! Though I am missing red wine.. and curry =o(

Amy

#100 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:33 pm

Hey Momma, just checking up to see how the little one and you are doing.

#101 Post by **MommaDucky** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:05 am

Thanks for stopping by, everybody!

sgguy: I don't know if age has much to do with it. There are plenty of 20-somethings on these forums that might not see as much movement as I have. Maybe I'm just lucky?! And I have no idea who makes the brackets I have, all I know is that I've got ceramic ones on top and metal on bottom. I've never bothered to ask! Perhaps I'll do that when I go in on Wednesday.

overseasmel: Thanks - I rather think I feel the same way.

metalmom: Glad you like the pink! Funny thing you say you haven't been much of a pink girl... For the past three years I have absolutely HATED the color pink, and would refuse to wear, own, touch, or look at anything remotely pink. Couldn't stand it, but now I like it, and it seems fitting that the first color I choose for the ceramic guys is pink. It shows that I've conquered the intense loathing I've had for the last few years.

Sandista: SO.... which color did you choose?! Bummer about the staining. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, myself. But I do enjoy curry and I definitely enjoy red wine. I will drink red wine regardless of my clear ligs, mostly because I don't care, but also because I haven't noticed much staining from red wine at all. Good to hear from you again -- don't be a stranger!

AmybettyB: I understand what you mean about not being brave enough for a color yet. I stuck with silver on bottom and clear on top for the first three months, and then I just decided that I might as well have some fun. I figure that nobody really notices, and nobody honestly cares that I have braces. Trouble is, now there are so many color choices, I have a hard time making up my mind!! Thoughts, anyone?

Miss Smiley: Thanks for checking in on us! Things are uber busy, but we're doing very well. Felix is getting so big! I saw (and held) some three and a half month old twins - they barely weighed anything compared to my big boy!

I haven't been around much lately these days, mostly because I haven't had a chance to come up for air in the last couple weeks. It's been very hectic around here, and I have lots on my plate at the moment. Good thing is, I'm working through it one bit at a time.

My brother in law celebrated his birthday on Friday night, and we went to his place to hang out in his in-home bar. He's a real estate developer, and he's living in this place as he builds it. There is a room in the basement which he has turned into a 70's bar -- complete with ugly green paint, hideous curtains, lava lamps, disco ball, wet bar w/ fridge, and a ventilation system so that people can smoke in there. (For those of you who don't know, there are blanket smoking bans in bars and restaurants city wide in St. Paul) It was tons of fun!

Yesterday I played a wedding gig in Minneapolis with my DH and another gentleman that we both are acquainted with. We played well and had a good time, and then the bride tried to shaft us out of 200 dollars! It was a weird situation - she and I had agreed on $150 per musician, as we were playing an entire program of music for her wedding (pre-ceremony, processional, and recessional with two violins and cello, and a guitar/vocal song she requested during the ceremony). Long story short, I was handed a sealed envelope after the wedding by someone I didn't recognize, and I - being the businessperson I am - opened it before we left. We were expecting $450 for the three of us, and only were paid $250. WTF!?

I went and talked with the bride's mother, not really wanting to bother the bride. She was sympathetic and said that with all that's going on, perhaps the bride just misunderstood. She wrote me a check for the missing $200, and we were on our way. Later, upon reading the note in the memo of the check the bride had written, it mentioned something about taking fifty dollars off for us not coming to the rehearsal. (@%$#&!!!) The rehearsal was scheduled on my brother in law's birthday, and she knew we weren't able to come. Besides, the wedding ceremony was about 15 minutes long and totally un-complicated ; there was no need for one of the musicians to show up to the rehearsal! My DH said he thought it was rather gutless of her to pull what she did, assuming she didn't expect I would open the envelope until after we left. But in any case, we got our money. Honestly, for a complete program with string trio and also with guitar/vocal solo -- she should realise that she got a deal in only paying $450.

Moving along... I've also been planning a no-kids-allowed Halloween party for friends and neighbors. Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday! I always get so into it. We're going to have a sexy Halloween costume contest, and provide complimentary Halloween themed alcoholic beverages, munchies, and cupcakes. One of my favorite parts about Halloween though, is carving the pumpkins! Here are some photos of ones I've done in the past.

I've got big plans for my pumpkins this year, I can't wait! (each one takes about four hours!) If you want photos of the ones I do this year, let me know and I can certainly post them.

So I go in on Wednesday for my fifth adjustment. Actually, I have two ortho appointments scheduled around a dental cleaning. I go in to have the ligs and archwires taken out, then I go for my cleaning, then back to the ortho to get fitted up with new wires and ligs. Exciting day! Then I'm off to my cabin for a couple days, and I'll be back late Friday night. It will be nice to take a break from all the stress and have a couple days to relax up in northern MN. I love falling asleep to the loon's calls.

Ok, enough for now! I'll try to be around more until I leave Wednesday.

Take care, everyone!

#102 Post by **metalmom** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:21 am

Hey Katherine!! I can't believe someone would actually do that after you played at their wedding. Sometimes people just really shock me... I'm glad it all worked out okay.
OMG Halloween is my favorite!!! My kids and I were outside last night putting up all the decorations. I couldn't stand to wait until October! haha We've decided this year that we're going to do 10 different pumpkins.. Can't do those too early though. I'm in Texas and if you try to carve a pumpkin more then a week out you've got a stinky mess on your hands. haha We're still above 90 every day so it's a little hot... I did find a new pumpkin patch this year that you get to do all kinds of fun stuff like paint pumpkins and gords.. make halloween decorations. FUN!!! I love all things festive. lol Can't wait to go get it started... Our big thing last year was we did a bunch of "sport" pumpkins.. we had the Yankees logo on one.. we did names on some. It was so fun. We invited 2 other couples w/kids over and we all spent the night carving away. We're slightly pathetic I think... haha
Adult Halloween party sounds fun!! This is our first year to do a kid Halloween party. Now that we have one in jr high he wants to have a real party.. sniff sniff Makes me sad thinking they're growing up. I know you get it to w/Felix. Even when they're babies it amazes you how quickly they change.

Have a good one!!

#103 Post by **Miss Smiley** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:58 am

Mommaducky, I can't believe someone tried to rip you off like that! I can't believe she didn't even have the galls to talk to you about why she didn't pay you the whole fee. $450 to play through her wedding is a good deal, well it is a steal if you were in California. Oh well, you received payment.

I want to see your cool pumpkins! Mine just had eyes, nose, mouth and occaisionaly ears. We always carved ours on Halloween and then at the end of the night, my mom would make pumpkin soup for the next morning. Kind of like butternut squash soup.

#104 Post by **MommaDucky** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 6:58 pm

seriously: It sounds like loads of fun that your dentist's office holds contests for pumpkins - Carving the pumpkin is one of my favorite parts! And I agree, I definitely decorate more for Halloween than I do for Christmas.

KK: Just saw your new 'black triangle' photos! Your progress is incredible. I hope your ortho makes you happy with the IPR he's planning to do! Good luck, can't wait to hear about it. And as for you not celebrating Halloween.... perhaps you can buy yourself a whole pound of candy in my memory and make sure you eat all of it in three days!

Haha... I for one will NOT be eating very much candy this year. There are so few candies out there that I can still eat that don't have peanuts, caramel, or something really clingy (like the inside of a Butterfinger...) Ho hum. No big deal though... I don't really need all that stuff anyway.

metalmom: I know what you mean about not being able to wait - I've already decorated too. All that's left is the spider webbing all over EVERYTHING in my living room, and the little ghost leaf bags to hang from the trees. I also have a few large pumpkin leaf bags, but as there aren't too many leaves on the ground yet, I'll have to wait on those. If you guys do another sports pumpkin, make sure to honor the Minnesota Twins!!!

By the way, you aren't pathetic when it comes to carving pumpkins... I carve mine when I'm by myself, and it takes four hours to do just one of them.

Miss Smiley: I will certainly oblige; as soon as I carve my pumpkins I will take photos and post them ASAP. I'm excited about the ones this year! MMM... pumpkin soup sounds good. I've never had it, but I LOVE butternut squash soup, so if pumpkin soup is similar.... well, let's just say, arrgggllgllglgggllgll.

SO! Today was adjustment #5. (My appointments were scheduled for the 20th, and for the longest time I thought that was a Wednesday. Sorry for the confusion.) Went in to the ortho to have wires removed, then into the dentist for a cleaning! It felt good to get all the gunk out of there. Then it was back into the orthodontist's chair.

When I got in there I asked my ortho, "So, can you do something painful today?" to which he responded with, "Yeah, I think so."

Brand new wire on the upper arch today, and this time it's rectangular. I haven't had a rectangular wire on top yet because I hadn't had that final bicuspid out of there (upper right first premolar- extracted on August 16th along with all the wisdoms). So now we're really getting down and dirty with those bad boys. I opted for black ligs on the top, and Kelly green on the bottom.

I was surprised after this last three week stretch, I was expecting to have a gap between my lower centrals due to the powerchains I had pulling them away from one another. At my last appointment, I had PC's put from lower canine to central on either side, to help rotate the canines into place. I can't say I notice any difference from three weeks ago... looks like these buggers are going to be stubborn. They must have gotten pretty friendly in there being so closely snuggled up together for all those years. Ah well, we'll show 'em who's boss.

Some photos for your enjoyment.

September 20th - fifth adjustment // August 30th - fourth adjustment // May 31st (b-day)

I don't see many differences between today and three weeks ago. Ah well, guess I'm all through with the exciting stuff since the upper left canine joined the others.

Shiny new rectangular wire on top! Lots stiffer than the flimsy fishing line I had on day one - that stuff practically bent when I brushed my teeth!

Look -- all the ucky brown stuff behind my uppers is all gone! Yay for dental hygienists. Also, I think the only movement I notice (and perhaps this is in my head) is that the upper left canine -- on the right in the photo -- has moved even more into the gap behind it. Am I crazy? Or is the gap slightly smaller now?

I don't think those black PC's did what they were supposed to do... I don't see any rotation in those canines. True, it's hard to tell because the angles in the photos are slightly different. But anyway, still looks the same to me.

Well, exciting changes or not, I still have the spirit of Halloween in me, and so I'm doing just fine! I'm super excited about those pumpkins!!! Lucky thing, too, because the serpentine belt in my van completely busted two days ago! The momma-mobile is on the fritz, and I had to get my father in law over here to watch my son while I went off on my crazy dental adventure today. The van is at the body shop now, and should be getting a new belt tomorrow morning.

Also, I'm scheduled to go in to the dentist (again!) tomorrow at 11am - this time I'm getting sealant on my 1st and 2nd molars. I don't know a lot about the stuff, only that it's tooth colored, semi-permanent, and it's meant to seal up the tiny crevices embedded within the occlusal grooves of the molars, to prevent cavities and tooth decay. I will certainly tell you all the story about that appointment as well! I'm sure you're SO looking forward to it..... (I can hear you all yawning from far away!)

I hope this finds you all well. I'll be back soon!

#105 Post by **timewaster** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:24 pm

I think you're right! The left canine has definitely moved a bit. I really like the lig colors, too!