Lozzie83's Story

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#1 Post by **Lozzie83** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:13 pm

Hi All,

I thought that I would start my own Braces story, for anyone who is interested to read my progress, and also it will be good for me to look back on as my treatment progresses.

Like so many others, I should have had braces in my teens. Bad teeth run in my mum's side of the family, she had to have a heap of teeth pulled when she was young so there would be room, and I've recently found out that my Nana also had braces in her teens.

However, my parents just never took us to the dentist and so as I got all my adult teeth my crowding just got worse and worse. I think I took reasonably good care of my teeth when I was young, I used to brush once a day, but I never, up until a few months ago, flossed.

I've always been really really self concious of my teeth, because of the crowding, my incisors stick out and make my lip line funny when I smile, and my bottom front teeth were all over the place.

I finally decided in April this year, that it was time to do something about my teeth, I was finally able to afford to do it myself, and I was sick of hating my smile.

I made an appointment with a Dentist, and I was so so scared of going! Prior to that appointment I had not been to the dentist in about 15 years, and I was petrified that I was going to need a filling in every tooth! But after a checkup the dentist revealed that apart from my gums being a bit inflamed because of my lack of flossing, my teeth were in perfect health! You can imagine how relieved I was! So, with a qucik lesson in flossing, a referal for an ortho and a script to get an x-ray, I was off.

I got an appointment with the ortho the next month, and took my x-ray in. He had a good look in my mouth, and determined that I would need 4 pre-molars taken out to make room. This I had been expecting! I then asked about my wisdom teeth, he said that I didn't need to have them out now, but probably would later, so it was up to me if I wanted to get the whole lot done at once. I said yes I would!! At least that way I got to be asleep for the whole process!

After another month I went in to see the surgeon about getting my teeth removed. Just the thought of it was making me feel sick! I'd never had so much as a couple of stiches or a broken bone, so you can imagine I was a little apprehensive. They assured me that everything would be fine, and that my wisdom teeth were not yet badly impacted and so should not be too hard to remove.

By this time I had scored myself the lead role in an amatuer theatre production, and so I postponed the op till November, when my 15 minutes of fame would be all over.

The day of the op came and I was a wreck!! Actually, saying I was a total wreck would be an understatement! But, the op went without a hitch, and my recovery was really fast. I had very little pain or swelling and I thought the hard part was over!!

Brace day was the 4th December 2007, I arrived at my ortho's office at 8am that morning. I had decided to go full metals on both top and bottom, 1 because I couldn't really afford the extra expense of ceramics, and 2 because I am proud of what I am doing, and had already made my mind up that I wanted clear ligs!

I got into the chair and my ortho got to work, I was surprised a how quick the process was, the other stories I have read are right about the glue though... it tastes absolutely disgusting!! I got purple and green ligs, and in less that an hour it was all over. I had a tutorial from one of the assistants on how to keep my teeth clean, got my goodie bag, and headed back to work.

The first few hours were fine, and then I was in pain!! And I mean a lot of pain!! I felt like someone had smacked me fair and sqaure in the teeth with a baseball bat, even taking the last panadine fort I had left after my operation barely took the edge off. I tried to floss a few times in the first couple of days and that brought tears to my eyes.

I could only eat soft foods for a couple of days, my molars got really sore on about day two and so I couldn't chew on anything, then, after about a week, the pain went away. Thank goodness!! Those first few days were so hard, I seriously wanted to go back to the orho and get them taken off. Now I know it is all going to be worth it!!

Now, three weeks in, I'm almost back to my pre-braces diet. Although my front teeth have developed some tenderness again the last few days, but I take this as a positive sign that things are needed, and the pain is nothing like it was in the first week.

I'm burshing after every meal, I'm flossing at night, and rinsing with Listerine teeth defence mouthwash. Given that I've never had to have a filling it looks like I've been blessed with strong enamel, but I'm still going to take good care of my teeth.

So, that brings us too the end of my first instalment! I go in for my first adjustment in two weeks. I'll post an update then.

But for now, here are som pics! The first is my teeth before the extractions were done. The second is me today!

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Lozzie83 ... 3410"><img src="http://lh5.google.com.au/Lozzie83/R23a7 ... eeth11.JPG" /></a>

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Lozzie83 ... 0434"><img src="http://lh3.google.com.au/Lozzie83/R23a4 ... teeth2.JPG" /></a>

#2 Post by **Lozzie83** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:17 pm

Hopefull these links will work (I'm new at this!!)

[/img]http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Lozzie83 ... 8463490434[/img]

#3 Post by **Lozzie83** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:17 pm

Can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong with my photos?

#4 Post by **kittymeow84** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:51 pm

I'm not sure quite what your doing wrong with the pics. Because the link works when you copy it into a new page. It could be the site you are using....I think most people on here use either ImageShack or Photobucket.

BUT - your braces look fantastic - I love your choice of colours

How long is your expected treatment time?

I too hadn't been to the dentist in about 8 years when I decided I'd had enough of my wonky teeth and went to the ortho. After a few consultations and a talk to a regular dentist, he assured me that my tooth enamel was actually very strong and I didn't need any fillings either.
It sounds like your dental history is similar to mine too - my Mum has the EXACT same wonky tooth as me but hers isn't as severe.

Keep us updated on your story and I hope we'll be seeing lots of speedy improvement soon

#5 Post by **Timmer** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:07 am

Lozzie83 wrote:Hopefull these links will work (I'm new at this!!)

[/img]http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Lozzie83 ... 8463490434[/img]

What your doing wrong... well first off this account isn't my normal account my normal account is SDFD TSchott but I'm having issues with signing into that account so I'm hoping Lynn will fix that soon for me...

not sure what your doing wrong here... I think it has something to do with the site your hosting your pictures on, why don't you try photobucket for your picture hosting!

~Tim~

#6 Post by **Timmer** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:12 am

Sorry for this repost I don't have an edit link but thought I would re-submit the following so the code actually worked!

not sure what your doing wrong here... I think it has something to do with the site your hosting your pictures on, why don't you try photobucket for your picture hosting!

~Tim~

#7 Post by **newguy** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:48 am

Welcome, from one newbie to another.

#8 Post by **Lozzie83** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:07 am

Ok, third time is a charm, have switched to photobucket. Thanks guys.

Kitty, my expected treatment time is around two years... but there is a lot of movement to be done, especially now I have four big gaps to fill!