BracketRacket's story

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#31 Post by **cas4god** » Fri May 28, 2010 4:36 pm

I just got done reading your story BR... I also have a narrow upper arch but I am not going to get surgery for it. I am going in a couple of weeks to get records and have the doctors tell me if it's possible to get braces without surgery. The doctor told me it was but I won't know the details til they look at my records closely. I don't have any bad problems with my teeth besides the occasional cavity so living without straight teeth wouldn't be a big deal to me. We shall see what happens after my records appt.

I hope things went well with your surgery.

#32 Post by **BracketRacket** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:34 am

Survived the surgery and a few days of semi-purgatory (more about that later, for the sake of posterity!

), and my dad just turned the expander for the first time at home. Good times!

#33 Post by **SugarMagnolia** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:53 pm

YAY on surviving the surgery purgatory!!!! Hope all is well and things are getting better now!

#34 Post by **BracketRacket** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 8:27 pm

Still having ups and downs. I HATE EXPANDING! Ugh!
My gap is now roughly the size of the Grand Canyon -- or at least the width of three of my bottom teeth!

#35 Post by **BracketRacket** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:17 pm

Much more healed! Finally!

A lot of my surgery stuff can be found in the Surgery forum, May Buddies thread. Lots of pain and complaining!

Eviction date for the distractor is set. I'm sooo worried!

Some progress (or regression!) pics.

Pre-surgery. Narrow, narrow!

Upper arch

Baby gap. It was even smaller right after surgery, this was taken right after the surgeon turned it for the first time, about five days after surgery. You can see how swollen the inside of my cheeks were...ouch!

Meet Grand Canyon gap. It topped out at the width of my three of my bottom incisors a few days after this pic (about June 11), as big as it got.

And today. Roughly a month and a week after we stopped expanding. Slooooowly closing, now about the width of 1.5 incisors! It's still big, but look at where the screw is to see how much it's closed.

And finally, the lovely device. Excuse the spit and ick, it was taken pretty soon after surgery. The arms are a lot more spread out now from side to side.

#36 Post by **catfish** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:46 pm

Hey there, I just got caught up on your story. I appreciated you stopping by my story, so I wanted to see what you're up to. A lot as it turns out!

Wow! The movement you're experiencing is amazing! You're going to have all kinds of room for your teeth to move into. How are you feeling now? Are you used to the expander?

Good luck with the rest of your journey, and keep sharing pics! I love to see people make progress on their smiles!

#37 Post by **BracketRacket** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:12 pm

Hi catfish!

Feeling a ton better than I was. I've been having some gum/roof of my mouth issues the last few days (I think my teeth have had enough of the wires!), but overall doing pretty well. I've been "eating" some more foods, although I still pretty much take small pieces and swallow them whole.

I'm as used to the expander as I can be, I guess!

I'll be happy when it's out, I'm so paranoid that I'm going to do something that will rip the darn thing out of my palate by accident!

But I'm soooo not looking forward to actually having it taken out...too scared!

#38 Post by **mikesmile** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:24 am

Hi BracketRacket

WOW!!! That expander sure looks evil, but what a job it's doing in your arch.

It's amazing to see the process. Sorry it has to be so uncomfortable though...I think braces will be relatively easy for you after this. I feel lucky that my treatment has been so straightforward.

Any idea yet when you'll be getting braced? I'm sure you must be more anxious than ever now...you've had to wait longer in your journey than most of us have.

Thanks for the pics. Take care for now.

Mike

Second Time In Braces - Estimate 12-14 Months

#39 Post by **BracketRacket** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:53 pm

Hi Mike...
Thanks for the good thoughts. The expander comes out in about a week (I'm getting soooo freaked out thinking about it!), then the next day the ortho is taking molds to make me some kind of device to preserve the space, which I should have the next day. Originally he had mentioned a TPA, now it sounds like some kind of acrylic/plastic device...should be interesting! As of now, I have an appt. Sept. 13 for spacers, then braces a week later, but I'm wondering if he would want to move it up sooner -- I hope so! The extra time will give my jaw some more time to heal, but I'm getting anxious, and because of a complication we didn't get to expand quite as much as hoped (tell that to the giant gap!), so I'm really concerned about preserving the space we were able to get. I guess we'll see!

#40 Post by **BracketRacket** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 7:53 am

Three days....getting preety skeered!

#41 Post by **BracketRacket** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:00 am

Aaaaugh!

#42 Post by **BracketRacket** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:55 am

I'm ALIVE!

As far as fun family afternoon goes, I wouldn't suggest it, but it was nowhere near as bad as I thought! I was super-nervous (that's a shocker!) and the nurse gave me some liquid lidocaine to swish. Then I got four shots of novacaine, two on either side of the outside of my gum where the wire protruded, and two into my palate. YOUCH, those two into the roof of my mouth were painful!

After waiting for the meds to kick in, the doctor came in and cut the wires conntecting the expander to my gums. Then he pulled out the wires from the outside (he had a bit of trouble with one, so a little bit of pulling). I noticed no pulling on the other side, so I didn't even know he was done with it! Then he unscrewed the long screw that ran lengthwise (the one we turned to expand), and pulled out the whole device. Didn't take long, and again, I didn't even know he was done!

My mouth is a bit sore, especially where the appliance was connected and where the wires were, and my teeth hurt a little, but all in all not too bad. I'm not convinced that most of it isn't still numb, it just "feels" like it should hurt more, if you know what I mean. I have two lumps on either side where the gum started to grow over the appliance, and one smack in the middle on top, not sure what that one's about!

I now have a hard plastic retainer of sorts to help manage the space until I get my braces. It's, um, interesting, but not too bad!

#43 Post by **BracketRacket** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:51 pm

Just about used to the new retainer-type device -- am I the only one who got to chose a retainer case before the braces even go on?

I'm wearing it all the time, even eating with it in. I basically only take it out to brush, so many 10 minutes a day. Hopefully it's doing its job. It's not really uncomfortable at all, there's one small pokey bit, but my teeth seem to be sore, which could just be from the surgery, but it wouldn't surprise me if the device is pushing on them a little.

Three weeks until spacers -- then the real fun begins!

#44 Post by **yenniechan** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 5:30 pm

OUCH! Your expander makes mine look like a plastic chew toy! With everything that you've been through, getting the braces on themselves should be a walk in the park (well, almost ^^). Good luck!

#45 Post by **BracketRacket** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:02 pm

Thanks!

Some more pics
The lovely wire I told y'all so much about on the outside of my gum.

The day the expander came out (Aug. 16). You can see the red spots on either side where it was attached to my palate.

Here's my upper arch before surgery

The arch today -- I know the angle's not exact, but a little bit more real estate, huh?

What my gap's been up to..it's had quite a summer!