GRILLZ braces saga

[mzachary]

I was supposed to get braces Monday. But we had 6 inches of snow and the whole city shut down. I live in the Southeast U.S. and we are not equipped to handle snow on the roads. So, I am 1 day behind you. I was nervous, too. Best wishes to you. We can offer each other encouraging words during this process. Good luck and best wishes to you.

By the way - I miss the salty, crunchy stuff too!!

[GRILLZ]

mzachary:

i am SOOO sorry to hear about that!! it was extremely frustrating to have the appointment canceled on monday.....we had a lot less than 6 inches, probably 3 or 4 and the whole city shut down.....luckily they rescheduled me for the same week (i called and left a message on the office voice mail and emailed the office as well, so i think they got the idea that i wanted them on). have you gotten yours yet? i didn't see a thread for you under braces stories.....

hope you get yours soon and that it goes well for you. i just had my dinner of very soft mashed potatoes, and some pureed pear (from a baby food jar). also tried some baby food from a jar of apples, cinnomon and oatmeal. that wasn't so appealing. my mouth is extremely sore now....i have to be very light and careful brushing and flossing is difficult, not just around each tooth but if my hand inadvertantly slips and knocks against one of my teeth....i see stars....that hurts the worst.....

i LOVE the water pik, it is the greatest. the only annoyance is waiting to warm up the water from the sink so it isn't so freezing cold as that hurts my teeth too. i'm done eating until tomorrow, it just hurts too much to have to clean up afterwards!!

let me know when you are supposed to get braced....

[mzachary]

I got my braces Tuesday morning. I have been very lucky so far. I haven't had any pain, so I called my orthodontist to ask why, since they warned me that I need to stock up on Advil. But, I might have a really good pain tolerance. A few years ago, my dentist only gave me a shot and laughing gas when he pulled my wisdom teeth. I took Tylenol after that and threw away the Rx for Lortab that he gave me. Fingers crossed for the remaining 18 months!!

[GRILLZ]

yes, that would be great!! hope you stay pain free!.....i just re waxed my mouth...getting some raw spots.....i was thinking i was really to take the braces out for the night.....that would feel REAL good right now

[GRILLZ]

day #3 report: teeth are even more sore than yesterday , plus i have lots of sores....i was using some wax but i guess i got lazy about it....funny i was thinking i had gotten all of this silicon wax and i wasn't going to need it. NOT. i have sores in every place their is sharp protrusion, in the cheek/lips over each canine, top and bottom, then there is some other funky sharp thing on some other teeth.....geez.

the glucerna shake i got yesterday that was so excited about, tastes like a chocolate liquid vitamin....yech . oh well, 16.99 down the toilet. i'm sure the strawberry will taste equally yucky.

i think i'm going to make my own smoothies....i'd like to make one with almond butter, i bet that would taste good. soup and scrambled eggs. i think that would be good. forget the baby food. that's too yucky as well.

i got some sugar free rice pudding from jello that tastes good but all that rice gets stuck in my braces. thank god for waterpik!! that is the best $$ i ever spent!! love it. you MUST get one. it's like a warm massage of your sore sore gums

[drgnchsr36]

eep!! sorry to hear that you got sores You may want to try warm salt water rinses, I heard those help.. as well as over the counter stuff that helps with the pain.

[GRILLZ]

i'm waxed up to the nines and this seems to help. i actually ate some soft rye bread w/ my dinner and this tasted soooo good!! unfortuanelty the split pea and barley soup i made from scratch and was so looking forward to eating burned the inside of my lips like the devil....i think i warmed it up too much....not that it was THAT hot, but the injured state of my mouth requires that food be on the cooler rather than the warmer end of things....i realize that now. ice cream feels really really fine right now. i went to the store and got 2 gallons of no sugar added low fat dutch chocolate and vanilla ice cream. i needed to get that much as hubby gets his spoon majorly into the ice cream and i wanted there to be a bit left for me!!

disappointing that my blood sugar seems so high, even when i'm eating no sugar added icecream.....guess those low carbs add up to more carbs than i should be eating. went for 2 walks today, one before dinner and one after, about 30 minutes each....hoping this would help w/ my blood sugar......but my reading after dinner and the reading after walking after dinner were identical i thru in the towel and had some sugar free chocolate pudding, not the best idea but i i figured it was better than a pint of hageen daas, right?

note to self. don't eat bread w/ seeds, no matter how soft and delic as the seeds are a pain when they get stuck in the braces....

good news i was able to very very carefully and gently floss.....yesterday my teeth hurt so bad i never thought i would be able to floss again.

i think we are turning some kind of corner here.....progress, dare i say

front teeth are still very very sensitive....

[JennyLaughs]

I'm sooo sorry to hear how sore your teeth and mouth are, but I swear, it DOES get better, and soon! I'd say about the 6th or 7th day with braces on is when I noticed how much easier it was to eat solid foods. And by the 10th day my front teeth could do their biting job properly again with no pain. This will get so much better, I promise! As for those salt water rinses, they really are a life saver. I must've swished with salt water 5 or 6 times a day... my poor tongue was so cut up. They really help speed up the healing process. I really hope you feel better soon!

[GRILLZ]

Jennylaughs: thanks for your encouragement! much needed!

day 4 is almost over and things are getting a little better. the sores i have are very sore, but at least i'm not getting any MORE of them. i've been able to floss, though this takes a lot of time and i need to develop a 'system' or else i forget what part of my mouth i've already flossed i have a feeling i may be flossing more than once in a quadrant of my mouth....or maybe it just does take THAT long.

for dinner i had a glass of white pinot grigio white barefoot wine w/ my macaroni and cheese and was able to eat a soft whole wheat roll too, yeah! at first i cut part of it up, then i bit w/ the side of my mouth (not front teeth) and this worked ok. such a pain to clean up after major food items.....even waterpik doesn't get everything out, though most things. so i waterppik, swish real good w/ water, then brush, then floss. i swear it must take me a good 1/2 hour to do this.....or more.

for breakfast i had some fiber one pancakes w/ a rip banana sliced up on top. that tasted real fine and was very very soft, no problem to eat whatsoever! luved it! real food!

lunch was a strawberry glucerna (like those better than the chocolate), a container of small curd low fat cottage cheese.

i took today off again, because of my bad cold and i slept off and on till noon!! really needed the rest. tomorrow will be my first day at work w/ my braces. wish me luck!!!

[ashesgap]

Just wanted to say "I LOVE BAREFOOT WINE!" what a great idea to have some white with your mac'n cheese.
Hope you're doing better today.

[Kellygirl]

Good Luck with your first day back. I've been following your comments and it sounds like things are getting better. I hope so, maybe the worse is behind you!

[GRILLZ]

1st day at work report w/ braces....well this doesn't exactly count as far as comments from the snide co workers as i didn't see any of those today....i saw a few john Q public ppl and no one mentioned my braces at all....though i didn't really expect they would. i think for the person i knew pretty well, i may not have smiled enough such that she would have seen them....for the total stranger person i smiled and he was nice enough, but no braces remark was made....

as for eating....i usually eat a morning snack, lunch and an afternoon snack.....i ate my usual sugar free grapefruit segments and i love those, tasted so good and refreshing and no problems at all.....i was so busy at work after missing a number of days due to illness that i didn't take the time to brush after my sugar free grapefruit sections, but i rinsed. lunch was a weight watchers frozen pasta w/ vodka tomato sauce (sounds better than it tasted ) and the rest of my sugar free grapefruit sections. i took my dentakit to the restroom, and no one else came in while i was rinsing, and brushing. tried to do a good job brushing w/ my portable toothbrush. other than the handle coming apart a few times, it went ok. didn't even try to floss....light wasn't good and there was no way i would be able to see. i had tried to buy a magnifying mirror to keep at work so i could floss if i wanted to ....but of course the store i was in when i had that idea....didn't seem to have that kind of mirror

by 5:30 pm when i was getting ready to leave i was STARVing.....not having an afternoon snack as i didn't want to have to brush again.....so i took a few sips of water to quiet my gurgling tummy and drove the 40 minutes home in traffic.

ate a small container of low fat cottage cheese while i was waiting for my mac n cheese to heat up. after that i had 2 small servings of no sugar added low fat choc ice cream....yummy that felt great on my mouth. rinsed, waterpik, brushed and flossed. around 9 pm i was starving again, SOMEONE ATE THE LAST RIPE BANANA MOM WAS SAVING FOR HERSELF.......HUMHHHH....so i ate 4 mini cheese blintis....delish! again, i rinsed, waterpiked, brushed but didn't floss, i did gargle w/ peroxide mouth wash for the minimum minute instructed ....yowza that stings!! hope it does some healing as well.

it was difficult today in that i had to talk alot on the phone, and it hurt even though i was waxed up.....there were still plenty of unwaxed places that managed to get cut/irritated etc. i did have one co worker i spoke to by phone tell me 'i didn't sound like i felt too well' i chalked it up the my recent cold.....

tomorrow i anticipate seeing at least 2 significant coworkers.....persons that would raze me.....though not the worst person.......we'll see how it goes. there's some threat of freezing rain, maybe i'll get to go home early and not have to deal with any wise cracks......that would be nice. i love my braces, think they look awesome......

one of my elastics came off yesterday.....but i was able to get it back on w/ a tweezers (mine are self ligating so elastics are just for show so i can put it back on myself if i want to....)

luv the bright blue color......brings out the blue in my eyes.....

definate progress being made.....my mouth ached something fierce this morning....took my usual anti inflam pill. however, i didnt notice this during the day.....and went all day w/o taking any more!!! this is a first still hurts to bite esp w/ front teeth.

plus*** mother gave me two recipes that sound good and 'soft'. salmon croquette loaf and a zucchini bar recipe. i think i'll buy the ingredients on my way home from work tomorrow and try them out! over and out for day 5 post braces, first day at work post braces...

[NurseJ]

Sounds like you're adjusting quite well! I get my upper braces on Monday (yay!) I'm picking up all the little tidbits of advice I can in the meantime. I've been enjoying reading your experiences!

[GRILLZ]

nurseJ;

best of luck.....i'll be reading your experiences as well.

[GRILLZ]

day #6.....2nd day at work.....i don't know why....but i have such an incredible headache since i got home from work. was starving and i ate 3 soft wheat rolls for dinner. maybe i tried to chew them more than i had before but my whole face hurts...including my head.....ugh....such a sharp stabbing pain. was going to go to the store to get some canned salmon for dinner but i was too too hungry, so i just ate the rolls w/ a small amount of cottage cheese. not the most balanced, i know but i was h u n g r y. then i was too tired to brush, but i did force myself. rinsed, waterpiked and brushed but didn't floss. i'll do that before bed.

my old boss saw my braces today, i saw him looking at my mouth but he didn't say anything, just continued the conversation as normal. wonder what he was thinking.....

i can't remember if i took an advil when i got home. i think i'll take one now...just to be sure. i was so sure things were going so well, i i didn't take my advil proactively. guess this was a mistake.