Another braces story

[luchababe]

Ok! You got me! Good one!



Braces! Yeah, funny. I can take them off now, right? Seriously, it was funny for a while but the novelty has worn off so it's over, ok? Braces for a year or more? Come on! The flossing, the brushing, the trouble biting and chewing... Wait, really?



Nuts.

[luchababe]

Frackin' smuck! I've got another spot of calcite. Calcium. Calgon. Colgate. Crap! That's what it is! I noticed it at lunch today as I was cleaning apple out of my wires. It's on my one bottom canine, the one that used to point forward and now it's standing up straight. It looks like the plucking plaque is in the shape of my former gumline when the tooth used to point forward. It's nowhere near the gumline now! So I'm not toooo worried about it like the other spot I had last month. I'm going in for an adjustment on Feb 1, that's 2 weeks less one day from now so I think it can wait until then. I'm going to ask whoever works on me if they can get it off for me since my next dentist app. isn't until April 8 and there's no WAY I'm waiting until then to get it OOOFFFF.

[drgnchsr36]

Yeah, I'm sure they can remove it. At least I hope so.

I can't wait to get my wire off for my cleaning.

[luchababe]

Week 12

My teeth seem to have run out of gas so I made this to remind myself they DO move. Each photo represents 1 week. I think my top wire is still ever so slowly straightening out but the bottom seems to have ground to a halt. I get new wires on Feb 1, a little less than two weeks away.



The Good

I can floss in 5 minutes.
My bottom canines are now standing up and it's nice and strange to see that in the mirror.
My teeth don't hit my bumpers anymore so when I eat it feels a little more normal. In fact, one bumper came off twice in one weekend. Then once again on monday. I cleaned my teeth, cleaned the bumper and was going to put it back on again when I noticed the head of it had floss thread wrapped around and around and around it. I couldn't get it off, it grossed me out, so I decided to just leave it off. I have 3 more to pick up any slack.
Haven't used any wax.
I bit into my first hamburger, with braces, without cutting it up, last night.

The Bad

Another spot of calculus which I'll have to ask the ortho hygienist to remove for me.
My front teeth are still loose feeling.
The realization I'll probably have to spend the summer in braces. I don't like the heat and humidity. It makes me claustrophobic and having braces at the same time? Not looking forward to trying THAT out.

What I've learned

Strangers don't give a crap that I have braces.
I drool at night because I can't keep my lips closed while I'm sleeping.
I may have given up popcorn at the movies while I have braces, but nothing's stopping me from eating soft pretzels! And, by geebus, the ones at my AMC are delicious! I've had two so far and both have come out warm and soft from the oven when I ordered it. Unreal.

[drgnchsr36]

Wow, that's an awesome little animation.. cool to see such progress!!

Thanks for sharing, I love to read the good/bad/what you learned. Good stuff!

[peacefrog]

Awesome progress in only three months time. It sometimes seems like they aren't moving but when you look at the pictures side by side they definitely are on the move.

[Ellebraced]

Hey Luchababe

Looking awesome!! That wonky upper sure moved fast. A great summary of the last 12 weeks!!!

Great little video!! Are you a graphic designer and using a MAC??

[luchababe]

drgnchsr36 I find listing the good and the bad kinda puts things in perspective. Sure, flossing may take AGES, but it doesn't take AGES as long as it used to...

peacefrog It's great consolation to see the photographic proof these braces are actually working!

Ellebraced That wonky front tooth has a few mms left to go so I hope a new wire will sort that out. And yes, good call! I'm a graphic designer using a Mac. Love my Mac...

[Dilema]

great progress

keep us updated

[luchababe]

Ho boy, here comes another freak out.

After brushing my teeth after lunch today I did my normal once over to be sure I got all the food out. I noticed some, how I can only describe as, grey spots. Picture two teeth side by side. The sides that are touching each other look a little dull, grey. I don't know if it's really there or it's my mind playing tricks on me. I haven't been worrying about anything lately so maybe my mind decided it was time I started again and thought this up.

It could just be a shadow, cast from the wire across my teeth in the mirror. Or shadows from the teeth as I move my head around to get a better look. Or my teeth are dying and I'll have grey dead teeth soon. Maybe they've always looked like that but I've never noticed before because I've never studies my mouth that closely in the mirror before. I'm too afraid to take a close up photo in case I see something...

I always make sure the bristles from my toothbrush get under the wires so it's not like I'm not brushing between my teeth. I think just naturally you can't help but brush in there when you're brushing.

I had a cleaning on Dec 20, one month and one day ago and the hygienist never mentioned anything. You'd think they would if they saw what I see, right? I hope that means it's my imagination running away again.

This forum is great and all, but sometimes I have to step away from it. It gives me ideas, makes me worry about things I didn't know I was concerned about.

[farmboy]

Luchababe,

Are the teeth really close together? I've read somewhere in here that your teeth are translucent, but some things (like fillings) can stop the distribution of that light.

I used to notice grey areas near the spots where some of my teeth touched, particularly on my crowded lower jaw. Now that my braces have realigned things a little, those spots have gone away (for good, I hope!) Maybe this is what's happened with you, as your teeth have shifted.

And I know what you mean about having to step away from this forum for a bit. I took a "leave of absence" for a couple of months for that reason. I came back and had a sudden freakout after reading about latex sensitivity (I've had some sores from the elastics lately.)

I guess information is better than ignorance, though....

Good luck to you!

[SilverGirl]

Your teeth have mad a ton of progress! I can tell that your arch has widened a lot, too. They look awesome.

[luchababe]

3 Months! I never thought I'd get here. Half way to the orthos casual estimate of having my teeth straight. But he said it so I'm holding him to it!



I can't see too much going on this last month. Maybe my bottom teeth have sort of widened out, same with my top ones, making my arches a little wider (and sexier!) but I can't see too much else. The ortho has timed things pretty well because I'm going in for new wires in 4 days.

farmboy I think your quite right about those grey spots. My BF said they're shadows from my brackets and I think he's right. I can't get rid of them in the mirror, but I can create them on other teeth, know what I mean? And moving my head around and holding a finger behind a suspicious tooth removes the grey. Just something else to put up with!

SilverGirl Thanks! I may not see much going on in the past month, but when comparing it to my first day...Ding Dong!!

[tashay1985]

your teeth look AMAZING!

[luchababe]

2nd Adjustment Day

My top wire is the same old one from last time but I have a new one on my bottom teeth. The wire is the same square kind that's on the top. I go back in 8 weeks for a repositioning appointment. I'll get some xrays to see where all my roots are and if needed they'll take brackets off and reposition them. The Dr. did say my teeth were looking beautiful so that's encouraging, they must be moving just the way he wants them to! I was in and out of the office in under 30 minutes. The other good news is I only have 2 bumpers now, I got more floss threaders for free plus some GUM rubber brush thingies that you stick between your teeth.

No one mentioned plaque (besides me when I asked about a white spot and the hygienist scraped it off), grey teeth or poor gums. So a thumbs up all around!

Well, there was a bit of a "Oh, maaaan" moment. It was when I was told to come back in 8 weeks and my new wire would be in for about 16 weeks. That's a lot weeks.