47 and getting rebraced

[Kipepeo]

Hello Fellow Bracians!
I'm scheduled to get lower Damon metal braces in 7 days. My journey started over 30 years ago, when I had braces as a teen. I've had straight teeth pretty much all my life. In fact, I had braces at 16 due to an open bite, but they were straight. I had good results, but some of the bottom fronts have been rotating.

So fast forward to March 2011, when the rotated lower tooth is hitting the upper incisor so much, it's making the upper one loose and painful. So, my ortho suggests a spring retainer worn for about 3 months should do the trick.

I wore the retainer for 4 weeks and returned to the ortho because it was loose and wouldn't stay down. So he made some adjustments. 3 weeks later, it's staying down, but I see NO changes, except a gap where the wire goes over my teeth. There isn't supposed to be gaps there.

So he concedes the retainer is unable to do the job, credits me full price, and suggests lower full braces. This will now take 6-9 months. So where I should have been complete with the retainer by mid July...now I'm looking at Dec-Mar 2012.

If you look at me you'd wonder why on earth I would do this. I have 'straight teeth'...but my 2 front incisors hit primary before any back molars, with the bottom one scraping up the back of the upper one, throwing my bite off. I either have to realign the teeth or file down the offending tooth (not an option in my view).

So, looking forward to getting started and dealing with any strange looks and questions. Only one person asked about my retainer, which made me talk funny -- I hated that thing, so not sorry to lose it.

[placeholder for pretreatment pics after enough posts]

[threescompany]

Welcome! Hopefully you will have quick results with the braces. People do react funny when they didn't think you needed them and then you show up braced. I have braces with basically straight teeth too. My case is to close up gaps and a slight open bite. My estimate was 6 months but I can't see how since I'm supposed to be almost half way through and the gaps are still there!

[Kipepeo]

I get braced tomorrow morning. Immediately following that I have a meeting at work with our division heads. That ought to be interesting.

[Nettie]

Hi Kipe...

You'll be fine tomorrow and your time in braces will go by so fast!!!
Because you are doing bottoms only people may not even notice. Let us know how it goes!!!

nettie

[Kipepeo]

Ok, they're finally on, bottoms only, got them yesterday. I have Damons and they are not prickly at all. I haven't had to use wax and nothing is catching. They're pretty comfortable as far as braces go.

When you see these pics you are going to scratch your head, WT?? Even I look at these and wonder what was I thinking! But that first left incisor (right in the photos) sticks out front enough to scrape the back of the upper incisor above it. This is causing both teeth to be loose and painful, plus it's sending the discomfort back down the arch. Not good. I was offered to grind down the tooth until it didn't hit - No Way. So I tried a spring retainer, a removable device that basically squeezes together to shape the teeth into alignment. I wore this for 7 weeks and at my appointment it was clear the device was actually crowding my teeth even more instead of aligning them.

[Nettie]

OH MY Kipeleo, Your teeth are beautiful and will be even more perfect when you are done!!!

Did anyone even notice you got them?

I haven't been able to load my pics, the files are too large and I've resize them twice already....
Wait till you see what I've been living with for all these years...

Nettie

[Kipepeo]

Thanks Nettie. A couple people asked if I was wearing braces, but I've noticed others looking st my teeth, so I know they're visible. In about a week I won't care anymore, because at this point the reality is that I have braces on my teeth, and I will for several months.

[Kipepeo]

So, it has been a bit over 1 week with bottom braces, and I have to say this is not that bad. The first day the teeth were painful, but that subsided rather quickly. These Damon brackets are very comfortable and I haven't had to open the wax at all. I remember from my first time around having all sorts of ulcers from pokey things. Even my spring retainer gave me 2 ulcers, and I didn't have wax for those...just suffered through it.

I can eat nearly anything I want, just have to be careful biting down. I have not broken any wires or anything, and would like to keep it that way!

Cleaning is no big deal. A couple of good swishes with water after each meal gets most stuff out, and then follow up with brushing 3x/day. Flossing does take longer of course, but not such a big deal. Again, I only have a demi so that makes it shorter too.

I can feel ever so slight changes, but nothing notable. I made an animated morph from day 0 through 1 week, and I can see super slight changes, but it's not worth posting.

All-in-all, these braces are no problem, which is good considering I'll have them for awhile.

[klobird]

Kip--

Wow!! Those are some amazing teeth!!! My friend is going to get braces because she has one tooth that is really bothering her. You would think she doesn't need them, but why should she let something bother her for the rest of her life if she doesn't have to?

Aren't Damon braces great?! They are soooo comfortable....

Good luck with getting those pesky lowers fixed--that was really great of your ortho to credit the $$$ when the retainer didn't work!

[Kipepeo]

Thank you Klobird! Well, I never intended to get braces or drag this out nearly a year. In my view I have one tooth that scrapes the back of the upper incisor and actually causes my jaw to go backwards. One tooth! But trying the retainer actually caused more crowding and some gaps to appear where there weren't any before. I've resigned myself that I'm now not going for just the quick fix, and if I have to suck it up and get top braces too, so be it. Now's my chance to bring down my top fronts even more, so that my bite is better than it ever was.

[Kipepeo]

So, I'm 2 weeks in now, and I still don't see anything, but I can feel changes. But instead of really feeling changes in the front where I would expect it, I'm feeling it around my left canine. I used to be able to bite my upper and lower left canines together, but now they don't touch any other teeth at all. Do you know how hard it is to munch little teeny bits without that ability?

I'm kind of weird because I'm actually enjoying having these braces on. It's kind of fun...different. Maybe it's the pure thought that I've lived so many years with not quite right 1st time ortho treatment. Now's my chance to make it right for the rest of my life. After I'm all done I'll look back and think how quickly the time flew by, regardless of how long it takes.

So I'm considering putting tiny seed beads on my wire for fun. I'm a bead jeweler and I thought this would be neat. I already asked my ortho assistant and she said as long as "Dr. R." says it's ok and won't interfere, then ok. So maybe I will try that.

[MarciLouWho]

Your teeth are gorgeous and will be even more gorgeous after you're done.

The thing is, people thought my teeth looked fine and I have gotten some comments to the effect of, "Why would you need braces? Your teeth look perfect!" Well, crap, I'm doing this because I love pain and looking 12. Natrually.

I have numerous relatively small issues that all added up to 24 months of orthodontics, so I'm thinking that my teeth may have only "looked" perfect. You do what you gotta do and have fun with it.

xoxo
Marci

[klobird]

Hey Kip--

That dream interpretation you found online--almost creepy---something else completely different happened--that my neighbor was a part of--and it was almost the exact same message....hmmmmm.... ...think I'm going to have to behave for awhile!!!

[Kipepeo]

I'm about 5 weeks into this now. I haven't posted much about my progress because...well..frankly I wasn't really having any. I went 4 days ago for my first wire advancement. The assistant warned me it would hurt when she pushed the wire in and shut the brackets doors, and she didn't lie. I just happened to glance at a mirror about 2 hours later to check out the new wire...and that pesky incisor has already rotated inline with the arch...2 hours!

In response to my question about whether the fronts would be going down or the backs coming up to even out the arch, the answer was a little bit of both. Also, we don't want the molars to spread out, and my bite in the back is definitely changing, so we'll probably be playing this cat and mouse game for awhile.

Next appt 8 weeks.

[catgyrl]

I hate you...

Just kidding! Your teeth look perfect already. You are one lucky bugger... I wish for mine to look even half as good as yours. Goof job!

Cathy