Catgyrl's (Cathy's) Journey at age 42...

[iBorg]

Quick question......
Would you rather them think you a coke addict or anal retentive about your teeth?

[jensceana73]

You Coke Whore You.

Hopefully, you have a good sense of humor....for that...was a joke.

And bendy straws....have saved my "coke" habit. I'm always trying to quit caffeine, but ....like the "coke" whore that I am...(diet coke actually) I always go back to my "fix". Anyway.....I drink just about everything, with a bendy straw. I buy them in the huge multi colored packs. Love em. Milk, pop, lemonade, ohh...and of course some of the capt'n. Yep....I'm a Coke Whore who sucks it through a bendy straw.

After braces....it'll be rehab.

[Nettie]

Hi Cathy!
Love the bendy straws, I keep a pack in my desk at work!!!!

However, I have given up my diet coke and sugar in my coffee.

Your teeth are looking fabulous!!!!

Nettie

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=39453

[Crazy4Snow]

Bendy straws are a must aren't they? I even drink my coffee with them...now that feels un-natural. I don't even let any liquid other than water to linger in my mouth...straw directs it straight to my throat and I don't get to taste all that much...I miss it.

[catgyrl]

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for your positive comments and help with my staining issue! Yes, I am getting accustomed to using the bendy straws with everything, and now I'm two weeks in, with very minimal staining on my ligs/chain. I now believe last month's horrible staining was due to the orange juice I was downing (sans straw) while I was sick (plus, of course, not using straws). I've also been brushing with a little bit of baking soda sprinkled on my toothbrush, and that also seems to help.

Crazy4Snow: I agree that drinking with straws takes much of the fun out of it

Jen: Yes, I am proud to be a coke whore!!

At my next appointment I'm going to ask him if he can stop the zigzag power chain thing. I'm noticing that (1) it's doing nothing to close my gaps, and (2) it is actually causing my teeth to be uneven in length, like the chain is pushing some teeth up and some teeth down, so they're all jaggedy now.

The elastics seem to be doing their job, but the left side is still quite high and... I don't know... "sunken in", perhaps? Maybe that's because the gaps still aren't closed? I know he's the expert, but I feel like he's not being as aggressive as maybe he could be.

Okay, enough griping. On a positive note: Last weekend I was at a baby shower and my grand-niece grabbed me and took a pic of us together. It came out very grainy, but I noticed that my braces AND wire were completely INVISIBLE! My face looked so different, like I'd lost weight, and had bigger teeth. For the first time, I could see how good they're going to look by (hopefully) next year.

Cathy

[catgyrl]

Ummm... I did a boo boo...

I noticed something stuck under -- what I thought was -- my clear ligature on my upper left central incisor. I got a little plastic pick-thingie and went to town trying to get it out. Well... my lig popped right off!! Looks really nasty, too - all yellow-stained and misshappen. It turns out the piece of whatever-it-is is still stuck there - under my CHAIN! There's no way I can get it out unless I take the chain off (which I don't want to attempt because I may not be able to get it back on).

I'm debating whether or not I should call the ortho to let them know. I had a lig fall off once before, but it was on a back molar and had no effect on the wire. This one is on a front tooth that's kinda jacked up. I'm due back to see him next Friday. Methinks I shall not mention the plastic pick-thingie, and just say it was due to overzealous brushing trying to get the piece of black stuff out.

On a positive note: That un-ligged tooth sure does look purty without the stained lig surrounding it!

-Cathy

[klobird]

Hey Cat!

I am also a Coke addict--diet, caffeine free--and I use bendy straws too (but upside down! ) I find though that I have to use a big glass instead of of the bottle/can. It doesn't fizz as much.

Drinking my coffee with a straw....hmmm...well, since I only have 1 1/2 cups a day, I'm not worried about it

Cat--I have a question--everyone is freaked out about elastics...do you think they are that bad? I have only had problems twice--from talking too much! Mine are heavier now than when I first got braces, and they are placed in such a way that they don't rub on the inside corners of my lips--I can talk all I want now! Also, I got latex free and it seems to help.
How about you--??

[catgyrl]

Hi Klo!

Elastics are more "annoying" to me, over anything else (painful, etc.) It really does depend on the configuration, doesn't it? When I was in Class II configuration (upper canine to lower-back molar), I could talk, eat, sing, do ANYTHING without any rubbing, and without a horrible lisp. Triangle configs are trickier because they're more toward the front of your mouth. My lisp is pretty bad right now; to the point where people ask me to repeat what I just said to them. I've been on Xtra Heavy Force bands since I started elastics in January, so I don't know how anything else feels.

It would be awfully nice to get at least a one-month break from them. I may be brave and ask him in September, if he can give me a reprieve while I'm on my trip. He'll probably say "Sure... you'll just have an extra 2 months of braces!"

-Cathy

[Snowglobe32]

Cathy,

Can you just unhook the powerchain on the tooth that has whatever it is, stuck underneath? I used to remove my powerchain about once a week so I could clean really good but I mastered putting it back on in minutes.

For the missing lig, I don't have ligs, but can you use an elastic on the bracket until next week?

[Snowglobe32]

Cat--I have a question--everyone is freaked out about elastics...do you think they are that bad? I have only had problems twice--from talking too much! Mine are heavier now than when I first got braces, and they are placed in such a way that they don't rub on the inside corners of my lips--I can talk all I want now! Also, I got latex free and it seems to help.
How about you--??

I know you asked Cathy about this but I was thinking about this today... Elastics have been by far, the worst for me. I hate them! I have worn them several times and right now I have 4 cross elastics. They hook from the inside of the teeth to the outside. The last few days have been so painful. I even went home early from work yesterday because I have the worst sore/tender spot on the inside of my right cheek right now (plus I had a head and stomach ache). When I wear the eastics, it seems almost as though my cheek is being sucked into my teeth, only on the right side though.

I have to pull my cheek away from my teeth many times throughout the day. I don't know if it is the positioning of the elastics, the fact that I have to twist the elastics before hooking (cross elastics are hooked on, then twisted many times before being attached to the other hook) or the fact that I am wearing them to fix a cross bite and maybe since the teeth are being pushed out, the bracket is sticking out further...I don't know, just know I hate them.

Like Cat said, it really depends on what configuration you wear, what strength the elastics are and how many you have. If the elastics prevent you from opening your mouth wide, then it is annoying because you try to talk or smile and it seems like your teeth try to shut themselves.

[catgyrl]

Hi Snowglobe32!

I'm not very ambidextrous, so for me to hold my "hook implement" in my right hand (I don't trust myself holding it with my left... LOL!), and aim the Waterpik at the gunk with my left hand... Well, it's not working out so well. I end up either cleaning my nostrils and eyeballs, or pulling my lig or chain off. And my powerchain isn't hooked in the normal way. It's woven over and under the brackets, and then the ligs are placed OVER the chain, around each bracket. So to remove the chain, I have to remove the ligs first. By this time, they are so stretched out and misshapen, it's impossible to put them back on. Aargh!

I called the ortho's office and explained that my lig popped off when I was... Ahem... brushing , and she said that as long as it wasn't the chain, and since I was coming in next Friday, it should be fine. That said, after I got home, I got my little hook out and removed the lig right next to that one, on the other central incisor. Now I have two nice, white-ish teeth. During my inspection, I noticed another lig towards the back was half-off (but I swear, that one WAS from brushing!), so I slid it back on.

That's an interesting idea re: using an elastic in place of a lig! Trouble is, my elastic is WAY too wide to fit around a lig, and too big around. I think my saving grace is this thick, rectangular wire that they had to use a lot of force to put in - this baby ain't goin' anywhere!

Thanks for the tips!
Cathy

P.S. Any brace newbies reading this: DO NOT do what I just did today! I'm over a year in, and bored outta my mind.

[catgyrl]

Snowglobe32

I completely sympathize with your hatred of your elastics. Though your configuration, and number of elastics, is way worse then mine, I do have my days where I have to pry my cheeks open. Lately, I've been getting sores inside my mouth from the rubbing; however, I can't wear wax because the damn elastics prevent it from staying put. I also find that my teeth literally clamp shut during the night while I'm sleeping. It makes me clench my teeth all night, so I wake up with a lovely headache and sore jaw.

Hard to believe two little rubber bands can make our lives a living he'll, huh?

Cathy

[klobird]

Hey again Cat---ya, I know what you mean about the clamping shut--it's weird! My mouth clamps shut at night too and when I open my mouth, it feels like magnets are pulling it to clamp down again--it's so weird. And I have always been a clencher, but wow, with this new set of elastics, it's something else!

I think my elastics were the icky configuration at first, and now much better. But I do have the lingual cleats (elastic "hooks") on the inside of my bands on both sides for the elastics to go outside to the majorly rotated molars and pull them in. Right now the cleats rub on both sides of my tongue, and I use wax all the time on them.

I envy how far along you are!! Everything is still so new...

[catgyrl]

Okay, this is an accurate portrait of me at about 1:00 AM this morning:

I guess I shouldn't have removed that 2nd lig, because the wire has totally slipped out of the bracket slot and is pushing on the bottom part of that bracket. OY VAY!!! It will not stay in, even if I push it in there - just pops right back out because it's so stiff. I have never woken up in braces pain since the day I got them, but today was awful. It looks like the tooth has even moved upwards a bit in only the last 12 hours. I'm marching my beehind into the ortho when they open at 7:00 AM and am going to ask if he can PRETTY PLEASE put a lig back on at least that tooth. I know he won't be happy because the lig will be super tight, when all the others are looser, but I really don't think he'd want the wire pushing down on the tooth and misaligning it even more. I know it is going to hurt like a MOFO!!!

Lesson learned... I will behave from now on...

[catgyrl]

If this was me this morning: , then this is me now (post ortho visit):

My tooth was absolutely KILLING ME from having that damn wire pushing it up and back. I mean, it made the one next to it look twice as long, like I had one rabbit tooth. So, as I walked into the office, Mr. Ortho Man was getting his morning tea ready. He didn't even seem fazed to see me. It's like I drop in on him every day to say good morning. He said, "Hey Cathy, how's it going?" I told him, "I finally have a problem!" (Every month for 15 months he asks if there are any problems, and I always say "no".) Anyway, all I said was that my ligs had popped off and the wire was now outside the bracket and pushing my tooth back. He just nodded his head like it was an everyday occurrence, and told me to go back and sit in the chair. (No scoldings... no questions of "What did you do to it?", nothing!) I expected him to just put a couple ligs on them and send me on my merry way. Well... the assistant took all my ligs off. (She pointed out to me that I had lost yet ANOTHER one I didn't even know about! That's the second time a lig has fallen off that back tooth; #5. She pointed that out to him, too.) He told her to take the zigzag chain off (because they were causing my teeth to be misaligned, and also because he thought that also might have put odd pressure on the wire). He pushed the wire back in (it went right in with ease), and told her to just put a full powerchain back on because it was "safer". Once everything was all strapped in, nice and cozy, I felt great. Nice, clean Obscure chain.

He also noticed that the gaps weren't closed yet (I said, "Nope. They haven't budged!") I'm hoping that will change now that I have a full chain again. He told me that if my teeth didn't realign properly in the next 2-3 weeks, to give him a call, because that would mean that the wire wasn't properly engaged and doing what it was supposed to do. WOW! I had all these same issues on my list to talk to him about, and now I don't have to. We cancelled my regularly-scheduled appointment for next Friday, and I'm due back to see him on September 7th. He was SO NICE today, considering I'd ambushed him before 7:00 AM. He didn't seem like he minded at all.

Oh, I forgot one more thing. When I came in, the receptionist heard me telling him about my problem and gave this little flippant, "Well, people normally CALL when they have a problem, instead of coming all the way down here." I wanted to reply back, but I had to get into the back room quickly. On my way out, I told her, "I apologize again for coming unannounced, but I DID call the office yesterday and was told that as long as the wire was in the bracket, I would be fine. When it popped out and wouldn't go back in, and was pressing on my tooth, I decided to come this morning." Well, I think that caught her offguard and she backpedaled a little and said, "Oh, I just meant that I know you didn't live in the area, so I thought it was out of your way." I told her, "I work 5 minutes away, so I was on my way to work." Don't mess with me before I've had my caffeine...

I am a happy camper now!
-Cathy