Can I do it?

[jem]

Hi Ebony

Day 3 is just fine, thank you. My lips are not at all sore and I have not yet had any dental pain, although I did have a slight headache yesterday.It may be that teeth start to move more slowly for oldies like me and that I still have some dental tenderness to come.

I have been out and about quite a lot today both on business and to shops and no-one I have met has taken any notice of my brace.This was probably my biggest worry, so I am feeling increasingly happy about it.

I think your idea of attending a lecture on adult orthodontics is a good one. I always like to have some idea of what to expect and have found this site enormously helpful. When I was given the option by my dentist of having teeth capped or orthodontics to correct my minor bite problem, I was confident that orthodontics was the best option.

All the best

Jem

[jem]

Hi Ebony

Day 3 is just fine, thank you. My lips are not at all sore and I have not yet had any dental pain, although I did have a slight headache yesterday.It may be that teeth start to move more slowly for oldies like me and that I still have some dental tenderness to come.

I have been out and about quite a lot today both on business and to shops and no-one I have met has taken any notice of my brace.This was probably my biggest worry, so I am feeling increasingly happy about it.

I think your idea of attending a lecture on adult orthodontics is a good one. I always like to have some idea of what to expect and have found this site enormously helpful. When I was given the option by my dentist of having teeth capped or orthodontics to correct my minor bite problem, I was confident that orthodontics was the best option.

All the best

Jem

[EbonyQ]

Tomorrow is my appointment with the ortho and I feel so relieved that it’s not the bracing date as it is supposed to be. Just pictures!

So I can eat tomorrow after my appointment and won’t have any pain.

[catgyrl]

Smile pretty, Ebony! I swear, those pics they take could not be more unflattering! We all look like Mr. Ed!!

[Mazly007]

Pretty sure I looked worst than Mr. Ed....ha.

I might have added an extra coat of lip gloss just for a little sparkle in the pics...

[jem]

Hi Ebony,

Good luck today!

You should not worry about pain with braces when you are eating. Not everyone has that problem (I haven't so far) and those people on this board who have had pain have evidently coped with it well as I am sure you will too.

Take care,

Jem

[catgyrl]

Pretty sure I looked worst than Mr. Ed....ha.

I might have added an extra coat of lip gloss just for a little sparkle in the pics...

LOL! I was sick as a DOG the day I had my pics taken (wasn't aware I'd be doing that on that day), so I think anything from now on will look better than those.

As for lip gloss, you can't even see my lips in the pics I was referring to (the ones where you hold the cheek separators, and just see your teeth and gums). YUCK!!

Good luck, Ebony!

[EbonyQ]

I survived!
Had my appointment 4.45 pm, the last app. for the day, but because of a very talk active parent he did not call me inn before 5.05 but that was ok. I like it when it’s that late, his assistants are not working, no other people running around; it’s calm. We got all the time in the world (at least it seems like my ortho don’t have a time issue ).

Since I came from my local anesthesia course I still had the course book in my purse and when I showed it to him he automatically started to teach me a few tricks. He said those Latin names like it was regular names we use every day (I have been practicing those names the whole Christmas and still have problems with them. He made them sound sooo easy to learn…. ). He chatted about local anesthesia for a good 15-20 min none-stop and I was thinking “what? Are we not going to start? You are supposed to be closed, you must be tired” (Not that I minded it, it was an interesting chat). We then jumped to my dental fear website and had a good chat about that too before we got started. It took about 10 mins to take the pictures and he showed them to me, which I was grateful for

What I liked about this appointment was that even though I last time (before I freaked out and cancelled) had agreed to do this he did not pin me down on my word, he spoke like I still had a choice to agree to this or not. There was no pressure at all. It was all up to me.

It would not get better by avoiding it, the best thing would be to just jump in the chair, close my eyes and have a “sleep” for 30 mins (he joked that we could put the braces on there and then. Yeah, right ) while he put the brackets on (we are just putting the brackets on to give me time to adjust to this new thing).

We then started to chat about braces and he showed me arch wires which I’m dreading so much.
He did not rush me at all into deciding if I wanted to go through with it or not, even though the clock was ticking he kept chatting and letting me decide what I wanted.
It was not an easy decision at all, I was battling my emotions but after all he has done on my visits I knew that I was in good hands, so I agreed to it do it.

Since he did not want me to lay awake more nights than necessary and let my thoughts get to me and give me cold feet again, he gave me two options; lay awake two nights (aka get my appointment this Friday) or lay awake 7 nights ( aka get my appointment next Wednesday). It was like picking my death, if I wanted to make it quick or slow. I took Friday but I regret that now, I’m freaking out. All I can think of is when I can cancel tomorrow. It’s too soon, I’m not ready at all!!
He put me as the last pt of the day that day so we got all the time in the world (we are so going to need that!).

I was in there for an hour, and what I came for just took 10 mins. Can’t say that he is rushing his pts out of the office as I often read orthos tend to do. This was something I needed, to see that he really cares about his pts and takes his time with them.

Can’t get a better ortho than this, that's for sure

[jem]

Ebony,

He sounds like a great ortho. Trust him and go for it on Friday. I'm sure you won't regret it.

Good luck.

Jem

[klobird]

Hey Eb, you are torturing yourself...nothing to it but to do it!! I am in love with your ortho! He sounds amazing!!
It's just not that big a deal--trust me, you will survive!! As always,though, it's ok to back out!

[ashesgap]

What if you pretend you're just going for another chat? I'm sure, if you ask him, he can spend the whole time talking about dental stuff. That way you're learning, and paying attention to that and not much else. I think he knows your fear really well, and that's why he started your appointment today talking about your books and what not.
I hope you can put it out of your mind for the few days, and just walk in for a chat.
Good luck.

[littlered]

Hey Ebony, it's good to see that you're still doing as much as you feel comfortable with. As everyone else has said, your ortho is fantastic! He's the perfect guy to work with you on this. Everything is lining up for you and... when something's ready for you to do something, it don't seem to matter if you're ready or not.

Good luck mate!

[EbonyQ]

Well what can I say?

I eat a hamburger before my appointment (I brushed and flossed my teeth after the meal, of course) and felt it was my last…
As always he did not rush me into anything. I could not manage to walk towards the chair so we had a little chat at first. He explained what he was going to do and so on. For some reason I could only managed to take a step away from the chair but eventually I did it. We agreed to just put brackets on the back teeth (molars and premolars), and not front teeth.
It was very unreal to lay there in the chair knowing that the brackets were going on my teeth. Was this not what I had been fighting against?

The cheek extractor (or whatever it’s called) was not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be, could hardly feel it. It was not as big as those I saw on youtube and other than that the only thing I had in my mouth was the spit suction thingy.
When he places the first bracket on my teeth my heart started to pump “Is this for real? Am I doing this? There’s no turning back now. What?!” but he was taking it slow and explained what he did and what tooth he was “working on”.

It anyway did go very fast and it was not all that stuff in your mouth or on your teeth as I had seen on youtube.
When he was finished it felt so strange to have them in my mouth. They were so hard and felt big (I knew that they would be hard, but not that they would feel that hard in my mouth!). I now do understand why people get sores from their braces… It must be so strange to get the whole braces in at once, I’m glad that I did it this way. It will give me a chance to adjust.

Have an appointment next Friday to put the rest of the brackets on my upper jaw on and the dreaded arch wire (this is only if I can managed to get an extraction appointment with my general dentist before Friday). Apparently I’m having a premolar who believe its a tooth on the right side and not the left side, meaning it’s front side is inside (palatinal) and the inside side of tooth is with my cheek (is there something that I don’t have with my teeth?). So he is extracting that one instead of the original premolar we were going to extract.
So I’m one step closer to braces, I got brackets on my back teeth. I did it!

I never thought I would manage it…

[ashesgap]

Congrats!

[AM21]

Congrats!! That's so awesome!