It has been a pain to deal with since I lost my baby teeth, and after a failed attempt at braces as a teenager, I became a bit disillusioned with it all. Mainly because after years of waiting for my adult teeth to come through and finally getting a palate brace put in, one night, after cleaning it and getting ready for bed, our new dog, who had a tendency for eating everything in sight, decided to eat half of it! I was devastated. And at that point I decided to give up. My thinking was 'I have tried the braces, it wasn't meant to be!'
So, uni, work, marriage and two children later, I have decided...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I want to be able to smile properly in photos with my daughters, and not be embarrassed enough to delete all the photos that show up of me! So, I just went with it and called an orthodontist so I could see if there was anything that could be done.
At the appointment, he asked me what I wanted to achieve from wearing a brace. To me I would have thought that was obvious, but hey!
so after having a look at my gnashers, he said that I might have to have surgery after the braces to realign the jaw. To find that out, I would need to go for an X-ray. He also took impressions and photos, showing my teeth in all their crooked glory! I felt so self conscious as hiding my teeth has been a trick that has evolved over the years...but it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be.I then had to go for my X-ray, to see how severe my overjet was. This was done at another orthodontist, as mine didn't have the machinery needed. So afterwards, I made an appointment at my ortho two weeks later,not give him the time to work his magic.
Once I went though, he said he is still deciding what to do, and he was going down to Cambridge to discuss it with a colleague. That meant he would get back to me in two weeks.
Two weeks went by...then another two weeks..then after another weeks wait...on a miserable Friday night...a phone call...
It was....THE ORTHODONTIST!!! Finally!
he said that I won't be needing surgery, but I would be wearing traditional braces for 18 months...and I would need two extractions...one from the too and one from the bottom. And I could get my extractions as soon as Monday evening! Why of course I said...BOOK ME IN! Here are some before photos:
Sorry for the quality...I have yet to perfect the mouth shot! Lol!
So after the nervous wait to go (and some 'before' pictures later) and see him, I was sitting in the chair where all the magic will happen! I asked which teeth he would be taking...he said it'll be a pre molar from the top and...ONE OF MY CENTRAL INCISORS AT THE BOTTOM! Well my jaw hit the floor! One of my front teeth...good lord...that's asking a lot! Now don't get me wrong, if I was going to be holed up in my house, not needing to go anywhere, then yeah, do it...but I would have to wait two weeks before I get my braces in so I asked if the bottom tooth could wait until closer to the time, he obliged and said no problem! Thank god! Once the tooth was taken out, he made two appointments for me, one for yesterday, that was to insert spacers (7 in total) and one on the 3rd July to get my top and bottom arches in and get that pesky bottom left incisor out. So excited...I can't wait!
The main thing I want out of this is to be able to have a massive smile on my face in a photo with my two beautiful daughters...and be able to talk to people without feeling like they are automatically drawn to my teeth!
to us and our soon to be perfect smiles! Lol!
For those who know me, that is quite surprising as I'm known as a big loud mouth, surely a big mouth should have more space! Lol!
my waterpik...loads and loads and loads!!!
