Betsy's getting braces

[BetsyBug]

Yeah I do suppose that is a good thing. My teeth are aching pretty badly today. Hopefully that lets up soon. (at least before I go in for another ajustment on the 25th) I have to say its nice to feel some pain, knowing that there is moving going on. I don't think I have any more teeth that have a significant way to move, just fine adjusting now. (at least none that I know of...lol) So now we will be onto root alignment and bite correction.

[BetsyBug]

So I have decided that molars moving really hurts....lol. My teeth are feeling a little better but my lower right molars are all still hurting. My incisors have gotten better but there is a general ache on my lowers all around. I guess thats what happens with the new wire. I wouldn't really know this is the first wire change on my lowers in 6 months. My uppers didn't really have much work to do so I haven't really experienced much pain with the wire changes on the uppers.

How is everyone else doing. I have two more weeks until my "official" adjustment so am looking forward to getting new ligs. the blue is getting kinda old.

[BetsyBug]

oh my gosh I'm so sorry guys for the size of these pictures...LOL. apparently my skills at resizing suck today.

I figured I would post a few pics of my progress since I haven't in so long.
My uppers are pretty much just hanging out right now. Not many changes there.
My lowers are getting much straighter, my number 24 lower incisor is a little further back then the rest of them, but the ortho said that it wouldn't line up without the root being torqued. The picture doesn't show my lower molars all the way to the back of my mouth because of my fat cheeks, but the new wire goes all the way to the back. The crooked molar that was to the outside of my other teeth is getting in line now, there is just a little curve in the archwire back there now. (and the pain is subsiding) My bite still isn't great, my molars on my left aren't touching yet, but I can chew with the molars on the right. You can see there is a little open-ness around my canines on either side, they said something about extruding the number 27 and number 6 canines next time to start closing those gaps. (I assume they mean with elastics but I'm not sure)
The biggest thing now is leveling I think. They look pretty straight at the edge but they are all sorts of different heights right now. I will be happy when they start looking straight from the front.
You can see now how my bright blue ligs turned from blue to teal now...at least they didn't turn some icky color

and omg please excuse the hairy lip, guess its time to go get waxed..ewww!!! LOL

[Noni]

Wow Elizabith , I'm happy for you . Your teeth are very straight now . It looks like you don't have much to wait for the end of the treatment !!

Did molar move really fast ? You are encouraging me , I should start moving my left second molar by next week , but my ortho said this will need too long as molars are hard too move !! I hope to see my molar move as fast as yours



Don't worry about the hieght of the teeth , they are not very noticeable , but I beleive this should be the final step it's like the finishing stage.

[BetsyBug]

The molar moved pretty quick but still has some moving to do. I will see if I can take a picture of it do you can see before and after. It's been about a week since the new wire so all that movement happened diring that time. Now it seems to have stopped. I don't expect more movement until the next adjustment. Another thing my molar doesn't have a regular bracket it has a buccal tube so the pressure doesn't lessen over time like it would with an elastic ligature. So that might speed movement too.
You know after it took do long for that one lower to turn I have quit trying to predict how long things will take. I figure I still have at least 12 months because I still owe therm 12 payments lol!!

[BetsyBug]

So somehow it looks like my molars have gotten more wonky in the last couple weeks rather than straighter. I think the issuse is that all of my teeth have come out on the bottom except the one that needs the root torquing, so now it looks a bit more out of place. I have noticed some closing up of the lateral spaces that are open from the turbos, but not significant so I'm thinking I'm still in for some elastics to close them up. My left side molars that haven't been touching at all are beginning to close (yay) I can pretty much chew as normal on either side of my mouth now. Im curious how my ortho told me originally becuse my upper incisors were slightly retroclined to start with we would be bringing them forward and out, they don't seem to have done much of this so I'm curious how this is usually achieved..... My next appointment is a week from tomorrow. curious what is coming next... One thing is sure i'm thinking either pink or green ligs so we will see how I feel on Tuesday.

[NICURN85]

I am loving the colors you are thinking about getting!! I loved them when I had them. I'm thing along the blue family or maybe even yellow next Tuesday!!

[BetsyBug]

Well I didn't get green ligs but I got rose colored - they are pretty close to red though. Kind of an interesting appointment. I was expecting a few things to happen but apparently my teeth had a different plan. It was the same ol same ol, assistant took my ligs off, and immediately the ortho came to look at my teeth, went through the usual bite open bite open bite open... and then he asked if my bottom incisors were hitting my top incisors...well yeah, they have been doing that since the dawn of time... well he said that my lowers were in traumatic occlusion with my uppers and we were gonna fix that before we did anything else...so now I am sporting a lovely spring between my upper lateral incisor and my canines on both sides. The plan is to push my upper incisors forward away from my lowers. He said (and I hope he was joking) that by christmas we would have me looking like billybob with bucked teeth and gaps on both sides...LOL. (awesome...not) I guess everthing is a process and like I have said and heard before sometimes it gets worse before it gets better.

He also told me that we may need to have my upper incisors bonded to make them wider so that they fit properly over my lowers (I have pretty small teeth I guess.) So we will see where that goes.

[NICURN85]

Hi Betsy,

I am glad everything went ok even if it was not as planned!! It looks like we both got news we did not want to hear today! Well, I hope you are not in any pain!! Check out my thread to see what colors I chose today!!

[BetsyBug]

so far no pain, but the springs feel wierd. Hopefully they continue to not hurt. I don't really bite into stuff with my front teeth that is hard so maybe I will get lucky. I was really wondering what they were going to do with the incisor issue. My lower lateral on the right is actually infront of my uppers right now and my centrals have always rubbed on my central uppers. I can't say I'm surprised (kinda surprised we haven't don't something about this sooner maybe) I am currently recovering from strep throat (been on antibiotics for a few days) but I have been taking ibuprofen for the sore throat so maybe I'm just avoiding the pain that way.

It will be interesting to develop gaps all my teeth have always been jammed together or overlapping. never thought I would have gaps.

[smilingoutloud22]

Hi Betsy! I haven't been on in forever and just signed on again today. Your latest photos are amazing! Congratulations on your quick progress and hope you are doing well.

[BetsyBug]

Hi Smilingoutloud!!!
thanks!! I'm happy with the changes. I'm really sore today these springs are kicking my butt!! How are you doing??

I have decided that coil springs suck. Alot!!! LOL. I have been pretty much on ibuprofen since my appointment just to be able to stop the throbbing. I hope it lets up soon. You can already see a little tiny gap forming between my upper laterals and my canines. I can't really tell any difference in the occlusion between my uppers and lowers yet but I'm sure I will soon. I go back in 4 weeks probably to get stronger longer springs...

I'm curious has anyone else had their ortho mention widening any teeth to fill gaps?? I know a lot of us have had IPR which narrows a little but never heard of bonding to make them wider...

[Noni]

I hope things will get better with you Elizabeth , I wonder why your ortho is not closing the gap with power chain ! Or is trying to maintain the teeth position in order to maintain the harmony between all upper and lower teeth !

[BetsyBug]

The intention I think is to push the uppers forward. and make the occlusion between the top and bottoms better. Then the trick is to get my teeth to meet all over in the right occlusion. I think the issue is that my uppers are a bit too narrow because my lowers are bigger with that baby tooth that they really won't fit properly. I think it may be easier to make a couple of teeth wider rather then move all my teeth forward and then have occlusion problems again. I don't know for sure. I will have to talk to him in depth about it next time. This all came as a bit of a surprise to me yesterday

[Noni]

If that's what he recommend , I think too that make them wider better than move all the teeth .

I bit that all this braces journey is surprising and will continue too even when it is off