BRACE yourself, its Tin Tooth's journey! ;)

[Braceland]

Sounds like you're getting on great with your braces Becky and from what people say on here, the worst of it has passed.
You're bound to feel a bit self conscious about the meeting but I bet they'll all be really pleased for you that you're getting your teeth straightened. You might even find some of them want to share your soup !

[Dee17]

Hi Tin Tooth,
Just wanted to write and tell you that I think your teeth look really beautiful now (even with braces on!). You will look gorgeous when you're treatment is all finished.
I'm getting my braces on at the end of October and I am very nervous about everything. I hope that it's not a terrible experience.
I know what you mean about your upcoming meeting with your co-workers. I have a meeting with a group of friends just three days after I get my braces on. I still haven't decided if I'm going to go or not. It will depend on whether or not I'm having a lot of pain and how ready I feel to face the world. I imagine that I'm going to feel pretty self-conscious for the first few weeks. Keep us posted on your progress. Take care.

[Tin Tooth]

Thanks so much guys

Dee17- you are so sweet. you just made my day!
Braces are not that bad at all. I really expected the worse and it hasn't been so bad. There is some pain but it didn't last for more than a couple days. It hasn't even been a week for me and I am eating toast (very soft toast with butter to make it softer), cooked veggies, lasagna, perogies and of course, lots of smoothies with protein mix. So much for losing a few pounds! I thought I was going to starve! The first few days were a little tough, I ate lots of soup, mashed potatoes and smoothies but only for a few days.

Whenever I am thinking negatively about my braces, I switch my mood and tell myself 'you will have perfect teeth, it is so worth it. time will fly by. you will a beautiful smile that everyone will be envious of'.

I can either have crooked teeth forever with no braces, or VERY VERY soon straight teeth with braces and perfect teeth forever. Hmmm.. I think I will take the very soon good teeth with braces and perfect teeth forever. Yes please!

I went to my board meeting yesterday and it went great. I can't say no one noticed my braces, because my co-workers did but I just smiled big to show I don't care. One girl said 'you got braces, why? your teeth are straight?'.... Oh well, thanks. But no they aren't!
No one else said anything, no one treated me any different and only a few stared at my mouth while talking. MEH I don't care!

I can't wait to take a pic on thursday to see my 1 week progress! EEK!

[Dee17]

Well, that's very reassuring. Good for you. I'm glad your meeting went so well. I was out tonight with a group of women that I see on a pretty regular basis none of whom knew that I was getting braces. So, I said that I thought I probably wouldn't see them again until about mid-November and I told them it was because I was getting braces and am not sure how long it will take me to work up my nerve to go out in public. They were all so supportive and encouraging. One said, "We'll still love you even if you have metal on your teeth." Another one said, "You'll still be gorgeous." What nice things to hear. For me, who doesn't have much self-confidence it was really nice to hear them say that.
I think that in North America we are all pretty used to seeing people with their gorgeous Holllywood smiles. I don't think I know a single person who doesn't have a nice looking smile. So, for me, it was as you said, a choice between having terrible teeth forever or getting braces and then having them look good again. This whole thing has been so overwhelming for me because I always had really nice looking, straight teeth. The space between my teeth opened up fairly quickly and fairly recently. I went to the dentist on the same day my first granchild was born and I asked him how I could get the space closed. I was so shocked when he told me that I would need braces. I thought, "At MY age? You MUST be joking!" But then I saw two orthodontists and they both said the same thing. That yes, I would need braces and that it would take two years. So, it's been quite an ordeal for me to wrap my head around that and it has caused me a tremendous amount of anxiety. I am so grateful that I found this forum because I have been able to get a lot of support from everyone here. That was really what encouraged me to finally decide to proceed with treatment.
I wish that I had teeth as beautiful as yours. I can't wait to see what they will look like when you're all finished with your treatment. I'm glad that my comment made your day. It was meant very sincerely.
I'm going to post some pictures when I get my braces put on next week. If I can work up the courage, that is! Take care!
Dee

[Tin Tooth]

hi Dee
It is extremely hard being around people with perfect teeth. I too don`t know a single person who has `something`wrong with their teeth. Everyone either had braces as a kid or they are just lucky. Damn them I say! LOL

I went to your blog and your teeth are beautiful too, even with the gap. You have very white, healthy looking teeth. I can just see how beautiful your smile will be again when those braces start closing your gap. And this is off topic but your skin is gorrrgeous! Your friends are right, you will be gorgeous even with braces.
When you do finally get braces, just take it one day at a time. It is very weird at first but eventually, it`s not so bad. Just think how fast time flies, summer is already gone, almost Novemeber. Pretty soon it`ll be 2013 and that will be 3 months into your braces! You will see a huge difference in your teeth by then.
I would much rather have beautiful teeth WITH braces

I bet when people see you have braces, they will be thinking `wow, good for her. that takes a lot of courage getting braces as an adult. she is going to have PERFECT teeth when those braces come off.`

My sister is actually jealous I have braces, and my fiance has said he now wants braces! Mind you, they have very nice teeth that don`t need braces but us peeps with braces, our teeth will be amaaaaazing!

[Dee17]

Hi,
Thank you for your message. What a nice compliment about my skin. To be honest, it's not anything I even really think about. I don't do anything with except wash my face every night before I go to bed. I pretty much think it has more to do with being half-Asian than anything else.
As for all those people out there with the beautiful teeth.... yes, it's really something, isn't it? I think that beautiful straight teeth are more of a North American phenomenon than anything else. Maybe that's because people in North America can afford it more. I'm going to be paying a hell of a lot of money for my orthodontic work and believe me when I say that I'm not happy about it. It's going to be $6,500 and I don't have any insurance. Of course, when my husband was alive we had very good insurance but it still did not pay for any orthodontia. Luckily for us, none of our children ever needed anything like that.
I had a bit of a chuckle about your comment that your fiance wants to get braces. Imagine that. Maybe he's just inspired by watching you go through your transformation!
I have never thought that I had particularly beautiful teeth. But they were always very straight and reasonably nice looking. To be honest, I never really thought about my teeth very much until this awful gap started to open up. THEN, believe me, that's pretty much all I COULD think about!
I'm glad you checked out my blog. It feels weird to be posting information like that on the internet for the whole world to see but one of my kids asked me to do it so they could keep current with what is going on. I'm telling you, it's a whole new world from when I was growing up. Several years ago, my daughter asked me, "What did people used to do when they needed information before the internet was invented?" I said, "Uh, go to the library!?"
Anyway, take care of yourself.
Dee

[Tin Tooth]

here is my week 1 progress. I was so excited to take this pic today to see if my teeth have moved at all, but I don't think they did... I dont know since I study them for a good 20 mins everyday! What do you guys think? I know, I know. Its only been a week!!! I just want them to move really really really fast.

[Dee17]

Dee here,
Sorry, Tin Tooth, but looking at your photos it doesn't look to me like there's been much movement. I hope that's not too much of a disappointment but it's only been a week, right? Maybe it'll take a few more weeks.

[Tin Tooth]

You're right Dee, no movement yet! I guess I'm not really disappointed, it has only been a week. I was hoping I would be one of those peoples who's teeth move crazy fast. Oh well, I bet I will see some great improvement in 3 weeks right? Here's too hoping!

Good news is I actually forget I am wearing braces during the day. But then I think of archwired and I remember too soon that yes, I have braces. OMG I have braces! Doesn't feel as weird anymore, so I am getting used to them. YES! The weirdest thing is before braces I would whiten my teeth a couple times a year (always at night) and there have been times where I am thinking 'i gotta take these white strips off my teeth before I hit the sheets'........ UMM wait.. those are my braces and they don't come off. Damn. I must have 'forgot' I had braces on and felt them against my lips or something and thought they weren't braces, but white strips! Jeez.

Some more good news I ate sausage, a baked potatoe and steamed carrots the other night for supper. It was awesome! My back molars sure did hurt afterwards but it was pain I could put up with. I was full and happy.

[Dee17]

Hey Tin Tooth,
I'm sure you'll start to see some movement very soon and then, watch out!! Your teeth will probably start to move very quickly. That seems to be the way it goes.
I'm glad you were able to have a decent meal last night and it's very comforting for me to learn that you were actually able to forget about your braces for awhile. I'm now just about six days to getting mine put on and I'm still feeling a fair amount of dread. But, given your experience, I guess there's hope for me.
One thing that has definitely made me feel better is that I had an appointment with my diabetes nurse practitioner last week. I went in to see her so that I could get a strategy for what to do if I can't eat or chew. Because I take insulin it is very important for me to get enough carbohydrates. We came up with a game plan that would involve using a product called Glucerna which is a liquid meal replacement. I know how much insulin to take and actually did a practice run yesterday which went very well. So, all good.
I had to laugh when I read your story about thinking you were wearing whitening strips on your teeth. Made me laugh! You're funny. I've never used anything like that. Not that my teeth probably couldn't benefit from it, just never have. Maybe when I'm all finished with my orthodontic treatment.
Anyway, I made some updates to my blog. Some of the postings are out of order in terms of time and I can't figure out how to fix that so my apologies in advance if you decide to have a look.
Dee

[oldguy]

oldguy here......

I told you you would forget you had them on. I am at 20 days, and looked at pictures before

and now.....the movement is remarkable....most of my lower teeth line up. i still have over

a month to go before I go for my first wire change. When I get a chance I will post some pictures,

but I don't think they will look as good as yours.........



oldguy

[Dee17]

Heh heh, I'm laughing again about the fact that you forgot you had braces, Tin Tooth! Hope that's what's going to happen to me, too!

[Tin Tooth]

You did tell me I would forget Oldguy, and I didn't believe you at first! But thankfully, it is true and you were right. Thank you for the compliment. I find it very strange when someone compliments my teeth.. I have always been so embarassed of my teeth. I would love to see some pictures of your progress once you get your wire changed so I can compliment you! Do you have self ligating braces?

Hi Dee! I'm happy you got a kick out of my story. I had to laugh to myself when that happened, which has been a couple times already!
Your brace date is coming up quickly. I am very excited for you. Getting braces has been the best thing I have done for myself. It may not seem like that for the first few days, but it gets BETTER. That's great you have made a plan to keep healthy too. The first day I got my braces on, it was so weird to eat. Even though I didn't have pain (only a lot of pressure), it was just weird. I didn't want to chew any food, scared of a bracket popping off. Also, my back molars wouldn't touch together because of my over bite. I made smoothies with a protein supplement. Just have to keep telling myself it gets better, and it really does.
I checked out your blog and it looks great!!! Maybe someday I will make a blog.

[Dee17]

Hey Tin Tooth,
Thanks for your message. Yes, the day is fast approaching and I am working very hard to try to keep my anxiety levels at a reasonable level. I just got home from having my hair cut and am very pleased I did that. It is part of my plan to gry to be a bit nicer to myself while I'm waring braces. I look about 100 times better than I did this morning. I also went over a friend's house and he took some pictures of me (pre-braces) so I can upload one or two to my blog.
I also want to thank you for the encouragement. I know that the first few days things will feel extremely weird. I think I have done about as good a job as I could preparing for the big day. I have a good supply of wax, some floss threaders, a waterpik, some bite wafers.... so I think I'm in good shape. I'm going grocery shopping on Wednesday to get a supply of "soft food" in anticipation of my lovely molar buildups which will make it impossible for me to chew.
I am sure that I will eventually get to the point where I forget I'm wearing them. Hope it doesn't take too long to reach that point! My daughter is coming tomorrow from Toronto with my new grandbaby who was born at the end of August and on Wednesday, I am going for a dental cleaning. So, I have some things to distract myself. I think I will feel much better once Thursday finally gets here and I can move to the next stage of this process.
Take care.
Dee

[Dee17]

I forgot to say thank you for checking out my blog and giving me a compliment. It's weird but it has been a very empowering experience for me to put that thing together. It has, despite everything else, helped alleviate some of my anxiety. I guess it has really been a process of me "taking ownership" of the fact that I am getting braces and trying to come to terms with it. So far, there have been a lot of viewings of it and that has been gratifying. No comments yet, but that's okay, too. I wasn't really looking for stuff like that. I basically just wanted to try to create a new way for me to try to deal with what has been a very traumatic thing for me.
Take care,
Dee