Metal braces for a crowded, gummy smile

[NeilH]

It looks like you are making great progress. I imagine the molar build ups are a pain but they are probably doing a worthwhile job until your overbite starts reducing. I hope you haven't been too sore since your adjustment but at least it's an indication that you are making progress.

[ItsFreyja]

Thanks NeilH! No pain, no gain, right?

[gabriella36]

Oof, sorry about the roughness of your tech. I totally get that now! Looks like slow, steady progress is the name of the game. Keep up the good work!

[metalliKa]

Your braces are coming along great, Freya! I'm in my 4th month and I've stop noticing movement. However, I see more movement after the adjustment.

[ItsFreyja]

Three months down, nine to go?

Month3.jpg

Things are coming along slowly but surely. The rotations on my right side, which caused so much agony putting new wires in a few weeks ago, have improved a lot, and my arches are widening and rounding out. The intrusion of my UCs via bracket positioning is pretty much complete. My bite is due to open a bit more as the incisors procline (my lowers have just arrived at vertical) but I think we'll still have some work to do via archwires and elastics.

I think I've arrived at the "worse before it gets better" phase of treatment, though. My asymmetrical occlusion (I'm Class 1 on the left, more like Class 1.5 on the right, with my canines and molars stacked right on top of each other) has pushed my upper arch into a strange shape where my first premolars on the right can occasionally smash together painfully -- my only point of anterior contact due to the molar buildups. It will be strange and wonderful to have my teeth interdigitate correctly on the right side when my treatment is complete!

[aspiromusings]

Loving the progress, you can definitely see some major movement happening especially on the left side (your right side) of your top row as the wide opens up

In terms of diet I have the same issue, I'm also working out which means I need a certain caloric intake to maintain my frame, I would say protein shakes, eggs and a good food blender/processor are your best friends!

I have a few recipes up my sleeve now 5 months into my braces, let me know if you want to share =) be happy to

[ItsFreyja]

I had my first dental cleaning with braces today and got a good report on my hygiene. The hygienist used a baking soda sandblaster jet to polish my teeth, which was a strange sensation (and probably would have hurt if I wasn't several weeks out from my last adjustment). The dentist said I'm doing well enough that I don't need to come back for six months.

Meanwhile, adjustment #3 is scheduled for next week. I'm optimistic that I'll get to move forward with elastics and/or intrusion mechanics, as it seems to me that my uppers are nicely aligned and leveled and -- hooray! -- that the bite blocks have done their job. That is, my incisors still overlap as much as ever, but my premolars and second molars have extruded enough that I have just about full contact all around again.

[mapleleafman888]

Very nice 3 month progress, arches are aligning nice!

[ItsFreyja]

Four months in now. I had my third adjustment last week; no wire changes but I got my bite blocks sanded halfway down! That's about the only change you can see in the last month... note that the incisal edges of my UCs now come all the way down to the lower archwire:

Month4.jpg

I have enough overjet now that I'm not actually in danger of biting off the lower brackets. My bite feels almost normal on my Class I side, and the ortho has told me to do clenching exercises to build my masseters back up and help seat the teeth in a good biting position.

I'm disappointed that I didn't get a bigger wire on the bottom, but not surprised -- that lower right canine is still in the way and just doesn't have anywhere to go yet. You can see it torqued a little in the last month, but it is jammed super tight against the adjacent teeth (flossing there is really challenging). The incisor next to it doesn't have room to derotate and apparently I won't be getting a new wire until that situation improves.

At the 1/3 mark of my treatment I'm pleased with my progress, but I'm quite aware that we haven't really begun to address my structural issues: the overbite, the nearly-Class II relationships on my right side. I'm eager to get on with it!

[ItsFreyja]

Ow.

So I've had my first braces-related injury. I fell yesterday and got a big fat lip where the braces smashed into the inside of my face. The posts on the 3, 4, and 5 brackets actually punched holes in my lip/cheek -- I'm glad they didn't go all the way through!

I'm really thankful that I didn't mess up my teeth or knock off any brackets. And it's amazing to me how fast the buccal surfaces are healing. This is the first real pain I've had from my braces. Hopefully the last.

[NeilH]

Oh no, hope you are ok. I bet that was sore. Glad you are healing ok and there was no damage to your teeth. Lovely progress.

[Beetles]

[quote="ItsFreyja"]Ow.

So I've had my first braces-related injury. I fell yesterday and got a big fat lip where the braces smashed into the inside of my face. The posts on the 3, 4, and 5 brackets actually punched holes in my lip/cheek -- I'm glad they didn't go all the way through!

I'm really thankful that I didn't mess up my teeth or knock off any brackets. And it's amazing to me how fast the buccal surfaces are healing. This is the first real pain I've had from my braces. Hopefully the last.[/quote]

oh that sounds horrible! I hope you're doing okay now.
I started to get an imprint/scratches on my cheek from just sleeping on my side!

[ItsFreyja]

I started to get an imprint/scratches on my cheek from just sleeping on my side!

Oh yeah, I got that too in the beginning. I had to retrain myself to sleep on my back

Thankfully, I'm all healed up from the fall. I can tell that I bent a hook on one of my brackets but I'm amazed I didn't mess up my braces more than that!

[MissBear]

I'm loving reading your journey so far!! Though can't see pics yet so I'll check back when I can! One of my biggest concerns is falling over with then on because I'm really clumsy but you've given me some hope! I'm really tiny as well and the food thing and weight loosing is a concern, is there anything you'd recommend so I don't fade away after my fist week!?

[ItsFreyja]

Thanks MissBear! I certainly hope you don't have a fall in braces -- but from what I've experienced, the soft tissues of the mouth are mercifully resilient!

I drank a lot of protein shakes and ate a lot of ice cream in my first week with braces, so I only ended up losing a couple of pounds in the first month. If you have a game plan for what hi-cal soft foods you're going to eat, you should be okay. Frankly the bigger issue, for me personally, was not having the self-discipline to go have a snack when I needed one. (You'll understand -- it can feel like such a big production when you have to go clean your teeth after, that sometimes it feels like it's not worth it to eat.) Of course, if you're not putting away as many calories at mealtimes (which I wasn't, what with bite blocks and the extra time it takes to eat anything) snacking becomes especially important.

If I recall correctly your braces are going on soon? Good luck!! Let us know how it goes!