fozzy's journal

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#1 Post by **fozzy** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:56 pm

Hi everyone,

I'm a 26 year old female and I just got braced on Thursday, February 2nd, 2006. A whole 2 days ago!
I don't have any pictures yet but I plan on uploading some in the near future.

I have full metal braces on both top and bottom to fix class I malocclusion and an excessive overjet and overbite. Estimated treatment time is 12-18 months.

I am being treated by my dentist, who has been doing orthodontics on the side for 15 years. He is part of a university study club, with 14 other dentists and a well-respected orthodontist. This means that my treatment is being monitored by 16 people! I feel very confident that my dentist will do a great job. Plus, the cost was lower than going with a real ortho. It's costing me a total of $4,000 Canadian dollars. My insurance through work is covering half of that, so it will be $2000 out of pocket for me.

I wanted to keep this journal so that I could remember what this whole experience was like!

So... getting braced was a purely awful experience, and not one that I ever plan on repeating! My dentist doesn't use lip-stretchers, and so I spent 2 hours in the chair with his finger yanking my lips this way and that way. Uncomfortable to say the least. And let's not forget that awful etchant! Try as I might to keep it from getting on my tongue, I wasn't very successful at it. That stuff tastes disgusting, and was the worst part of the whole experience. It took me until the next morning to get the taste of it out of my mouth.

At first there was no pain or tenderness, only an odd sensation of pressure. But by that night I was feeling quite tender and only managed to eat a bowl of cream of mushroom soup.

The next day (yesterday) was torturous. My teeth ached all day, and it felt like I had been punched in the mouth. Not fun. I had a large glass of Carnation Instant Breakfast (now called "Nestle Breakfast Anytime") in the morning. It even hurt to gently place a straw between my teeth.
I didn't "eat" again until late that night when I had some chicken/pork broth with soft carrots put in the blender. I treated myself to some chocolate ice cream after dinner.

Tried to floss last night and gave up in tears after only 2 teeth. It was extremely painful.

Woke up this morning still in pain, though it was less than yesterday. Another "breakfast anytime" for the morning. Then, around 4pm today I realized that I could let my teeth touch eachother with significantly less pain than the day before. I braved eating a bowl of macaroni and cheese, though I boiled the noodles extra long so they would be extremely soft. I managed to slowly eat an entire bowl! Yay, progress!
For dinner, I didn't want to over-do it so I just had a mug of turkey broth.
I managed to floss all my teeth for the first time tonight, and it wasn't painful, except for in a few tender spots. Flossing those back teeth is tricky (especially since I have a full set of teeth, including all 4 wisdom teeth)!

I'm trying to keep the wax to a minimum, and have only applied it for short periods of time on my canines. There are hooks for elastics on those brackets, and they are really bothering my lips. So far no full-on canker sores, but I wouldn't be surprised if I develop some in the next few days.

I don't like having these things in my mouth. I don't like the way they make me talk ("f" and "v" sound strange when I say them) and it feels like I have a mouth full of jagged rocks. I'm sure that will pass with time, though I am pleased that I've taken a week and a half off of work to allow myself to get used to them before I go back.

Thanks for reading!

#2 Post by **fozzy** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:23 pm

Thanks for the warm welcome and the words of advice. I did use quite a lot of wax today and my mouth feels better (thanks for the tip KK!)
Today was a better day. No pain, just a little tenderness in my front teeth.
I ate oatmeal for breakfast, and was adventurous enough to try poutine for dinner! (Poutine is a Canadian dish of french fries, smothered in gravy and melted cheese = yummy!)
I was nervous about eating the melted cheese... I had visions of it getting all over my brackets and being a real mess to clean. But it was no problem.
All in all, I think these things are easier to keep clean than I anticipated. So that's a pleasant surprise.
Flossing tonight went much faster than last night. Practice makes perfect!
My teeth feel kind of loose and "spongey" today. I wish I had a bite wafer or something to chew on. I keep chewing on my tongue because I find the gentle biting to be a relief. (Strange, I know.)
Oh, and I have been doing sea-salt water rinses several times a day since day one. So hopefully that will help to toughen up my cheeks!
The only thing that was a bit of a surprise today was this morning when I woke up. I guess I was breathing through my mouth all night, because my cheeks were all dry and suctioned to the brackets! Good thing I always keep a bottle of water by the bed. It was much easier to pull my cheeks away after having a few sips of water first.

#3 Post by **belmikry** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:09 am

welcome to the forum!

another fellow Canadian! [salutes] thats great! I'm going to school in the states right now, and I could really use some poutine! lol

I'm glad everything is going well- yeah, that spongey feeling subsides eventually, I kept telling myself it was my teeth "stretching" for the new workout they are endeavouring

can't wait to see pictures!

#4 Post by **fozzy** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:26 pm

Welcome to day 4! Zero pain today. My teeth and mouth are feeling great.
I just ate my first real meal in days: roasted chicken with macaroni salad and potato salad.
I think I may have to become vegetarian again while I have braces. That chicken made an incredible mess in my mouth, and took a long time to clean out! Vegetables and fruits are much easier to deal with, I think.

#5 Post by **fozzy** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:32 pm

Some pictures of me in my braces. I'm slumming it in a red hat today...

#6 Post by **belmikry** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:09 pm

great smile fozzy! love the aht as well!

wish my smile was that nice!

#7 Post by **fozzy** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:53 am

Thank you belmikry!

#8 Post by **fozzy** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:53 pm

Well, 9 days in and I'm experiencing my first "emergency". Well, not an emergency, I guess, but it is uncomfortable.
The archwire slipped out of my 7th molar bracket. I was taking a glob of wax off the bracket before I brushed my teeth and I guess it somehow pulled the archwire out with it!
My 7th molars don't have ligs attached, so I'm guessing that my dentist wasn't trying to move them yet. I tried to put the archwire back in but only managed to make a mess of my cheek. Ouch!
I've left a message at the dentist office, but they aren't back until Tuesday (3 days away).
I'm not too sure what to do about this. It's a pretty long piece of wire, so I don't think wax would help, and it's too long to bend into a more comfortable spot. Should I just clip the wire behind my 6th molar? Help please!

EDITED: Well, I managed to put the wire back in all by myself. Yay! I think I was being too gentle with the wire before. I just got mad at it and magically, it popped right back into place.

#9 Post by **fozzy** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:56 am

So, I've had my braces for 3 weeks now. Tonight, my bottom archwire slipped out of both sides of my last brackets, and my 6th molar bracket on the left side popped off. I have several centimeters of archwire waving around on either side of my mouth.
It's not a pleasant sensation.
It happened only a couple of hours ago, and my bite already feels different. I guess my teeth really want to move back to their original position! It's strange, as I didn't think my teeth were moving at all. But now that there is no tension on my bottom arch, I can feel things shifting. So I guess there was movement after all.
I'll be calling my ortho tomorrow morning. I'm hoping that it's one of the weeks that they are in the office on Saturday. Hopefully, they can take me in tomorrow, re-attach my molar bracket, and replace my bottom archwire (as it's not fitting anymore! It's too short and it won't stay in my last brackets.)
I'll update again once I get this fixed.

#10 Post by **fozzy** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:39 pm

Well, last night I tried to sleep with wires poking me and it just didn't work. I got so fed up around 2am that I got out of bed and clipped my archwire on both sides up to the next tooth. Ah, relief! (though I am waxing the heck out of the milimeter or so of archwire that is still poking out the back end.)
Left a message on my ortho's answering machine today. Looks like they aren't in the office again until Monday.
I hope I won't get into trouble for clipping my archwire! But there was no way that I could go the whole weekend with that much wire protruding in my mouth. The archwire was getting in the way every time I bit down or closed my teeth. Plus, the ends on both sides were so frayed that they were slicing up my tongue and cheeks, no matter how much wax I tried to put on there.

On the plus side, I am down 11 pounds in the last 2 weeks. I wish I had weighed myself before I got the braces on, so that I could see how much weight I have really lost. I have a feeling that it's more than 11 pounds.

#11 Post by **fozzy** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:17 pm

Yay! I just got a call from my ortho! Turns out they are in the office today but just missed my call. They want to see me today at 4pm. Phew!

#12 Post by **fozzy** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:32 pm

Oh my goodness, someone shoot me now please. My teeth hurt so much.

So I went to my ortho yesterday and he decided that since I was there, that they would just do an adjustment. So he switched me up to a "working" wire (his words). It seems that the first archwires I had were not very strong and were the one's that he always starts with. Now I am fitted with wires that will actually move my teeth!
The wire is so thick that he had to have his assistant chill down small sections of it with "dental ice" (not sure what that is, but she dipped a cotton swab into a container and then held it against the archwire to make it soft and bendable). Even with the archwire being chilled, it was still difficult for my ortho to manipulate it into the brackets.
Within minutes, my teeth were aching.
I went to bed early, and this morning I saw visible movement! Yay! But it sure comes with a price (extreme pain!)
None of my teeth fit together now when I try to bite down. Is that normal? They were fitting great before this new wire. And now only my wisdom teeth touch (and those are the only teeth without brackets on them.) I feel like I can't close my mouth properly, because my teeth are not touching. Hard to describe, but that's what it feels like.
Anyway, I've taken some advil and that seems to be helping a little. And now I will numb my pain with a large glass of white wine...

#13 Post by **belmikry** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:57 pm

congrats on your first adjustment! mine's not for 1 1/2 weeks, and i'm nervous about the pain again

... but, like you said- more movement is worth it!

#14 Post by **fozzy** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:38 pm

Well, yesterday was my 1 month anniversary of getting braces. I'm happy to report that for the most part, I'm quite used to these things now. They still slice up the inside of my lower lip when I have to talk too much in a day, but I usually load all of my brackets up with wax at night to give the tissue some time to heal while I sleep. Salt water rinses are now part of my every day life!
So, it's only been 6 days since my first adjustment and my teeth are now fitting together great when I bite down. It was only the first 3 days where I couldn't fully bite down. It's such an odd sensation, feeling your teeth move into a more suitable position when you bite! I kind of like it.
When I got adjusted last weekend, I switched my ligs from lavender to plain silver. I don't think I like the plain silver look so much, so I'll be trying a different colour on April 5th (my next adjustment). Maybe blue or turqoise (if they have it. Colour choices seem to be quite limited at my ortho office.)
I cannot believe how much my teeth have moved in the past week. One of my lower teeth was pushed slightly behind the others, and now it is right out front and in line with the rest of them! Crazy!
My ortho is currently trying to move my teeth as far forward as possible, so that he will be able to create more space through slenderizing. I'm hoping that the slenderizing will happen at my next appointment. He needs to create 3.5 mm of room, and so we're hoping he'll be able to do so without requiring extractions.
Oh, and I no longer feel the sudden urge to run and brush my teeth after every meal. I still brush them whenever the opportunity presents itself, but I feel like I can get away with just rinsing with a lot of water if a washroom isn't nearby.

#15 Post by **fozzy** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:04 pm

Well, a lot has happened in the past few days, and none of it is braces related.
My marriage is ending. My husband and I are seperating. I'm moving out on my own for the first time in my life. It's pretty scary.
So, now I am facing the next year and a half in braces while being alone (that is, if we cannot reconcile our marriage). Pretty much sucks, is all I can say.