meep's story: more than I bargained for

[meep]

Today was the first day of progress in my brace's journey, and it wasn't pretty.

To give you some history, I hate my teeth, and I am ashamed of them. I am not doing this for health reasons...I am a vain girl with crooked teeth and a horrible self-esteem problem. I have not had a single friend (other than my magnificent boyfriend) for almost 2 years now b/c I cannot cope with people seeing my teeth. I am finally getting them fixed. I can't believe I'm showing them to you, but here they are:



Now that that's done, I'm not as pathetic or weird as I sound above. No one knows about my obsession or insecurity but my bf. But I (along with my teeth) have been getting worse and worse for a while, and I've finally reached my breaking point with them. I'm in my mid-twenties by the way.

I noticed several years ago something strange in the roof of my mouth. Now, about five years later, I've got a full canine in. (That's denial for you.) My laterals have started rotating b/c of this tooth, and since I have a baby tooth where my canine should be, my entire top row of teeth has shifted about 3mm to the left to make up for the extra space:



By the way, that tooth is much bigger than it looks and it REALLY hurts. I don't recommend letting them come in on their own.

I went to my second ortho consultation, and I couldn't be happier with this doctor. (Anyone in the Boston area- Dr. Rizkallah is the nicest greatest doctor. You feel like he's your friend and definitely like he knows what he's doing.) Things were going great: I'm going to get iBraces, and he estimated 12-14 months. Sounded good to me!

I took my xrays, and the doctor takes a look at them: "oh no, kid, what have you got there?" Well, apparently, I've got teeth...in my chin. Two of them in fact, lying horizontally between the roots of my bottom teeth. And I thought my bottom teeth were going to be the easy part!



So, now it turns out, I'm taking a giant detour through surgery. It looks like they're both supernumery teeth so we've just got to get rid of them before we can start braces. I'd just coped with the braces idea so this is a lot to handle, but I'm just praying we can do it as fast and easily as possible. I'm pretty terrified of this new development, but I'm trying not to get too worried until I talk to the surgeon and figure out exactly what we have to do.

Well, thanks for reading- if anyone's been through similar stuff, I'd like to hear about it, and if you're about to go through this, then I hope that I can help. Since this is pretty cathartic for me, I'll try to post regularly, and provide a lot of updates. Thanks a lot!

[Flora2006]

I noticed several years ago something strange in the roof of my mouth. Now, about five years later, I've got a full canine in. (That's denial for you.) My laterals have started rotating b/c of this tooth, and since I have a baby tooth where my canine should be, my entire top row of teeth has shifted about 3mm to the left to make up for the extra space:

I was in a similar situation. I had a baby canine that was only extracted this past november. My adult canine was/is behind that baby one. Thus my crossbite that I am getting fixed with these braces. The only difference is that my adult canine is closer to my alignment than yours but my teeth had shifted a bit to one side as well...it's all getting fixed now though

Welcome to the board. Everyone here is great support so you are most definitely not alone!

[meep]

Thanks, everyone who's written back. Yes, KK, I think despite the fact that I obviously shouldn't have waited so long, having my canine in is going to make the braces process a lot easier.
I spoke to my ortho today, and we're going to schedule a meeting to discuss my options next week. He wanted to do a conference call with my parents but they're being a little less than cool about this whole thing so I might just bring my boyfriend instead.
Anyways, I'm going to need 2 regular extractions at least (baby teeth), possibly 3. I will also be having the two extractions of the impacted teeth in my bottom jaw (well, depending if the oral surgeons decide it's worth the trouble). Apparently this is an extremely rare thing to have, and they're just so far down that no xray had caught them before. One of my baby teeth was actually impacted, and my adult canine was never able to come in b/c it was below this impacted baby tooth. Now they're both sort of swimming around my jaw, kind of in my chin. Weird, right?
He also wants me to have orthognathic (sp?) surgery. My bite's kind of off, and now that he's mentioned it, my mouth doesn't naturally close- I hide it with my lips, but my teeth are definitely open and kind of to the side. But that's definitely going to come down to whether or not I can afford it- might have to wait some years.
It's funny how many things you never notice are wrong until their pointed out to you. I really believed I was just a simple invisalign case and here I am considering two separate surgeries! I thought I was just being silly and vain, and here it turns out that I've got some massive dental problems. Maybe I can work that to my advantage, and get insurance to pay some:)

[meep]

This is turning out to be a very slow process! It's been almost a month, and I have yet to have anything done...but that is going to change very soon, and I am going to have more than enough done to make up for the dry spell.
I had an ortho appt like 2 weeks ago where we decided not to go ahead with the orthagnathic sugery. It just seems too extreme to me, and I'm not sure if I can do something that will completely change my face shape. I'm really happy with the way I look (except for my teeth, obviously).
So today, I had my consultation with an oral surgeon. March 23rd is the big Surgery day, and we are going All Out. I'm having my two impacted lower canines removed by surgery (it's not going to be easy since they're WAY down in my jaw), two baby teeth removed, and all four wisdom teeth extracted. I'm not even upset b/c I can't quite grasp the level of pain this will probably be....and I'm just so excited that braces won't be long afterwards.
The other bright side is that I really need to gain some weight over the next three weeks. If I lost 5 pounds from what I am now, I'd probably starve, and my dr. sounded like eating's going to be really tough for about 2 weeks. So cookies and cheesecake for dinner sounds about right to me:)
I'll update with pics after my surgery. Wish me luck.

[nimo]

I would just like to say, more power to you on "not doing this for health reasons." I'm totally the same way. I realize that the health benefits from this are going to be really great, but honestly, I just want to have pretty teeth.

Good luck on your surgery. I have to have surgery in a year or so, and I have my extractions next week. I'll cross my fingers for you, and you can cross yours for me, and we'll all hopefully come out of everything all right.

[Brandyleigh35]

Hey Meep,
My brother had something similar to you. He had two extra front teeth (in addition to his permanents) that were in the gums above. They had to go in and surgically remove them, as well as his wisdom teeth prior to braces. He did fine and his teeth are nice and straight now, where he used to look like snagglepuss for a long time.

I just had a wisdom tooth and lower molar extracted on Friday, as well as a SARPE (Surgically assisted rapid palate expansion.) I will also be having lower jaw surgery next year. I have to say that having a great surgeon is key. I have truly not had any pain in my extractions at all, in fact the stitches in my lower molar extraction are already coming out. It has been a piece of cake. Personally I'm all about getting everything done at the same time. I would rather have all my discomfort at one time then to space it out over months, or one at a time. My bruising has been pretty bad (might want to check out my blog) as I hear wisdom teeth extractions give similar swelling and bruising results. I can say though, that I have not had to take anything more than Advil for the pain, and the pain itself has been very minimal.

You will be fine, and just remember! You are one step closer to you dream of having a beautiful smile!

Brandy

[Joanna20]

Hi! Congrats on ur decision! I've been having a terrible time too, cause the doctor isn't yet sure of what she's going to do... I feel really scared and often have trouble sleeping, soon I'll know my "sentence". Good luck!
Joanna