My First Braces Tightening

hey everyone, I got my first braces tightening two days ago. It didn't hurt except for one part. I guess my front bottom teeth didn't move like they were supposed to, or they're not movie fast enough...idk...anyways instead of the regular rubber bands over the brackets on four of my front bottoms they used what they called "Tire Irons" instead. Basically they used thin pieces of metal, even thinner than my arch wire and attached it to the bracket. The lady twisted it and it came out past my lip. She then wrapped it around the bracket, just like the rubber band would be. After that she took the excess twisted tip and bent it up underneath the archwire. She called these "pig tails" and told me if they ever stuck out and poked me to just take an eraser and fold them back under. I chose purple this time and it looks ten times better. I hated the teal color it barely showed at all. Anywho I've got new pictures and I'll try to get some of my "tire irons" and "pig tails" if I can. It's hard because they're so small!!!

Me with my new purple braces

Front view (sorry it's kind of blurry)

here's a better front shot!

and another!

top and bottom shot

a bit closer of a shot

Top View (look at that they're practically lined up!!)

Another top view

bottom view...still needs a lot of work

another bottom view

What I look like with my braces 4 weeks and 2 days into treatment

oh and I forgot to add, when I had my old wire taken out the let me brush and floss. It was the strangest feeling ever because all of my teeth felt super loose, and when I closed and opened my mouth they really felt like they might fall out. But anyways it was awesome to floss all my teeth w/o the wire, I forgot how awesome that felt lol...

Three Weeks Into Treatment

So I'm pretty much awful because I haven't updated anything I got my braces on three weeks ago tomorrow!! I've just been really busy and had to slack on this to catch up with everything else. I'll try not to let it happen again because this is important and I want to keep on top of my documentation of my braces.

DAY ONE OF BRACES:

The day I got my braces, April 6th to be precise, I was sooo unbelievable excited. The whole this took about two hours to get done. First a dental assistant had me lay down in the chair while she polished my teeth. I'm not really sure what she put on them, because I couldn't see. Whatever it was didn't hurt and it just felt like they were being polished. After that she took out a box of bands for my four back teeth. This was the only part that actual hurt. These bands had to be super tight so she really wedged them on their good. The first two she tried were too big so she ended up cutting my gums. All the gum tissue around all four teeth ended up getting cut. It didn't hurt all that bad and didn't hurt after my braces were on, but it was uncomfortable and I did bleed a little. Finally once she had them sized right she put glue on them and put them in place. She pushed them down with her fingers as far as she could and I did the rest. In order to get them tightly on she pulled out this metal stick with a protruding flat horizontal tip. She used this my putting in on the sides of the brackets, and then having me bite down to wedge them into place. That was easy enough but took some time. Next she dried my mouth entirely, which wasn't very fun because the air felt wicked cold on my teeth. Once they were dry she had me hold these mouth openers (Idk what they're called) while she readied the glue. Here's where I was most surprised. The lady I worked with was great and got almost none of the glue in my mouth (minus on my teeth of course). I did taste a little of it, and it wasn't nearly as nasty as everyone made it out be. It wasn't great but I'd give it a eww factor of two or less. After that she took the brackets and glued all the ones up top and then down bottom. After each one was applied she held a blue UV light to it for about a minute or so, and then blew it with air. Once they were all on and properly sealed she had be brush and rinse. Next came the arch wire which took a matter of minutes to put on. She started up top on the right side and inserted the wire into the buccal tube. Once that was in place she attached the wire to each bracket with what looked and felt like a pair of pliers. The really cool part about this was I could feel each tooth being pulled as it was connected to the wire. I was surprised to feel movement and pressure so instantaneously but I did. It was just need because I could feel which way each tooth was going to be moved. After the arch wire was applied top and bottom I had the ligatures applied (the small rubber bands over each bracket). I choose teal for my first color, which I know find disappointing because it doesn't show up at all :(

After all this I brushed and rinsed one more time and I was all done!

PAIN

This is a subject I've gotten lots of questions about. Surprisingly I've felt almost no pain with my braces. I'll admit they were a bit sore the first afternoon I had them. Mostly the front two top teeth hurt. This made sense because those teeth are of course the ones that jet out the most. The next day I was fine and haven't experienced any pain since then. My front teeth were sometimes sore in the first week but nothing that was ever really all that noticeable. I also didn't get any sores or cuts in my mouth. I had to use wax here and there for the first 3 days, but I guess my mouth roughened right up. The worst pain I had was with the buccal tubes which tend to rub the inside of your cheeks raw. The wax fixed them right up and now they don't bother me at all. I do get occasional soreness when I play too much with my braces or eat food that’s to hard.

EATING

Food has been the only obstacle I've found annoying. I have been eating most of the same foods minus candy and gum, and so far no breaks in my brackets. However food gets stuck everyone in my braces and so easily too. It's impossible to get out with my tongue no matter how hard I try. In fact some food, like breads mostly, get so stuck that they wont come out with anything besides my water pik! For the first two weeks I couldn't bite directly into anything with my front teeth, because it made them sore. I can now but I'm careful about that because my ortho told me not to. For the most part I eat food by breaking or cutting it into smaller pieces that I put in the sides or back of my mouth. This works great and was what my ortho also advised me to do.

HYGIENE

Cleaning was a huge hassle at first, but like everything else I've picked it right up. The water pik I have is really a lifesaver and I use it constantly. I got a sonic care toothbrush from my dentist that also makes brushing a breeze. I couldn't use it for the first week because the pressure hurt my teeth, but now it works great. I have to brush at an angle below and above each set of brackets, and not just right over them. This is to make sure I'm cleaning the actual teeth and not just the braces. Flossing was the most difficult. I was given floss threaders by my dentist which were helpful but still took too long. In fact the first time I flossed it took me thirty full minutes to get the job done. I went out and bought "super floss" as it called, which is really just floss that has hard tips. This is much easier and with this floss I can do my whole mouth in ten minutes w/o looking. So yeah flossing is still a pain but you do pick it up and get use to it.

So I think that’s everything I wanted to say about my braces. I'll try to stay better updated. Below are pictures of me the first day I got my braces, as well as ones taken three weeks in. Enjoy :))

MY VERY FIRST PICTURE OF MY BRACES

PICS OF BRACES TAKEN LATER THAT DAY

FRONT SHOT OF BRACES THREE WEEKS INTO TREATMENT

VIEW OF UPPER TEETH THREE WEEKS INTO TREATMENT

Spacer and Extraction pictures

SPACERS AND EXTRACTIONS ON THE TOP

SPACERS ON THE BOTTOM


PRE-BRACES, POST EXTRACTIONS, SPACERS IN (VIEW ONE)

PRE-BRACES, POST EXTRACTIONS, SPACERS IN (VIEW TWO)

Also I've been keeping a video blog about the process so far, you can check it out on youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/user/sweetsara182?feature=mhw5

Spacers

All I can say is wow...spacers suck...so much :(

I got them put in yesterday and I'm hating them already. The actual process of putting them in was easy. I went to my orthodontist and they had me lay back in the chair. The took these little blue circular rubber band, 8 total, and wedged them between my teeth. I have four on each side, two on the tops and two on the bottoms.

To put them in they took these bands and threaded two pieces of floss through the center. Than they took the spacers and wedged them inbetween my teeth one at a time using that floss. Once in place they removed the floss one piece at a time. Getting them put in didn't hurt at all, except in one spot where I had a dentist who did a really crappy job on a filling. Anyways at first they didn't hurt at all...in fact it even felt kind of cool...everyone said it would feel annoying, like you had food stuck in your teeth but it didn't feel that way to me...it felt like there was a big piece of rubber stuck in there!

The whole thing took about five-ten minutes. It was super fast. The right side was the easiest, all four spacers went in quickly. The left side took a bit longer. For some reason the teeth on my left side are way tighter and the spacers really had to be forced in.

They didn't hurt at all yesterday...on the pain scale it was like a three and a four when I bit down(fyi bitings the worst). I took some asprin when I got home and everything was fine. I even ate regular food and chewed with them in. When I woke up this morning however I was in sooo much pain. My teeth, especially my bottom teeth were incredible sore all over. To bite down was unberable and sent a shooting pain through my jaw. I went to work and unfortunately forgot to bring asprin so I was in pain all day. As soon as I got home I took three and it helped a lot. They still feel sore but it's much more manageable.

My orthodontist told me the soreness would be gone by day three...I'm 26 hours in, so only 46 more hours till I feel normal again!

Also on the plus side he also told me that my gaps would be almost if not completely closed in six months...that was a huge relief since I thought those suckers wouldn't probably close for a whole year! This also makes me feel hopeful about the appearance of my teeth. Those gaps are big so my teeth will have to move a lot to fill them. I bet in six months my teeth are gonna be looking good...not perfect, but pretty good. I'll try to post pictures of my spacers and extractions as soon as I can!

An Update on All Thats Happened

So a lot has happened since my last update. Last Wednesday I had four teeth extracted, my two bottom wisdom teeth and my first two upper premolars. I got there early and since the office was so busy ended up waiting for more than a half an hour. Normally I don't mind a wait but I was so nervous about being put to sleep that waiting all that time made me feel sick to my stomach.

Eventually they came and got me and brought me back in to the office. Everyone was really nice to me the whole time. The dental assistant who worked with me talked me through the whole process and answered all of my questions. She was very nice and helpful. The first thing the did was hook me up to the nitrous oxide, or better known as laughing gas. This was very simple all they had me do was lay down in a chair and they put a small mask over my nose that was hooked to a tube on each side. They had me breath deeply in and out through my nose and the gas took effect within the first 10 minutes.

I’ve got to admit the gas was the best part. It makes your whole body feel tingly and then virtually weightless. It almost feels like floating. It also really does make you laugh. I was cracking up over absolutely nothing the whole time. Basically it feels like a really good buzz that makes you numb all over. After the gas kicked in the attached a blood pressure cuff to my arm and a heart monitor clamp to my finger. They also placed an iv in my arm. Now at this point I was pretty numb all over and the iv didn’t hurt at all. In fact I barely felt it.

They covered me and made sure I was comfortable until my oral surgeon got there. Once he came in he asked me how I was feeling and if I was comfortable. He then told me he was going to give me the general anesthesia which he injected into my iv. The funny thing is as he injected it he told me

"now you should feel this right away, it’ll put you to sleep in about thirty second"

My first thought was no way and then of course I fell right asleep. It literally took under thirty seconds and I was out!

Since I was asleep I don’t remember anything about the procedure so my grandma filled me. I was only out for about a half an hour and overall it went well. My premolars came out with no problems so I didn’t have to have stitches there. My wisdom teeth were a different story however. My surgeon had anticipated they’d be the easiest part because they were already partially erupted. Turns out my wisdom teeth were huge and were curved at the roots. He said they looked like little hook! Anyways the surgeon had to instead smash them into four parts in my mouth and take them out piece by piece. I did end up getting stitches for them, but it was all done while I was asleep.

When I woke up I wasn’t in any pain but I was very groggy. My entire face was extremely numb! My doctor prescribed me vicodin for the pain and moxilen as an antibiotic. I went home and took the vicodin every three hours and the moxilen ever eight. This is were I really went wrong and I can’t offer enough caution on what I’m about to tell.

I’ve never used vicodin before, or any narcotic for that matter. I thought I’d be smart and take it ever three hours as prescribed to stay ahead of the pain

Well needless to say the vicodin did not agree with my system. I threw up all day the day afterwards. I had taken five pills by then and couldn’t keep a single thing down, not even water. It was absolutely miserable, I’ve never been so sick in my life. So here’s my advice to you always, always be careful with new medicines, especially narcotics. You never know how you’re going to react to something and it’s much better to air on the side of caution and feel a little bit of pain, than to end up like I did!

So after the vicodin worked it’s way out of my system I took regular ibuprofen instead which worked just as well. Even without any pain medication the pain wasn’t bad. I’m sensitive but I’d only put that pain at a four on the pain scale. It was basically just like an all over tenderness in my bottom jaw. The top jaw didn’t hurt at all.

Now I’m on my way to recovery four days later and minus the vicodin it’s not so bad. The only part that really sucks now are the stitches. I can feel them and food gets caught in them. Food has also been kind of a pain, I can’t eat much except mushy soft food. It’s getting better though and I’m looking forward to the braces. I get spacers in five days and braces in ten. I’ll keep you updated!

Okay so it's been a while and long story short but medicaid wouldn't cover my insurance (boo on them ): ....)

any ways I've figured out a financing plan through my dentist and care credit so I should have the braces down payment paid by the 28th and the extractions by the end of March

so it seems like after everything my braces are finally in sight...I sure hope so anyways I'm sick and tired of waiting :(

I'm hearing back tomorrow from my ortho about my down payment and then I'll go from there

I've decided to pay as I go instead of trying to save up the whole amount, because frankly I can't save money worth beans :-P

so I just wanted to update so I didn't forget to stay on top of this

also I have a new picture, it's silly but I got bored and have been wondering what I would look like with braces on....here was the end result of my boredom

Yeah I'm a total nerd but do I care...not really!!!