More bendy wires!

This month hasn't been without action, within 2 days I had lost 3 of the bands, I have no idea how. One of them constantly falls off anyway, but the other 2, on the other side, next to each other, no idea what happened, very strange. However had them replaced with no further problems.

However I am still having problems with the pain of the bendy wires that were attached last time, although they have done the job from what I can see, and enabled the bite to be closed once again, it hurts a lot. Back on pain killers for a few days to ease it. I was talking to my boyfriend about it and even he thinks that my teeth at the top have moved in significantly and my lip doesn’t stick out as far any more. I just can't begin to imagine what my face will look like without any braces on at all!

But I am so happy with the result at the moment, I am not even a year into the treatment and I believe I am nearly finished.

Over Christmas I have nothing to report, the only time that I had a problem was with a bacon sandwich, I had to cut it up really small, which was commented on, but I am still surprised how people don’t say things about them, I really did think that I would get comments, but nothing has been said, well to my face anyway!!

Fingers crossed for a smooth ride until my next appointment.

Back to the beginning.....

In my most recent appointment I came out feeling like they had just put the brace on again. Ouch.

Up to now I have had straight arch wires on top and bottom, because my teeth are lovely and straight now, that part of the treatment has been completed (yey!), however we are still a couple of months off (hopefully) the thought of having the brace taken off.

I have developed a gap at the front between top and bottom, which means I cannot bite or nip anything, biting my nails or hang nails is very much a thing of the past!

The dentist told me that he wants to close the gap there, very happy about that, at last I will not have to remove the lettuce from my burger or cut my toast into small pieces.

He placed the new arch on, which I have put a picture on here to show you just how angled it is. Oh, it wasn't the niceset feeling ever, and it left my teeth aching like they did the first time it was attached. For a few days after I couldn't brush my teeth properly, I struggled to chew anything, it hurt to kiss and occasionally to talk. I resorted to painkillers till the initial pain settled.

I can see already that the gap has started to close, it is amazing just how it all works and how quick it is.

I am very much looking forward to my next appointment, not only because I have those horrid white elastic bands on and I want them changing to the transparent, but to see how much they still need to move.

All clean, for now anyway.

Here I am post checkup and I have sparkly white gnashers again, lovely. They still have the brace on, but I cannot believe how much of a great cleaning job the hygienest did.

Ever since the first fitting I have been paranoid about the staining, and I have had an obsession with trying to get my teeth clean myself, to very little success. But now I am refreshed and battling for my white teeth with renewed vigour.

I had my normal orthodontist appointment, he says I am very close to finishing now, although still non committal as to how long that will be. He didn't change the metal wire on the top teeth, but did change the one on the bottom, so now I have the same strength on them both. I did also ask him to put transparent bands on this time, which he did, so I am feeling a lot happier with the fact they are the most invisible they have been. And probably will be. I had my picture taken at the weekend, and for the first time in a long time I wasn't paranoid about my teeth being obvious.

He also made notes on what he is going to do next time, although he was talking about steel, and plastic and wire and numbers that I didn't understand, so I suppose it will be a nice surprise for me!

Following that I spent an hour with the hygienest prodding and poking me, it was painful, and it did leave me with a mouth full of blood occasionally, but the result is dramatic, I have put a picture on for you to see how nice and sparkly they are, but be warned you may need sunglasses!

She also gave me some advice on how to brush my teeth and some new brushes to try, it is a bit comical when it comes to bed time, I have to start half an hour earlier getting ready than before. So now, I have to brush for 6 minutes with my normal brush, then I have a narrow brush that I have to use to clean under the wires, instead of the interdental ones. Then a hard bristle brush to clean the ones at the back, then I have a small interdental brush to floss between my teeth, rinse with mouthwash and then finally I have some fluoride gel that I have to use to minimise any white rings on my teeth when the brackets are removed......phew!!! Luckily I only have to do the full clean at night, in the morning I only have to brush with the normal one, under the wires and mouth wash, so still an event. It's a good job I don't work full time, I would never have time for all of this teeth cleaning. Lets just hope that all the hard work keeps my love of curry, red wine, coffee and tea at bay.

Amazed but non committal!

I have had another check up with my orthodontist.  He continues to be amazed by my progress, however I am starting to feel a little disappointment by this, as he still can't tell me how long it will be till we have finished the treatment.

I mean having braces is ok, I have got used to it and how I look, with my sticky out mouth, but really I am ready to know when there is an end in sight, well anyone would be really.  So I have decided that I need to take a new tact with him, instead of asking when will the treatment finish, I think I will ask how far through we are, see if I can trick an answer out of him! I know that I have one more arch left on the top and 2 on the bottom that are stronger than what I have, but I don't know what happens from then on.

Now at the last visit I had, unfortunately I have had to have the white bands on again, I really don't like these, they show up massively on photos and the point of having a clear bracket is so it is less visible.   The last lot of bands I had were clear, and I tend to go for a curry the night before an appointment, well may as well stain it as much as I can when I know the bands are being changed eh?!  He took the bands off and they were luminous yellow, I couldn't believe how much colour they absorb, I was very nearly embarrassed.

Other than that the next time I go to see the orthodontist I am going to a clean too, I am looking forward to this, as although I am really trying to keep my teeth clean, I just can't seem to do it, drinking coffee, tea and red wine doesn't help I'm sure, but I'm brushing with whitening toothpaste, using whitening mouthwash.  I just wonder what they would look like if I wasn't doing that, or if it really is making any difference.

So here is a picture of my progress so far, I am impressed as it has only been 8 months, lets see how much longer this takes.......

Really broke one this time....

Doing my normal routine of brushing my teeth, which is generally taking about 10 minutes, I noticed that one of the front brackets looked funny.  On closer inspection it turns out I have broken it.

Panic!! As the brackets come from America I knew that I would have to get another one ordered for my orthodontist to fix next time he was here.  So emailed the regular dentist, and arranged to go in to have it checked.

Now when I say broken, I mean broken, I am missing a whole quarter of one of the front brackets. I have no idea how it happened, or when it happened, but it shows just how fragile these ceramic ones are.

It actually turns out that the brace will function perfectly well like this, I was told that as long as you have 50% of the bracket remaining, there is usually no issue.  This actually surprised me and made me wonder if that's the case why are they so big in the first place?!

On another positive note, he was amazed again on my progress and said that the orthodontist would be surprised too, I am, the bottom ones are now nearly straight.  After my next checkup when I have clean bands again, I will post a picture! I am really hopeful now that these will be off at Christmas.

Oh and a update from the pain after the last tightening, it lasted a few days, and now I am back to the occasional tooth hurting as it decided to move.

Pain.....

After my recent visit to the orthodontist, I realised that it is not as plain sailing as I first thought.

Although I am reacting well to the brace, the installation of the new stronger arches on top and bottom have caused me a lot of pain this time.  The main issue to me is that it is in the back teeth, so eating and chewing is now not pleasant.  I'm back on weetabix and soup.  Even brushing them hurts at the moment.  Which is annoying as I was allowed to have transparent bands again this time and I want to keep then as fresh looking as I can for a long as I can.

I'm sure it will pass quickly and I know that it hurts for a good reason, it is just when I have been quite used to minimal discomfort, this is a bit of a shock as I wasn't expecting a routine tightening to have this affect.

Oh well, I will just have to grit my teeth (or not!) and bare it, fingers crossed it doesn't last much longer.

At last another visit!

So for the first time since March I have had an orthodontist visit.  That is the first time I have been back since I had the bottom bracket put on.  I should have been every month, but as I have been travelling I have managed to miss my last two appointments.  My thought on this are that I will have to have prolonged treatment because of missing the tightening of the braces with new arches.

However, on seeing the orthodontist, it is clear that he doesn't think that this is the case.  He was shocked yet again on the progress that me teeth have made.  He says that the top progress is nearly there and the bottom have moved significantly since the installation.

I didn't realise this when I had the brace put on, but with the first two arches (the wire that attaches to the brackets on the teeth) you would expect to see little or no movement with the teeth, they are more to loosen up and get the teeth prepared to move.  However, the first two arches for me have nearly done the job! 

I asked how long it could take, he still can't tell me, but he did say that there are only 2 or 3 arch changes to go, so if I progress like this it is probable that he can do these each time I see him, wonderful news! 

I mean I don't mind having a brace, but I would like it to be off so I can return to normal eating and looking mike myself!