Hannibal eat you heart out (no pun intended!)

I am on proper count down now, I have been lead to believe that I will have the braces off in 2 months, providing that the next stage goes to plan, which in the past it all has, but touch wood anyway!

My last visit to the orthodontist went smoothly, although I didn’t understand what was happening till he had finished.

Last time I went he was saying things for his assistant to note down, teeth numbers and technical stuff I didn’t understand. But this time it all became clear. Firstly he asked for some technical thing, which basically means a piece of metal wire that he twists round the bracket to form a hook above the top teeth and below the bottom ones. Obviously because it is in my mouth, they feel like they are 10 feet tall and visible from space. But in reality, they are a little noticeable, but not to the point that it is going to stop me from smiling and laughing, you can see them on the picture below.

Anyhow.....after he fixed these, 4 to the top and 4 to the bottom, he then put on some new arch wires and told me that I am going to hate him....interesting.....which for the last few days I have!

Every night I have to truss my gob together with 4 elastic bands, fixing the top jaw to the bottom jaw so that it pulls my teeth in line and closes the gap so I can bite burger lettuce again. Once these bands are on it is impossible to open my mouth, which is the strangest, and one of the most horrible, experience I have gone through in this treatment. Imagine dreaming that you are having your mouth held shut and you are fighting it, scary. Also you can't lick your lips, cue endless amounts of lipbalm before bed. If you want a drink of water in the night, think again, not even a straw is getting through there!

The first night I managed to keep them on for 5 hours, after waking myself up every 2 hours by trying to open my mouth, feeling like I was ripping my front teeth out at the roots, the pain just got too much so I relented and took them off and got 3 hours quality sleep. The following night I managed 6 hours, with much of the same process. Last night I managed 8 hours, only really suffering the tooth ripping jaw snap once...how very brave of me! I am now hoping that the worst is over and I can put them on every night without too much sleep deprivation.

However I can see the difference already. Also I am highly motivated to go through that pain so I don’t prolong the treatment. This is the only part of it that has been my responsibility, I don’t want it to fail because on my pain threshold and wimpyness of a lack of sleep.

So as you can see from the below picture, every night I go through a ridicule of turning into Hannibal Lecter and answer with "and I ate his liver with a bottle of nice Chianti"!!!!!

So providing that this part of the treatment has the results that are required, next visit I will have the impressions for the removable brace taken and following that, fingers crossed, I will be permanently brace free!!!

Getting closer.....

Well here I am another appointment closer to the end, getting a little excited!

This time he actually said another 2 months, so I really am hoping that he means this and doesn't keep extending it.

My appointment was pretty straight forward, he ground some off my front teeth to even them up after years of them being uneven and wearing at an angle, and he put a linked elastic on the bottom to pull them straight, but otherwise nothing much happened.

Last time I said I was getting some bands to sleep in. He changed his mind and said I didn't need them, but on the next appointment he would sort out the remaining gap at the front. Where I had previously had the bendy wires to pull them together, it has opened up again, so I have lost some of my bite, back to removing lettuce from my burger before eating again, otherwise it ends up down my chin. So I wonder what he has in store for me when I go back again.

I am very excited about it all coming to an end, but I also don't tell people, because I still don't believe that in 2 months he will take them off, fingers crossed though. I am looking forward to having them cleaned again, and being able to clean them properly myself, I have loads of tea and wine stains again, I know it is my lifestyle that has done it, but trying to clean round the brackets isn't easy.

As I said previously my niece should be getting a brace too, although it keeps getting put back, I was telling my sister all about it and she is now in the thinking that she will be cleaning her daughters teeth for her all the time she has it on, I pointed out that a 11 year old probably doesn't drink as much red wine and tea as me, so it may not be such a problem!

I am that excited about having my teeth back that I have even bought a new toothbrush, a nice electric one, I did have one previously but it broke and I didn't see the point of getting a new one when it just gets ruined when brushing over the wires and brackets, but since I am now that close to the end I though it was time.

So let's hope that the countdown is defiantly on now........

The end is eventually in sight!!!!!!

At last, the orthodontist has committed to an end being on the horizon!!!!!!!!

At first I misunderstood what he said, I thought that he meant he had nearly finished what he was doing, well when you hear the words, ‘we are thinking of finishing soon', you have to put it into context with the situation you are in.

I was getting towards the end of a very long and quite painful appointment, and the regular dentist asked how much longer we would be as the next person was asking, my orthodontist said a few minutes, then his line 'we are thinking of finishing soon', but then I clicked to what he really meant, finishing treatment! Maybe only a couple of months left he said, yeah!!

But back to my appointment. He took off the bendy wires, which was painful in its self, but then he put a straight one on the top, and started to tie it on with metal ties, pushing and pulling and twisting, I felt like I could have screamed. Then he seemed happy, ground a bit off my teeth on the bottom and undid everything and took that off. I was very confused. What he was actually doing was manipulating them into a position so that he could even up my bite by taking a bit off my bottom teeth to stop them knocking together. Which seems to have worked.

But as he was taking off the top wire, he pulled off the top anchor, so I had to endure cleaning and cementing of that back on, not comfy to be sat there with the sucking drain and cotton wool stuffed in your mouth when you aren’t expecting it.

So he has put straight wires back on top and bottom. The anchor didn’t take so he has left it off, just saying that we don’t need it anymore! Well he knows best I suppose. Then he told me that next time he is going to give me some bands to tie top and bottom together for sleeping in, then soon after that we will be finished!

All I need to do then is get a retainer for sleeping in and I will have as perfect teeth as I am getting.

This was the best news I could have got on the 1 years anniversary of having the braces put on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.......