"All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"...to come together with my bottom teeth!

Wow. I apologize for not updating this blog since July! Since then, my teeth have completely changed, with the most recent changes being the most noticeable & most painful.

-My right front canine is finally out from hiding and fully functional! woo! It almost feels like it is out too far/came down too from the gum-- but I have to remember that this is a PROCESS! Things constantly give and take; it should be okay in the end.

-The left side of my mouth/the side I chew on touches nicely and is better for chewing than ever. For a while, my bite seemed totally off and nothing touched well/top and bottom teeth didn't come together at all. I kept grinding them accidentally, in effort to find my "bite." ...but things are coming together now- LITERALLY! :D

- The top of my mouth has expanded significantly. My smile is so much wider!

now, for the best news [i really don't want to jinx anything, but...] :

-My bottom front teeth appear to be BEHIND my front top teeth, as in I appear to not have an underbite anymore. Interestingly however is that my back molars still exemplify underbite characteristics, with the bottom molars in front of the top molars. As to what this means in terms of jaw surgery-- only time will tell!! AH!

I mentioned this new development to my orthodontist a couple weeks ago. I told him that I am all for jaw surgery if I absolutely need it--but... things are certainly looking better than anticipated. Upon further "looks" and measurements, he simply said

"hold that thought. I hear and understand your question,"

at which point he wrote down a bunch of numbers, redid my archwires, attached yet another hook, and gave me new rubberbands(back to Quail Bands!) with a new arrangement.

I don't return to the orthodontist until January. I suppose I will begin to receive a more direct answer to my thought/question about the necessity of jaw surgery then. *cross your fingers* ...but I don't want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed- so as of now, jaw surgery is still on for summer 2011.

Since my last appointment, my braces/rubberbands have hurt more then they ever have before [the pain of spacers is close]. Over the past week (exam week, conveniently enough!), my right top jaw, gums, and teeth began to feel tremendously painful (maybe a 5-6 on a scale of 0(no pain)-10(worst pain everrr!). The pain would "flare up" at random times. For unknown reasons, the pain would randomly become more striking and throbbing at some times more than others. Throughout the week of aching gum pain, eating was almost never comfortable or normal; the pain would flare up after a minute of chewing. While aleve normally works for me, it did not alleviate any of my tooth/gum pain. Oragel provided temporary relief, in the form of numbing (yay benzocaine!) but I didn't want to use too much oragel (see internet/wikipedia/FDA for side effects of too much benzocaine- bad new bears!) All in all, the relief from oragel was too short and my "flare up" pains too unpredictable and frequent for oragel treatment to work.

Right now- the pain seems to have returned to it dull ache, nearly dormant stage. Maybe it seems that way because I'm used to the pain now or maybe my gums are chillin' out for a moment and trying to recuperate from all its recent movements.

Who knows... hopefully, all of this pain will culminate into possibly no longer needing surgery.

Whether I end up getting surgery or not- one thing is certain:

NO PAIN, NO GAIN!!

So THIS is what my previously bracefaced friends used to talk about... I was wondering when I might experience this dreaded pain. My mouth feels similar to how it felt when I had spacers-- extremely tight and cramped. dull achy pain- unless I accidentally hit my mouth or chew- at which point the pain becomes more striking. ow.

no pain, no gain!

My thoughts regarding pain borderline masochism (except not really. haha masochists find pleasure in pain...I'm just being optimistic)- I like the pain. I know this is pushing me ever closer to my final goal of correct bite and beautiful smile.

Anyhoo.. moving on to the cause of this pain. Today I went to the orthodontist, knowing it'd be a big day and an exciting one, too. I've been waiting for that stubborn canine to come down and anxious to put something on it to bring it down. Sure enough, the orhtodontist..
-replaced both archwires. i can definitely feel and see a larger size/thickness on my bottom teeth.
-attached the bottom archwire to my back molars. it feels so weird/ now i have two more sections to thread the floss!
-replaced the spring in front of my canine tooth with another, tighter spring.
-attached a button to the lil' front tip of my top canine tooth! yay!! (took two tries to make it work! ..now I have some pesky, pointy glue still on the back of the canine from attempt no. 1)
-tied new canine button to spring/archwire with you guessed it-- more wire! ..of course, this is making the canine area super sensitive. pulling a tooth into place is not an easy- or I suspect comfortable- task!
-..and I still have to wear elastics in the same area/configuration (except I'm back to parrot bands..not sure if that's an upgrade or downgrade from quail bands..)

...progress is being made. :) the pain may last a few days--but the result/gorgeous smile/perfect bite will last forever! ..or at least many, many years! haha

Tip Top Shape!

Visited my normal dentist on Monday to get a 6 month cleaning. She was highly impressed with all of the improvement in both the position of my teeth and my dental hygiene (still flossing every night!). Otherwise, not too much is happening regarding my teeth, which explains the lack of recent blog posts/update. All is well as of now. :) yay! I hope I will be saying that this time next year (jaw surgery time!). ..oh and that lil' guy (canine) is still making its way down, slowly but surely! woohoo!

When I visited the orthodontist today, the doctor said all looks well with my mouth so far. Tammy took off the power chain on my lower canine because it rotated nicely. She also removed the tightly coiled spring in that region. She trimmed my bottom archwire and tightened it, too.

annnnnd- surprise, surprise- I'm using elastics again! This time I upgraded to quail (from the old parrot rubber bands)! For those of you not in the "orthodontic know," there are little birds on rubber band/elastics packages that indicate the size/type.I suppose you could say I actually downgraded to quail because these quail bands are much, much smaller than my previous bands. Of course the smaller size is creating a little pain in my mouth right now, especially when I open my mouth wide-- but it's manageable..however, I'm sure my gums will be sore tomorrow morning.



Recently I followed through with one of my leisurely goals-- creating a food blog! http://emh0917.tumblr.com Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out! I'm still new to Tumblr and trying to acclimate myself with all of its functions and quirks... it's a work in progress.. nevertheless- please follow me! create your own tumblr, too! it's pretty neat. (above pic related ;) what an adorable lil mousey nibblin' on a tasty looking tiny plate of food!)

Eating like a tiny mouse may be cute, but i can't wait to devour food like a bear!!

http://www.hallobay.com/images/2004/SH_Bear_fish_2L.jpg

Exciting News!

My top right canine is finally poking through my gums!! woohoo! This super exciting because-- if it continues to progress on its own, I won't have to have it surgically uncovered. I've been waiting so long for this moment! YES!!

Progress!

Wow! My bite is looking more and more beautiful every day! I'm super pleased and amazed by these little metal brackets, wires, and springs on my teeth! I apologize for neglecting to update this blog for such a long time. The normal suspects (school, work, boyfriend, family, friends, and other important things) have been consuming my time to the point where this blog has been last priority-- for good reason, too! I haven't had any major complications or pain! woot woot! Since my last update:
- I swallowed a bracket! *gasp!* It wasn't connected to the archwire. I didn't notice eating or swallowing eat with my pb&j sandwich during lunch..but I know it must have happened during lunch. I realized it when I replaced my rubberbands after lunch. I always feel the brackets with my tongue to make sure I put the rubberbands on correctly. So far, I haven't suffered any major (or minor) complications from swallowing the bracket. The orthodontist said it should "pass normally." S'pose it did! haha!
- I'm still trying to make room for that top canine. If a press a piece of hard candy/mint or my tongue against the space- I think I can feel it there..it exists! Just gotta get it to come down! I really don't want an oral surgeon to have to "uncover" it! Please come down on your own canine , pretty pretty pleeeasse!
-During my last visit to the orthodontist- I was freed of rubberband wearing responsibilities! Apparently, I had worn them so well, my teeth were nearly over-corrected! (I could tell by the time of my appt, as my bite was feeling a bit off-- off more than usual!) Not putting in rubberbands after eating/taking them out before eating seemed quite strange for a while. haha Constantly wearing rubberbands had become routine/habit to me...
-During my last visit, the 'dontist had to take off a bracket and put on a different one. Removing the bracket proved to be problematic. She pried, scraped, and pulled at the glue that held the bracket on for quite some time. It began to hurt with each dreaded attempt to scrape the glue off my tooth. Finally, my orthodontist used a "sanding" tool to "sand" down the glue. When I got home, I noticed a small divot on that tooth from the failed attempts to pry off the glue. I've been certain to thoroughly brush that area of the tooth, in hopes that it doesn't turn into a cavity.
- As I previously stated, my bite is coming along well! It almost looks as though my underbite is somewhat disappearing (it's still obvious that my bone structure supports an underbite)...but my teeth still don't come together- especially in the front.
-Recently, the inside of my right cheek has been a little sore. All of the springs, hooks, and brackets are constantly agitating my mouth on that side. The inside of my cheek keeps snagging and rubbing against all of the metal. Hopefully, the sores will clear up soon.

While there is still lots of dental work to be done, I think my mouth situation is progressing nicely. :)

rubberband woes

Wear your rubberbands CONSISTENTLY!!

...while I have still been flossing every single night, I have not been as consistent with my rubberbands recently- and it hurts!! literally. I just keep forgetting to put them back in after meals for some reason... I did that last night after dinner and today after lunch. whew. terrible mistake. now it hurts like crazy to put them in.



lesson learned.
wear rubberbands as consistently as possible!

p.s. pic is a bit dramatic. haha. couldn't resist the sad face pic.

Movement & Excitement!

(This post is wayyy overdue! Sorry!)
Since the first day of braces, all has been well! Contrary to popular belief, the second day of braces way not something to fear. Sure- I experienced some discomfort- but nothing too terribly painful. whew! :) My gums were a bit tender and biting down on non-soft foods was not fun for a few days- but, in general, everything was and has been quite bearable! In fact, I've found the whole process to be exciting! Discomfort=movement. It's so exciting to see and feel gradual change. Call me weird for somewhat enjoying braces- but i think it's rather fascinating.

Pardon me for boasting- but I am proud and happy to say that I have flossed my teeth EVERY single night since getting braces! My orthodontist said that flossing would ease gum pain and make my mouth feel better. I couldn't agree more! Flossing makes my mouth feel great. I've never been this diligent and adamant about flossing-- but, wow! it's awesome! haha For some people, their dental hygiene declines with braces. For me, it has skyrocketed! lol. I know that if I miss one night of flossing, I will come dangerously close to losing the habit all together; therefore, I always floss every night- regardless of how tired I may be and how long it takes to floss between each bracket! That said, I highly encourage you to floss- bracefaced or not! It will work wonders on your mouth!

For quite some time, I was not able to floss between two bottom teeth because they were crammed together. When they finally moved ever so slightly- I was overjoyed to be able to slide the floss in between them! ahh! Knowing that the braces are actually working and moving my teeth is so cool! There are so many little bits of progress on the path to a perfect bite/smile that make having braces worthwhile and exciting.

Yesterday, I went to the orthodontist for my first tightening. I must admit-- despite my enthusiasm for braces-- that enduring the prodding/pushing/opening brackets/replacing wires/putting on springs/taking off springs/etc was not a pleasant. In fact, I'd say some moments were one or two notches above discomfort- but, all in all, still bearable and worth it. This may sound strange- but at one point, it felt as though my braces were conducting some sort of electricity because when the orthodontist touched one of my teeth a certain way, I felt like I got "shocked." It felt much like the "shock" you receive from a static-y car or doorknob....
In general, the first tightening was still not the horrifyingly painful situation some people make it out to be. Hopefully, my experiences in orthodontia continue to defy the painful odds/common (mis)perceptions about braces. .. Maybe I can understand and appreciate having braces more than most people because I am older. Most people have braces during their whiny, confusing, frustrating adolescent years-- which explains why all of my thoughts on braces are linked to bad experiences and complaints (from all my friends who had braces in middle school)-- but, then again, this is only the beginning of my journey with braces. I'm sure some tough, painful times lie ahead. Whatevs. I'll deal with them when they arise. Until then, I'm going to keep reading other people's positive experiences with braces and jaw surgery and maintain high hopes. :)

Below is the slideshow of photos I promised in my last post! Enjoy! (hopefully, it works..)

"Let the story begin.." *

So far, I'm not really experiencing much pain at all (0-1) on the pain scale...but i'm told the pain will inundate me tomorrow. It's a bit awkward feeling- but that was to be expected. I'm already wearing rubber bands. They said wearing the rubber bands from the "get-go" will make it less painful in the long run and I'll be more likely to wear them since I won't get used to being without them. Unlike what I've seen on my friends, my rubber bands are placed on the inside of my top teeth and outside of my bottom (making it impossible to eat with them or chew gum).

Eating lunch went well. It's difficult to chew (but always has been with my underbite) and I keep biting down on my cheek by accident....so far, my state of comfort is much better than I imagined. I'll report back when the pain sets in.

The whole procedure of putting a ton of metal in my mouth took about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I won't go into every detail of what they did--but my bf, Daniel, tooks lots of pictures of the process. I will try to post them as soon as I get my hands on them. They're pretty hilarious.



* yep, "let the story begin" is another kanye west lyric, specifically from the song "Big Brother." The same phrase is also used in Jay-Z's "Death of Autotune."...let's just say i like to think of my life as one big rap/hip hop song. haha. love me some jay-z and kanye. :)

gettin' bracefaced tomorrow!!

You heard me! I'm getting braces TOMORROW at 10:30am! It will be my first big leap on my dental journey. ahhh!! I'm anxious, nervous, bummed, excited, unsure, certain, and content all at the same time! I don't really know how to wholeheartedly feel about braces. I suppose my most dominant feelings about it are ready/accepting/content. I hope that pain is not too bad- i'll be sure to report back on that.


I've been chomping down on lots of forbidden foods (crunchy, sticky things you can't eat with braces), like cheetos!! om nom nom nom! :)