Friday, May 23, 2014
Thoughts After 48 Hours with Braces
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
B-Day
Today was the day I've been trying to make happen since I was 12: I FINALLY got braces.
It only took 9 consultations, 1 surgery, and 2 orthodontic devices before I was finally ready.
I can't say that I was excited, though. Rather, I was sort of dreading it because I knew they were going to be uncomfortable in the beginning and I am a little tired of the soft food diet right now. The TPA device (see my last entry) caused more pain than anticipated and I was only just getting back to normal. I figured that'd happen. I was frustrated as this past weekend was very busy and I was out of town (and therefore eating in restaurants) for all of it. And then Tuesday was my real b-day and I went out for lunch and a post soccer game snack. I feel like my fun was compromised by the dumb TPA.
But anyway, enough whining.
Getting braces put on is a pretty straightforward experience. They slide this funky device over your mouth so your lips and tongue can't touch your teeth. There is even a little cage for your tongue. That contraption was one of the worst parts as stuff like that tends to send me into a panic, making it hard to breathe through my nose. I knew they couldn't put the braces on without it, though, so I closed my eyes and tried to relax.
My teeth were polished and then had two different solutions brushed on. The actual application of the brace brackets is super cool. In the lab, they make this plastic mouth tray that looks like your teeth (using your impressions). Then they place the brackets in the tray thing, and they slide the whole tray on at once. Then they just zap your teeth with the UV light wand for a few minutes and it's finished.
Putting on the wire and ligatures was more painful, mostly on the top because my front teeth are STILL tender from SARPE. Actually, I mentioned that to the assistant and she didn't know that I'd had surgery or what I meant by SARPE. Then she asked me if I'd noticed a difference from SARPE (after I had to explain what it is). I almost laughed I was so incredulous. I was like "Well YEAH." I kinda noticed when I was off work for 2 weeks, high on percs for a week, and then had to crank a key into a giant metal bar in my mouth, creating a gigantic gap between my front friggin teeth. I noticed JUST A TAD.
Maybe I'm being a jerk but come on...how do you not know about a giant part of my treatment plan?! You work there!
Anyway. So getting the elastics installed really hurt on the top but was fine on the bottom. They were clipping the wire off the back and it felt like she clipped my tooth instead. "Oops, we popped a bracket off! Sorry!" Um, ouch!! So they had to reinstall a bracket. That tooth throbbed for about an hour afterwards.
After they finally let me go, I went back to work where I was in progressively more pain until I came home and took one of my left over Percocets and had a nap. After lunch, the pain definitely peaked. It hurt so badly that I was actually nauseous. I didn't get much done today at work, unless you consider staring off into space and feeling sick as doing something.
But guess what! Today is the worst my teeth will ever look!! It's all uphill from here. Apparently by my first adjustment in 8 weeks, I will already look so much better.
Before SARPE, December 2013.
After SARPE, before braces. This picture makes it really obvious how messed up the midline of my face is.
Braces Day 1: ceramic on the front 6, metal for all the rest. Went with pink for my first elastics!
It only took 9 consultations, 1 surgery, and 2 orthodontic devices before I was finally ready.
I can't say that I was excited, though. Rather, I was sort of dreading it because I knew they were going to be uncomfortable in the beginning and I am a little tired of the soft food diet right now. The TPA device (see my last entry) caused more pain than anticipated and I was only just getting back to normal. I figured that'd happen. I was frustrated as this past weekend was very busy and I was out of town (and therefore eating in restaurants) for all of it. And then Tuesday was my real b-day and I went out for lunch and a post soccer game snack. I feel like my fun was compromised by the dumb TPA.
But anyway, enough whining.
Getting braces put on is a pretty straightforward experience. They slide this funky device over your mouth so your lips and tongue can't touch your teeth. There is even a little cage for your tongue. That contraption was one of the worst parts as stuff like that tends to send me into a panic, making it hard to breathe through my nose. I knew they couldn't put the braces on without it, though, so I closed my eyes and tried to relax.
My teeth were polished and then had two different solutions brushed on. The actual application of the brace brackets is super cool. In the lab, they make this plastic mouth tray that looks like your teeth (using your impressions). Then they place the brackets in the tray thing, and they slide the whole tray on at once. Then they just zap your teeth with the UV light wand for a few minutes and it's finished.
Putting on the wire and ligatures was more painful, mostly on the top because my front teeth are STILL tender from SARPE. Actually, I mentioned that to the assistant and she didn't know that I'd had surgery or what I meant by SARPE. Then she asked me if I'd noticed a difference from SARPE (after I had to explain what it is). I almost laughed I was so incredulous. I was like "Well YEAH." I kinda noticed when I was off work for 2 weeks, high on percs for a week, and then had to crank a key into a giant metal bar in my mouth, creating a gigantic gap between my front friggin teeth. I noticed JUST A TAD.
Maybe I'm being a jerk but come on...how do you not know about a giant part of my treatment plan?! You work there!
Anyway. So getting the elastics installed really hurt on the top but was fine on the bottom. They were clipping the wire off the back and it felt like she clipped my tooth instead. "Oops, we popped a bracket off! Sorry!" Um, ouch!! So they had to reinstall a bracket. That tooth throbbed for about an hour afterwards.
After they finally let me go, I went back to work where I was in progressively more pain until I came home and took one of my left over Percocets and had a nap. After lunch, the pain definitely peaked. It hurt so badly that I was actually nauseous. I didn't get much done today at work, unless you consider staring off into space and feeling sick as doing something.
But guess what! Today is the worst my teeth will ever look!! It's all uphill from here. Apparently by my first adjustment in 8 weeks, I will already look so much better.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
IT'S OUT!
Today was the day I'd been looking forward to since December 17: the RPE was removed! To say I was excited would be the understatement of the year.
Obviously the day dragged until 1:45pm when I finally got to leave work and go to my appointment. My excitement was palpable, the assistants seemed amused.
The appliance is removed much more quickly than it goes on. They saw a cut in each of the 4 bands and then gently pull the whole thing out. It was a little uncomfortable getting it removed but I was too excited to care. It was a few minutes before I could finally have my mouth to myself and when I touched my tongue to the roof of my mouth, I immediately exclaimed "Oh my god!" My mouth felt GIGANTIC!
Unfortunately they did have to put the TPA (transpalatal arch) in immediately as per normal procedure. This is a much smaller wire that goes across the roof of my mouth to keep my palate from reverting.
Getting fitted for the bands was a bit painful but the whole thing didn't take very long. Them trying to pry off excess cement was probably the worst part.
The crappy thing with the TPA is that it has brackets on either side. The inside brackets hold the wire in place and the outside brackets are for when I get braces next week. I came home and put some Gishy Goo on the outer brackets as I could feel my cheek was already getting chewed up.
Gotta admit, I'm not thrilled that the TPA will be in there until the end of my treatment but it is much more tolerable and not really in the way. If something has to be in there for the next 2 years, better the TPA than the RPE.
I do need to have an honestly moment here. Every time I'm at a new stage in the process, I can't help feeling somewhat frustrated with all of it. I always look forward so much to the next step and then it happens and it's like, "Oh yeah, this still sucks!" It's obviously worth the trouble but it does get momentarily annoying having to go through everything. It's a lot of adjusting to less than ideal circumstances that you can't escape and that you paid a lot of money to be dealing with. Most of my frustration had settled down because it's been nearly 5 months since anything new happened, but the TPA has reawakened it. I'm sure next week when I get braces, I will be happy and excited to get going, but also frustrated because let's face it, this whole process sucks!
In the meantime, I'm back to soft foods because ouch.
Anyway, here's what a TPA looks like!
Next stop, braces on May 21st!
Obviously the day dragged until 1:45pm when I finally got to leave work and go to my appointment. My excitement was palpable, the assistants seemed amused.
The appliance is removed much more quickly than it goes on. They saw a cut in each of the 4 bands and then gently pull the whole thing out. It was a little uncomfortable getting it removed but I was too excited to care. It was a few minutes before I could finally have my mouth to myself and when I touched my tongue to the roof of my mouth, I immediately exclaimed "Oh my god!" My mouth felt GIGANTIC!
Unfortunately they did have to put the TPA (transpalatal arch) in immediately as per normal procedure. This is a much smaller wire that goes across the roof of my mouth to keep my palate from reverting.
Getting fitted for the bands was a bit painful but the whole thing didn't take very long. Them trying to pry off excess cement was probably the worst part.
The crappy thing with the TPA is that it has brackets on either side. The inside brackets hold the wire in place and the outside brackets are for when I get braces next week. I came home and put some Gishy Goo on the outer brackets as I could feel my cheek was already getting chewed up.
Gotta admit, I'm not thrilled that the TPA will be in there until the end of my treatment but it is much more tolerable and not really in the way. If something has to be in there for the next 2 years, better the TPA than the RPE.
I do need to have an honestly moment here. Every time I'm at a new stage in the process, I can't help feeling somewhat frustrated with all of it. I always look forward so much to the next step and then it happens and it's like, "Oh yeah, this still sucks!" It's obviously worth the trouble but it does get momentarily annoying having to go through everything. It's a lot of adjusting to less than ideal circumstances that you can't escape and that you paid a lot of money to be dealing with. Most of my frustration had settled down because it's been nearly 5 months since anything new happened, but the TPA has reawakened it. I'm sure next week when I get braces, I will be happy and excited to get going, but also frustrated because let's face it, this whole process sucks!
In the meantime, I'm back to soft foods because ouch.
Anyway, here's what a TPA looks like!
Next stop, braces on May 21st!
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