Week 58!

Well one year and a week has gone by and my 7th adjustment done. My ortho says my teeth are straight, my bite looks good, and my debanding date will depend on how strict I wear my Class 2 rubberbands! He said I am way ahead of schedule (my original debanding date was Nov 1, 2012). So basically the more I wear my rubberbands, the sooner my braces come off! Woohoo! I think he is just trying to fix my midline. Just a guess, I didn't ask. My next adjustment is in 6 weeks (I think they said 12, but they accidentally booked me for 6 :p)!

Remember my broken molar buildup and bracket? They said I didn't need that bracket since that tooth is straight and they didn't add any more molar build up! Everything is just staying the same (whew!).

Here are comparison pictures of my midline from Week 55 to Week 58. You can see that my lower midline has moved over to the left a little bit in the past 3 weeks! I'm going to make darn sure I wear my rubberbands 24/7! I want these braces OFF before my birthday in June!

Week 55. You can see my upper central incisor is
inline with my lower bracket.

Week 58 - My lower midline has moved over!
It's getting closer!

Everything is breaking!!

So on Thanksgiving day I was eating some AMAZING Sweet Potato pie, one of the softest pies in the world... Then I heard a crack. I thought it was something in the pie, but soon realized that my lower right molar bracket broke off. WHAT?? From eating PIE??

Then on Sunday I was at the Raider vs Bears game eating some Cotton Candy, then next thing I know I'm chewing on something really hard. I take it out of my mouth and I see something blue. I thought it was just a hard part of the Cotton Candy but I realized that I was eating pink Cotton Candy and not blue! DOH! One of my molar buildups came off!!

Really though? My bracket and bite block came off within 3 days of each other while eating pie and cotton candy? Unfortunately I couldn't schedule an appointment to fix them before my adjustment next Tuesday, so I will have to live with it for another week. My bite actually feels fine without the left molar buildup so I am hoping that they will just remove the right one next Tuesday. I'll keep you posted!

One year gone by...

I thought it would be kind of cool to see a comparison of what my teeth looked like before braces and what they look like after a year in braces! You want to see them too don't you? Yep, I know you do.

Before braces



Week 50



Amazing what some wires and rubber bands can do in a year! I can't wait to see what they will look like when I'm done!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

On November 5, 2010 I was bestowed with the gift of metal in my mouth. I have come to have a love/hate relationship with my braces, and wonder how much longer they will be around.

Dear braces,

You have done SO much for me, but there will come a time when we will have to part ways. Hopefully that time will be less than a year from now, because as much as I love you, I don't want to celebrate another anniversary with you. Cheers!

Love,
Dawn

Week 50 - FINISHING WIRES!!!

Guess who has two thumbs and is in finishing wires?? THIS GIRL!! After about 5-6 different sets of wires I'm FINALLY in my finishing wires! It feels great to achieve this milestone!

My ortho still has me in Class II elastics and I honestly feel like I will be in them forever! I had high hopes he would tell me I can stop using them, then he flushed those hopes down the toilet. *shakes angry fist*

I got a power chain on my upper teeth and the assistant asked if I wanted clear, but I hate how clear stains so easily so I asked her for a color that doesn't stain a much as clear does. So she put Pearl in my mouth. Pearl is WHITE. I mean, WHITE white. You can totally see it in my mouth when I smile/talk and just reminds me how non-white my teeth actually are. Maybe I just have to get used to them.

The assistant also put a tiny square block between my bottom central incisors. It looks weird!! I guess it is to keep from my wire from moving, but geez, but it in front where everyone can see it why don't you!

I always forget after every adjustment just how much my mouth will hurt. Oh. Em. Gee. I feel like ripping my teeth out!!!

The picture I took of my mouth doesn't look like my teeth. Wow, what an improvement! *happy dance*

Week 48

I am coming close to 1 year in braces! Wow, where did the time go?? Time for some updates!

Here is my current alignment. Do my teeth look slanted to you? That's because they are. *grumble grumble* One side is definitely higher than the other, so I hope this is fixed soon. Other than that I'm pretty happy with my teeth. My "fang" is G-O-N-E and my lower teeth have moved down quite a bit, so I'm not biting on my bottom brackets anymore.

Recently, the gum behind my bottom left molar has been swollen and painful :( I've been rinsing my mouth out with salt water the past 24 hours which seemed to help. My guess is that there was food that got stuck in between my molar and gums which caused irritation. I'm hoping it's not anything more serious than that. If it's still like this after a week I may have to take a trip to the dentist :(

There is one thing I have noticed that I wasn't even paying attention to before... my midline!!! It seems my upper teeth have shifted more towards the center (thanks to my elastics!) and my midline isn't SO off anymore! It's funny how I didn't even pay attention to this until now. Also look how much wider my smile is :)

Week 48 midline

Day 1 midline

My next adjustment is in 2 weeks. I'll keep you posted!!

"Fang" update

Well folks, after 3 days I can officially say that my "fang" is G-O-N-E! It was actually gone after about 24 hours which was kind of amazing! My bite feels much better now and I can bite normally without my front teeth hitting my bottom brackets! Here is an updated picture along with a picture of me with a good hair day :) Happy Friday!

My "fang" is gone!

Week 45 - 5th Adjustment

Look how long my central incisor is AKA "Fang!"
The wire is going to bring that up :)

So today I went in for my Repo, meaning that they were going to reposition some brackets based on my progress. I took an x-ray and everyone was pretty impressed with my tooth alignment and roots. They only needed to reposition one of my upper central incisor brackets and my upper right first premolar bracket.

Lucky me [insert sarcasm here], I had an assistant from San Francisco come in and work on my teeth today. She really seemed new and like she didn't know what she was doing most of the time. She even put pressure on the cheek retractor that were sitting on top of my gums! PAIN. DON'T DO THAT!! And she even asked me, "Is the cheek retractor bothering you?" First of all, no it's not the cheek retractor, it's YOU. And Second, I can't even say that because you have your HANDS IN MY MOUTH! DUH. I know I should give her a chance since she's still learning but I mean... come on. These are my teeth we are dealing with here!

I'm still in the Class II elastic configuration, but my ortho said that I am ahead of schedule!! Woohoo! He said the longer I wear my elastics, the sooner I get my braces off :) My next adjustment is in 6 weeks. The closest one yet! It's usually 8 weeks. And I'm definitely feeling some pressure on my "fang" so hopefully it moves up quickly!

My first premolar needs to rotate.

Week 42

Lower teeth moved down quite a bit from last week!!

My lower wire is really doing some work! I have never seen a wire do SO much in SO little time. My lower teeth are really moving down quickly, but my long central incisor aka "fang" is keeping me from biting down the way I should. My next adjustment is in 3 weeks and then they will be repositioning my brackets to fix my fang! I heard that it is very uncomfortable when they reposition your brackets so I may take some pain meds before I go.

Chewing food is getting more difficult now that my bite blocks are touching my upper teeth again. I tried to eat soft tacos yesterday and it was like chewing gum! But this won't stop me from eating my favorite foods.

Seriously though, look at my teeth!!! If you compare this to Week 36, or even Week 40, you can see a big difference!!  How exciting :)

Week 40

Since I got my lower wire changed at my last adjustment my lower teeth have moved pretty far down in 3 weeks! But the only thing is that it is taking me longer to chew because my bite blocks are starting to keep my bite open a little bit. I am still in Class II elastics and I have a feeling I will be done with them soon (hopefully!). My bite has gotten a LOT better because of them. You can see the difference in my teeth below, especially my lower teeth!

Week 40 - No power chain and lower teeth have moved down quite a bit!

Week 37 - With power chain on upper 6 teeth.

4th Appointment Update

This appointment was filled with lots of good news! I went to my appointment this morning and they changed my lower wire out for a stronger one. WHAT? I thought I had a super strong one in my mouth last time?? They want to really move my lower teeth down so they aren't sitting behind my upper teeth (look at picture below). Awesome!! My teeth are already sore and I love it!

They also said that they are going to reposition my brackets next appointment because if you've noticed, one of my upper central incisors is longer than the other and they are going to fix that! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!. I can't wait!!! I am still in the Class II elastic configuration but I don't have a power chain anymore! Woohoo! No more worrying about staining!

I'm super excited for my appointment in 8 weeks!

Week 36

My next appointment is tomorrow morning and I can't wait! They will probably switch out my power chain and hopefully I won't have to wear these class II elastics for too much longer...

Here is a picture of my current teeth. Not much progress happening :(

Week 36

Week 35

My next appointment is next week! I'm so excited! I hope they say good news about my overbite progress. I no longer have to force my teeth back to bite down regularly, but my lower teeth are still behind my uppers when I bite down. My power chain is totally stained yellow so I'm looking forward to them changing that out. I also have 4 gaps on my lower right teeth!! So I'm sure I will get a chain there as well. I'll keep you updated!

My Birthday!!

Oh!! I totally forgot to post that my birthday was on June 18th :) I'm 27! Officially in my late twenties... oh boy.

Deep Bite

Natural bite = open bite.

I figured I would show you guys a picture of what my bite looks like now if I was to bite down naturally. My back teeth don't touch and my front teeth hit my lower brackets. If I was to bite down to eat, then my lower teeth hide behind my upper teeth. See how rounded my lower teeth are right now? I cannot WAIT until they straighten up! Oh an yes, my power chain is stained yellow. What can I say? I love mustard ;)

Week 33

Nothing new (as far as I can tell). I'm still in Class II elastics, my teeth are still horizontally slanted, my bottom teeth are still behind my uppers when I bite down, and my front incisor is still longer than the other. Ugh. I feel like I am in limbo and that nothing is happening! I guess this is the part where my patience should kick in right? My next adjustment is in 4 weeks so I really hope that they do something different where I can see and feel progress.

Week 31

Week 31 - Lower teeth moving
back up into uppers :( WHY??!?!

So my lower teeth were in the process of moving down behind my upper teeth before my adjustment. Making really good progress too! And now with this new wire, my teeth moved back up! It looks more like Week 23 now!! They were doing so good before this adjustment.

It could be my upper teeth moved, bite blocks got lower... Or maybe something else moved inside my mouth that I am not seeing! All I know is that it has to get worse before it gets better :( I hope my lowers start moving back down again soon. This frustration is what I get for paying very close attention to my teeth movement! *bangs head against a wall*

Week 29 / 3rd Appointment Update

Week 29 - Front bite

So I just came back from my 3rd appointment. They replaced my clear power chain for a new one. Thank GOD because that last one was a yucky yellow color (damn you mustard!!). Looks like I'm still stuck with the Class II configuration with my rubber bands and they gave me a couple more bags. Also, they finally added brackets to my last 4 molars. When I bit down I could feel my upper molar was hitting my bottom bracket but I just shrugged it off and left (BIG MISTAKE). I went back to work and was eating my honey greek yogurt w/ granola (totally the bomb.com by the way...) I heard something break in my mouth! Yup, you guessed it, one of my new brackets freakin' BROKE OFF. My upper molar bit down on my bottom bracket so hard it popped that sucker right off!! So I had to make an appointment again today. Luckily they were able to take me in an hour after I called.

I finally have brackets on my back teeth!

They looked at my bite and was debating whether to give me a molar band, just re-bond the bracket, or re-bond the bracket and add more molar build up to open my bite (NOOOOOO)! Luckily my ortho was kind enough to just re-bond the bracket lower so my upper teeth don't touch it. Whew! I'm going to San Diego next week for my anniversary trip and I would have hated to have more molar build up added. I want to be able to eat normally on my trip!

My next appointment is in 8 weeks. I hope my bite is closer to being fixed by then!

3rd appointment next week!

I can't wait for my orthodontist appointment next week. I'm excited to see what they say about my lower teeth progression and my bite after wearing these elastics for the past 8 weeks. I'm also nervous because I'd like them to do something different to my teeth each time and I'll be SO sad if they just send me away for another 8 weeks without doing anything!

My teeth have come pretty far since they first put on these thicker wires 14 weeks ago and elastics 7 weeks ago:

Week 14


Week 27

Week 27

Wow is it just me or have my lower teeth moved dramatically since last week? I mean I noticed my lower teeth were kind of sore the past couple days but I didn't think they would move so much so fast. You can compare this pic to my Week 26 picture below.




Week 26

Week 26

Well my lower teeth are SLOOOOOWLY moving down from behind my top teeth when I bite down. You can see a VERY SLIGHT difference in my bite between this week and week 23's picture. I can't believe there really hasn't been that much movement in 3 weeks!! The process of braces really does take years!

Also my clear power chain is now an ugly shade of light yellow because of the mustard in my sandwiches! Doh! 2 more weeks until my next adjustment! I can't wait!

Sorry for the bad quality of pictures. My camera broke and I can only use my iPhone :(

Week 26:                                                Week 23:
             

6 months!

Today I have officially had my braces on for 6 months! Wow, that went by pretty fast! Let's hope the next 6 months go by just as quickly! :) Maybe I should celebrate with popcorn & chewy candies? Ya?!

Week 23

   

When comparing my teeth from Week 14 (left) to Week 23 (right), you can see that my lower teeth have moved down a little bit and you can now see my bottom brackets when I bite down. These elastics have changed my bite so much and I no longer have to force my lower jaw back to bite down. I can't say how awesome this is! And it's only getting better from here. Someone I haven't seen in a few months have said that my braces have really changed my face, in a good way. Really??! I mean obviously I can't tell because I look at my face everyday, but this is really great news! *does the running man*

Sorry for the quality of picture. My camera broke and I won't be able to invest in a new one for a while. So taking pictures from my iPhone will have to do.

Pressure

Well it has been almost a week in rubber bands & a power chain and overall my mouth isn't sore anymore. There is still constant pressure on my lower jaw and there are times I love it and times I want to scream because I'm not used to it. My bite has changed a LOT. There are teeth touching each other that haven't touched in months or ever. It's a weird feeling, but I'm so anxious for my bottom teeth to come into alignment!

Week 21

Guess what this picture means??? Yup I am officially in rubber bands! Super Heavy 6 oz. ones at that! It's in the classic Class II configuration to bring my lower jaw forward, so it goes from my canine to my 1st molar (my back molars don't have brackets yet). Talk about pressure!

They also put a power chain on my upper 6 teeth to close small gaps. It's clear so you can kind of see it in the picture above. I still hate how one of my front teeth is longer than the other but hopefully they will fix that soon. My next adjustment is in 8 weeks! I hope these weeks go by fast.

Week 19

Well I woke up this morning and my upper right central incisor is now touching my lower incisor bracket! It feels really weird, but it's good to know that my wires are doing their job and moving my teeth, even though I can't see a huge physical difference. I still need to take new pictures and post them. Hopefully this Friday. I guess I haven't been motivated to take new pictures because nothing interesting has happened in my mouth.

Also, I ran into a friend I haven't seen in a while and she said "You have braces? Didn't you get Invisalign?" And I told her the braces were to fix my bite not straighten my teeth (even though my teeth relapsed somewhat after I failed to wear my Invisalign retainers. I probably should have never gotten Invisalign at all). She tells me "You don't need braces. Your teeth are fine!" Seriously? My bite has been awful for years and I think it's annoying how people assume braces are just for straightening teeth. Little to they know that the longest part is fixing the bite. And I have a pretty deep overbite that forces my lower jaw to move back so I can bite down. How can people tell me I don't need them when they have no clue as to what's going on in my mouth?!

Week 17

So here I am at Week 17 and I feel like my teeth have hit a wall (so to speak). There hasn't been a lot of apparent movement with my teeth and I feel like this "thicker" wire hasn't done any work at all! I've taken some picture last Friday so I will post them up later. Maybe when I compare my pictures I will see some differences. I'm still waiting on my lower teeth to move lower and it's taking forever! Yeah, I'm not a patient person. Can't you tell??

Thicker Wire (Update)

So it's been a little over 2 weeks since I had the thicker wire put on my brackets and I had slight pain the first couple days. 2 weeks later and my upper teeth are SO sensitive!! It's amazing how you can go weeks with no pain then BAM! I'm weird, but I like the pain! That means my teeth are moving and the wire is doing its job :)

Week 14

I went to my first follow-up appointment last week and they gave me thicker, stronger wires! They also said that I will be getting elastics at my next appointment in 7 weeks. I am hoping since they gave me stronger wires my teeth will move faster. I hope so! You can see the wire difference below.

I am on week 14 and there are two things that are absolutely bugging the crap out of me! First, my upper left central incisor is longer than the right. Obviously longer. Annoyingly longer! They said that they will fix that, but it just bugs me when I see it everyday in the mirror :( Apparently it's been like that for years but I'm just now noticing it.

<-- Week 8                                                   Week 14 -->


2nd, the front of my lower teeth are still "high" and need to be brought down! My bottom teeth are completely covered by my top. I guess the whole point of the thicker wire was to fix this exact problem, but I'm just impatient. My teeth have been like this for a LONG time and I can't wait until it is fixed!

1st follow-up appointment tomorrow!

I'm both excited and nervous for my first follow-up appointment tomorrow. It's been a little over 12 weeks since I had my braces put on and I'm curious to know what the next step is. Will I get a new wire? Am I going to get brackets put on my back molars? Will I get elastic bands? Will they do nothing and send me on my merry way?? I also hope that I have been cleaning my teeth properly as well. I will update you tomorrow on how it goes!

Week 11 - Crunchy time!

I can eat chips again!! Exciting yah? My molar buildup has been ground down pretty far and they have pretty much replaced my molars. My bite is SO much better now and I can eat almost normally. I still haven't had chewy candy or salad in almost 3 months. My first follow-up appointment is next Tuesday so I'm excited to see what they think of my teeth and how they have progressed! I actually hope I get to have rubber bands too... I miss the pain! (I say this now, but I know I will regret these words later :p)

Week 9

Short blog today. Nothing riviting to update. It is interesting as time goes on because I feel like every week my braces are irritating a different part of my mouth! I need to use wax in different places now, but I haven't because I'm lazy *shrug* I only try to use wax when it gets really bad. Also my bite blocks aren't really keeping my bite open anymore. I have to force my bottom teeth back so I can bite down completely. I can't WAIT to close my mouth naturally! My next appointment is in 3 more weeks! I'm pretty excited for it!

Week 8

Nothing major to report. My teeth start to become sore in different areas but visually I don't see that much change. My bite is really changing though, and I'm not sure if it is because my teeth are moving or my bite blocks are getting lower. I just can't wait to go to my next appointment in Feb!