2 Emergencies in 1 Week

Had my second emergency today. Over the past few days my front teeth have became very sensitive. I found that my bite blockers had worn down so much that my front top teeth were hitting the brackets on my lower front teeth causing a lot of pain.
Unfortunately because of Easter my orthodontist has limited hours so I had to go to their other location. Their assistant was wonderful! She really took her time with me and asked if I grind my teeth at night. Because I do, she made the bite blockers higher then normal. Almost immediately, the pain in my lower front teeth subsided. In addition, she added some sort of band and clamp to my wire near tooth 31 to prevent it from coming out again.
I learned something very important today. According to the orthodontic assistant, by chewing only on my left side I can cause more wear on those teeth and that I need to practice moving the food around in my mouth.
On a positive note, it looks like my two front teeth are completely uncrossed!!!!!

First "emergency"

Today I had my first dental “emergency”. If you could call it that. On Friday while eating kashi cereal the wire that goes into bracket number 31 popped out. I’m not sure if it’s completely form the cereal because for several days before, whenever I would eat, the wire would bow and I would have to manually straighten it back out. I also got the top 8 ligs changed since they had started turning yellow. Total appointment time took less then the time to drive there. I was in and out in about 10 minutes. First wire change in 3 weeks, cant wait!

Day 25 and Lots of Changes!!!

I'm in the middle of spring break and seeing lots of changes. My 2 front teeth look awesome!!!! In person you can hardly tell they are overlapping at all. I tried to get a good picture but could not get one that was perfectly straight on.

And this is what my upper arch looks like now! Huge difference!

I can really tell that things are starting to move. When I bite down, sometimes I can feel/hear a few teeth make a crunch like sound, and my front tooth (the one that is overlapping the other) also makes that sound and feels loose. In addition to all the movement, some of the brackets on my lower right side are starting to rub where they didn't before. I'm hoping this is because the teeth are starting to turn to their correct position rather then how they are currently turned inward.

So while away from home, I forgot my threader for flossing, and after taking more then 20 minutes to floss without it, I had to find something. I came accost an amazing product by Crest called Glide Threader Floss. I had already been using only Glide floss so thought I would give this a try. For 30 packs it was just under $6. Much more then regular dental floss, but I needed something and thought this might save some time since I don't have to worry about re-threading. It's fantastic and I will never go back to the old way!

I also tried Plackers Orthopick, but they only fit in a few areas, and the areas they fit in, I was not able to move it around to really clean.  Luckily, they were only $2 per bag, maybe that's why they were so cheap!

Pain free and eating

2 weeks done and change is good! I’m finally able to eat like a normal person, well for the most part. As long as I cut things up small I can eat it, unless it’s hard or really crunchy. I’m able to bite into pizza too!

On Sunday I ate in public for the first time with braces. After the meal I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and several people came in and out, each one looking at me like I was a hobo in the bathroom bathing. I gave up and picked at my teeth in the car on the way home. Maybe I’ll stick to foods that don’t get so stuck next time. Turkey sandwich was a bad choice!

Most of the pain is completely gone. The only problem I have is with my last lower right molar. That tooth is all the way against my cheek and the bracket cuts right into me. I don’t see why I need that last bracket anyway.  I may see if I could get just that one removed when I go in for my adjustment in 6 weeks.

I have not seen any more progress in teeth moving, but they must be because it’s much easier to floss. In some areas the floss just glides in and out easily. I’ve been really good with flossing too. I’ve only missed one day since getting my braces, and that’s only because I was exhausted! 

End of Week 1

It's been a full week since I got my braces and today is the start of week 2! I can finally chew a little more, still only soft foods, but at least I don't have to put everything in the blender! Yesterday was the first day without pain killers!!! Here is a look back at week one and today.

Today

Week One

Day 4 - Feeling Better

When I woke up today, I was not in much pain. I think yesterday was the worst. I took 2 Vicodin about an hour before bed because the pain was so bad. I wanted to have them taken off, but knew that it would get better in time, and it did! I'm still sore today, but only about 1/2 of what it was like yesterday. I have not taken any pain killers at all today, but might tonight since that when the pain is worse. I've been watching some youtube videos about braces and most of the people are young teens. I really wish that I got mine on when I was younger, that way I could have school colored ligatures. I think it would make me look too young if I did that now. I already look like a teenager. I'm really looking forward to getting these off! A positive thing I have noticed, well I think it's positive, is the small space between my 2 front teeth. See that little black dot? That's not food it's space! However, I have not noticed much change on the bottom at all.

 

I'm not sure why I didn't mention this before, but I also have these horrible blue things on my black molars called bite blocks. They make it so I can't close my mouth all the way, so I don't bite off my lower brackets. They are awful! They hurt so bad; chewing is not an option at this point. I'm going to have them for 6 months! They said that after some time they wear down a little and you don't notice, but I don't see that happening anytime in the near future. They also make my back molars hurt!

Day 3, OUCH!

Today is day 3 and it hasn't gotten any better. The pain has gotten worse. I had a can of soup, that I put in a blender for lunch today, but it wasn't enough to get me through my workout. I decided to try and go for a jog after my sociology test since the gym was there anyway, but after a few minutes I got really dizzy and almost fell, so ended up only doing a 30 minute walk at 3.5 mph at an incline. Each morning when I wake up I forget that I have braces and it hits me like a tun of bricks. This pain is awful and I haven't slept for more then a few hours at a time. Tonight I'm going to take something to make me sleep, so just maybe I can sleep through the night. Good news though, I can already see a change in my teeth. My 2 front teeth have already started to move!