Frustrated

It's been a couple of months since I had my braces off and unfortunately one tooth has started to move again despite the permanent retainer on the back. Gutted. I went back to the dentist on Monday and he's put brackets on the tooth that's moved and the tooth next to it. It'll take about a month to close again so I'll have it on over Christmas and New Year. Oh joy. It looks bloody stupid too, they're metal brackets as he didn't have any clear ones and it looks like I've got a piece of spinach caught between my teeth or something, horrible!! And it bloody hurts!!

The rest of my teeth still look great though, it's just that one at the side. I don't know what my dentist plans to do when the gap is closed again, I guess I'll find out when I go back.

To contour or not to contour......

Hmm...since getting my braces off there's been a marked difference in my upper gums. My "gummy smile" appears to have gone. Completely. I'm not sure if I've "trained" myself to smile so that I don't show gum or whether the braces have pushed my gums up.

All very odd. I might not need the gum contouring after all which would be a result!

They're Off!

Finally! I got them completely removed today. Ready for the finished article?



Wait for it..........












Wait for it.............








TA-DA!!!!!!!!!



And just in case you'd forgotten, this is what they looked like at the start of my treatment.....





I am sooooooo chuffed!!!! It was worth every single penny. I don't think they need whitening, do you? I will get my gums sorted out though but I can't afford that at the moment. The main thing is my teeth are fixed, hurrah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Retainer

Well, I thought I was getting my braces off today. Turns out, the dentist just put the permanent retainer on the back (which funnily enough I'm almost already used to), and took the wires off. I still have the brackets on my teeth but he wants to leave them for another 2 weeks to make sure the retainer holds my teeth in place.

I'm not that bothered, my teeth look great!! I won't post a pic today, I'll wait till I've had the brackets taken off (and the batteries are flat in my camera, lol).

So....my next entry will probably be my last for a while. Other things are happening at the moment which means I might not be able to have the gum surgery done just yet, I'll have to check it's ok with my dentist.

Anyway, off to make a cup of tea!

Braces off!

Just a quick note to say my braces come off tomorrow!! Whooo-hoooo!!!!!

Day 161

Well, I had my final adjustment yesterday. My teeth are now finished! Hurrah!! I've just got to wait a month for them to settle down and then on 3 October, they come off!



How brilliant do they look? I can't wait to get them off completely and then have the gum contouring. I'll probably have whitening too cause they're a nasty colour and impossible to clean with so many wires all over the place!

I've lost a stone in weight and am now super slim, go me!!

Day 79 - Third Adjustment

Had my third adjustment today. I'm nearly done!! My dentist told me I've only got another month, two months max and I'm finished, yay!!!!

Today's piccy....



I found out today, I'll have a permanent retainer on the back of my teeth so that they don't move again which is good as I won't have to wear a night brace and I won't have the worry of them moving during the day. I'm just a bit concerned that I'll be able to feel it with my tongue and it'll make eating certain foods difficult. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

He also told me I probably won't need any bridgework, but there will be a gap each side towards the back so it's up to me whether I have a bridge each side or an implant. I won't be bothering to start with, a bridge each side will cost £1,400 and 2 implants will cost £2,000. So I think I'll leave that for now, lol!!

I can't believe I'll be finished in 2 months at the latest, I'm so chuffed!!!!

Day 67

Woo!!! I don't have another adjustment for a couple of weeks yet, but I've just been comparing day 1 to today.


Day 1


Today

My dentist could take the braces off now and I'd be happy. Having said that, there's still one gap each side but you can only see them if you're standing to the side of me and I laugh. You can''t see them from the front at all. However, I'll definitely be done by September. YAY!!

Day 49 - Second Adjustment

I had my second adjustment this morning. I've been concerned that my teeth are all different lengths but my dentist assured me its an optical illusion and once the brace is off and he's done the crown lengthening, all my teeth will be their correct length.

Anyway, here's todays pic......




The things to notice are the front left gap has closed completely and the front right gap which was MAHOOSIVE has nearly closed too. Only 3 more gaps to go, woo-hoo!!!! :D

Day 20 - First Adjustment

Finally I had my first adjustment this afternoon. So much for worrying about one tooth being longer than the other. As soon as I mentioned it, my dentist waved his hand in a "it's nothing to worry about" gesture. He then asked me if I'd like him to bring the other tooth down or push that one back up. He recommended bringing the other tooth down as my teeth are quite square and could do with some length to them so I agreed. And already the two teeth are almost the same length again!!

And, and, and!!!! The gap between the front two teeth is now completely closed, yay!!!

(Apologies for the colour of my teeth, they're pretty gross right now.)

So now I have more wires in my mouth and my teeth really hurt. BUT, I'm starting to see some good progress so I'm feeling optimistic again.

Oh, and my dentist also mentioned today that I'll need a bridge each side because there will still be gaps at the back when this treatment is finished. He also said that the bridges will stop the teeth from moving so that's a good thing. All this treatment is getting more and more expensive!!!

Aaarrgghhhh!!

I've had braces for 2 weeks now and they're a frigging nightmare!! Let me list the pros and con's

Pros

I'll have no gaps at the end of my treatment.
I'm losing weight. (5lb so far)

Cons

I can't eat anything other than soups and really soft food;
I can't bite into anything;
I'm hungry all the time;
My teeth are sore, yellow (it's impossible to clean them properly), different lengths and apart from the front two, they're even more gappy than when I started the treatment!!
Even though I'll have no gaps at the end (apparently) I'll still have to wear a retainer forever.

I just want these braces out. :( I knew I'd have bad days but I didn't realise it'd be so soon. I hate the feel of them in my mouth, I'm not getting used to them like I thought I would. I feel like ripping them out of my mouth to be honest. I wish my dentist agreed to pulling my teeth out and giving me false ones. I can live with false teeth, it's no big deal. False teeth don't hurt, they're easy to clean and they don't move.

Ugh. My mouth is a MESS right now. I'm so depressed about it. I don't even see my dentist for another week yet so he can't set my mind at ease. Although I don't know what he could say to be honest. At least my teeth were the same length and nice and white before I started all this!!!

And another thing! I've been reading lots on the net lately about braces and so many people's teeth move back afterwards even when wearing their retainer. I'm not saying they move back to their original position but they move during the day and the retainer becomes tight to wear. Imagine that, you start off in the morning with perfect teeth and by tea time they're all gappy. Great. I just KNOW that's what'll happen with my teeth. False teeth are becoming more and more appealing .

Maybe I'll snap out of it, but before I had braces, I used to cry all the time and was so depressed about the state of my teeth. And now they're in a much worse state than when I started so you can imagine how I'm feeling now, I don't even want to leave the house. So far, I feel that getting braces has been a BIG mistake..........

Wierdness

Strange things are happening. My left front tooth has suddenly got noticeably shorter than the other one....... I'm a bit worried 'cause that's not meant to happen, surely?!! Oh well, I go back to the dentist on 17th April so I'll ask him about it then. One of the gaps on the side is massive too but that's a good thing cause it means the other gaps are closing up.

Other than that, things are doing ok. I can finally eat what I like but I still can't bite into anything. I'm not bothered about that, I just cut everything up into small pieces. And I'm free of pain, wahey!!

Day 4 - OMG!

OMG!! Look at the progress my teeth are making already! It's only been four days!!!!




Top pic is day 1, bottom pic is today.

Amazing, isn't it!!

Day 2

Evening all. Well it's been over 24 hours now since I had my braces put on. I could have sworn my teeth had moved during the night but I think that's just psychological and wishful thinking, lol.

Drinking tea is back to normal (can you imagine if I couldn't have a cuppa for 6 months?!!!! Doesn't bear thinking about! *shudder*). I still can't eat properly so I stocked up on soups today. It's the bloody bracket that tightens the brace that's the problem. It's really affected my bite so I can't bite down properly. And although my teeth don't really hurt (apart from a bit of pain when I woke up this morning which was soon cleared with the power of Nurofen), I cant put any pressure on my teeth so biting into things is a big no-no (and what daft idiot bought loads of hard food from Tesco's the other day?).

Cleaning my braces is a bit of a pain too. Every time I eat something I have to go and floss. God knows what it'll be like when I can actually eat what I want!

ANYWAY, barring some disaster like my braces falling off (has anyone else had that fear when they first got them?), I won't bother updating now till I go for my first tightening in 2 weeks time.

What fun!!

Food

Ugh. I can't eat. I just tried and it's impossible. For dinner this evening I had half a breadstick, half a tomato (and by that I mean I sucked the insides out, I couldn't manage the skin) and a bowl of cereal.

Oh well, looks like I'll lose weight as well so that's a bit of a hidden result, lol!

28 March 2007, Braces on!

Morning! I've just got back from the dentist and am now fully fitted with braces. As you can see, they don't actually look that bad, I imagined they'd be a lot worse than this so that's a good start! The only trouble I'm having right now is I can't get my top lip over them to close my mouth!! I made myself a cup of tea when I got home and I'm dribbling like a baby, lol. This is gonna take some practice!! I haven't even thought about eating yet, that's gonna be a nightmare. I think it'll be soft foods for a few days while I get used to the brackets in the back of my mouth which are preventing me from biting down properly. I'm sure it'll all calm down though. Oh and I don't have any elastic bands in my mouth which is frigging brilliant!!!

So far there's no pain but the dentist said it will really hurt this week so I've stocked up on Nurofen Plus. Bring it on!!!!

The night before.....

Well then. Hello to you if you're reading this. After months of waiting, I finally get my braces tomorrow and I am SO excited!!

As you can see from the pic, my teeth are AWFUL. They never used to be like that but over the years they've moved considerably due to my gingivitis and it now looks like I have a graveyard in my mouth. I hate my teeth so much I even considered having them removed but my dentist talked me out of it, thank God! I apologise for the quality of the pic but it's the only one I have where I'm smiling with my mouth open.

Anyway, you will notice I also have a very gummy smile which my dentist is going to fix with a procedure called crown lengthening. He said my treatment will take 6 months so I figured I'd keep a blog and post updates and stuff. It'll be brilliant to look back at this in 6 months time.

So........in roughly 13 hours time I'll have my braces and I really, really can't wait!!!! I have no idea if I'll need rubber bands, or how often I'll need to clean them, or how many times I'll need to go back to have them tightened, or anything really, lol! All I know is it's going to hurt, but I don't care!