Finally the day has arrived. My braces came off today!!! Yippee!!!! As always I was very nervous before my appointment because of the pain I had to endure during my previous appointments. I was so nervous that I could not even get excited about my braces coming off; also I didn’t want to get too excited in case that my doctor decided to hold off for 6 more weeks. I heard that happens often. I simply cannot believe they are finally off. When the treatment started on February 14th 2007, the original date that I was given for the treatment was one year. The treatment has been prolonged to a day shy of one year and a half. Overall I am impressed with the results and I cannot stop smiling. It is nice to feel smooth teeth again, and there is soo much more room in my mouth now. Feels great! I had two permanent retainers placed at the back of my top and the bottom teeth to hold the teeth in place; they are glued in there forever. On Saturday I will be picking up my night retainer; should be interesting to see how I’ll get used to that.
My braces are scheduled to come off on August 13th. I cannot wait. IT has been 16 months since I’ve been wearing them and every day has been a struggle. I was told that I will have two permanent retainers; one on top and one on the bottom, and then another night time retainer. I hope the procedure of taking them off will be less painful than the adjustment appointments. I simply hated the visits to the orthodontist. I would take an Advil or two before any adjustment just to calm myself down. Now I’m extremely happy and counting down the days until my braces come off. 37 days to go.
16 month update photo.
Yesterday was my yet another visit to the orthodontist. By now some may think I must be used to the by monthly visits, but let me tell you, every time I go in there I experience fear and panic. I never know what they will be doing during those visits so I guess what I don’t know scares me. During yesterday’s visit, I had the lower wire removed and my chain on top removed as well. I was happy about the chain being removed because last week I had some Indian food for lunch, which made my chain discolored into a pale green colour. It looked weird. Apart from that, they have placed additional wires on all sides of my teeth to bring the teeth together and to close the gaps. This procedure was excruciating and painful. Even though the lady was trying to be gentle, there is no way she could have prevented what needed to be done. She had to pull my last 5 teeth together from every side so they would close up any gaps. Yesterday I had a small gap on my lower 4th tooth from my right bottom side, today the gap is completely gone, and another gap appeared on my front bottom tooth. Needles to say I am in a lot of pain today but the only thought that gets me going is that my braces will come off in around 2 months. I am very excited about that. This is it for now for braces updates.
Here is a recap of my orthodontist visit.
I had my appointment on Wednesday December 5th of last week at 2:00pm. I was highly dreading this visit because of the painful past experience that I went through. To my surprise this time around everything went fast and smooth without too much pain, but that might have been because I took some Advil before I went for my appointment.
Here are some updates to my brace face.
They have replaced the wires again, by putting a thicker one in on both the top and the bottom… I think it’s supposed to move the teeth quicker. Also as you might notice on the picture I have elastic bands which run from my second last teeth at the bottom, to my third teeth from the center on both sides. I think that apart from the elastics, this adjustment has been fairly painless. The elastics are another story. I call them “Elastina” and “Rubbera” just for fun because they are quite painful and uncomfortable. I have to wear them day and night and only take them out when I eat. My jaw is highly restricted when I’m yawning or even talking. Today is Monday December 10th – five days after my adjustment and I’m slowly getting used to the elastics, but they still hurt sometimes.
I also have “chains” placed on my upper teeth to close up some gaps between teeth. The “chains” are placed individually on each bracket stretching and pooling on the teeth in order to make even spaces between the teeth. They don’t hurt at all it’s just that they are a bit more visible to the eye.
The most important point is that I found out that I will only require to wear my braces for the next 6 months, which is a very exciting news for me. I can't wait untill they come off...
That is it for now...
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It has been 236 days since I had my first braces put on, and so far the pain and the uncomfortable feeling, was bearable... well until yesterday. Yesterday I had my appointment to have my lower braces put on, because so far I only had the top ones on. The appointment was about 1 hour long, and I could not wait until it was over. The entire process of putting braces on is not painful, but they decided to re-position some of the top brackets on my top teeth in order to align them properly. They literally took a "pliers" looking like tool and started yanking on my bracket, which was so painful. After they took two of them off I was in so much pain that I was determined that they would not take anymore off especially the tooth that they targeted next was one that was always more painful than others. The pain of the nerve from the tooth was so intense that I was determined that they will not be touching that particular tooth, so they didn't. (After I made a big fuss) I was so mad at them, and at the same time angry at myself for putting myself in this position, to endure so much pain.
Well after the bracket pulling stopped, and the lower braces were placed on, the lady positioned the wire so ever tightly that I immediately started feeling the pulling sensation on my lower teeth. They also placed two "ball looking like" objects on the top last teeth in order for me not to break my lower braces. Those two balls restrict me from biting down on my lower teeth. Now when I eat, if I will ever eat again, I can not chew my food properly because I'm restricted of how far I can bite down.
Today October 11th, the day after which is know as "the painful day" I woke up with ENORMOUS pain in my teeth, and I could only open my mouth about a centimeter. All the teeth are hurting extremely and I cannot eat anything. I had some cream of mushroom soup which was alright but I could not even bite down on the tiny pieces of mushrooms.
I can't wait for the pain to go away....if it ever goes away.
On August 15th I had my braces adjustment scheduled at 4:00pm. They replaced the wire to a thicker type and the procedure was quite fast and painless... to my surprise. I can definitely notice now that my teeth are getting very straight, they all seem to be aligned and in the right place. My teeth hurt for the following couple of days but now a week after I can bite and chew on almost everything. My next appointment is October 10th, and that's when the bottom braces are scheduled to come on. I'm excited but also terrified because as with any adjustment, it means more pain. I'm just glad that this process is almost half way done.
Here is my updated photo... not much changed... at least I don't see it.
Well, yesterday was my second appointment for my brace "tune up". I was there right on time and excited, because a visit to the Orthodontist means that I'm getting closer to the final removal of my braces; (even though it is still a long way to go). I must say that this particular visit was very painful for me. They have taken out the initial wire that was there and tried to replace it with a thicker one, but that didn't go as they planned. Since the first wire was connected only to the second last teeth, they had a hard time connecting the second wire to the last teeth since they were too far to the side. In result they had to put a thinner wire on my braces, which meant that the overall progress will now take additional two more months; this was a great disappointment for me 
. My teeth still feel a bit sensitive and the entire procedure was very painful...I wonder if other people felt as much pain as I felt, or maybe the people who were working on me weren't very gentle.
Needless to say, I'm in a lot of pain today, the back teeth are extremely sensitive and any slight biting or even swallowing makes them hurt. I'm considering switching to a liquid diet for the next week until my teeth hopefully settle down. I am not a happy camper....