Braces - A Log Of Events

Sept 18th, 2007
Surgery... My wisdom teeth, three pre-molars and an I-tooth removed. Ugh. For the first few days, I was living on broth. It took me a while to move up to mashed potatoes. I was very uncomfortable, but not in pain. Changing the cotton in my mouth when it soaked up enough blood during the first day was horrifying... I don't like the sight of blood, see, let alone be it my own. At least I still had my sweetpea to bring me a smile.
As the week went on, I had some pretty bad swelling in my cheeks. But time went by and it died down 'til I had a normal face shape again.

Oct (forgot exact date), 2007
Spacers... rubber bands that go in between my molars to space them out... they made my mouth all sore and had me going back to yogurt and spagettios to live on...

Oct 16th, 2007
They removed the spacers, but they put the top ones back in. They put the brackets on my teeth and gave me my bottom wire. They said they were going to give me a Pallet Expander later. Oh joy...

Oct 30th, 2007
They removed the top spacers and put in my top wire. Then they added something called a "Nance". They didn't bother with the Pallet Expander, apparently, for this they did instead. A nance just keeps my molars from moving during the braces process, but it connect to both sides, joined a a thing on the roof of my mouth. NOW what am I going to eat...? They also put in these little rubber things called "Power Chains" to pull the I-Teeth back into their proper spots.

Dec 13th, 2007
Well, I've had my first braces adjustment. The lady who usually tells the people who work with me what to do wasn't there this time, but the guy who was there seemed professional, so I didn't worry much. However, he told the person who was working with me to take out the power chains and put "tie-ons" in. I was like... what the heck are those? Basicly, they're thin metal wires that are tied to pull my I-Teeth back, much like the power chains were doing, except these things are stronger, I guess... and MAN did that hurt! I tell you, I could feel my teeth being pulled as she tied those... what's worse is that the one on my right side broke as she was replacing my top wire, so she had to give me that pain AGAIN. >__< Oh well, I survived.

Jan 24th 2008
Nothing too bad... I got my twist-ties tightened and got a new one on my bottom-right side. Nothing I haven't felt before. Next time, I'll get new wires with a... *shudder* spring put in...

March 13th 2008
Okay, now my mouth is starting to feel like a robot mouth. I've had my wire changed, there's a spring on the top one somewhere, the metal twist-ties are tighter and now I have these rubber bands in my mouth too. I'm... starting to feel a little depressed with all of this. right now, I can't even lick my lips to get rid of some of this polish that got on my lips... My sister hated these, so that wasn't any real comfort to begin with. Well... these won't be in forever...

May 1st 2008
Not a lot happening here. I basically got smaller rubber bands, now. They were rather tight at first, but you get used to them. They put in a kind of rubber string to pull forward one of my teeth. When my top canine tooth moves, they'll do the same up there, too. I have to confess, I haven't been wearing the rubber bands as much as I should. ^^;

July 22nd 2008
Nothing bad happened here. In fact, this time they removed the springs and metal twist-ties. They just tightened the wire and bent it some to get a couple of my teeth to pull them to the right place. I thought I had it made, but as time went on, my teeth got more and more sore. At work, Lunch wasn't as enjoyable. By the time I left work, I couldn't even eat a whole Pop-tart 'cause of how bad it was...

Sept 25th 2008
Well, I had another adjustment to my braces and they want me to wear the rubber bands again. I hate those things. But unlike most times, this was a very in-and-out appointment. No real pain, 'cept for the aching of the rubber bands...

Nov. 13th 2008
Well, they put a rubber chain back in my mouth to help with a space that's shown up. We need to close that. And now my rubber bands are even smaller... This is going to be a nuisance. >.< And the lady who tried this apparently wasn't used to dealing with braces, 'cause she had problems getting one hatch to open to get my wire out and had problems getting it closed. To make it worse, that particular tooth was sore so... OUCH.

You really have been through a lot, haven't you? Poor thing...

Aw, love, please don't cry. *hugs* This is probably the worst of it. It'll get better as time goes on.

Oooh, you definitely went through more trouble than me.
My sister had to get some sort of screws in her gums, although it still seems pretty tame compared to you.
Well, worst part is behind you, let's hope there'll only be mild inconveniencies up ahead.

Screws!? Owww! >__< I don't even want to THINK about that!

Oooh, I can creep you out worse than GN, Ryo!

My dad's family didn't have medical insurance or the cash to give their family good dental care so Dad kind of avoided the dentist as much as possible because when he DID go in, he was in pain.

Then he decided he wanted to go into the US Air Force Academy after high school.

...

Four words: NOT a smart move.

It turned out that Dad had to have his eye teeth removed. Keep in mind this was in the 70's. Also keep in mind that Dad had a recently discovered immunity to Novicane. That wouldn't have been too much of a problem... If the dentist had believed him when Dad said the Novicane didn't work or if Grandma and Grandpa had had the cash to get the dentist to give him the happy gas.

They ripped out my dad's adult eye teeth with no anasthetic or anything.

Cue wince of pain from me even thinking about it. Also cue my father not going to see a dentist for the next 13 or so years (but he practiced good brushing and flossing habits... Or so he says, hah hah!).

Flash forward to mid-September 1989. Mom and Dad have been married for two years and I've been in the house for about two weeks. Mom finally forces Dad to see the flipping dentist, and he had 13 FLIPPIN' CAVITIES. In the words of Bill Engvall, you can't make this up. Especially when you get to the little, tiny detail that ALL OF THEM HAD TO BE DRILLED.

It gets worse. MUCH worse.

Flash-forward 18 years to now. Due to the crappy dentistry of Dad's childhood and the 13-year absence from the ol' dental chair, Dad's teeth have effed themselves up to the point where he would have to have his jaw broken. IN TWO PLACES. And THEN they'd have to take a couple pieces of bone off and wire the thing shut, as well as wire the broken spots back together.

All that would obviously be done when he was KO'ed. And then he'd have to wear braces for two years after having the jaw wired shut for (I think) SIX MONTHS!

Dad hasn't done it and I don't think he plans to for two reasons: 1, Dad does a lot of talking in his job and can't afford to have to be unable to talk for that long and 2, we know somebody who's had that screamfest procedure, and the wires they used to repair the breaks still slip apart. Meaning it never really healed.

....

That's not to say I don't feel terrible for you, because my brother went through everything you have minus the wisdom teeth and the nance (the kid got the expander) and the poor kid was in pain for so long... He just got his braces off this summer and he pretty much peed himself when he was given a stick of gum (somebody missed his gum... My parents were really strict about the gum compared to one of his friends' parents since we don't have any dental insurance and any stupids my brother pulled they would have to pay for out of pocket... And braces and the repair of said painful mouth-torture are expensive). He has two retainers now, but he's just glad the mouth-torture is off. I almost cried when he'd had that pallet expander stuck in because he was really hurting and he had to have been 10 years old when that happened.

It was thought when I was 8 or 9 that I might have to have braces since I have a crossbite on the left side and I have an overbite, but the issues had pretty much fixed themselves.

I've had the wisdom teeth done; nothing else. And I think I mentioned I had it REALLY, REALLY good with that (which I'm thankful for because my pain tolerance pretty much doesn't exist)... I tried to talk to my dad after I got out of surgery and my face was stuffed full of cotton, heh. Dad had made the mistake of asking how I was feeling and I said "Pretty good, thanks." Dad cut me off when I went to start another sentence and yelped, "Nononono, don't talk, don't talk!"

Now THAT was funny, especially because I remember pretty much nothing else that day.

Good luck, Ryo! And it'll get better... It did for my brother and it does for most people, so it should for you!

And remember everyone... If all else fails as far as dental work goes and you just can't eat, ask your parents for a nice, cold shake or soda and see how that turns out.

as long its temp, your teeth will be free and healthy in no time.

Dentist's aren't fun going to, just getting wisdom teeth is bad enough for me.

You know, R_G, creeping me out isn't something I want to make a contest out of... But your dad's been a "What not to do" example, I see...

My upper row of teeth hurt when I apply any sort of pressure, so I can't bite into things... not like I can anyway. I'm not allowed. But my back teeth aren't in pain so I can chew soft things like scrambled eggs.

Believe it or not, the only pain I experienced was after they put the wires in and my teeth had to adjust to that... I've had some seriously dull aching and soreness with the spacers as well, but that's not a sharp pain.

Thank you all for your replies.

Aww man, that isn't fun at all. >> I do hope the pain dies down a lot more.

Guys, you're scaring me. I get braces put in at the end of the month.

Judging by the success of the twin-block therapy the orthodontist's had me on for the last seven months or so, I shouldn't have too much difficulty with braces, but then again...

Here's hoping it doesn't get as bad as what anyone here's had to cope with.

Nah, I've got braces, and I don't really notice them. They've only been a mild inconveniency for me, even though I had a huge gap between my teeth.

Braces themselves aren't bad after a while. If nothing else, I'd go without complaint with the braces. But the spacers and this nance thing is very annoying. >__<

Yeah, I was kind of aiming for a "Reasons Why Nobody Should Skip Dental Visits for 13 FREAKIN' YEARS" posts. I was also semi-caffeine high when I posted that, and I apologize for not rereading it the next day when I was, y'know... For lack of a better word, sober.

Everyone take heed of my old man. Even he regrets it now.

There was an incident last night that resulted in me almost giving myself some homemade dental work. What happened? My reaction time was seriously off from a medication I'm on and I wasn't able to put my arms out in front of my face when I tripped and fell on our cold, hard tile kitchen floor.

Like I said, almost. First thing I did when I stood up was to make sure I wasn't missing teeth or that I didn't have a nosebleed. Second thing I did was limp over to the couch to lie down, since I hit my knees, too.

Another warning: If you're ever on a medication for whatever reason that could have a side effect of making you tired, get to bed within two hours of taking that medication, one hour if you were tired before. If you don't... Well, just make sure that you're sitting in a room full of pillows or soft carpeting is on the floor.

Otherwise you might have to make an emergency dentist visit.

This has been your public service announcement for the day.

And Slayer, man, I hope it turns out OK for you, too.

Or, if you're my sister, don't worry. NOTHING works on that girl to put her to sleep and she's an insomiac, unfortunately.

I've been there, and so I know what that's like... I feel bad for your sister, too.

This isn't a sleep med, though. It's used for anger-management type stuff as well as anxiety disorder.

I have both and it works pretty well on both fronts.

But it makes me tired. I knew it could do that beforehand, which is exactly why I'm taking it every night, but I didn't realize how tired it would make me.

So yeah, just read the side effects if you have to take a medication for any reason at all unless you want to have to call the dentist because you made the mistake of staying up to watch a movie and then you hit something pretty hard...

I've had a couple antibiotics that knocked me out (with the assistance of my sinus infection). Doped up my reaction time, too.

Good luck with everybody's braces... My brother's got a top and bottom retainer now and he says it's a lot easier to deal with 'cus you can just pop the thing out.

Yeah, I can't wait for my time with the retainer. If nothing else, I can't wait until the nance is outta here!

Ah men, I've got retainer things which are glued to my teeth. (not on front) Good thing is, you can't see them. Bad thing is, can't take them out..

Just as I promised, I have up-dated this log with a new appointment met and gone by...

Dec 13th, 2007
Well, I've had my first braces adjustment. The lady who usually tells the people who work with me what to do wasn't there this time, but the guy who was there seemed professional, so I didn't worry much. However, he told the person who was working with me to take out the power chains and put "tie-ons" in. I was like... what the heck are those? Basicly, they're thin metal wires that are tied to pull my I-Teeth back, much like the power chains were doing, except these things are stronger, I guess... and MAN did that hurt! I tell you, I could feel my teeth being pulled as she tied those... what's worse is that the one on my right side broke as she was replacing my top wire, so she had to give me that pain AGAIN. >__< Oh well, I survived.

Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. You could feel your teeth moving backwards? Eeeeeew.

I'll take the pneumonia and the constant feeling that I'm coughing up a lung over that, thanks.

I hope the pain gets better as time passes... I really hope it's not one of those things where the pain will actually get worse (although something's telling me that this may be one of those things).

Man, once again I'm reminded how lucky I am that my teeth fixed themselves.

No, I couldn't feel my teeth moving back... Actually, I kinda wish I did. That'd let me know it's actually working.

New Update:

Jan 24 2008
Nothing too bad... I got my twist-ties tightened and got a new one on my bottom-right side. Nothing I haven't felt before. Next time, I'll get new wires with a... *shudder* spring put in...

March 13th 2008
Okay, now my mouth is starting to feel like a robot mouth. I've had my wire changed, there's a spring on the top one somewhere, the metal twist-ties are tighter and now I have these rubber bands in my mouth too. I'm... starting to feel a little depressed with all of this. right now, I can't even lick my lips to get rid of some of this polish that got on my lips... My sister hated these, so that wasn't any real comfort to begin with. Well... these won't be in forever...

Ah, geez, that just sounds miserable, man.

I can't even think of anything to say to make it less depressing apart from the fact that they won't be in forever...

Dang.... >_< That's got to be very annoying too. I do hope you won't have to deal with it too long.

This topic keeps reminding me of the time I had braces.. I've only got those weird metal thingy's begind my teeth now, which are to keep 'em straight. Good luck with getting to there

Unfortunately, the orthodontist said these will be a major part of my straightening... so these things will plague me for quite a while...

The retainers? Yeah, I'd love to be at that point.