2nd Adjustment - 3.5 months

During the first few weeks of braces people will say things like.. 'Oh the time will fly by!,  'You will have them off in no time!', 'I didn't even realise you had braces!!' and you smile politely while inwardly screaming 'YOU HAVE NO IDEA!' desperately awaiting your first adjustment....

No? Just me?

Anyway - since adjustment #1 the following 6 weeks have, in contrast, definitely flown by and it has already been a week since my second - madness. I need to make sure I keep this updated.

General Thoughts

The novelty of having braces has pretty much completely worn off now and they feel like just another part of me. The only times I am aware of them are when eating (I can't wait for when I can eat again without getting everything stuck everywhere) and of course, when it comes to cleaning my teeth & my seemingly endless dental hygiene routine.

Overall though, after 3 and a half months now they're just another part of my life which I don't tend to think about (much).

Pain levels

The first couple of days after my second adjustment were no where near the same levels of pain I had after the first. I could still chew (though it was tender, especially on the right hand side). I stuck to soft things for a few days but I only felt the need for a couple of painkillers on the first day. I was also still able to use my electric toothbrush (woo!!!) I really hate not being able to use it even for a day, there is just no comparison in the feeling of cleanliness between an electric & manual brush.

5 or so days after my 2nd adjustment and I really don't have any/much pain at all, which is amazing and I'm savouring everything I chew while it doesn't make me wince.

In the first month of braces I would get really anxious when I felt the pain lessening as I felt like the level of pain = the amount of movement but I now know this really isn't the case. Sometimes I will get major pains and zero corresponding movement (thanks teeth, thanks a lot) but equally, sometimes I notice changes without much pain at all, so it's all swings and roundabouts...

#2 Adjustment Changes

I'm now on a thick square wire on my bottom teeth - I don't know the exact size. I didn't anticipate the 'square' wire so early, I guess because I've read of others only getting them much later in their treatment, but my bottom teeth had very few issues to begin with so I suppose their quick progression makes sense. I've been focusing much less on my bottoms as they have never been a primary concern, more like an added bonus knowing that they too will be lovely and straight soon.

I'm not 100% sure which wire I have on the top, but I feel like it might be slightly thinner than the previous one. My back molars were not fully engaged on the wire as we were waiting for my orthodontists trick to work its magic and twist them around enough so he could thread a wire through. They're now all happily joined on the wire however it doesn't feel like there's as much force going on besides a bit of twisting at the back, which I guess makes sense if its a thinner wire. I have a feeling when I go up a notch and get a thicker wire the pain will come back with a vengeance but until then I shall enjoy pain free chewing as much as possible!!

Progress Pics

The fun bit! I can't express enough how much of a boost it gives you comparing progress photos throughout treatment. If you're getting braces or have just got them, do take lots of 'before' photos, you will be really glad you did!

Okay so here are some comparison pics.

One month / Now

I am biting down in all these pics - you can see how much my molar build ups have worn down on these side photos!

My middle gap is gone!!!

You can really see how much the wire has straightened out!

I feel very fortunate to not have much wear on my front two teeth - I know that with my particular type of incisor rotation it's very common to have quite a bit of wear and tear in the middle and as a result a little black triangle where they meet - however I only have a small amount of wear on my left tooth which really doesn't bother me at all. I wouldn't even mind if it was left as it is once my braces are off, but we'll see what happens.

I'm SO thrilled with my progress so far and it's so encouraging to look at progress photos when I feel like nothing much is happening.

My next adjustment will be on the 6th of January so I'll be back in the new year with more updates.

Until then, have a very happy Christmas & new year!! xxx

First Adjustment - 8 weeks

Note to future self (and any newbie to braces): make sure you have access to painkillers on an adjustment day.

I made the rookie error of not bringing any pain relief with me to work today after my adjustment this morning. I am not making that mistake again. mymouthisdyingohgodhelpme


Okay so since writing that little plea for help while suffering through the last hour of work I am home and in much needed company of some paracetamol. After my adjustment this morning, attemptimg to chew anything right now is pretty much torturous. As I type this I am making feeble attempts to mash baked beans and scrambled egg against the roof of my mouth with my tongue to try and avoid any amount of molar-contact.


I digress. So I had my first adjustment appointment this morning! I asked my orthodontist if he could send me my latest progress pics, because they're a heck of a lot better than the ones I've been taking.

Here they are, side by side (< before (day braces went on) / after (today) >)

Uppers

Apologies for the grim-ness of the 'before' pics with extractions sites. Also the staining. ick.

 Lowers

 Front view

I am sooooo thrilled with how much movement has happened already, after only 8 weeks. It's truly amazing how braces work their magic.


I now have a stronger wire on both top & bottom (.16 on top and .18 on the bottoms, I believe).

The thing which is causing me the most aggro, though, is the fact that all of my top teeth are now connected to the wire, so my back molars are finally joining the party and they're making a song and dance about it, too. Previously, the wire was snipped so it was only on my top 8 teeth. Now, they're all involved. Hooray! Not only that, but you can see in the photos that the back molars have got some major rotation issues, so my ortho did some kind of special trick with the stronger wire to rotate them, and it is SORE. With this pain I am fully expecting perfectly straight teeth by the morning.

My Cleaning Routine

I went for my first ever hygienist appointment this morning which I was SO apprehensive about because I have heard some pretty scary things about hygienists... but I'm pleased to say I had nothing to worry about. Maybe I'm just a weirdo, but I actually found it wonderfully relaxing and now my teeth are stain free and feel wonderfully shiny. I'm pretty ashamed about the fact I've never been before, I've had some nasty tea-induced stains on the backs of my front incisors since I was a teenager so I'm glad to be rid of those now.

Anyway, after posting a reply on archwired this morning with a condensed down version of my cleaning routine I thought I'd write a blog post to go into a bit more detail & show what products I use and all that kinda stuff. Hopefully this might be useful to someone out there!

Now, I am not one of these must brush after every. single. meal. kind of people. Brushing 3+ times a day just isn't something I'm going keep up, especially at work where our bathroom is pretty small and I'm taking up a ludicrous amount of sink space with all my cleaning utensils for 20+ mins with people coming in and out - it just isn't happening. My dentist is happy with my cleaning standard thus far so I feel confident I am doing enough.

So, here is a list of all the products I use in order of daily use...

Morning

First, I brush for 2 full cycles with my wonderful Oral B electric toothbrush + floss action head

 Followed by a good swish out for a minute with Colgate Fluorigard - recommended by both my dentist & ortho for protecting against decalcification around the brackets and the dreaded white spots

 Lunchtime

If I have any particularly big stubborn bits of food stuck in my brackets or wires I will use an interdental brush:

 Otherwise a good swish out with water a few times after eating and that's pretty much it

Evening

Floss with Oral B Superfloss. This stuff is really really handy - it has a stiff end to make threading between the wires really easy.  I'm now down from 15/20 mins of flossing to roughly 5-10. Flossing with braces is not fun. I'm never complaining about flossing without braces ever again.

I also use these:

For my back molars, which do not have any brackets on and therefore are not restricted by archwires. I would highly recommend Plackers as they're much easier to use than regular finger-suffocating floss and they don't break or fray between tight gaps.

After flossing I will brush for another 2x cycles with my electric toothbrush.

Finally, I will finish with another 1 min rinse of Colgate Fluorigard. The bottle says to only use once a day but my dentist recommended twice, so I do as I'm told. I go through a lot of mouthwash.

That's it!

My first braces adjustment is just over 1 week away so I'll post my next progress pics in a week after my appointment x

1 month

1 month progress

It has now been officially 1 month since brace day!!

I can't say the time has flown by... mostly because I have been very impatient to see movement but after reviewing my latest photos and comparing with Week 1, it's very encouraging to see that there has definitely been some real progress.

As I mentioned in my last post I'm very pleased with how my upper left canine is slowly but surely making its way into the correct position and causing a fair bit of achiness in the adjacent teeth!

I also woke up this morning to quite a bit of achiness in my upper two front teeth and although I haven't seen much change over the past 4 weeks I am excited to see how they will start progressing over the next month or two. They've been all wonky and angled outwards my entire life so I can't imagine how I will look with straight teeth!

Within the past week I've noticed a gap appearing on either side of my upper front teeth too which is pretty crazy as I am so used to them being so squished up together and almost impossible to floss. I would never have dreamed of trying to fit an interdental brush in between them before but now it's easier than any of the others!

Apologies for the major difference in lighting and angles in some of these - taking pics of your mouth is hard!! They're also taken with 2 different cameras which doesn't help. I'll try to use the same one from now on...

Right side - not a whole lot to see here really... has the front one moved maybe??

Left side - you can see the wire has straightened out quite a bit where the canine has come down, yay!

Not much to see here either - front teeth looking more or less the same. I feel like my smile has straightened out somewhat since my canine has moved though! My lip doesn't get stuck on the braces like it did before

Again not hugely different, though my bottom teeth have definitely shifted, and not in the right direction!! I don't know if you can tell, I can mostly tell by the way my tongue feels on them, but the front left has become even more wonky and overalapping the one next to it.... it is early days still so hopefully this will resolve soon..

Here you can really see the wire on the upper left canine doing its thing - ALMOST there!! The one next to it looks like its been pulled forward too.

I have my first adjustment on the 9th of October so I will be back with more updates then! xxx

Week 2

2 weeks down and I see movement!

I know I only posted a few days ago but I wanted to post a quick update as yesterday marked 2 weeks since getting my braces (!!) and I will going on holiday for 10 days this Saturday, which means when I get back it will have been a whole month since brace day!

Overall the past week or so has been much easier than Week 1. Eating has become much easier, though salad & anything mildly crunchy still takes a lot longer than it used to. After attemping some raw carrot sticks and hummus last night I quickly realised that it was a no-go without cutting them up into tiny pieces first, so I've decided to forego them entirely for the sake of my own sanity.

A note to anyone reading who may be considering braces - make sure you make the most of your favourite crunchy foods before you get braces, because chances are you wont be eating them for a while!!

After reading some stories of others with braces I feel like one of the luckier ones when it comes to pain levels, as the pain had subsided to almost nothing after just over a week. I was even managing to bite into things (albeit very soft things) with my front teeth, though over the past day or two my front teeth have begun to feel sore again so the pleasure of biting into things was quite short lived... I'm certainly not complaining though as any pain at all feels like things are happening!

I'm also getting very excited by the amount of movement I've noticed already! It's only been 2 weeks but my upper left canine has made definite progress in coming inline with the rest of my teeth. It still has a way to go, but I noticed this morning I can actually touch my top & bottom canines together on the left hand side now - I can't remember the last time I've been able to do that so that has made me very happy. My bottom teeth have definitely shifted slightly too although they weren't bad to start with so I don't expect to see huge changes there.


Here are my 2 week progress pics...

Snaggly canine tooth coming down nicely!

That's it for now. I will be back in a couple of weeks with my 1 month update! Hooray!

xxx

Braces 101

So I've decided to revive this blog in an attempt to track the progress of my teeth & braces over the next 2~ years, mainly for my own reference to be able to look back on my progress when it's all over but also to help anybody else out there who may be going through the same thing or considering getting braces.
I'm already 1 and a half-ish weeks in and wishing I'd done this from the beginning so here we go...

Pre-braces

I had my initial consultation with the Orthodontist in May. I was told I have a 'crowded Class 2 division 1 malocclusion' with an 'incomplete' overbite (I think that means my front teeth still touch ever so slightly) and a 6mm overjet. It was recommended I have 2 upper premolars extracted in order to create space to fix the overjet and then braces fitted.

The orthodontist I go to gives all adult patients clear braces as a matter of course (though I assume you can request otherwise), so I was pleased to hear I'd be getting Damon Clear braces fitted top & bottom as part of the package! I would've been happy with all metal so that was a nice surprise. I was also given an estimated time of 14-18 months in braces.

As part of the consultation I also had some x-rays and initial photos taken, which I will post a bit further down.

Extractions...  

28th July - I had my 2 premolar extractions - the upper second bicuspids. I've never really been scared of the dentist but I was apprehensive about it to say the least.

The actual procedure was pretty quick, the majority of the time was spent waiting for me to go numb. All in all I was probably there for about 25-30 mins. In terms of pain, the only thing I felt was the pinch of the anesthetic injections. 1 in each cheek, then 2 in the roof of my mouth. After that it's all brute force and intense pressure while the dentist heaves them out... I won't go into detail but it was all over in about 10 mins.

I only needed painkillers for the first 3-4 days. After that it became a bearable dull background ache which slowly subsided. The right hand side remained quite sore for over a week though. The worst bit was eating. Chewing was basically impossible for about a week, soup & yogurt saved my life!! I was pretty paranoid about disturbing the extraction areas (and it was still pretty tender) so I wasn't really back to a normal-ish diet until about 2 weeks. Salt water rinses were my best friend. They numb the pain and also aid healing SO much. I cannot recommend them enough. If you're going to have extractions done, these seriously are the best thing. 1 tsp of sea salt to 1 cup of warm water (I would boil the kettle and let it cool, just to kill any germs).

Braces on!

12th August - I finally had my braces fitted!! The procedure was completely painless and all in all lasted about an hour.

First the teeth are polished (just the surface where the braces are going), then they painted some stuff on my teeth, rinsed them and then put the glue & bracket on each tooth individually before sealing it with the UV light.  This is what took the most time, as each bracket is carefully placed and maneuvered into the correct position. The wire is then put in place, which feels very tight at first but not painful.

I also had some extra glue painted onto my molars at the top to stop me from biting my teeth together completely.  I was told this was to stop me biting the bottom brackets off as my teeth slightly overlap when they come together. When my bite is better aligned and I'm not likely to bite them off when I chew I will be able to have the glue removed.

Afterwards my mouth felt like it had doubled in size. The feeling of having braces in your mouth for the first time is so strange. I felt like I couldn't close my lips over them properly and it all felt so big and bulky. It felt as though everyone was staring at my mouth, gleaming like a beacon with braces. Obviously nobody was staring at them but it really does feel extremely obvious. Your mouth is so sensitive to even the smallest changes so as soon as something as significant as braces come along it takes quite a bit of time to get used to the feeling.

Week One

I was warned that the first week would be the most difficult, and so far I have to agree.

The first couple of days I was still excited about having the braces and starting my journey to straighter teeth so the pain and inconvenience of not being able to chew properly was not really bothering me. Especially after having my teeth extracted, it felt very insigificant in comparison!!

At first it didn't really ache much, I only took painkillers the first day and after that didn't really need them. The main soreness came from chewing & biting my teeth together. The tooth sensitivity is very, very uncomfortable at first. I accidentally hit my front tooth while taking a sip of water and oh my god the pain was intense. 

After the 3rd or 4th day of struggling to chew & eat properly (again), waking up to feel my braces in my mouth and the thought of at least 14 months more of this made me sad. It has made me pretty irritable at times as I hate not being able to enjoy food properly!! For the first week I was unable to bite into things at all with my front teeth as it was just too uncomfortable. Getting nearly every kind of food stuck in the brackets and wires has also been frustrating as it has felt like I have an entire meal in my mouth after every single bite. The first week has definitely been challenging.

HOWEVER.... I am 11 days in now and I can safely say it DOES get better!! After getting over the initial week of frustrations, I am feeling SO much better about it and am now feeling very excited about what lies ahead.

I no longer notice the braces in my mouth like I did and I am chewing and eating a lot more comfortably and easily than before. I am pretty much able to eat anything (crusty bread included!!), besides sticky/chewy things, although I am still making sure to take small bites so I can chew everything properly.

The tooth sensitivity has now mostly disappeared. I still have one or two which are a little sore at times but I am now able to bite with my front teeth (carefully) and chew normally, or as normally as is possible! The extra glue on my top molars makes chewing a little difficult, especially things like salad leaves as the grinding ability is seriously compromised by the smooth surface of the glue. Also, the fact I am missing a tooth on either side means I'm restricted to my two back molars for the majority of my chewing, so mealtimes take significantly longer nowadays but I am much more used to it now and it no longer feels like such a chore.

Cleaning has also been pretty good. I was worried cleaning would be a nightmare but I'm sticking to 2 thorough cleans, morning and night, sometimes a 3rd in the afternoon depending on what I've eaten. Flossing with normal floss is basically impossible because of the wires so I bought some interdental brushes as recommended by the ortho which are life savers. Really handy for getting stubborn bits out of your brackets too when you're out and about. I use the Te-Pe ones in the smallest size.

The ortho gave me a goodie bag with various things including a soft toothbrush to use while my teeth get used to the braces. I was advised my electric toothbrush might be too much at first and after trying it a couple of times, holy crap, yes. So up until today I have been cleaning as thoroughly as I can with the soft brush. I attempted my electric one again this morning and, hallelujah!! No pain! So I am finally back to my electric toothbrush. It really isn't the same using a manual once you make the switch!


I promise my future posts will not be as long as this, it feels wonderful writing all of this down without burning the ears off anyone around me as I feel like I have been over the past 2 weeks!

Without further ado I will finish this ridiculously long essay post with photos!!

BEFORE

So here are a couple I had taken at my initial ortho consultation, before I had my extractions done.

 

Unfortunately I didn't take any close ups of my teeth in braces until now, however there hasn't been any real noticeable change just yet.

(Just over) 1 week

 

I never noticed how wonky my smile looks until taking photos this close!

I will be back soon with further updates!

xxx