2021 Comes to a Close…Still Have Braces

 Tons of updates. It’s been a long time since I posted anything. Pandemic happened. I’ve been working from home ever since. When it started, my dental office was shut down for a couple months before they would allow patients to resume treatment. 

Anyways, here’s some updates. 

1) Other canine came in eventually after many months and got bracketed. Once they were able to put a bracket on, I stopped using the rubber bands. Spent a long time trying very slowly to close the spaces between the teeth. They also put steel ties on the teeth and now have power chains on both top and bottom all the way across  

2) I will still have to go back to the perio once everything is done to get bone grafts around the upper canines. 

3) About two months ago, they put closing loops on my teeth, to help close the gaps on the top. Then they put the power chain on top of that so it’s extra tight. I have been going every 4 weeks or so for adjustments for the last year and a half. And every time, they still hurt when they do an adjustment.

4) At my last appointment on Dec 8th, I finally heard the news I have been waiting 4.5 years for. At my next appointment, I’m getting my braces off!!! Hip hip horray!

Unfortunately I couldn’t get an appointment until 8 weeks from now and as luck would have it, my next appointment will be on my 40th birthday and will take an hour and a half to remove the braces and clean everything up. 

And I’m divorced now. It’s been a long 4 years and 7 months with my braces journey and the end is finally in sight. 

2020 Update

Well it's February 2020. Almost 3 years in, and still no idea when I'm getting these damn things off. So here's some updates over the past 7 months or so.

1) Got married in September. The pictures actually turned out not too bad, and in most of the pictures, you can't even tell I have braces.

2) 6 weeks prior to leading up to the wedding, I told my ortho that since they wouldn't be off in time for the wedding, if they could take the bands off the right canine and straighten everything out and then start pulling again after the wedding. It had come in a little bit at this point. So she obliged. Problem turned up when we started pulling again. The tooth just would not move. So I went back to the perio/oral surgeon again. He tapped on the tooth, said it should still move and wasn't too concerned. When I went back to the ortho, we tried again. Still wouldn't move. Had to go back to the oral surgeon again. This time, he said he needed to cut into my gum again to poke some holes into the bone that had grown up around the tooth stopping it from moving. This would allow it to move again. So I just got that done on Jan 24th and he put a couple of dissolvable stitches in. Joy. I went back to the ortho on Jan 28th for her to look at it and she said to just use the gazelle ortho rubber bands to connect the button on the canine to the lower arch and change them several times a day. Meanwhile, the oral surgeon wanted me to go back for a followup, which I did yesterday. He said the tooth has moved and is still moving and it's going great. He gave me a different size rubber band and said to use that instead for 4 hours a day, because it would apply more force and the idea was to bring the tooth into place fairly quickly. So hopefully (fingers crossed), once it's in, all that's left to do is straighten everything across and then the braces can come off and I get a retainer.

3) There is one thing that I was told that could throw a wrench into the current plans. The ortho took some x-rays in November and said that I will need x-rays every 3 months to check for resorption of my roots because the roots had resorbed a little bit. Apparently, as the two canines come in, it resorbs some of the nearby roots. If they get too resorbed, my teeth can become loose and fall out. So they will need to monitor that. If it gets to the point that we don't want to risk my teeth falling out due to the roots resorbing too much, then all braces treatment would need to immediately stop, be removed and switch to Invisalign. Ugh! That would mean a bunch of more money I would need to pay to finish the job. The ortho said that there is zero risk with Invisalign resorbing the roots because the technology is advanced. So there's that.

Current situation: I'm waiting on those stitches to fully dissolve. The left canine is fully in, with a bracket and connected like the rest of the teeth (just not all pulled together tight yet). The right canine is moving and we are on track to bring it in, finally. Fingers crossed that no more issues pop up.

Slight Setback

On May 31, I went back to the perio for what I thought would be a routine check because of some irritation on my gum on the right side where the canine is coming in. Turns out I had food or something stuck under the gum and it required him to cut it. Again. So the tooth was exposed again. This time, I ended up having 2 dissolvable stitches placed in my mouth. Not fun!!! Man, it hurt when the numbness wore off. I was taking painkillers for 2 days. A little more than a week later, it's a lot better and mostly healed. I do have to say, this was worse than the first 2 times I had oral surgery. This was by far the worst. So I go back to the ortho today to let them know. Still no bracket on my left canine because it has not dropped down far enough. I also lost my bag of little ortho rubber bands in the commotion of oral surgery again. These definitely won't be off by September. Bummer.

Almost time for a bracket

Things are moving along smoothly for my left tooth which made its official debut in February. 2 weeks ago they removed the last part of the chain and the piece that was bonded to the tooth, cleaned the gunk/old glue off the tooth, attached a "button" to the tooth, and attached (with string over the button) to the archwire.


So this week, I went in and they decided to cut the wire with the spring that was extending over the empty space from where my canine is coming in because they determined that the tooth would not come in properly because the wire was in the way. So they cut it free. The only unfortunate part is now I have to work on pulling the tooth further into place on my own, with the use of those pesky rubber bands again. So one rubber band goes over the top of the button and then connects to the little hooks on the 2 bottom teeth below it. And it's tender and sore after so many hours go by with a rubber band attached, exerting force. So there's that.


Oh, and when they were doing the normal traction on the other tooth on the right (where they put string through the next loop, tie to the archwire and cut off the access), 2 loops broke off the chain because it was basically rusted through. I say rust, but that may not be accurate and there probably wasn't actual rust. But you get what I mean. It became loose and eroded from it being in my mouth since August, and broke off. 2 links. Which is an entire month less because I go twice a month. So this is kind of good in that the whole thing didn't break off and they can keep doing the traction, plus there's 2 less links (and 2 less office visits) to go until that tooth comes into place where they can put a button on it. So it may be a blessing in disguise. This makes up for the delay in being able to do the traction due to the chain having to be re-attached twice by the perio. However, because of the 2 missing links, they had to pull the tooth forward more than usual so that was a bit more uncomfortable than I'm used to. But the discomfort did subside fairly quickly. I'm really hoping that tooth pokes through next month. It would be amazing to have both teeth in place by the end of May.


So on my next visit in 2 weeks, they are going to remove the button and put an official bracket on my canine (finally!!) and start getting it in line with the rest of my mouth.

Progress

Things are moving along pretty swimmingly. My left canine has made it's official debut. The right one is a bit behind, but still moving. I have been going to the orthodontist every 2 weeks like clockwork, chugging along. No pain, just a slight bit of discomfort when they do a "pull" and tie to the archwire. It subsides fairly quick. I had a chat with the doctor two weeks ago regarding my progress. I asked if they would be off in time for my wedding. She said, "well I don't want to lie to you and get your hopes up. It all depends on how straight they come in. If they come in crooked, there is more work to turn them and it takes longer." So right now, we really don't know. She did mention that she has had other brides ask and she said she may be able to do something temporary. So we'll see. It's not going to make it or break it. If I have to get married in braces, then that's what I'll do. It's not what I'd like to happen, but I'll just deal with it. It's in the hands of fate right now. I had x-rays taken last week at my cleaning, and wow, what a difference a year makes! No cavities, by the way, YAY! At today's visit, she did have to remove the archwire and bend it outwards a bit so that the tooth can come in fully. The wire was basically blocking the tooth from being able to come in all the way. So she bent it and put it back in. The last 2 months I have been experiencing a bit of tenderness in my gums at the front, but I guess that's to be expected when you have adult teeth coming into place.

A little over 7 months to go until wedding day. I'm going to enjoy it either way, with or without braces! It's not the end of the world to get married wearing braces! (Just keeping fingers crossed that I can get them removed before the wedding.😊)

Another Setback

Last night while I was eating, the chain came off again on the one tooth. The same tooth that gave me trouble a week ago. So I went back to the perio today to have it re-bonded. Well, he had a hard time attaching it again, so unfortunately, he ended up having to numb me again. Exactly like when I had the surgery the first time, only this time was one needle on the right side on the roof of my mouth instead of one on both sides. He may have cut a tiny bit or "shaved" the gum line a little bit. I'm not exactly sure. All I know is, I feel like I'm back at square one again with pain/soreness in my mouth again, like when I had the oral surgery. Only difference is, it's on one side and not both. But I went back to work anyway. Been miserable most of the day and taking Tylenol Extra Strength every 6 hours. Tomorrow, I'm not sure about going to work. It will depend on how I feel when I wake up. This really sucks!

I go back to the ortho on Tuesday.

Slight Minor Setback

I went to the ortho yesterday for my 2nd routine visit of pulling the next link in the chain for the canines. When they were working on the one on my right side, the chain popped off the tooth, unfortunately. So, they gave me another referral back to the periodontist to re-attach the chain. They were able to successfully pull the left canine using the next loop without anything popping off.

I was lucky enough to get an appointment for this morning. So I went in and he was able re-attach a new chain to the tooth. No cutting required. No numbing required. I was in and out in about 15 minutes. Now I have to go back to the ortho again tomorrow to re-attach the end of the chain to the archwire. Hopefully they can complete the pull this time.

This is turning into a saga. I don't want anything else to go wrong. I just want things to proceed smoothly with my lovely canines coming into place and getting married in less than a year.