Surprisingly, it does take a little bit of time to get used to not having that annoying thing in my mouth. The downside is, my upper teeth in the back are still a little sore due to having 2 new brackets on instead of the bands that held the expander. Also, my gums are still a bit inflamed/sore so it's going to take a little bit for them to heal up. The upside? Nothing is getting stuck anymore!! I can touch the roof of my mouth again! I no longer have to blow food out of the tongue guard! Joy!
Now, these ortho rubber bands I have to wear are annoying. They are not exactly all that easy to get on, even though they gave me a little tool. Plus, they pull on the teeth and they start to hurt, after about 3-4 hours. Luckily by then, it's about time to take them out so I can eat something and give my mouth a little break.
The bite blocks behind my two front teeth make it harder to bite into things now. So, there's that.
The oral surgery is now looking to be happening sometime in the Fall of this year. So we'll see what happens. Until then, just dealing with these pesky rubber bands and hoping the rest of this process goes quickly so I can get everything taken off for good.
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
The expander is GONE! Horray!
May 1, 2018
Okay, so it was not a pleasant experience. But I'm glad it's over. The first thing they did was take out the wire on the top with the coils in the gap and took off the O-rings and power chain. They changed the powerchain on the bottom. They used some kind of tool and put pressure on the band that was wrapped around my upper tooth holding one side of the expander. She goes "ok on 3. One....two...three!" and yanked. Yawwwooooowwwwwwwwww. Ow, ow, ow, pain shot from the upper left side of my mouth to the upper right side. I told them I needed a few minutes. I sat there for almost 5 minutes, waiting for the pain to subside. She said, "the other side will be easy. It's already undone on this side and it probably won't hurt now." Finally, I said ok. She yanked the other side and it was out. It didn't hurt the second time. Sooooo glad to have that thing gone. I had completely bent the tongue guard on one side from pushing on it with my tongue and it was uncomfortable as I would get mouth sores and no way to reach them because the guard was in the way. Then they added another bracket on each side where the band used to be that held the expander. Once that was done, they put new wire and new coils in place on the top row and put new O-rings. The last step was checking my bite. I no longer needed the bite blocks in the back so she chiseled those down and removed them. She added new bite blocks right behind my two front teeth so my front teeth don't hit the brackets on the bottom when I bite down.
When they were all done, she gave me rubber bands and said I need to wear them to bring the back teeth into place. So I need to change out the rubber bands 4x a day. I'm supposed to take them off when I eat and wear them the rest of the time. Oh joy.
Glad this day is over. Attached is a photo of my bring-home souvenir. Next appointment is in 6 weeks.
Okay, so it was not a pleasant experience. But I'm glad it's over. The first thing they did was take out the wire on the top with the coils in the gap and took off the O-rings and power chain. They changed the powerchain on the bottom. They used some kind of tool and put pressure on the band that was wrapped around my upper tooth holding one side of the expander. She goes "ok on 3. One....two...three!" and yanked. Yawwwooooowwwwwwwwww. Ow, ow, ow, pain shot from the upper left side of my mouth to the upper right side. I told them I needed a few minutes. I sat there for almost 5 minutes, waiting for the pain to subside. She said, "the other side will be easy. It's already undone on this side and it probably won't hurt now." Finally, I said ok. She yanked the other side and it was out. It didn't hurt the second time. Sooooo glad to have that thing gone. I had completely bent the tongue guard on one side from pushing on it with my tongue and it was uncomfortable as I would get mouth sores and no way to reach them because the guard was in the way. Then they added another bracket on each side where the band used to be that held the expander. Once that was done, they put new wire and new coils in place on the top row and put new O-rings. The last step was checking my bite. I no longer needed the bite blocks in the back so she chiseled those down and removed them. She added new bite blocks right behind my two front teeth so my front teeth don't hit the brackets on the bottom when I bite down.
When they were all done, she gave me rubber bands and said I need to wear them to bring the back teeth into place. So I need to change out the rubber bands 4x a day. I'm supposed to take them off when I eat and wear them the rest of the time. Oh joy.
Glad this day is over. Attached is a photo of my bring-home souvenir. Next appointment is in 6 weeks.
Today's the big day! The expander will be removed!
Pretty sure it's legit this time. My appointment is in less than an hour. Had a little mishap last night. I was eating and food snagged the little thing where there's a gap in my teeth (where the canines will be coming in later) and the wire came out quite a bit. I was able to ease it back into place but I'm so glad I'm going to the ortho today. I can't believe I'm even saying that because all they do is cause pain. lol. But I'm glad because my mouth has been getting cut up this last month due to a wire in the back that needs to be cut and because the little thing in my gap has been getting snagged. So I'm going to ask them to replace that wire and that spring thing. I didn't want to hassle with trying to get an appointment because my ortho is only in the office every other week and they won't allow me to go to a different location. I have to use the same office I started with. So I just said, the heck with it, I'll just wait it out. So today is the day and I am very excited to have this stupid thing removed! I will update later with the complete details. As long as the roof of my mouth doesn't "slam" shut (back into the original position I started with) I'll be fine. LOL
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