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.

Pulling Canines

I'm doing much better. I was on the ibuprofen for a straight week the first week. By the second week, it was still tender but getting better. I went back to the ortho on the 4th and because I was still sore, they decided not to start pulling. So they just trimmed off the excess chain and tied it to the archwire.


So I went back yesterday to start the pulling process. I came out very pleasantly surprised. It didn't hurt at all. I felt a tiny bit of pressure but that was all. All they did was select the next loop in the chain, re-tied it and cut off the excess. I wasn't even sore last night. The teeth are moving maybe like a millimeter at a time. It's very very slow. But I feel like I can tell a tiny bit of difference in my mouth.


So the ortho said I need to come back every 2 weeks now until the teeth are completely in place. It could take 6 months or longer. I really hope the braces will be off by this day next year. Otherwise, I guess I'll be getting married with braces on.

Day 4 post surgery

I have had some bouts of pain here and there. I'm hoping there's not an infection. I'm still taking ibuprofen daily for the pain. I can eat soft foods now. I take my time but at least I can eat. Not looking forward to tomorrow to go back to the ortho. I'm kind of surprised that I still have some pain so I'm sure tomorrow will be fun. Here's my x-ray from the CT scan. My canines are right underneath the gum line. Hopefully that's good so it shouldn't take them too long to come down. The sooner the better so I can get these damn chains out of my mouth. I really hope I'm on the home stretch.

Post-Surgery Update

It's finally over!! I'm so happy. As I stated, I was very nervous about this. It actually wasn't TOO bad. The worst part was sticking a needle in (twice) and numbing the roof of my mouth on both sides. That hurt a bit but it subsided after a few minutes. My surgery lasted an hour and a half, mainly because they ran into some slight complications due to trying to get the bleeding to stop and they had trouble getting the bracket to bond to the tooth (because of too much bleeding). Okay, so I'm going to try my best to explain what they did.

He explained to me before he began that he would be going in from the back instead of the front. Which kind of surprised me a little. He said it was because the teeth were positioned differently and it would require they move in a certain direction to pull them down. So when I look in the mirror right now, I can't see what they did because it's behind the teeth, instead of viewing the canines from the front. He made a small incision at first. Then a bunch of whirring noises from what I think was a drill or some tool to basically prepare the tooth to have a bracket attached. Here's where the trouble started. So my gum was bleeding as to be expected, but they couldn't get it to stop right away. We tried gauze. He even tried to put a stitch in to see and that didn't work. Then he used some sort of hot tool to cauterize it. Ugh, I could smell the burning and feel the heat. I didn't like that too much. That basically got most of the bleeding to stop, but he still had trouble getting the bracket to bond. At one point, there were 3 people in the room working on my mouth. They also sprayed some kind of acid into the wound area. Not sure what that does exactly. He ended up deciding to expose more of the tooth and cutting a little bit more. Finally, they were able to bond the bracket to the tooth. By this time, about an hour had gone by. When he started to work on the other side, it seemed like the numbing was just starting to wear off because I did feel a teeny bit. So he hit me up again with another dose of numbing. The other side was much faster. He still had issues getting the bracket to bond. He did not cauterize that side. He just put some gauze in my mouth and I held it for a bit while he left the room and then came back. Eventually, they were able to get it to bond to the tooth and I was all done. To my knowledge, there are no stitches.

They gave me 3 prescriptions. Amoxicillin (antibiotic) to prevent infection, Acetaminophen with codeine, and ibuprofen. The little gold chain that hangs down from the brackets are "attached" to the archwire with wax. During the surgery, he pushed on both of the canines and wiggled them a bit (I actually felt that and it felt kinda weird) and said they were moving so he is pretty confident that they will come down. This is great news!

So today after getting my prescriptions I've just been taking it easy and relaxing on the couch. I can't drive when I take the acetaminophen. Pain level really isn't bad at all but for now, I've been taking the painkillers as directed, at least for today. Tomorrow I'm probably going to just stick with the ibuprofen. I don't need to get addicted to an opioid, ya know?

The "no-no's" include: no heavy rinsing, no heavy swishing, no mouthwash for at least 2 days, no carbonated beverages (it could dislodge the blood clots), no drinking through a straw, no fruit with seeds, no brushing of the affected area, no alcoholic beverages (aw, man!!)  and I have to do a salt and warm water rinse starting tomorrow. I can't eat; it's very difficult. So pretty much all I've had since I got home were 2 Nesquik chocolate milks, a little thing of rice pudding, and a decent amount of applesauce. My stomach is not happy.

The doc gave me his cell phone number should I have any questions/concerns. He said sometimes the brackets come off the teeth and if that happens, to come back in as soon as possible to get them re-attached. So I'll be chilling until Tuesday (unless I have to go back to have them re-attached). The sooner my mouth heals so I eat actual food, the better.

Surgery Update

There were some things that were not communicated to me very well by the dentist office. One of those being that I was going to need another CT scan before they would do the surgery. While I understand the need, I wasn't told this a year ago when I started the process, nor was I told that I was going to have to pay $240 out of pocket, not covered by any insurance. I didn't budget for this; I only budgeted for the oral surgery. So I was pretty upset about it. But in the end, nothing I can do. So I got the scan done last week. I talked to the dentist office today and have a confirmed appointment next week on the 30th for the oral surgery to take place. There shouldn't be any more snafu's this time because they have everything they need. So, not looking forward to it. My anxiety is pretty high. I just want to get it over with.

My next appointment with the ortho post surgery is September 4th to start the process of bringing in the teeth.

3 Months Post Expander and Oral Surgery Update

It's been 3 months and 2 days since the expander has been out. What joy it has been to have that thing gone!! I can actually eat normally again! I got engaged about a week and a half after the expander was removed. I've been in wedding planning mode all summer. When I went back to the ortho in June, I asked point blank when the oral surgery would be happening because now I'm on a time schedule to get the braces off in time before my wedding. My wedding is scheduled for September 2019 and I am SO SO excited about it. And to have perfect teeth by then would be an absolute dream come true! She had told me at the time that when I go back in July, if everything looked good, then she would send me for my referral to the periodontist to have the impacted canines exposed to start the process of pulling them into place.


July came. I had to go in for an emergency ortho visit at the beginning of the month because those pesky rubber bands I have to wear have been applying too much pressure on the band that goes around my crown, and the band had come loose. So they had to re-cement it in place and told me not to use that hook anymore to hold the rubber band.


On July 24th, I went in for my regularly scheduled visit. She said everything looked great and gave me my referral! She said to call them and let them know when I'm having the surgery so I can come back in a week post-surgery to have her start the process. She had to re-cement the crown band again due to having an issue replacing my bottom wire.


Oral surgery update - the oral surgery is officially scheduled. Y'all, I have been dreading this part for an entire year. But, I think I'll be so glad once it's over with. The oral surgery is currently scheduled for August 16th at 8am. Here's what I understand. It will take about an hour and a half. They will cut the gum on both sides where my canines are supposed to be. Lift up the gum tissue to expose the tooth (they are both literally right there under the gum, according to the x-rays). Attach a bracket with a little chain to each canine. And then add a stitch or two to stitch the gum back in place on both sides. Then it takes about a week to heal before the ortho can get to work on it. When I go in for my next ortho appointment, they will start applying pressure to the chain connected to the two canines. It's a slow process and they should slowly start coming down and into their proper space over time as pressure is applied. I don't think that part is going to hurt, but we'll see.


I am very nervous/anxious about the oral surgery procedure. I know it's pretty common as the canines are the most commonly impacted teeth, but still, I don't like people messing around in my mouth. Getting two crowns put in was bad enough (before the braces). I hate having cavities filled and all that. So the sooner it is over with and I can just relax, the better.


The road to a beautiful smile is halfway there!!! One year from now, hopefully my braces will be completely GONE! So cheers to that!!

Day 2 of no expander

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.

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.

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

No Such Luck

Unfortunately, the expander is still in place. The orthodontist said it would definitely come out on my next appointment, which is scheduled for May 1st. Womp, womp. Pretty disappointed about that. I was looking forward to getting it removed. Now I have to wait 8 more weeks. Another power chain and closing of the gaps. She said there is the potential that my mouth could regress some after the expander comes out. I hope not, because I don’t want all this pain and effort to be for nothing.

Well, here’s to another 8 weeks.

Day 251

March 5, 2018

I went to a regular orthodontist appointment on February 6th and while there, I asked about the palatal expander and when it might be coming out. She said she would check it on my next appointment, and if everything looked good, she would take it out.

Well, my next appointment is TOMORROW! I'm very excited and hoping that it gets taken out! I will be so relieved without having the added annoyance of food getting stuck in there and stuck in the tongue guard on a daily basis. The biggest issue is the tongue guard. Food constantly gets stuck there the minute it goes into my mouth. Mostly soft things like bread and tortillas. It's so annoying. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it comes out tomorrow! No more lisping!

Side note: at my prior appointment, they put a power chain on the entire bottom row! My mouth was tender for a couple days again because of all the pressure applied. A power chain is basically the rubber bands all attached together in one long row and it pulls your teeth closer together.

Day 114 Update

Still in a good bit of pain. Those bite wafers I purchased a few months ago are actually coming in handy now. I bite on them to help with the pain and it does help some. I had asked the ortho when I was there approximately when she anticipated that I would need to go in for the surgical part to get the gums cut open and brackets put on the canines. She said sometime next spring or maybe just before summer. She said maybe I wouldn't need to because if the teeth move into position, I wouldn't have to. Well, I'm not holding my breath on that. The perio had told me that it was "possible, but not likely" that would happen. I'll believe it when I see it. For now, I'm just looking forward to eating normally again and after that, getting this palatal expander taken out. I'm going to be glad when these spacers get replaced with the band. The band on the upper teeth really isn't bad at all and I barely notice it now.

Day 112 - Bottom row

October 17, 2017


So, the day arrived. I was dreading this. But I kept telling myself, the sooner it gets put on, the sooner it can come off. Easier said than done. It's a long road ahead. I finally got to a point about 3 months in now where I can finally bite into food somewhat normally only to have the bottom row put on and now I'm back to the beginning again (it feels like it!). Ugh. So it wasn't very dramatic but I'm in pain. They put the bottom row on, except for the 2 back teeth on my right. I have crowns there. They said I would have to wear 2 spacers again (OH JOY!) for 2 more weeks to make a little bit of room to add a band around the tooth. They said it was necessary because the brackets would not stick to the crowns and have to use a band. So unfortunately this makes my mouth tender again on that side with the spacers in. She also had to turn the expander backwards 1 time because my upper teeth were tipping outward a little too much. I rewarded myself with a Frosty when I was done because now I'm back to barely able to eat anything except really soft foods and drinking protein shakes again. Oh joy. The sooner I can get back to eating normally again, the better I will feel. I actually don't like the way the braces look right now. I wish this was all over with already. I'm not enjoying the teeth pressure/pain and at the moment, I'm not enjoying the way my mouth looks.


The worst part? I have to go back on HALLOWEEN. Who wants to go to the dentist on Halloween?!?! Ugh ugh ugh. No candy this year because now I can barely chew again. 😡

Day 70

September 5, 2017


Back to the ortho for another adjustment. It still hurts every single time. She said that next time when I come, I can probably get the bottom row put on. She turned the expander 2 more times right there in the office and said I was done turning it. Yay!


I asked her approximately when I could get the expander out (December, January?). She thought for a minute and said, "It will be out before Spring Break." Great. Only another 6 months to go.


Next visit in 6 weeks.