Onward and upward - time ticking down for Braces

Today I had my ortho checkup - a 10 minute affair where the orthodontist checked my bite, the integrity of the bands, carriere' and lingual arch and grinned. I asked if he was going to do a happy dance. He admitted he could only offer a happy face. Although moment later he stood and wiggled a little bit and his team applauded kindly. He was pleased. I was too.

I admitted to him that my adjustment wasn't an easy thing. I told him that in those first 2 weeks I had to constantly reason with myself to wait until my first 2 week appointment to ask him to remove them. By the first appointment I reluctantly thought that I was adjusting - and thought I could make it until the next appointment. And then the next.

Today, my lingual arch and carriere' have been on my teeth total of 10 weeks. Today he said that the next appointment I would receive my braces. The real deal. Ceramic. Clearish. Wires. The carriere' will be removed (yay! my least favorite part) and the lingual arch will remain for a while. It's ok. Hardly anyone else notices my lisp - especially if I talk slowly. :)

I asked when the next appointment was  - he said 6-8 weeks. I offered 6 weeks with a question in my voice. He agreed. And so, in 6 more weeks - I return to his office for a 2 hours extravaganza. At the end of the 2 hours I expect to hear applause and see balloons drop. I will walk out of there with the last segment of my journey in front of me: Adjusting to braces as an adult. A 58 year old adult.

Can I make it 6 more weeks? You betcha! Can I make it on the rest of my journey - yes.

The adjustment has been substantial. The annoyance level enough to remind me regularly that I have stuff in my mouth. (I have yet to forget it is there. I suspect this is because I'm an adult who doesn't even tolerate tags on the back of my shirts.)

And yes, thank you for asking. I'm down 10 pounds today. This isn't quite the weight loss plan I had dreamed about.

Down another pound, Week 9 completed.

I go to my checkup next Monday for the orthodontist to see the progress. I can see progress. My crooked tooth in the front is only mildly crooked now. The other teeth have moved back away, giving it enough room to stretch out. I imagine this is how it will be. Another few months and the tooth will have enough room to straighten out and braces will go on to fix the bite which is now definitaly off.

Which is the biggest reason why food is a challenge.

I still can't eat food normally. Biting down on molars is tender feeling on my right side. Impossible on my left (where teeth are moving)

So now completing 9 weeks with the lingual arch - i'm down 9 pounds.

And I have a bit of wax but will run out again shortly. Am I supposed to reuse this stuff? Doesn't that sound awful?

What do you do? Reuse your wax or do you keep getting more?

Lingual Arch and Carriere' - week 8

More movement noticed in my left side with the elastics and the carriere' (the name of the gizmo I keep calling a bar on my top left teeth) and lingual arch. I do notice more tenderness around the bands holding the lingual arch in place. I can only suspect that this is from the pressure applied (think physics experiment) when you anchor solid masses with wire, attach rubber bands on moving parts) between the lingual arch, bands, carriere'.

Atleast I hope.

We are preparing for a thanksgiving trip to the northeast. A fun trip into the cold polar vortex. Or perhaps a polar blizzard. I'm hoping it doesn't snow. Does that sound awful? I'm from the south and remain in the south because I do not like the cold. But packing has been a challenge - long underwear, socks, gloves and hat. Then I'm a bit worried about eating. Here at home I've figured out I can make do with a bowl of oatmeal. A banana. A tangerine. Scrambled eggs. But being out for the entire trip - it might be a challenge. And yes, I'm down more pounds. 8 pounds lost so far. Perhaps more. My jeans are loose but I don't want to have to go buy more.

And I'm worried I'll forget my wax. My friend forever - my wax. Thankfully I have enough for the trip.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lingual arch - week 5. Wax for my Owies.

So its been 5 weeks since this lingual arch was installed in my mouth. Although I've made it this far, don't think for a moment that it's been easy - or that I've adjusted.

I haven't.

I've lost 5 or more pounds just from the sheer challenge of finding something to eat that doesn't hurt. I'm eating a lot of soups, soft foods and ice cream (yum eh? But sadly, after eating ice cream for a few dinners the luster wears off. It's now back on the list for special occasions, not dinner.)

And yes, the lingual arches and the elastics - tortoise now - are doing their thing. In fact, with the slight movement going on right now, my left side bite doesn't always match up - but if I get the left side matched, the right is so off I can't bite down on food. See the challenge?

Not to mention my teeth stay sore - especially on my left side with the elastics.

I kept thinking that eventually my mouth would adjust to the pointy sharp edges of the bands and the bar on my top left back teeth so that I didn't need to use wax. Not so. I'm plotting out the special configuration of the waxes I'm using and prioritizing the ones I like better.

For my top left bar - which is more than 1 inch in length and up near the edge of my gums. This irritates the inside of my cheek in a big way. It requires plain old wax. Not the silicon. Not the Gishy Goo. Wax. The kind that comes in fat strings - I pinch off about 1/2 - 3/4 inch and roll is soft to put it in place. It stays all day since it is up against my cheek and upper lip. To use silicon or Gishy goo would require too much product. I'm not willing to give up the good stuff for the place up there.

Gishy goo. I like it once I have it in place successfully. However getting it combined and rolled and set up enough to put in place is sometimes a challenge. Often I miss the opportunity to get it to stick. Other times I'm too early and its just a stringy mess. But overall, my favorite. Just need lots of it.

Silicon wax. I like this - but wish it would harden up so it doesn't come off as easy. I do like using this if I'm going to be out for lunch. I can easily remove the silicon and tuck it away privately before eating. Then easily reuse it until I can get home to change my elastics and reset my waxes.

There you go. My progress report for my adult braces journey. Lingual arch - 5 weeks. Next ortho appointment mid December. Gosh…. it's a journey every day.

I think something is loose

In the last few days, as I've been patting myself on the back for not wanting to yank this stuff out of my mouth, I've noticed that when I bite down on the left side, I can feel a slight nudge by the lower left band. At first I wasn't aware of the sensation being a movement but I knew it was a new sensation.

I'm going to call the orthodontist office tomorrow. I'm unsure if they are "in" on Fridays. They rotate Mondays and Fridays and I can't seem to keep track. It's not an emergency but I know that before they switch me to the heavier elastics, this left band will need to be resecured with more glue. Eww. Have you tasted that glue?

I shudder just thinking about it.

In the meantime, the new waxes and silicons have made a difference. The inside of my mouth doesn't feel cut up like before. For that - I've turned the corner.

Did you ever knock anything loose?

Day 7 - Adjusting the wax

I woke up this morning with a monster headache. I haven't had one of these in a long long time - but don't think its associated with the appliance in my mouth. It only makes things less comfy as I just don't feel good.

I made an unannounced trip to the orthodontist office - which is ok on Tuesday. It is the slow day at their local office and after a short wait, the tech helped me find a better way to manage the owies that I have appearing inside my mouth. She gave me two other kinds of wax for me to test and showed me where I might apply the wax that I hadn't noticed before. I'm hoping it is the trick to getting beyond the initial adjustment and into a pattern of maintenance as I move towards 6 months of wearing this thing.

Whew! Attempting to straighten teeth when you are almost 60 is a feat. Braces for an adult? Hanging in here.

A little less Sore

I didn't have advil last night and woke up with a bit of a face ache. But - and this is a big BUT - Maybe its my imagination or my own desire to feel better about my decision to straighten my teeth and fix my bite - but now that its day 5, I'm feeling not as panicked about all the stuff in my mouth.  I don't even have braces on yet. I have 4-6 months in front of me with this lingual arch - some sort of bracket on the top left teeth and 23 hours of elastics every day. This just feels like it fills my mouth.

I wore my elastics to church and discovered that it is a challenge to sing with the one band n place. In fact, I discovered that the irritation I have inside my mouth - begins with the rubber band rubbing against the inside of my cheek.

Eating - I feel deprived. I can't really chew down on anything yet. I've gone to McAlisters a few times and have comforted myself with their chicken and dumplings. Yum. Add an iced tea with lemon and I'm feeling better about not being able to eat chips. Or apples. Or carrots.

On the flip side of daily reporting - we had lunch with one of our favorite pastors. Love our church. Love our "sunday school". Love love love everything about Sundays.

Are you an adult wearing braces or a lingual arch? Did you adjust in a short time? Please tell me it will be ok. :) Please.

Metal Mouth - Sorta

Many years have gone by and I'm drawn back to my old blogger account - to document my latest adventure - getting braces at age 58. Can you believe it? Not me.

My teeth as a young teen and young married woman required no braces. My mother was always proud of the fact that I had "her teeth". Perfectly straight. Nicely proportioned. A smile I could easily share.

Somehow my wisdom teeth were forgotten as I grew up.  Somehow one emerged and started shifting teeth along the top left -plus I have an extra bicuspid, in that top left area. It's always been a fun activity - watching the dentist counting and numbering my teeth for his records. I have too many teeth on that top left side. And the crowding began - enough to make me self conscience as I've gotten older. Then add to the crooked teeth - a bite that no longer fit on that one side (with the crowded teeth).  I would be happily enjoying a meal when I'd manage to bite down funny and wince in pain.

So in August, I presented myself to an orthodontist for a consult. The waiting room was packed full of teens and preteens. I was x-rayed and photographed. I met with the Ortho doc who told me I was not too old but I was not a candidate for Invisilign. He also didn't want to pull any of my extra teeth - but rather - he wanted to shift what I had, preserving my teeth. He explained that our teeth are more brittle as we age and he didn't want to pull a healthy tooth - in case I needed it someday.

A few weeks later I had spacers placed between molars on each side on the bottom - which was very annoying and painful. I couldn't bite down at all on anything - so for over 1 week I ate soft food. Lots of milk shakes. Lots of soup. And finally in gratitude the spacers were removed. And I was fitted for a band around those two molars. And then the spacers were put back in while they built my appliance. I was very disappointed that I had to endure more time with the spacers in my mouth.

Finally - over a week later - the lingual arch was installed in my mouth (and the spacers removed - yay!) but I was overwhelmed. Another piece - a bar was attached to 3 teeth at the top, left that needed to be moved backwards. I was instructed in the use of elastics. Rubber bands to hook my bottom molar on my left side to the top teeth that needed nudging backward.

I was given some wax/silicon to use wherever my appliances were irritating. (At this point - they are ALWAYS irritating but somehow I can't manage to get the silicon wax on all of it. Ha!)

Overwhelmed is an understatement. I think I'm too old for this. Really.

The stuff in my mouth felt huge. My sensitive gag reflex was on alert.

I've now endured 3 days with this stuff in my mouth. It IS easier today but just by a bit.

In my head I'm thinking to myself - I arranged this myself. I am paying for this. Do I want to continue? Can I tolerate this?

And I'm thinking I was not kind-hearted enough to my own children when they had braces. I wasn't mean or unkind. I took them to their appointments. I paid for their braces. I got them special food and made sure if they needed ibuprofen or tylenol, I had it. But I don't remember feeling sorry for them. I should have been more sympathetic. I've apologized to them this week. A few times. (They are good natured about it - and remind me I'll get through this! I wish I believed them!)

I go back for a check with the orthodontist in 16 more days. I'm hoping that I'll "turn a corner" and begin to forget my mouth is full of a foreign appliance that my tongue continues to want to explore and somehow causes my lips to feel incredibly chapped. (I'm keeping Blistex nearby.)

In the meantime, I'm still working - managing HysterSisters - helping women through their decision making process surrounding the hysterectomy. We write articles, send newsletters, work with an awesome staff of volunteer moderators who help within the community - they are awesome women. If you haven't heard of HysterSisters - come take a peek if you need help with anything related to GYN issues (endometriosis and fibroids and GYN cancers) or have a hysterectomy scheduled in the near future. Or it is behind you - and you need answers to your questions or help with menopause.

And as I'm working each day with my mouth full of metal and elastics - I'm looking forward to the day I can eat without pain and I have my regular smile back.