4 weeks in...

.. I had my first adjustment today, which has bought some of the pain back! Not too bad though as they only replaced my ligatures. I don't have much to report really! I got more molar build ups done as my teeth were sometimes touching the brackets when I bit down.

Here are some progress pictures!

11 days in...

5 days in...

.. and things are so much better! The itchy teeth feeling stopped about 2 days ago, which I'm very happy about (it was driving me loopy!), I have occasional pains in my jaw but they don't last very long. I can't bite down on anything with my front teeth (although I shouldn't really be trying this I know) without considerable pain, so my diet is still largely liquid (for convenience!) and my evening meal usually involves pasta or mashed potatoes. I had oven chips (fries for anyone reading in the US) with gravy (to soften the crunchy ones!) yesterday, which went quite well, although chewing anything harder than pasta does cause some tenderness but not unbearable at all.

My bite is changing, meaning only one molar build up is meeting the tooth above, and my bottom jaw seems to be sliding forward to make better contact which means I'm in danger of biting brackets now. I'm keeping a close eye on this and may need to make an extra appointment to get it sorted. I'm giving it a few days in case my bite settles some more.

The brackets are still irritating the inside of my lip, so i've been covering all but the front 4 brackets with wax. I've tried putting it on the front 4, but as these teeth seem to be the ones doing the most moving it's too painful to push the wax onto the tooth with enough force to get it to stick. Luckily these ones rub the least so thats ok.

I think I can see movement!! The left central incisor (I think thats the name) that was staggered behind the rest seems to be moving forwards (this also the most painful tooth, which makes sense I suppose). I'm excited! I really didn't expect to see change this soon.

I'm a bit apprehensive about next friday, I'm going out for a meal with my dbf parents, I'm praying for something soft on the menu (that isn't curry and is vegetarian!). Could be embarassing otherwise.

Thats all for now!

2 days in..

I'm now over 2 days into my brace journey. I haven't really had any pain yet, but I am experiencing what I can only describe as an itching sensation in the roots of my lower front teeth. Its absolutely maddening and driving my a bit crazy at times, it's making me so irritable I can barely speak to my poor bf without getting ratty. Its quite upsetting! The sensation is quite mild, and not at all painful, just an annoying, itchy feeling that cannot be scratched!! I've tried taking pain killers but thats not helping. I at an ice lolly earlier and that seemed to provide some brief relief.

Eating is still really hard, my bite has shifted I think so the only point of contact I have is between the molar build up on the left side and the point of one of my upper molars on the left side (the right side molar build up is no longer touching the tooth above!). I have managed to eat mashed potatoes and baked beans, macaroni cheese and quavers (these sort of dissolve in your mouth!) for my evening meals. For breakfast and lunches i've been having smoothies/ milkshake (slim-fast vanilla made with soya milk = yummy and nutritious)/ yoghurt. Having liquid meals is quite good because I can drink them with a straw and not have to spend ages picking bits out my braces.

I've been cleaning my teeth with my oral-b electric toothbrush, using the small brush head (just has a small tuft of bristles) around the brackets, and some interdental brushes for the harder to reach areas. I find the vibrations it makes to be quite soothing to the teeth.

I haven't used much wax, the brackets aren't rubbing to much yet, although I can feel the inside of my lip sort of moulding itself around the brackets which is not a nice sensation!

Brace Day

So today was brace day! It took about an hour to put them on (lowers only, the uppers will be put on probably after the frenectomy, not sure yet but I have an appointment with the oral surgeon on the 18th July). The process was fine, not painful or uncomfortable at all. The ortho was training someone I think so I got to listen to him explain the more technical stuff to her which I would normally not have gotten to hear so that was quite interesting.

I'm not in any pain yet, but it feels so so so strange! I've got molar buildups to stop my front top teeth from crashing into the lower brackets. If it wasn't for the buildups it would be a piece of cake, but I think they're going to take a heck of a lot of getting used to. I just tried to eat my first meal (1 slice of leftover pizza) I cut it up into small pieces but it was still a nightmare to chew, I ended up swallowing most of it near enough whole. Lets just hope my stomach acid manages to do the rest of the chewing ok! I realise pizza wasn't the best choice, but I haven't been shopping yet for my soft foods. I'm planning on stocking up on macaroni cheese and slimfast. I don't have much time to spend on breakfast and lunch so I think slimfast might be a good idea, as it contains fibre and vitamins and minerals etc so shouldn't be too bad nutritionally.

I'm really pleased with how discreet these braces are. I've been really apprehensive these last few weeks about how they're going to look, but you really can hardly see them. I'm just going to have to work on not doing strange things with my mouth which makes it look really obvious that somethings going on! It feels like i've got a mouth full of paperclips or something!

Here are the pictures:

The before pictures!

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my first post on my brace blog!

I am 22, I have wanted braces for a long time but couldn't afford it until now. My front lower teeth are crowded, and I have a diastema in my top teeth (gap between two front teeth) and my right central incisor is at an angle. The rest of my teeth are pretty good and my bite is fine, so due to the relatively straight forward corrections I need my ortho and I have decided to go for the six month smiles braces as I want something fairly discreet. My estimated treatment time is 4-6months which I'm very pleased about.

The main thing I hate about my teeth is the way I the midline of my bottom teeth is not central and one of my lower teeth sticks up higher and reminds me of one of those 'pickle stabber' teeth!

I will need a labial frenectomy at some point in my treatment, as you can see in the photos my frenum is very thick and is attached all the way down between my front teeth. This I believe has caused the diastema along with a mesiodens (an extra small tooth between the front teeth) that I had removed before it emerged when I was a child.

I had my impressions and X-rays done on friday which went well (no gagging like I'd anticipated!) and in just over 3 weeks I'll be getting my braces put on.

Here are my before photos in all their glory!:

Every gory detail!

My 'smile'

The frenum

Uppers

Lowers

Left Side

Right Side

The pickle stabber!

Brace day is the 13th of june so I shall update when they're on!