Week 6: the cutting edge

I've had a few problems this week. I think I'm unconsciously sucking on the inside of my cheeks which is pulling them under the wire that crosses the gap where my two teeth were removed. Consequently, my cheeks are now slightly swollen and the wire is cutting into the skin. Furthermore, covering on the wire at the lower right end, which has always been a bit loose here, is wearing off. Large blobs of orthodontic wax on the brackets either side of the gap overnight helped to keep my cheeks away from the wires, but as soon as I start eating - even soft food - it starts to come off.

Another trip to the orthodontist this afternoon.

Week 5: fancy a curry? Don't!

Oh dear. Went for a curry on Saturday and now look! The little elastic bands holding the wires in place are now a luminous yellow. I think turmeric is the culprit. On the left is day one, on the right this morning.

In the meantime, the teeth continue to move.

Week 4: chewing gum

I have a tendency to grind my teeth in my sleep. I did this before I had the braces fitted and I'm still doing it. I have woken up a couple of times with my upper front teeth biting down onto my lower, inner lip, too. The last thing I want to do now is find that as some of my teeth move I am grinding them down again, particularly the secondary incisors which had already worn down due to the position of the teeth in my lower jaw.

I considered getting my self a mouth guard from Amazon but as I wasn't sure this was the right thing to do I went back to the orthodontist to ask. As I suspected, she said that wearing a guard at night could stop my teeth moving as they should.

The solution she came up with was to use some of the material that is used by dentists to build up teeth and stick it on my upper molars to keep my teeth apart when my mouse is closed. What looks like mint imperials or chewing gum stuck to my teeth is this stuff.

It's hard, obviously, but I quickly got used to it and in fact it helps me chew my food as my molars didn't meet before, anyway.

Week 3: they're on the move!

My teeth are definitely moving and, when I overlaid one picture taken this morning over one from day 1, it's even more obvious:

Apparently, according to http://findanorthodontist-boston.info/treatment_speed.html, the faster your teeth move, the better.

The body reacts to the pressure from the braces, but the actual movement of the teeth is delayed, sometimes by up to three weeks. This is why it will be so important to wear the retainers after the braces come off, to stop the teeth wandering around in the not-yet-firmed up new bone.


In the meantime, I'm still struggling with eating. I'm not enjoying my food so much as I'm still not able to chew it properly or bite anything. Not being able to bite is no bad thing, though, as that can put pressure on the teeth in the wrong direction. Hey ho, I shall just continue cutting up my food as if for a small child and eating mushy food like a toddler.

I'm also a Type 2 diabetic, by the way, and eating mushed up food, such as mashed potatoes, isn't ideal as the starch in the potatoes turns to sugar so much quicker. A diabetes dietician advises mixing oil in with the mash, or eating rice, instead.

Day 5: dehydration

I find I'm drinking a lot more water at the moment and my lips and mouth are drying out quickly. As the braces stop me from shutting my mouth as tightly as I used to the lips have further to go to meet over the braces. Consequently, I keep realising that my mouth is slightly open and is getting dry.

Dry mouths can eventually cause lips to chap and bad breath. Not something my husband would be very happy with! Not that I can kiss him at the moment, mind you.

So, keep plenty of water handy and try to keep mouth closed as much as possible.

Day 3: bone chips

This morning, a tiny piece of bone finally broke through my gum from the first tooth extraction site. It was the third time this has happened and I knew it was on its way as I could feel it under the skin on the inside of my jaw with my tongue.

This is, apparently, quite a common event after tooth extractions, particularly if there was any trauma involved. In my case, the tooth - being relatively healthy and with quite a long root - wasn't too keen on being extracted, so quite a lot of wiggling back and forth wen on before it came out. I expect the movement broke a bit of the jaw bone.
As the broken bone chip is effectively dead and now considered by the body to be a foreign object, it gets ejected, eventually working its way to the surface. I prized this bit it out with my nail once it was visible with virtually no discomfort. I dare say that for any larger chips a visit to the dentist would be in order.

Day 2: is anything happening?

I woke up this morning after a reasonable night's sleep but rather concerned that I wasn't experiencing the pain I'd been told to expect. Imagine - wanting to feel pain! But this pain is supposed to mean that there is some force being applied to my teeth. So what if nothing's happening? What if my teeth don't move?

An hour later, while attempting to eat my usual breakfast of uncooked jumbo rolled oats with chopped banana and prunes with skimmed milk, I am beginning to notice a pulling sensation on some of my teeth. But, thankfully, no pain.

After breakfast, a glance in the mirror - well, a good long peer, actually. Can I already see the gap behind the lower tooth widening as the two adjacent teeth move apart? Or is it just wishful thinking?

I'm taking before, during and after pictures with a digital camera. How do I manage to photograph my teeth and not my chin or up my nose when I'm holding the camera pointing towards me? Well, beyond the camera on my bathroom windowsill is a vanity mirror so that with a bit of adjustment I can see a reflection of the camera's image preview. Simples!

I'm not alone
I spent part of the morning (I'm supposed to be working) Googling 'I can't chew with ceramic braces' and it seems I'm by far from the only person with this problem. I find out that the answer seems to be soup and smoothies. Oh, and other soft foods such as fish. Just as well I like fish. And mashed potatoes. And soup.

Lunchtime
Oh dear. Salad. My normal weekday lunch consists of cold meat, sliced tomato and cucumber, some pickled baby beetroot, a few olives, lettuce and coleslaw accompanied by a couple of pieces of bread. Of these I find I can manage the cold meat (it's from packet and quite soft), the tomato, beetroot and bread.

Not wanting to miss out on all the remaining nutrition I decided to liquidise my lunch in the blender, so in it went. Switched on the machine and then realised that I'd left the lid sealer in the jug. Crash! Bang goes my lunch. And possibly my blender as it's an old model.

Banana for lunch then.

Day 1: they're in

I am a 52-year-old British female. Yesterday, I had braces fitted: little white ceramic brackets glued to my upper and lower teeth by my orthodontist who then clipped in white 'memory wires' held in place with tiny elastic bands.
As a child, my top teeth were sticking out so the 'school dentist' whipped out the upper first premolars and I wore a brace attached to a plate that I took out at night. My lower teeth were crowded even then, so I'm not sure why they weren't dealt with at the same time - and my parents can't remember. Consequently, over the years, my upper teeth have moved again as they have adjusted to fit over the lower ones.

Recently, I have been getting more and more fed up of picking out pips, bits of peppercorn and sundry other pieces of food out from the gap behind the lower tooth that's been forced downwards and in front of the others.

The Cost
So why didn't I do this before? Some time ago a friend of mine said that if she won the lottery, the first thing she'd do was to get her teeth straightened. We both imagined that it would a very expensive procedure, especially when you consider how much it costs for a new crown or root canal treatment.

Having moved house to a new town a while back I registered with a new dentist and the subject of straightening my crooked teeth came up. "Oh no" she said, "it's not that expensive. A couple of thousand pounds." In fact, I've paid less than £100 for the two teeth extractions and then, including the initial consultation, around £3,000 for the orthodontic treatment which will take 18 to 24 months. I had imagined it being a lot more than that. I may well pay extra later for tooth whitening and maybe building up one or two teeth where they've been ground down.

Preparation
Before the braces could be fitted, dentist removed the two second premolars in my lower jaw to make room for the crooked teeth to straighten out. I still have gaps in my upper jaw from the childhood extractions.

Ouch! Despite being really, really careful, I managed to get dry socket in the first extraction site. A week of sleeping propped up on several pillows helped, taking pain killers every two hours (alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol) and finally a visit to the emergency dentist (as mine was on holiday!) which resulted in a prescription for amoxicillin. Three weeks after the first extraction (and a week before the braces went on) I had the second tooth out. Fortunately, that one did not get infected and is healing up fine.

The fitting
Just before I had my braces fitted I had a session with the dental nurse who went through how to look after my teeth once the braces were on. She also showed me a horrible picture - as as warning - of some beautifully straight teeth that hadn't been looked after properly and were decaying at the gums. Yuck.

I was also warned that in a few hours of the fitting I would start to feel some discomfort as the wire - which 'wants' to return to its normal shape - pushes and pulls my teeth.

What she didn't tell me was that I wouldn't be able to chew! The brackets on my lower teeth stop my jaw from closing as far as it used to, so that my molars don't meet!

Dinner time
Filled pasta for supper with a tomato sauce, squashed against the roof of my mouth before swallowing. Slow, but I managed.

To bed, then, and so far no pain, apart from where the end of the wire has caught my cheek. But I've stuck on some of the wax I was given for this purpose and will make an appointment to get the wire trimmed.