Moving and changing orthos!

I'm moving back to Brisbane in 5 weeks ! I've been living in Melbourne for 4 years now and I have enjoyed it heaps but I am really looking forward to going home. I miss the warm weather and my family. My fiance and I moved here for his work, and then we had another opportunity to go back for work so we took it. The only downside to moving is changing orthos, and hairdressers :) So I had an appointment last week and I will have my final one with her in 4 weeks. She has been really great and is a no fuss kinda gal which is comforting really. She just gets in there and does what she has to do and doesnt take any shortcuts. She has set me up with ortho that she has met many times when travelling to conferences around the world so I'm glad I get to finish my treatment with someone recommended by my original ortho. She insists on getting regular updates and pictures along the way too which made me feel like she really cares. I had some power chains put on at my last appointment which have been a tad painful. I opted for the silver ones since the clear ones stain and I just cant be bothered worrying about that! They look kinda dirty now with the silver thing on there but Id rather have that than yellow stained ones thats for sure. Its amazing how quickly my teeth move when I get my wired changed too - its only been a few days and already I can feel a difference. My bottom teeth have been really stubborn but are finally giving into the pressure. If all goes to plan I only have them on for another 6 months! I cant believe its been a year this week. Its really flown past which isnt exactly a bad thing.

So here's a new pic... not much change really.

A few changes

Let me see... whats happened since the last post I made? Well, not alot really! Boring.

But at my last appointment which was a week ago my ortho took off some brackets them replaced them in slightly different spots on my teeth. This is to help with straightening them up even more I'm told. I had to get some x-rays before hand so my ortho could see the roots of my teeth to determine where to place the new brackets (it was all very technical). I had a look at my x-rays and it was amazing to see how far the roots of your teeth actually go. They are like 2cm long :\ Another cool thing was seeing the new bone in my palate - she said everything looked great and the bone grew in nicely. Thank god.

So as for the pain associated with taking off the brackets... it was a tad painful but more uncomfortable. The top ones hurt more than the bottom ones but she made me bite down and some hard cotton ball thing which did help with the pain. When she took them off my 2 front teeth I threw my leg up in the air because it hurt and it jolted my head so I freaked out! I almost kicked the light above me :) they all thought it was hilarious but me, not so much. They werent the ones getting massacred. So when they were aboutt to put on my new backets on my front teeth, the assistant dropped one of them on the floor. No big deal right? Wrong. They only had 2 brackets in the whole place that were for a front tooth. They spent a good 15 minuts looking on the floor for this thing but couldnt find it. Im sitting in the chair with those mouth expander things in to open my lips up and expose my teeth (i looked like i was from a horror movie) and I was trying to look as well from the chair... until I started to dribble, then I knew I had better sit back down. So eventually they opted to put a different type of bracket on there... one with a band to hold it in place so I have to be careful about staining now on that tooth. Pfft. It acually looks alot smaller and less noticeable than my normal brackets. But because they stain that would really annoy me because I like to eat and drink things that stain.

So after that I couldnt chew for a few days but it wasnt as bad as I thought. Last time when they put a thick wire on the bottom holy moly, that was hell. I couldnt eat at all for 2 days and what I did eat was mush. Not fun. But thats life with braces isnt it! I know it will be worth it. Only 8 months to go for me. I cant believe I had surgery over a year ago now... I must be getting old because time is going faster and faster. Remember when you were 10 and a year felt like 5. Ok I am getting old because I'm reminiscing...

New pic

I'm slack

Sorry :(

So i've had braces for 7 months now... where does the time go?! My expander is out and I'm on the downhill slide to de-braceville. Not much has happened really except my teeth are getting a little more straight with each wire change, and I'm wearing bands now which is really making alot of difference. The estimated time until they're off is 10 months so thats not that far away at all. I cant believe its been 12 months this June since I had SARPE.

I tell you, the day the expander came out was one of the best feelings ever. Being able to swallow normally and talk normally was such an amazing feeling - something we all just take for granted. I dont even remember what it was like to have that thing in there. I think my brain memory dumped it.

Well theres not much else to tell on the mouth and teeth front. Here are some new pics to show the progress...

This last pic is the day it was cut out so there are a few red marks from where the wire was pressing on my gums. They left the brackets around my teeth in there because she said they were useful. I dont think thats the norm but I spose all orthos are different...

Geez that was a narrow mouth before! And my nose is visibly wider, which isnt a bad thing.

MASSIVE update...

Well, yeah. I havent posted in a good while... but better late than never :)

So I've had my braces now for almost 4 months and I get my expander out in exactly one week today! Holy moly, I cant believe its been 6 months since I stopped turning this damn thing. I havent really struggled with the expander at all, except for the speech, but that isnt anywhere near as bad as it was in the beginning. I've only had 2 wire changes since I've had my braces on and the last was almost 2 months ago so my visits are few and far between (which I dont mind in the slightest) My gap is long gone and my teeth are - I would say - 80% straight. I will post some pics at the end to show comparison...

I think the worst part of having the expander is you cant really have a long conversation with someone because your speech gets sloppy because your mouth gets tired. I had dinner with a friend a few weeks ago and we talk about 100 miles an hour and after a while I started slurring almost - she found this hilarious of course as all good girlfriends do... well mine do :) all in good fun though. She is particularly amused at how I say 'zucchini' or a courgette to all your out-of-australians... and also a 'skinny latte'. Its the 'eee' sound that I have trouble with and those 2 words seem to be the worst. You must be wondering why I say zucchini more than like, once a year, well I eat them about 3 times a week because I love them, and I also give a little diet advice to women around the office (long story - I go to the gym and eat pretty well so I seem to get bombarded with diet and exercise questions) and I normally suggest eating zucchini as one of your vegies for the day. Ok I rambled a bit there, back on track now. So that is probably the only bad part about my expander. Eating is fine, swallowing is fine, exercising is fine, speaking is ok.

Now onto the worst part of having braces... It would have to be flossing. What an effort that is, and so tedious! The food getting stuck isnt so bad because that happened to me before braces anyway - seems to happen to all the women in our family actually! Pretty funny. I think its because we have big teeth or something... but the flossing is by far the worst part. I try and do it everyday but its more like every other day :(

I have to say though that I am so glad that I went through with all of this. It really was an amazing experience with the surgery, then the gap, then the braces. I only had a few moments where I was really annoyed and frustrated with everything. But that soon passed and I was back to normal again. I found the gap amusing most of the time and used to smile at people just to make them do the double take. I must have looked like a real weirdo, but I dont care. I sent my same girlfriend who made fun of me a picture of me doing this massive buck toothed smile with my 10mm gap to cheer her up one day. It worked, and still works :) You cant take yourself too seriously when you have a gap the size of dinner plate between your 2 front teeth. And no one really cares anyway. Nobody even noticed in the beginning until I pointed it out.

Anyway here are my pictures of before and now... and I promise to update more regularly now.

BEFORE

NOW

Got a few more freckles too from xmas holidays at the beach :)