Full-On Braceface

Good morning friends!

Do I sound happy? I hope so.  Despite having gotten my lower braces on yesterday and my top wire change, and being in enormous pain in my mouth, I took today off so that I wouldn't have to deal with this pain while trying to work.  So, today I choose to be happy that I'm not at work.

I'm a full brace-face now, it's official. Woo! What a move up in status, lol.  Man, does it hurt!! My teeth are all so sensitive, which I'm sure makes the pain worse, but holy cow!  When they're putting the braces brackets on your teeth, they put this awful device in your mouth that holds your lips wide open and off your teeth.  It really stretches your muscles, and phew am I glad I don't have to see that thing again until the braces come off (I think hope).  It took about an hour to get the brackets all on my lower teeth, a little longer for me because of the special adhesive they have to use on my crowns. The regular stuff doesn't stick so well - when they used it on my upper teeth 8 brackets popped off within 24 hours of putting them on. On a Friday night.  Yeah, it wasn't awesome.

Dr O has someone who puts the brackets on for you before he puts the wire in.  He had quite a hard time getting my wire in, I have a tooth (the 35) that's really broken, in fact it's not even crowned, it's only built up with dental composite because it's also so angled in my mouth that Dr T couldn't crown it.  That will be done once Dr O uprights and turns it.  That's right..it's both rotated and on a severe angle.  He couldn't even get the wire into the bracket yesterday, he had to sort of jury-rig something to attach it using an elastic or wire.

Whenever I go in there, we always discuss what's going on, and I use all kinds of dental speak.  I've learned it, it makes sense and is the most efficient way of discussing things.  For example, yesterday I said something like "do you have the right adhesive for the crowns in there? I know the 45 is crowned, and the 35 is built up with composite, so is the 47.  I'm just not sure if it's on the lingual or buccal side."  Dr O always gets a kick out of how much I know, and one of his assistants thought I was studying to be a dentist.  What a compliment!  Dr O said, "No she isn't, but I want to bestow upon her an honorary doctorate in something!"  It was a long, painful but fun visit.  I found it very encouraging, since Dr O told me that he's proud of me for what I'm going through and loves my attitude about it.  He also said I'm his favourite patient, although I'm sure that's just an honorary title too :)

After my visit I made a video on my phone to summarize my feelings right after.  I know I found it really helpful to watch people's vlogs when I was learning about what it's like to have braces, BUT as usual I still can't figure out how to upload the thing!! Once I do (I *am* working on it...) I'll update this post to include the video.

Oh, and one tip for you if you are having braces put on soon - put the wax on soon after they go on.  The real pain doesn't peak until a few hours later, and if you're putting wax on (or silicone ear plugs like I much prefer) it will hurt WAY more if you wait until it really hurts.  :)

Have a great day everyone!