Why I'm going through all this/ Day 1 in braces
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:29 am Post subject: Brandy's Braces, SARPE, and eventual Jaw Surgery Journal
I had a hard time finding good info on my procedures so I figured I would start an online journal and then anyone interested can read it. I will be having a Surgically Assisted Rapid Palate Expansion on March 3rd. I will then be wearing an RPE (rapid palate expander device.) for approximately 4-5 months. I will be wearing braces for approximately a year during this process, and if everything goes as planned, we are preparing for my BSSO (bilateral saggital split osteotomy) or lower jaw surgery. to align my bite, and eliminate my overbite, in May 2007. I have always had an overbite, and when I was young the ortho wanted to break my jaw, pull it forward, and wire it together. My parents could only afford braces for one kid, and since my brothers teeth were far worse than mine we just left mine alone, and put braces on him. Why do I need all this????
I'm currently 41 years old. Recently, in the last year, I was tired all the time, and constantly getting sinus infections. My ENT doctor recommended a sleep study and found out that I had "Upper Airway Resistance Sleep Apnea" and was waking approximately 23-30 times per hour. The doctors (my ENT, OR, Ortho, and Dentist) all agreed it was due directly to my retronathic jaw. I'm not overweight, or your normal sleep apnea type patient, I'm healthy, fit, eat right, and don't drink or smoke. I have always been an incredibly light sleeper though, and it is now suspected that I may have had mild sleep apnea my whole life without even knowing it. Being quite young at heart, and very active, I refused to use one of those big CPAP air machines at night. I opted for a specially designed sleep apnea appliance that basically pulls my jaw forward at night and holds it there to keep my breathing passages open. After wearing the appliance for a year with great results, I decided that I did not want to use a sleep appliance forever and began pursuing the ortho/surgery option to correct my sleep apnea issues. The above diagnosis is a result of deciding to pursue this option, and the rest of this journal will be devoted to documenting my experiences during this whole process.
So here it goes........ Spacers when in on Friday February 3rd. I walked out of the ortho's office thinking....this isn't too bad I can handle it. Well the next two days proceeded to get progressively more painful and unpleasant. So let me be the first to say that I DO NOT LIKE spacers. Over the weekend one of them fell out so I went in yesterday morning (Feb 6th) to have it replaced. The weather had been very bad the night before and they had had a ton of cancellations at the ortho office. I arrived and the doctor asked if I had time and wanted to get fitted for my bands and do impressions for my appliance today. Since this would save me time in the long run I said "Sure, lets go for it" Bands were fitted, and even though my teeth were quite sensitive, it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. They slid on pretty easy, and the whole process was relatively painless (other than the biting down to push them completely in part.) Next came the impression.....another painless procedure that didn't take much time at all.
Just when I thought I was finished for the day, my ortho comes back and says. "you want to get your braces on today? We have some time open if you've got the time" Since the schools were closed today I had nothing but time on my hands so I said "Yeah....sure I guess" I was supposed to get my braces put on on the 13th of February with my son. Instead I got mine a week early. The whole process of braces being put on was a piece of cake. It took about an hour and a half from beginning to end ( for both top and bottom) and was virtually painless. I did have to taste some pretty nasty stuff that got rinsed out of my mouth when they were priming my teeth, but other than that it was a no brainer....just basically sat there with a cheek spreader in my mouth, while my ortho individually placed each bracket on my teeth. The tech put in my first archwire and short of feeling a bit of pressure on my teeth immediately I was good to go. I had TIME2 self ligating brackets placed on my teeth. It has been almost 24 hours with them and things seem to be going fine. They are a bit scratchy but I have been taking all the advice I have found on this board and using my "braze eze" before my mouth gets shredded, gargling with salt water regularly, and just not talking too much until my mouth adapts. My teeth feel much more tender this morning...mostly the ones in front but are not miserably sore or anything I can't handle. Here are a pre and post pic:
So....that is about it for now. I will post again in a couple days on my braces progress. My plan is to post all the way through all my surgeries with very explicit detail, as I had a hard time finding this sort of thing during my research. Hopefully this will be helpful to some of you
I had a hard time finding good info on my procedures so I figured I would start an online journal and then anyone interested can read it. I will be having a Surgically Assisted Rapid Palate Expansion on March 3rd. I will then be wearing an RPE (rapid palate expander device.) for approximately 4-5 months. I will be wearing braces for approximately a year during this process, and if everything goes as planned, we are preparing for my BSSO (bilateral saggital split osteotomy) or lower jaw surgery. to align my bite, and eliminate my overbite, in May 2007. I have always had an overbite, and when I was young the ortho wanted to break my jaw, pull it forward, and wire it together. My parents could only afford braces for one kid, and since my brothers teeth were far worse than mine we just left mine alone, and put braces on him. Why do I need all this????
I'm currently 41 years old. Recently, in the last year, I was tired all the time, and constantly getting sinus infections. My ENT doctor recommended a sleep study and found out that I had "Upper Airway Resistance Sleep Apnea" and was waking approximately 23-30 times per hour. The doctors (my ENT, OR, Ortho, and Dentist) all agreed it was due directly to my retronathic jaw. I'm not overweight, or your normal sleep apnea type patient, I'm healthy, fit, eat right, and don't drink or smoke. I have always been an incredibly light sleeper though, and it is now suspected that I may have had mild sleep apnea my whole life without even knowing it. Being quite young at heart, and very active, I refused to use one of those big CPAP air machines at night. I opted for a specially designed sleep apnea appliance that basically pulls my jaw forward at night and holds it there to keep my breathing passages open. After wearing the appliance for a year with great results, I decided that I did not want to use a sleep appliance forever and began pursuing the ortho/surgery option to correct my sleep apnea issues. The above diagnosis is a result of deciding to pursue this option, and the rest of this journal will be devoted to documenting my experiences during this whole process.
So here it goes........ Spacers when in on Friday February 3rd. I walked out of the ortho's office thinking....this isn't too bad I can handle it. Well the next two days proceeded to get progressively more painful and unpleasant. So let me be the first to say that I DO NOT LIKE spacers. Over the weekend one of them fell out so I went in yesterday morning (Feb 6th) to have it replaced. The weather had been very bad the night before and they had had a ton of cancellations at the ortho office. I arrived and the doctor asked if I had time and wanted to get fitted for my bands and do impressions for my appliance today. Since this would save me time in the long run I said "Sure, lets go for it" Bands were fitted, and even though my teeth were quite sensitive, it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. They slid on pretty easy, and the whole process was relatively painless (other than the biting down to push them completely in part.) Next came the impression.....another painless procedure that didn't take much time at all.
Just when I thought I was finished for the day, my ortho comes back and says. "you want to get your braces on today? We have some time open if you've got the time" Since the schools were closed today I had nothing but time on my hands so I said "Yeah....sure I guess" I was supposed to get my braces put on on the 13th of February with my son. Instead I got mine a week early. The whole process of braces being put on was a piece of cake. It took about an hour and a half from beginning to end ( for both top and bottom) and was virtually painless. I did have to taste some pretty nasty stuff that got rinsed out of my mouth when they were priming my teeth, but other than that it was a no brainer....just basically sat there with a cheek spreader in my mouth, while my ortho individually placed each bracket on my teeth. The tech put in my first archwire and short of feeling a bit of pressure on my teeth immediately I was good to go. I had TIME2 self ligating brackets placed on my teeth. It has been almost 24 hours with them and things seem to be going fine. They are a bit scratchy but I have been taking all the advice I have found on this board and using my "braze eze" before my mouth gets shredded, gargling with salt water regularly, and just not talking too much until my mouth adapts. My teeth feel much more tender this morning...mostly the ones in front but are not miserably sore or anything I can't handle. Here are a pre and post pic:
So....that is about it for now. I will post again in a couple days on my braces progress. My plan is to post all the way through all my surgeries with very explicit detail, as I had a hard time finding this sort of thing during my research. Hopefully this will be helpful to some of you
posted by Brandyleigh35 @ 10:26 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:07 PM,
Graham said…
Wow, that crossbite and upper angle looks all too familiar! :o)
At 7:17 PM,
kelly.mcvey@verizon.net said…
Brandy,
Thank you so much for all of your blogs. I had my SARPE procedure today and so far, so good. I know Days 3 and 4 are likely to be harder but I am managing to eat soft things and drink shakes so my belly is not growling.
Thank you again for this tremendous resource.
Kelly
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