Day 82/ TPA Heaven!

Well here is my new TPA! Wooo Hoo! While not 100% it is certainly better than that horrible RPE.

So...here is how my morning started:
Arrived at the Orth 7:15am
Assitant took me back, removed my upper and lower archwires and in the process she popped off one of my brackets. She removed the wire tires on my canines (these were for the sleep rubberbands that I haven't been using) Next the ortho comes over. This is were it gets ugly! He glued my bracket back on first. I was pretty sure he was going to have to take off my molar bands with the RPE since the RPE was welded to them, and that is exactly what he did. This was not fun at all....highly unpleasant for sure! He took what looked like giant wire cutters and got in there with them. It felt like he was literally cutting through the thick metal bars of the RPE on each corner of the V's where they connect. I would totally be lying if I said it didn't hurt because it did! The pliers or whatever he was using kept sliding off the last cut and was really uncomfortable. My Dr. said "are you doing ok? not really huh? I was like uhh uh." So the tugging and cutting motion was very uncomfortable. The only good thing is that it didn't last to long. Once it was out things were much better. I was rather surprised whenit came out in once piece with the bands attached to it. He removed the RPE from the bands, cleaned them, and told the assistant they needed to be sand blasted. She went and did that and then the Dr. glued them back on again. My molars were sore giving all the tugging on them, and biting down to secure the bands was rather uncomfortable. The Dr. then had the assistant put the same tension wire back on top, and a new one on the bottom. I also got a new silver powerchain to pull those lower teeth together. It's silver and I think it makes my braces look cool. SEE!

After all of this was done the Dr. came back and did my TPA. He bent and fitted the wire while I sat in the chair right there. It was pretty fast and short of a quick little uncomfortable push on the inside of the bracket tubes (to lock the TPA in place) it was a piece of cake. Definitely much better than the rest of the things they did.

The TPA definitely feels much better than the RPE, at first it was a little weird as the loop extends back very close to where your gag reflex would be. It took a couple seconds to get used to, but having the extra space in my mouth, being able to talk like a normal person, and feeling my teeth touch for the first time in 3 months made it all worth while.

Now....eating, that is a whole new set of challenges. My molars are sore from all the trauma this morning so anything hard is still pretty much out. While I don't have stuff getting stuck up in my appliance anymore, I now have stuff that gets lodged underneath the little loop of the TPA. It is sorta easier to ignore while eating and then get out once done, but it is aggravating too, and I can tell that my tongue is going to be sore the next few days til it gets used to the bend, and the whole new mouth feel. I actually feel like little has changed in the chewing department. I'm hoping this will get better in a few days when my teeth adjust. This is the first day and they are tender, so chewing anything is rough. Nothing lines up either so as things start to change more my teeth are banging against one another again, which pretty much stinks!

At the moment I'm a little disheartened. My tongue is sore from rubbing against the inside loops where the TPA connects to my brackets, as well as further back from rubbing against the TPA loop. I was hoping this tongue aggravation would be over with the removal of the RPE, but I suppose it to will have its own adjustment curve. :(

My ortho says I need to wear the TPA for 2 months, and then we can take it out and begin increasing my top archwires and rearranging things. So...I have an appointment in 8 weeks! :(