Changes, Changes, Changes!!

Day 1 with braces smile.....and Today (5 months later)







I was looking at my pre and post pics yesterday and thought I would post a pic of them so you could see them side by side. It is amazing the progress we have made so far.....or at least it is to me!
Day 1 With Braces
Today (5 months later)

Day 1 with my Palate Expander Today (5 months later)

Pretty impressive if I do say so myself! :)

The Worst Appears To Be Over!

(Today Pic)

Well, it looks as if I have survived another monthly adjustment. My teeth are feeling sooo much better today. Tender but no where near the way they were yesterday, and....they have moved. My second incisors are raised now, and my canines have moved also. If you look close you can see other changes, my molars are not tipped as much today, and the front incisors are starting to line up a bit more. Other changes are small and only really exciting to me, so I won't bore you with the rest of the gory specifics tonight. Suffice it to say that as long as I can see change, the pain is all worth it!
(Two Days Ago)

The Pain, The Pain!

My teeth hurt so bad today! That giant wire they put in yesterday must definitely be doing something as all of my uppers were killing me today! I ate a cup of Wendy's chili as it required little chewing, and a small Mcdonalds milkshake. The discomfort seems like it is starting to ease up a little bit this evening, but not a lot. Suffice it to say that I have been popping advil every 4 hours, really to no avail though as it hasn't been doing much of anything to help ease my pain.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

TPA Officially Removed!

Haven't posted in about a week. Wish I could tell you that I"m 100% yet but still can't. My front left incisor is still tender and still a bit numb and achey. It is still sore behind it also. Here is a pic of my TPA free palate as of today. I'm officially 4.5 months post op SARPE now.

I went to the ortho this afternoon and was blessed by having my TPA removed. Man it is strange to be able to totally feel my palate again. It feels so spacious in my mouth now! LOL... Like moving from a condo to a mansion! My ortho said normally he would wait til I'm in a much larger wire, but that he needs to relapse me a bit (I'm a bit over corrected with my palate expansion space), so he took it off. He did say that he might have to put it back on at a later date, depending on how things go, for now though I'm appliance free! Now with that being said, he put me in a much larger wire. Check out the difference between the pre TPA removal wire verses what I got today.
Can you say OUCH! Needless to say my uppers (mostly just that sore front incisor and my rear molar) are screaming tonight. I've been popping advil every 4 hours. :( He did warn me though that it was a considerably larger wire, A 16 copper NiTi I think he said.....(which in ortho speak translates into "FYI this is going to hurt" )

In addition to all of these changes I got a new power chain on my lower teeth today also. This time they only ran it from my incisor to my other incisor rather than all the way back to my rear molars. He kept the same wire on again which sorta bummed me out, as I honestly have not seen any change in my lowers since my last visit. I figure he must know what he is doing though so we shall see I guess. It does feel tonight like the space we are closing is a bit smaller though so I will do my best not to second guess him, and truthfully my lowers are looking pretty good these days so I can't really complain much. The good doctor did say that he was very pleased with my son's and I's progress. That things are looking very good, so that was encouraging. He also confirmed again that we should be able to have me surgery ready by next May.

100% Still Aluding Me!

Haven't posted in about 2 weeks. We have been moving, cleaning, packing, moving, loading, cleaning, unpacking, going to the dump, getting ready for a garage sale, unpacking some more etc. Suffice it to say it has been very busy and extremely exhausting. Pretty much have been going non stop from dawn til dusk for the past 3 weeks. The good news is that we are officially in our new house now though! It is nice, but so hard to not want to have everything unpacked immediately. Of course when you move you want all new stuff, like blinds, and garage door openers, and gutters, and art, and furniture, and a bazillion other things! LOL... I of course not being a very patient person want it all now which is really not good, but truthfully things are coming along quite well and it is really starting to look like home here. I love our new house and although I wish it had a bit more storage space that is about it.

My teeth are doing much better, BUT! they are still not 100% yet. Just about, but just a hair not, if that makes any sense. I'm no longer having burning in the front teeth and I can feel them much better now, however, they are still just the tiny tiniest bit numb. I have an ortho appt this next Thursday and I think the TPA may be coming out. I also think they are going to finally start moving my upper teeth into alignment. My lower power chain has not done anything. Pics from day one and now look exactly the same, so hopefully they will try something new to close this gap on the bottom and straighten them out more. I will post after my adjustment and let you know what he says/does to my teeth this time.

4th of July and 4 Month Post Op SARPE Update!

Today is the 4th of July, and also my dh and I's anniversary. I haven't had much time to write lately as we closed on our new house and have been finishing the garage and repainting a few rooms there. We finally sold our house.....or we think we have. We got a bid that we accepted. Now its just a matter of getting through the home inspection on Thursday, and negotiating the repairs. The goal is to close on the 30th of July. Hopefully everthing will proceed as planned and we can finally start to destress a little bit.

Movers come this Friday so we will officially be in the new house then. I can't wait...I LOVE OUR NEW HOUSE! It is so pretty! and New! My mom is moving in with us so that could prove to be a bit challenging but we shall see I guess. It's so funny what you notice after you get into your new place. Like how you don't have any towel racks in the master bedroom, and really no place to put up any! and just how much crap you accumlate over the years! How small they make closets these days compared to older home like our current one, and how we have no bathroom storage of any kind for like make up, deodorant, etc, unless we put it under the sink. It seems that medicine cabinets are no longer considered fashionable so even though they provide more space they are being phased out in most new homes and replaced with large flat mirrors with wood trim. I would imagine these are much cheaper also! Lets see....our current home has all modern click switches, and ones with fan timers in the bathroom. our new house just has switches :( All things we never noticed prior to purchase. oH...well, they are things that can be fixed, however, moving cost a lot more than you would think. There are window treatments to purchase, trash cans for each bathroom, as well as decor rugs for the rest of the house and bathrooms, and the list just goes on! I guess that is supposed to be part of the joy of buying a new house....all the money you get to spend decorating right? LOL!

Ok...now about me teeth. Yesterday was exactly 4 months since I had the SARPE. Feeling has slowly been returning and getting better since my last post. I would say now that I'm about 99.8% back to normal. Still have a little bit of healing to go, but getting very close. I can stil feel that my front teeth are not 100% but I truly can feel a difference daily now and I'm confident that by the 20th when I go in for my next ortho appt things will be where they are supposed to be. I will keep you posted as I want to post the exact day that things are truly back to 100% status!