Why must things always be complicated???

Ok...so, I went to my bracket appt the other day. I had this tooth that has been mildy bothering me for about 3 weeks now before I went. I have been cleaning it like some kind of psycho, and for whatever reason it didn't seem to be improving. I meant to say something about it to the ortho when I was there, as he has the bracket right on top of my gums, but just forgot. After the new wire tie, and powerchain was put on things were really moving. The tooth was getting really sore, I couldn't even bite down on it, and I was getting a bad taste in my mouth in that area. So, I decided it was time to schedule an appointment with the dentist. I called an made an appointment for 4:30 this afternoon.

Look at my ouchey tooth!
Being the self sufficient (albeit ever impatient) women that I am my husband had some amoxicillian on hand, and I decided to self medicate and see if anything happened. I figured if it was an infection then I would know soon as the drugs would help, and if it was not then it wouldn't do much of anything. I flossed, waterpiked, then cleaned my whole tooth with a proxy brush dipped in peroxide, followed by a peroxide rinse, then took 1000mg of amoxicillian. Woke up this morning and things were feeling much much better. I did the whole round again, and took 1000mg again. By the time I was going to the dentist things were starting to feel very much back to normal. No more pain, no yucky taste, and I could bite down on my tooth.

I get to the dentist and he can't figure out what is wrong. He pokes around, does a cold test (which my tooth supposedly failed miserably on) and gives me a lecture about how antibiotics mask the symptoms. Blah blah blah. I'm like "dude, I used to work as a pharmacy assistant, I know exactly what they do, and they do not mask the symptoms" They tell you basically if you have an infection or not, and I come to you to figure out what the infection is caused by" Ok...I didn't really say that, but I was thinking it as he was berating me. He asked me if I had enough meds for at least 7 days and when I said "no" he said, well you shouldn't take them if you don't have enough for a full round. I then said "yes I know that, but since I knew I was coming to see you today, I figured that I would try them as I knew you could just write me a perscription for the rest of the round" He gave me a perscription for 40 more pills and said that he doesn't know what's wrong. He couldn't find anything on the x-rays, no absesses, no pockets, no cavity, but my gums are inflammed and tender, and he doesn't like that I was getting a bad taste in my mouth before I started doctoring myself up. So....he gave me the x-ray and a referral to a really good endo (root canal) doctor and said I need to go have a consult done because my tooth might be dying and I might need a root canal. It might not be, but better safe than sorry he said. He also told me that my crown will need to be redone once I get done with my ortho treatment. He says that it was designed to fit my pre-braces/SARPE mouth and that it is a weird shape and doesn't fit right when I close now. Yeah....more money I have to spend!

I have also noticed that when I like sorta suck on my front teeth that I can feel it in my sinuses. He said that if my tooth has an infection in it, it could be slowing down the healing in my palate and that may be why this particular area seems to be taking so long to return to normal. All NOT GREAT NEWS!

Anyway....I will be making an appointment tomorrow for that.

When I went to the ortho the other day he was commenting on how well my teeth are fitting together, and he said that I do a great job of "fake fitting" my new bite. I hadn't really looked at my palate lately but had noticed that my teeth seem to feel like my bite is not so "off" anymore. I took a pic today and it would appear that my SARPE has officially relapsed a bit (as my ortho had wanted.) Apparently I was a bit overcorrected so he wanted it to collapse a bit. See for yourself....

Aug 11th











Aug 31st

Ok...I'm obsessed with my Teeth! What Can I say?

Well my teeth are still very sore today. Just a little on the bottom, but my upper left canine (the one that is rotated) as well as my second bicuspid are very tender. I can't bite down at all. With that being said, I can definitely see that this powerchain, wire configuration is doing its job. Look how much my canine has moved in just 24 hours. After looking at the pics I can see why it hurts so much. I can't wait to see how much things change between now and my next appointment.

Yesterday, and Today







Yesterday








Today

OUCH! MY TEETH HURT! BUT PAIN IS GOOD RIGHT???

Ok...so I went to the ortho today (I broke the bracket on my canine on Friday.) I got there and he said the has never had just the gate break off on a self ligating bracket. Apparently I'm the first one. :) I had thought this was going to be a relatively painless procedure. Change out the bracket, reinsert the wire, lock the gate, and call it good. OH...was I wrong. Doctor said he needs to rotate my canine more and since it is sortof at an akward angle he used a wire tie to just connect the wire back onto the bracket. He made the wire tie hold it to the bracket much like a rubber lig does, only a lot tighter. Then he had the assistant change out my lower power chain, and put a new one across my uppers. OMG! my teeth are killing me! He wants me to come back in two weeks as planned. He said he wants to get my canine rotated and then he can put on a some heavier wires at my next appointment.....Oh JOY!, I can hardly wait!

Here is a pic of what he did to my bracket today.














My teeth are definitely moving, my bites all screwed up again! :( These are the changes that have happened since 1:30 this afternoon, it is now 6:30 here, so in
5 hours. Can't wait to see them in the morning!

Friday
Today

POP! Not a good sound in your mouth!

Well I had my first bracket casualty today. My left canine bracket broke. It didn't come off my tooth, but the gate that closes my bracket literally broke off. I felt that my canine was very sharp so I grabbed a mirror. The top portion of the bracket was turned to the left and just bascially hanging there. I at first thought the gate had just opened and was going to try and use my dental pic tool to close it but when I tried, the whole piece just came right off! :(
before
after













It stinks because now I will have to go back to my ortho on Monday to get it fixed. That means missing some work and quite a drive to get out there. My next appointment is scheduled for Sept 14th. I'm hoping they will just have me come in early, replace the bracket, and put in my new archwires so I don't have to go back out there again in 2 weeks.

My Teeth are still gradually straightening out, and my arches are looking great! I have not noticed any relapse since my ortho removed the TPA, but then I haven't done any measuring either so it may have gotten smaller for all I know. My bite does feel much more comfortable now, not so off, which leads me to think it may have moved in slightly. Since that is what the ortho wants I suppose that is a good thing. In my pics it appears like my smile is not quite so wide now either. I still have the spaces between my lower incisors and they appear to have not moved at all since my previous appointment. The powerchain is just not moving them.
3 months post op
Todays smile






Lower Arch
Upper Arch


As for feeling in my teeth that is also a negative. I still do not have full feeling back in my upper teeth. It seems to gradually improve each day, but is still not back to normal. I still can feel my left incisor up into my sinuses. Like when my nose gets stuffy on that side, it is like it goes into, or sorta settles in that area. Its weird. I'm going to ask my ortho if we can take an xray to see if it has fully healed through that area cause it really doesn't feel like it. I would just like to know that it has, and if what I'm feeling is just the nerve pathways re-establishing themselves. I'm only days away from being 6 months post SARPE, and honestly I'm rather bothered by the fact that I do not have full feeling back in my mouth yet. I know it will continue to improve but it is just very frustrating waiting for it to happen.

Well other than this I don't have much else to report. I will post an update once I get this bracket issue repaired.

Caution - I Think Orthodontic Treatment Can Cause Serious Mental Unraveling!

Been awhile since I posted so I thought I would do a quick update. Well lets see...My teeth are almost, almost back to normal, but still just a hair away from pre-surgery. My front left incisor is no longer very sensitive behind it and it has definite feeling now. It is still ever so slightly numb but not like before. It is sorta like it is numb very deep inside but the tip is sensitive to touch and I can definitely feel it if I bite into something.




My smile continues to expand as my canines take a more prominent position, however, I'm now getting spaces in my upper right quadrant that I didn't have before. A friend of mine has said that space is my friend when it comes to orthodontics and that I need to just relax and let my ortho work his magic. I know he is right as the real problem is when they can't create space. Getting rid of it is easy. :)

Other than this not much else seems to be going on in my mouth. On my last visit the ortho took out my TPA in hopes of relapsing me a bit (seems I'm a bit over corrected.) Anyway, from what I can tell nothing has changed. My width appears to be the same, it has not relapsed/collapsed at all! Must be all that yogurt I eat and those vitamins I take! I've got some good strong bones I tell you! LOL...Hopefully he will be able to fix it with the wires and make it all perfect and such.

I was reading Steph's blog the other day and she was saying how she is just about sick of all this braces stuff! Can I say...AMEN SISTER! And I've only had mine on for 6 months! I'm so not looking forward to another year and half in these suckers, or the recovery of my surgery next year. I'm anticipating it will take at least 1 year to return to normal as that surgery is a bit more involved! I read all these other peoples blogs and look at pictures of people getting surgery and it just makes me more confused I SWEAR!
I'm like, well, maybe I need genio now....nah, OS says he thinks my chin will be fine after the surgery. What if he is wrong though? And it really needed to be done???? I'm not going to have another surgery to fix my chin? I mean really how small is too small? Or how big is big enough? This is the kind of stuff that reels through my brain constantly! (Glad you aren't me huh???) But I do wonder. It's like I can never just trust that he might (after 29 years of orthonathic surgery) have the slightest clue about this sort of thing. Like I have to research it to death and then second guess everything. Why must I do that? It really is making me sorta crazy! LOL...

As if all of this wasn't enough I have my father in law and his wife coming up the beginning of June (3 weeks post op for me) to hang out at my house for 3 full weeks! Man...Its a long ways away and I'm already dreading it! Three weeks is a long long time to be entertaining and have visitors in your house! Especially when I will be looking like a chipmunk on steroids! :( I think I have become anti social in my old age! WE just moved into a very nice house, and I'm like anal about people messing it up, or wrinkling the furniture, or or or......I mean I know its a house, and its just furniture, but it is Our stuff, and I don't want it messed up? Know what I mean?

On a happy note we are planning a trip to Kihei Hawaii in the next few months. We will go for 2 full weeks this time, and all I can say is it had better be sunny as the weather here this summer has been absolutely terrible!

Well I have totally digressed from the topic at hand (which by the way was my teeth) LOL... So I will sign off for now. Hopefully I will be reporting back soon that I have full feeling back in my incisor! That will be a joyous day!