Urgh, the weekend was nearly worse! I pretty much gave up with trying to massage things and get my neck to move so i just took a bunch of painkillers and tried to numb it out. I had one night when I was lying there actually with no pain in my neck and all natural feeling in my arm again ( it’s been mildly numb for weeks) and it was just amazing. I didn’t get up that morning until 10.00 and just lay there and watched tv purely just to revel in the non- pain!!
I had been poking around the house for days so I wanted to get outside and ride my horses. That was a mistake. Stupid me.
I returned to the ortho today and he just got stuck in to my mouth again and took all the wires out of my lower jaw. I still have the brackets stuck on but there is no tension on my lower teeth at all now. He ground out all the splints from last week and did a completely new impression to get me some night splints that I can wear WITH my braces, just like I had before. I will go back and pick them up tomorrow.
My mouth feels really odd without the wires now, my tongue has all this room and my lower teeth now feel like they are lose and wobbly! The impression plate got stuck on all the brackets and was drying on my braces and he really had trouble getting it out and had to really pull on my jaw. That hurt a lot. My jaw is already tender and having him yank them all about was pretty hard going. I had the jaw trembles for a while after that.
Roll on tomorrow so I can pick up my splints! I hope it works as well as it did the first time.
I did have a thought though that if he said that he was going to remove all the ortho work and just give me the splints I would not necessarily want them all removed. I can see how my smile is changing by having my upper teeth forward more and I now i see how weak my lower jaw is for my face and I still want to continue with it all. I do believe that things will work out in the long run and I just think it’s something we have to work with- to get he braces to do their job long term but keep my jaw from locking in the short term.
And I’ve paid for it already.
Middle Aged Lady with Braces 
Oh, my! You poor thing. I hope the new splints do their job. I’m interested that you actually can wear them. My ortho mentioned something about it at my initial consultation, but then a few months later said that the braces kind of actually act as a bite guard (because the teeth don’t fit together yet, and the muscles know that? Something like that.), and it’s true that I no longer wake up with my jaws clamped together.
I sure can sympathize with the neck and shoulder pain.
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I hope so too. Like you i though that the braces and brackets would act as a bite guard too but apparently it’s not my bite so much as my lower jaw pushing backwards towards my neck and my brackets on the lower jaw made it worse… I hope tomorrow brings new joy! It’s amazing that such a small thing makes such a difference somewhere else isn’t it? 🙂
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So sorry to hear of your problems! I really hope the changes will help and that you’ll be able to get your lower wire back on soon. Braces sure are a pain at times! I just hit my nine-month date in braces today, and wouldn’t you know, a bracket fell off. This same one (on a crowned molar) had to be reglued six months ago but had held since then. Probably doesn’t help that I have an elastic that hooks on that one up to an upper canine. That pulls on it even more than the normal wires and eating pressures. It is truly always something. Hoping for the best for you!
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