About

 

WHY????

Ok, so why would anyone chose to go through the awkwardness of their teenage years again?!

I’m 45 yrs old and I had orthodontic work as an early teenager, and hated every minute of it. I had a large overbite and my bottom teeth crashed into the roof of my mouth with every bite and I was in danger of losing my chin profile into my neck.

1984

I had a few years of plates and ‘train-tracks’  in the early 80’s in order to get my lower jaw forward and allow me to eat again.

I never really thought much about it again, it was just something that was done to you, everyone else was doing it too so I never had any particular self esteem problems with it, just a memory of the deep pain from the teeth movement and the horrors of escaped wires piercing my cheeks when eating at the school canteen.

2012

20-something years later and I started to have problems with my upper back, constant pain behind my shoulder blades and headaches which seemed to be alleviated by me pressing hard behind my ears!

I did go to my regular dentist and asked if there was something wrong with my jaw but he said that it was fine but doing a few stretches with my mouth might ease the tension on my muscles behind my ears.

My back pain and headaches got to the point when I was going for a massage and chiropractic work every single week. I felt instantly better after doing so but 2 days later the pain was back, just as bad as before, and it was costing me a fortune!

I finally was recommended to go to another dentist by a friend of mine who used to work there. She mentioned that this particular dentist was really ‘into’ headaches and neck problems and perhaps he might be able to offer some ideas.

I live in Australia, though I grew up in the UK, and dental care is not covered by any medicare/NHS scheme and it’s all privately paid for. Some health insurance companies will cover some claims but not many so I was a bit reluctant to pay fees if I was just going to be told that everything was fine and then get talked into work I didn’t need!

But I went anyway. He took one look at me and asked if I had headaches or neck pain and if i was having trouble sleeping? And of course I was surprised to answer yes, even though he hadn’t even put me in the chair.

Apparently my overbite had regressed to a point where my lower jaw was pushing back into my neck and causing me the nerves and muscles in that area to lock up, as well as narrowing my airway so much that my posture was changing and creating a curve in my spine to allow me to breathe. Since breathing is a primary function of life ( who knew?!) your body will adjust itself to any position it can to allow the airway to open- even if it’s agony for the rest of the body.

We went through the process of using teeth splints at night to keep my jaw forward when I was asleep and allow my airway to open. I was prepared to give it a go- but at a cost of $800 I was going to be pretty grumpy if this ‘experiment’ was not going to work!

Within 2 sleeps my back and neck pain was gone, I could feel my jaw moving and unlocking and I realised that this guy might actually know what he was talking about!

I couldn’t believe it- I never had associated my teeth placement with getting pain in my shoulder blades and since I have never been a mouth breather and do not snore never thought that I was actually suffering from sleep apnea! Apparently my symptoms are typical of with those with TMJ disorder and deep overbite but most people when in pain just head to their GP, get painkillers and never really look for the root cause so dentists don’t always recognise the symptoms as the patient doesn’t really mention it at appointments.

The new dentist recommended that if I wanted a long term solution to my problem that full orthodontic work was really the best option. Yes I could keep wearing the night splints, and they would work to a point, but it was only a band-aid on the problem. Mechanically my face and jaw were out of place and with age getting worse so I was realistically looking at a lifetime ( well the next half of it anyway!) of  back pain, posture problems, breathing problems and eventually weakened teeth. ( 2 have already shattered at the bottom from  crunching into my upper teeth every day)

BUT- and here’s the thing; I was looking at years of full time braces and it would cost me around $10,000.

Yikes!!!!

I could feel my wallet explode and my 12 yr old self woke up and wept. I actually welled up in the consulting room when I saw the little model of the ‘train-tracks’

There was no way I had that kind of money. I was building a house and had other properties that were draining all my finances and of course I just couldn’t face years of being a metal mouth all over again!!

2017 5 Yrs later

The pain was still going on, though the splints always helped I noticed my breathing getting harder- I was always snuffling and seemed like my sinuses were never really clear. I had also developed a blocked tear duct. I found out that my tear duct down my nose was now permanently blocked as my face was slightly collapsing into itself and my eye was not draining fast enough. So I was stuck with an ‘old lady drippy eye’ unless I wanted to get surgery to create a bigger duct through my nose? No.

That was it; time to sell an investment property, take my money and return to the dentist!

I decided to blog about my experiences as so many adults are now getting orthodontic work done. There are so many issues with my jaw and face that may be solved by doing this I wanted to share with others how things progress- and if it actually works!!

So if you are suffering from long term headaches, TMJ pain, sleep apnea and even a blocked tear duct it might make you consider your options for yourself- use this blog to find out what you are up for and if the money is worth it!