I’m really hoping that like so many things in life orthodontics is one of those processes when things get worse before they get better. This last two weeks have defiantly been a lot worse and I have no idea why. My cheeks and tongue are totally shredded again just like they were at the beginning and i’m having to use the wax all the time again. I can’t wear my splints at night anymore as they don’t fit over the brackets and so my TMJ problems have returned and my neck has locked again and  behind my shoulder blade has gone into spasm once more.

Now my front teeth have moved forward I notice that my lips don’t close over my mouth when I relax and so i’m starting to end up sleeping with my mouth open which is just totally gross and dries out my mouth and furs my teeth. I have that slack jawed appearance of the mouth breather!! AND to top it off I dribble!!

I’m not really selling this am I??

Naturally i’m going to stick it out, and I’ve paid for it so i’m not going to back out with no refund, but I’m hoping any of you out of there are having a better time of it than me.

Hopefully things will settle down again and I can stop whining!

 

Urgh is that all? 3 Measly months?It fees like i’ve had this bloody thing in my mouth forever and there is not a day goes past that at some point i’d take to it with a pair of pliers!

Eating is still a huge chore but the reality is that it’s not going to get better. I have lost weight purely from the fact that I eat smaller portions than previously and have pretty much cut out all snacking, crisps, most breads, all crackers and cheese and anything else that can get wadded up in my brackets.  I haven’t had a steak since I started and nothing chewy at all. I don’t like sweet things so i’ve not been sating my hunger with cheap calories and sugary drinks. I know people struggle with weight issues for all different reasons but it seems pretty clear that if you cut out all the crap foods and only eat the calories you need then you won’t put on weight. Troll me all you like but if you don’t put the food IN, you won’t put the weight ON. Though that’s pretty easy to say when you have razor sharp edged metal brackets on your teeth and your jaw doesn’t close anyway-you don’t have to rely on will power, each bite reminds you to stop eating NOW!

I went for a check up and because my lower jaw and teeth are all in such a mess it will take so long for them to move to where they need to be I am getting all the brackets put on my bottom teeth early so they can be on longer. Oh goody!

It was nice to hear the most recent dentist tell me that he know how i felt- and I just thought he was humouring me until he pulled down his mask to reveal a mouth full of metal and brackets. So there is one dentist who won’t be lying to you about how much it will hurt!

On the upside of all of this pain and wingeing is that I can really see things starting to move now. My jaw is moving upwards and forwards and my whole smile is starting to change. It actually feels weird as my muscles pull my face and my skin moves differently over my jaw and folds in different places. And I like it 🙂 my gummy smile is gone and i can see that one day i will have a cheesy big hollywood smile!

You can see from the side how much they have moved forward- my teeth were jammed up against each other before I started, you can see the spacers packed in between the teeth to get a gap just to get the brackets on! I cannot smile and show my gums now- it’s actually kinda odd….

 

It’s been over 2 months now and you’d think i’d be used to it now but I wonder if it’s getting worse. The plate drives me mad and of course sometimes I don’t think about it but a lot of the time i’m overwhelmed by huge bouts of claustrophobia and just want to scrabble at my face and get it all off me. I can see things are starting to move on my face and I wonder if the new positions of things are making it so that my body never really gets used to it. I have noticed that my upper part of my teeth/jaw is moving and starting to come forward which is the idea but it’s also made it look  like my lower jaw is now further behind my top one and gives me a bigger overbite and a weaker profile. My cheeks have sunken in at the bottom a little and it looks like i’m sucking my teeth/cheeks all the time. So right now i actually look worse than I did before!

I realise this is part of a long term plan so i’m not really bothered but a few people have already commented that my face is changing so it’s not just me imagining things.

Eating is stil my main chore. If you want a guaranteed weight loss plan then go ahead and get one of these things! People pay huge sums for diet programs or surgical intervention so why not pay the money to get your teeth fixed up AND loose weight. I have made no changes to my activity at all, and with summer being hot i’ve probably spent more time indoors recently but I’m still losing weight and I really don’t need to and am  not trying at all. It does show me ( and troll me all you like) that weight gain and loss is really about what you put in, and not so much about trying to run it off. I admit I have never had a weight problem but having these braces has made me super aware of everything I eat and in all honesty how much that compares to others. I have breakfast and then lunch and then dinner. I don’t snack at all, and that’s not because i’m not hungry or have some super powers of discipline but purely because it is too painful and so much work to eat that it puts me off the idea. It’s actually exhausting to eat!! It takes me ages, I have to chew on teeth that don’t meet and I can’t bite down on anything at all with the front part of my mouth. And of course anything I do eat gets wadded up in the brackets and I can’t get it out so anything like crackers, biscuits, cakes, breads, burgers, crisps, sweets, lollies and pretty much all junk food is a total no go. I can eat rice and pasta and make a lot of curries and stews and fish but can’t chew on meat chunks well and since i don’t like sweet things then yogurt and ice cream and dairy products are pretty much out anyway and anything with lots of gluten just turns to Liquid Nails on my braces!

So it kinda does prove to me that what you put in is the problem, and what we think is trying is really not trying at all. Not to say i’m not hungry a lot of time and would kill for cheese and crackers most evenings but I have no empty calories in my food and my portions are only big enough to stop me feeling hungry and not to feel full. There’s a big difference.

 

 

I have no desire to lose any more weight but I have rediscovered a lot of good trousers in my wardrobe that were heading for the charity shop as I had grown out of them!!

So right now I hate these things- more than i did at the beginning but I go back to the ortho in 3 weeks and get another racking so it’s going to get worse before it gets better!

 

Well it’s been a month now and i’m starting to realise it’s here to stay. My speech is better than at the start but i’m still struggling with lots of words and i can hear myself stumble over phrases and have to slow down and repeat them, as even I can’t work out what I said!

Pain wise it’s not bad at all, my cheeks have toughened up a lot and so I only wear the wax when I’m at work or know i’m going to be talking a lot but otherwise I don’t bother.

It’s still the eating thing that gets to me. I like cooking and love eating and trying things but not being able to eat properly and getting everything stuck all over the place just makes me not bother. It’s turned something I used to do for a hobby and being social to something that’s just a big chore and makes me very unimaginative about shopping or cooking. The most annoying thing is that nothing will change for a while, and in June I will have the main braces put on as well as what I already have and I think things will get worse.

Cosmetically none of it bothers me, I think i’m too old to worry about people noticing. Three quarters of the population have had braces at some time and so even if they do notice they just remember their time and come out with a story or two!

So I have another 23 months to go. I know it will get worse before it gets better but over the next few months I have been told that my mouth will change shape dramatically so i’m actually mildly excited about that. I’ll keep taking photos each week and see the progression but so far nothing has changed, which is actually frustrating.

 

 

I had been reading some of the forums and generally nerding it up researching ‘equipment’ for those with braces and the waterpik water flosser kept coming up as the Best Idea Ever.  Eating is still my biggest chore, I still can’t bite down properly and of course food gets everywhere and I spend nearly as long cleaning all the extra out of my teeth and wires as I do actually having the meal. So I thought i’d jump on the bandwagon and get the waterpik thing. In Australia you can only get these from the Chemist Warehouse either direct or online for $112, so off I trotted to the store. $180 later ( who goes to the chemist warehouse and doesn’t buy a bunch of other stuff?) and I tried it out when i got home.

Observations?

Firstly; it’s not as big as i thought it was going to be. I had read posts from folks who complained about how much space it took up so I was expecting something larger but it’s actually not too cumbersome. The electrical chord is the worst part as of course you have to have it near a power point and that will restrict where you can use it, and chords dangling around the bathroom are both ugly and dangerous so that’s something to think about.

Secondly; water does go everywhere!! It actually spits the water out by default and you have to press the button to stop it, which kinda seems slightly counter- intuitive. Once you get used to it it’s fine but when learning you end up spraying water all over yourself and the bathroom so don’t be trying to share the sink space with anyone else for a while!

But it does really work, it only takes a few moments to clean all the food out from the appliances and it does actually feel clean again. So i’ve just got used to to ducking out of the room after a meal and having a ‘quick flush’ and then coming back to my seat.

I wonder about getting the portable version too for when I’m not at home…

So I do like it and I do use it, though i’m not sure that I would use it if I didn’t have the braces, as I tend to brush my teeth in the shower and this means that I have to change my routine around a bit. Again, the portable version might be something to think about there, though i’ve heard it’s not as powerful as the counter top one.

I’d be happy to hear anyone else’s opinion regarding gadgets and things

 

 

 

 

 

Well it’s now got to week 3, and thankfully the ulcer has cleared up but I did keep my appointment with the ortho to try and move the wire that was bugging me. When he saw me he said ” oh good, that’s working” and I was confused. One of the things i have noticed about my teeth is that nothing is happening. No movement and no pain. I’ve had the usual pain from the gums and cheeks but most of that has gone away now I’ve toughened up but no pain from my teeth- which is something I remember vividly from my teenage years. So I did ask him if the appliance was in right or was tight enough (wondering  if i was going to regret asking him for more pain!) but he told me that he wasn’t moving teeth anyway. The appliance was designed to move my upper mouth up and forward taking me teeth with it in their current position. Then when that’s changed He will add in the braces to move my teeth around- and then i’d know about pain!

So that was a bit of a fizzer, i was looking forward to seeing movement but apparently I won’t for a while.

I will take photos of my profile from a different angle though, since that will be the first thing to notice, not the teeth.

I’m still struggling with eating though, since my back teeth still don’t meet up I still can’t chew. I’ve progressed from soups and smoothies but still all my meals are based around rice, pasta or mash!

Happy New Year! Another Christmas and NY week has passed and all that contains. For most of us it means lots of food and drinks and everyone making excuses about not doing much. Here in Australia we are in the middle of summer so the food is mainly all about the BBQ and being outdoors. And I LOVE all of it but this brace plate has really put a real dampener on it. I’m getting really really frustrated with not being able to eat properly. It’s not just having to chose foods that don’t need chewing or at least are able to be crushed with my tongue it’s also the total frustration of getting everything stuck everywhere and having to get organised to be able to clean everything out and bring toothbrushes and bits and bobs out with me. I now eat breakfast of a mango and banana smoothie and a scrambled egg and then don’t have a bean until lunchtime. I didnt realise how much incidental snacks i have in-between meals. I don’t like cakes and sweet things anyway so I have never been a coffee and muffin kinda gal, but even not even eating a cracker with cheese midway through the day has made me realise how much I do eat.

When I do eat i’m having to really think about each meal I produce and cook and how i’m going to eat it! Thankfully I like cooking so there is a mild challenge in trying to find new food combinations that are edible for those with braces but what’s made it worse is that I now have a huge ulcer under my tongue where the central wire cuts  across my mouth. It’s really painful as anyone who has had mouth ulcers can attest! Even just basic swallowing is awful and as soon as anything harsher than water touches it it just makes me want to cry. I can’t treat with anything or put wax on the wire as it just comes straight off so i’m just hoping eventually it will heal and go away.

Right now every meal is a chore. I’d actually rather not eat at all but of course i’m hungry and need to and with this week it has made it really hard to turn down food that others have prepared. The pain of the ulcer just makes me feel nauseous when i’m eating and I just stop. But of course I know i’m going to be hungry pretty soon if I give up after only 2 mouthfuls so I force each bite down and then clean everything up and just sip water until the next meal.

Urgh, It sounds like such a winge but i’m really hoping that I don’t have to have the next 2 years of dreading each meal and getting ulcers. I’m already losing weight and i actually  don’t need to.

It’s a pretty extreme way to change your diet and lose weight but it certainly works- and it’s a lot less expensive than surgery of some kind!

I’d love to hear from others who can give me encouragement that the ulcers do heal and that eating becomes fun again!

Well it’s been slightly longer than a week really but of course there’s no movement in my teeth anyway so there’s no great before and after photos to compare! I admit that my cheeks are getting used to things more and I only use the wax on the front parts where my lips rub on the brackets all day when i’m talking. I’m back at work again so I’m talking to clients all day and I do get sore.

Basically no-one cares. I don’t mention it to my clients even though i’m still lisping because I figure that they can just assume that’s my normal voice and if they already know me from multiple appointments then most of them don’t care anyway. I learnt ages ago that people are not really looking at you- they are far to busy worrying about themselves. People spend HOURS choosing glasses and worrying about if people are going to like the gold sides or the silver ones but I know for a fact that people don’t notice anyway!! When people have been wearing glasses for 20 yrs and they finally go home in contact lenses they are disheartened to discover that their friends and family haven’t noticed that they don’t have their glasses on! Of course if you have something really obvious going on like teeth missing, a wildly roving lazy eye, or a badly see-through underwear moment then people will make note, but glasses and braces don’t feature on the radar of most. My set up at the moment is not obvious anyway as I have yet to have the ‘train-track’ sections put on but I have not been remotely self conscious  about smiling or laughing and having my metal mouth noticed- because 90% of the time it won’t be! The only people who do notice are those who have been there before and those people are always happy as larry to sympathise with you and share some stories.

So Smile On my braced friends 🙂

 

 

 

Well the Rack has been on for a few days now and to be honest it’s not tooooo bad! My gums are still suffering a bit but the wax helps that a lot and i’ve even stopped putting wax on some of the brackets as my cheeks are starting to get used to things. My speech is as bad as ever and I still sound like Daffy Duck so i’m not sure how i’m going to get used to that- I just can’t get my tongue to find a place to make the ‘st’ sounds and the brackets on the side of the Rack make my mouth unable to purse to make the ‘Ch’ sound.

By far the worst part is that I cannot eat. My molars don’t connect so I can’t chew anything and if I try to then that’s when the brackets really do cut into me. I can’t use wax for that as it comes off and I end up chewing it. I LOVE food! Not that I have a big appetite or anything but I love cooking and trying new flavours and tastes. I can’t stand to have the same meal more than once in a row and what makes me more of  a freak is that I actually don’t like sweet things, I have no interest in sugary things at all. It’s really hard to find soft food that you can eat without chewing and it’s nearly impossible to find soft snacks that are not sweet. Everyone tells you to eat smoothies or yogurt or ice-cream but I actually don’t like any of those things! (And sure enough I’m not overweight either but that’s another topic and you can troll me later ) So my nutritional intake is based on soup at the moment. Rice is fine with sauce and noodles/pasta is ok as long as everything  is in tiny pieces. I made the mistake of eating Pad Thai the other night with long rice noodles and ended up choking as  half a long noodle went down my throat and the other half was still in my mouth and i couldn’t chew it into smaller bits! So all foods are now eaten with a knife and fork and pre- cut into baby food sized bites.

Food is just a bit of a chore now. Where as i’ve always enjoyed cooking and take pride in  creating things from scratch and not using processed foods I now find i’m just eating whatever I can find that is easy and stops me feeling hungry. I’ve totally stopped snacking at all because I can’t be bothered with the hassle and the bits stuck in my mouth and having to clean everything out again. I notice my pantry is full of stuff that I can’t be bothered with. My boyfriend is having to deal with day after day of pasta and rice dishes- though I did donate my chocolate advent calendar and all christmas goodies to him so he has seen an upside!

If you need to go on a diet but find your willpower lacking; get braces! Even if you can eat something by the time you’ve cut it up, taken 30 secs per mouthful to smoosh it all up in your mouth and swallow it your food has gone cold and everyone else has left the table and you’ve lost the will to bother!

This hurts. It’s uncomfortable, painful, frustrating, tiresome, cumbersome, (very) expensive, embarrassing, comical and time consuming. So why put yourself through it?

Some things just need doing. We all have things that are not working that great for us, especially a we get older and realise that Father Christmas is not going to deliver everything we want on the 25th. Weight problems, financial problems, mental issues and job concerns are big problems for a lot of adults in the Western world but fixing these things and making changes that will last a lifetime does not come in a quick-fix kit.

If you want to lose weight then it’s going to take a whole lifestyle change to do it. It will take real effort to change the habits, it will be hard work, often miserable and take discipline. No-one wants to get up from the couch and run 20km!

If your finances are in a mess you will have to give up the habits you have and accept you are going to have some hard times for a while- who wants to put that money towards the debt rather than something shiny and fun?

We all whine about something and wish things were different but if you keep doing the same thing then you get the same results right? So change.

But who likes change??!

Change involves pain, in some cases physical, like these stupid things on my teeth, or it might be financial pain- you are going to have to pay to fix it! Or it might be emotional pain; divorce or changing your diet habits take a big mental shift. Often it is all 3. It is going to be really hard work at first, and it will seem utterly pointless or hopeless a lot of the time. You will want to quit and throw in the towel, find a way to take the pain away, make it all not happen and think ‘stuff it’ it’s not that big a deal. Sticking it out is hard work and a lot of people are fearful of the change, the pain and even coping with the results when they do start to show scare people. Heaps of people are so scared of change that even when they do start to see results they actually choose to go back to their old habits because they have to leave their comfort zone and that’s too much for others around them to accept.

So I’m doing this because I want to change. I’ve been bitching about my back and neck pain for years so i’m fixing it. So i’m not going to whine anymore and i’m going to fix it.

It’s actually that simple. It you like the sound of your own voice and love being a drama queen about your problems, go ahead stick with what you are doing but if you actually want to fix things then man-up/suck it up and put up with the hard bits and one day it it will become so easy that you won’t even notice.

I’m loving using the Forums for people with braces, laughing at the great videos on youtube from those with braces and the before and after pics of those who post. It keeps me realising that things will be easier eventually, heaps of people are in the same situation, and what i’m doing to myself is still a good thing and worth doing.

When the Spacers were in I found them more irritating than the metal appliance and I realised that it was because of my attitude. The spacers were always a short term fix, in my mouth for a defined length of time and there was a date already set aside to have them removed. So they seemed to bug me more as I was counting the days down until they were out and I felt them every day and subconsciously knew I didn’t have to get used to them. Now the main appliance is in then I have a different focus. It hurts MUCH more, takes up much more space, wrecks my food intake, trashes my gums and makes me look like a psychopath as I can’t smile properly when my lips get stuck on the brackets but inside my head I still accept this more than the spacers. I know this is actually going to do something, it’s the part in the aeroplane when you are actually moving across the planet, and since there is no actual end date then I know that I have no choice but to accept my new reality and get my mouth around it and used to it.

Right now I hate it but I know somewhere deep ( 50′ under right now ) down in my soul that it will get better and I won’t even notice while i’m making the change!

For those who are in the same situation; I’ll let you know how long that takes!!