where's the popcorn?!? (6 weeks into braces, yes weeks already!)

i had been having issues with the headgear tube again after my last adjustment. instead of hitting (and wrecking) my crown when i was grinding at night, it was hitting the tooth behind my crown. a REAL tooth! gah! so, i called into the ortho office and we made an 'emergency' appointment for me to come in that friday after my retie.

the assistant checked it out, saw what i was talking about, thought for a second and said, hmm... so it's happening because of your crossbite, which will be fixed when you have surgery, but that's not going to be for quite a while so yeah, we've got to do something about that. (little voice in cori's head, surgery isn't for a LONG time??? i'm not going past 18 months in braces with no surgery!).

dr. hobday finally came over, checked it out, saw the marks on my teeth (the assistant had marked me up with some biting paper stuff). said, 'well, unfortunately we can't grind that tube off, you'll need it for when you get your headgear.' HA HA HA! dr. hobday you are too funny. i don't think so.

he ground down the tube again, seemed to be better but he said that if we needed to, we could take that band off and grind the headgear tube totally off and then put the band back on.

luckily it's been a week and a half and it seems that it worked! yea! while there are mornings that i can tell that was grinding the night before, those teeth (the one with the headgear tube and the two under it on the bottom) are not aching the way they were before and i haven't hit the headgear tube in my day to day life (also was an issue). so yea, one problem down. 4000 more to go?

one thing that was a tease was going in after 3 1/2 weeks and having my bands changed. now i have to live with this color for twice as long and it definitely seems like it's taking forever! i wanted a light/lime green, a happy springy color. but the green at my ortho was more like, fluorescent burn your eyes out green. ick. so i saw these, they looked pretty, metallic bluish with a hint of purple. so we did them. she threw them on quick (i can't believe how fast they do that!) and while waiting for dr. hobday i took a peek. oh... well... that is darker than i though it would be. oh well, i'm just having fun with this, you can't seriously make braces look good so why not have fun. i want to lighten it up next time though. i'm still wanting the perfect green but... let's see, next adjustment is july 20th (next appt is july 13th, MORE SPACERS!). but if i have them on for 6 weeks that takes me to... end of august/beginning of sept. so what do i have planned for end of july and all of august. we have a wedding we are going to in mid-august so that's something to consider... don't know what i'm wearing yet though, so i don't know what color to even think about yet...

i met with a buyer at work today though, she just had upper surgery done a month ago! she looks great! well, still slightly swollen of course but not bad overall at all! it's nice to find and talk to a real person who has had this done. while i love the yahoo groups i have found and they are VERY helpful, it's nice to look at someone face to face and chat in real life.

one down, many more to go! (day 27...)

i went in today for my first adjustment. whoohoo... it was fun. actually it really wasn't that bad. off with the old o-rings, on with the new!

i thought i'd get light green or lighter blue something, more of a summery color. i left with metallic purpley blue that's pretty dark! from far away it almost looks black (oops...) and up close it looks like i just ate a grape popsicle. eh, oh well. (check out my moblog for pics of course) it's not so bad. i like it! mostly anyway.

the ortho chick (different than last time, no smokey grossness!) tied some wires onto a few of my brackets before putting the purple o-rings on. she said it helps them move. one of the ones with wire is the crooked dork tooth on the bottom so hopefully that moves soon. yea! (and yes, that is the official dental name for that tooth, the crooked dork tooth).

dr. hobday wants me to go in to dr. wong's for teeth cleaning every 3 months. he said we'd be careful as I had some gum recession before. (i did get an excellent today though for brushing so that is good!) i saw a note in my file from a phone call from dr. wong's office. it was a nurse at dr. wong's who was apparently letting them know that i have 'poor hygeniene'. whatever. i bet it's the chick who cleaned my teeth last time. she attacked my gums when flossing them and they bled. well of course they did, if you poked me that hard in the eye i bet my eye would bleed. dork. but whatever. so back at work I set up my next two appointments with dr. wong. when i asked if this was normal with braces the chick there said not really. great, thanks! but she also said that we'd do this next one 3 months out, and then the other 3 months later (normal 6 month time) and if everything looks fine they will tell dr. hobday that i only need to come in every 6 months. which is good because insurance only pays for cleanings every 6 months and while i realize that $75 for a cleaning is better than cavities and such and that $75 + the $10-14K we are already spending isn't much more, it still sucks!

dr. hobday did grind down that bracket that I was hitting so hopefully I won't need a mouthguard. that's good. we didn't even talk about a mouthguard/bite plate for sleeping. i'll bring it up next time if needed. dr. hobday did say that things look like they are doing well so far so that's good.

funny story from the ortho office though. kids! adults with braces have to be MUCH better patients!

the little girl next to me... dr. hobday sits down and her ortho chick says, "so (insert little girl's name here, i can't remember it) hasn't been wearing her elastics."

dr. hobday says, "just today or every day so far since last time?"

little girl - "well we didn't have time today."

ortho chick - "she told me everyday so far."

DH - "everyday??? um.. (obviously has thrown him for a loop). you haven't worn them at all??? why not?"

LG - "um, i don't know. i just don't remember to wear them."

DH - "this is all we have left to do before your braces come off, we just need to fix your bite. if you wear your elastics, next time might be the last adjustment before we take your braces off. don't you want your braces off???"

LG - "i guess"

so dr. hobday tells her how important it is, how to remember, keep rubberbands everywhere, etc.

HA! kids! i would be wearing my elastics every moment of the day if he told me i could get my braces off in a month if i did! i'd find a way to put two on there!

just when it's getting good... (3 weeks!)

three weeks to the day of getting braces on and my biggest stressor is that i hate my new haircut (to the point that i'm going back to get it 'fixed'). not bad mouth wise. :)

looking at my mouth, i believe that my two front teeth are damn near straight. well, straight in the arch of my mouth anyway, the one on the left used to be a little crooked and was at an angle compared to the right (it was the reason that the ortho said i had minor crowding on top). the bottoms/chewing surfaces of them are crooked due to my nocturnal grinding habits, but the teeth are mostly straight. i don't know when that one happened. otherwise, not much else changing, i guess the top wire looks slightly straighter. the backs are straight, then it comes up a bit on my four front teeth, i think this is due to my overjet and once it is straightened the wire will be straight. bottom looks good. my rotated tooth in front of my molar (that had the cement issue) doesn't look much different. i wonder if/when anything will be done about that one.

i go back in next monday morning for a retie adjustment (new o-rings on my brackets, same wires). dr. hobday said something about adding my furthest back molars to the party as well (as i am having surgery i need all teeth banded and bracketed together...) so it sounds like i get more spacers WAY back there, and i'm assuming will then be back a week later to get the fun on. he had said that i would most likely have bands on my uppers and brackets on my lowers. not sure if that is because i am having surgery on my upper so they want them banded, while the bottoms can handle just brackets, or if this is standard. so it's looking like my days of eating freely are going to get limited again. just when i can handle just about anything (although ron won't let me have popcorn still! gah!). and i'll be in pain for another couple of weeks, first from the spacers, then from the new hardware. whoohoo! whatever gets this done sooner works for me. i just do what they tell me to.

oh, also my grinding hasn't been as noticeable lately. don't know if i grinded off whatever was hitting, or if my bite has changed already, or what. i still plan to bring it up with dr. hobday on monday. i think we'll take a wait and see approach with the grinding splint for nighttime. the ortho lady had told me that he could grind off the part of the bracket that was hitting as well. guess we'll see!