Look Ma! No Braces!

Wednesday January 14th, 2009. So its debanding day. I wake up and look into the mirror like I have done the past 20 months and realize that its time. Its time to finally get these things off my teeth. I read about people who debanding anxiety. Its as if you want to keep the braces. I have been so anal about everything. Keeping my teeth clean since braces predispose you to cavities. I wore rubber bands at all times so I can have that "perfect bite". Countless hours of pain, cleaning, annoyances, etc were finally coming to an end. I think back to all I been through and I have experienced a lot...and I mean A LOT. I thought no one would date me with braces. I learned not only did people not care, some actually liked them. Shocking I know. So I get ready and head off to the orthodontist.

Its funny cuz everyone knew it was time. From the secretaries to all the techs. Kathy asks if I am ready and I say yes and she gets excited for me. She recently had braces and is now in a retainer. So I get seated and the tech looks and says things look good. There are some slight imperfections. My midline is slightly off and a couple of teeth aren't perfect but they are way too close to be bothered by. She states she's not sure I am ready and she asks Dr Brust and he says "Oh he's getting those things off today" LOL Good thing I prepared myself for all of this as this appointment took nealry 2 hours. (and good thing I took some ibuprofen before the appointment) LOL

First all the wires were taken out. Now it was debanding time. I had this done before when some brackets needed to be repositioned. Its not all that painful but it sounds really bad. The metal brackets came off with no problem with the exception of one. The ceramics were by far the worse except for a couple. Basically the tech squeezes a metal tool which attempts to separate the bracket from the glue. So a lot of pressure is applied for this process. Well unfortunately in my case, brackets had a difficult time staying on my teeth so I had to constantly get them re glued and this adds to the strength of the glue. I won't lie my anxiety was high from feeling the pressure and hearing the loud cracks. When all of the brackets were removed I rinsed my mouth and noticed a little bit of blood. Now the blood is not from my teeth per se but from the gums. I freak out for a second until I realize that my teeth are still moving and the pressure broke a few blood vessels. After I brushed, the bleeding stopped. I looked in the mirror and couldn't help but smile. I finally saw my teeth for the first time. They looked amazing. Every tooth match perfectly and were aligned. I spent most of my life with a horrible bite and now it was all fixed. I couldn't believe it. I could stare into the mirror all day but I had a lot more to get done.

The next phased involved the cleaning or scraping away of the left over glue. This was pretty bad also. I would say it was almost as bad as the bracket removal. Imagine a the sharp scraper that the dentist uses to remove plaque/tartar but sharper and louder with each scrape. It was almost like nails on a chalkboard. I felt the tech scraped forever. Next up was the polishing. At this time the Dr Brust was in a meeting with a new patient so I would have to wait at least 20min until Dr Brust would polish my teeth. So it was either xray or impressions.

We decided to go with impressions since the xray tech was busy with another patient. I felt it would be better to get the impressions out of the way since they take quite a while to make the clear aligners/retainers. Eventually, Dr Brust returns and polishes every tooth to remove all the left over residue and glue. Then it was another brushing and rinse. All there was left was the retainer fitting and xrays

Since the retainers were done, the tech decided to go ahead and fit them. She placed them on and my teeth were a bit sore once they were on. My teeth were already starting to move since the brackets were removed. These aligners/retainer will keep everything in place. I was given 2 retainer cases, instructed on how to wear them and clean them. And I was also told on the cost for replacement. ($180 a pair or $90 each for upper or lower) There was a consent form for me to sign which helps the office know that I was informed of the use of the retainers and the associated cost for replacements. I was also given a goody bag which I was told contained all the things I weren't allowed to eat while braced. LOL I am to wear the retainers 24/7 for 2 months (except) eating. After 2 months, it will be only at nights.

Next were the xrays and photos. I still had the retainers in so it was really difficult to talk or smile and the xrays tech didn't notice them until the pics inside my mouth came. Xrays came next and when all was said and done, she printed off a sheet of paper that had my before and after pics. She was amazed at the results. She handed me the papers and I was floored. Dr Brust did an amazing job. We retook a couple of photos without my retainers in since they were supposed to be out and then made another print out.

Lastly, it was check out time. I head over to the check out desk to schedule my first retainer check up. The secretaries were excited to see my teeth. One kept saying that she couldn't believe how white my teeth were. She even asked if they were whitened and I said no. She was shocked. My next appointment was schedule for March 11.

At work everyone was waiting to see the results and everyone was so excited and happy with the results. I brought in the bag of goodies and see a ton of treats. There's chewy candies, tootsie rolls, laffy taffy, jolly ranchers, twizzlers, caramel chews, mary janes, blow pop, and a bag of microwave popcorn. I hand out most of the candy since I do not really like chewy candy that sticks to my teeth anyway. Although, I did pop that popcorn. I truly missed popcorn and I was in heaven eating it. LOL There are a couple of athletes who I work with who share a close bond with me since we all had braces and shared experiences. Both of which I referred to Dr Brust. So now, I still find myself staring at the mirror. So happy with the results and do not have one regret. Anyone who is ever debating on receiving braces and or jaw surgery, I saw do it. I'd do it in a heart beat. Even with all the mess Ive been through. I still have some numbness well I shouldn't really call it numbness as I can feel every area in my lower jaw. My chin now feels like its asleep when I touch it. My left side of my lip feels near normal. I can feel hot and cold with ease and I notice improvements monthly. So I hope for a full recovery.

Surgical Hooks AGAIN?! Say It Ain't So...

Wow I didn't realize its been a while since updated my blog so lets get caught up to speed. So I had a follow up on January 7th. I sit in the chair and Dr Brust looks at me with a huge smile and asks " Wil is it time to take of those braces?!" I smile and say "I wish. There's still a couple of teeth I am not happy with". He then says "We'll see" So he takes a look and says everything looks good to me but one of my molars still had some minor tipping. So at this point in time I only wore one rubber band which helped with the tipping molar. I wore Bummer during the day and Debbie at night but I progressed to Debbie full time since Bummer wasn't holding up anymore. Dr Brust then tell the tech to put me in "spaghettis all around". He turns to me and says, "this should close up any spacing issues. The tech then explained what all that meant. Surgical hooks were placed on all my lower teeth except for the brackets with hooks. The tech then explains and demonstrates what Im supposed to do. I don't have to wear rubber bands during the day but at night I had to wear Bills on every bracket/hook. Each rubber band went around four brackets and overlapped each other. So it was about 14 rubber bands in total. I tried to count them but every night I tried I would always lose count. LOL The first night took about 25-30min. Definitely a pain in the ass and it brought back horrible memories of those post surgical rubber bands....this time with less pain. I had some soreness in the morning but nothing too serious. I noticed movement immediately. So 6 more nights of this mess and 6 more days of the annoying irritations of surgical hooks.... I just kept telling myself its only a week...its only a week...