New pics and quick update

Those were both from 12/8/11.  These are from today:

Wow I thought I was keeping up with this thing a little better.  I just went back and realized I haven't really posted in awhile and to think I'm 24 days in now haha crazy.  Lets see, well I know my teeth have been on the move, particularly because I could see a few gaps here and there on my lower teeth primarily and mostly because of the wires in the back getting longer and poking my cheeks.  I actually had to go out and buy more wax thinking that would help but I couldnt take it I had to call them.  They literally got me in like within an hour of me calling to get them cut and I wasn't there for more than 15 minutes which was pretty sweet.  I don't know why I held off for awhile from calling them because I felt guilty for some reason like I was bothering them.  The orthodondist actually called my cell phone directly like 2 weeks in to check on how the braces were doing which was pretty cool and I told him about the poking and he was the one that told me to come in so I think thats what convinced me.  Pretty good customer service I might say.

I actually haven't really compared my pics until just a couple seconds ago and I was pretty amazed at how much movement there actually was.  The wire is almost a straight line now compared to the very first one I took the day I got them on. Of course my front two teeth are almost totally closed for the first time ever too haha woohoo.  I do have a question for those with braces already. I've been brushing like after every meal now and honestly sometimes for no reason just because I feel like my mouth gets gross (like I said before I feel like I have my night guard in all the time). You can see in at least one or two of them the brown spot above my left (your right) incisor.  I'm embarrassed to say I think its plaque but I'm hoping someone tells me otherwise that its like the glue or something.  I haven't really been able to scrape it off or anything so I dunno maybe you guys can let me know.

At this point just about all of my friends have seen the braces and they all said its hardly noticeable so the ceramics are a good bonus I think. I also think I'm getting a little better at talking as well but that could also be in my head I dunno.  I'd like to think my bite has closed too but again, I dunno.  As you can tell I don't know much but I do know that tomorrow is Christmas so everyone enjoy the holiday.  Also my wisdom teeth come out 1/4th so I'll try to get a post up about that. My next ortho appointment is 1/26th and I know I have another dentist appointment sometime soon as well I think but I forget when.

Lisp

Quick little update here. Went out with some friends last night and before heading out after seeing the braces for the first time just about all of them noticed my lisp.  I said to them I think its actually getting worse and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with my teeth moving around or what but it was pretty obvious they said which sucks.  I personally still don't think its that bad its just words with "S" in them I think is when its most noticeable.  I can definitely tell that my teeth are moving already only a week in so that's pretty cool.  The wax has definitely helped because the back edges have been getting longer at each end and poking into my cheek pretty badly.  I'm hoping they will callus over soon so it doesn't hurt as much.  That's all for now.  I'll try to post some new pics next time.

Brace yourself!

 

Hey everyone,

Well as you can see I got my braces on yesterday.  The actual process of getting the braces on kinda sucked in my opinion.  It took like 45 minutes or so with really no break of being able to drink anything or close your mouth for the entire time.  Not to mention having a suction straw in your mouth and ultra violet heat light being used to dry the glue.  Safe to say my tongue was about as dried out as it ever has been.  Once they get the brackets on they do some crazy wiring which I never even realized happened.  I always thought it was just like two wires, one for the top and one for the bottom but instead theres those then another wire for each bracket to keep the main two wires connected to the brackets.  It all makes sense to me now but youd never realize it upon first glance of looking at the final result that all that happens.

The pain wasnt too bad at first, I came right home and ate a sandwich with no problem other than having all the food stuck in them.  You pretty much have to brush your teeth after every meal. I know I should be doing this even without braces but this time its a must.  By the evening I could feel them getting a little more sore but I thought I was still good to eat so I had 2 more sandwiches for dinner.  I bit into one and yeah the pain was ridiculous and I finally understood what the ortho was saying was gonna happen.  I eventually got them down but with very very minimal chewing if any (it was egg salad so not too bad haha).  Today is the following day and I'm still pretty sore.  Haven't taken any meds yet but I probably will after this.

For those of you with a teeth grinding problem like myself, they pretty much told me to just get rid of the night guard since it wont fit now or after all this is over.  They gave me a basic sport mouth guard that can be adjusted weekly by just remolding it.  Since my wisdom teeth are the only ones touching they said I can pretty much grind away anyway since they are coming out in a month so I'm not gonna worry about it too much until maybe after that if I notice I'm doing it again.

Not the most exciting post ever I know but I dont have much else to say really at this point.  I'm just glad to have them on I guess and to get the ball rolling. Next dates to look forward to are January 4th for the wisdom teeth removal and then Jan 26th for the next ortho appointment for tightening.  Oh and my sister is getting hers out December 14th. I already offered to be the driver for that gig and hopefully I'll get some funny footage of the aftermath that I can post on here haha.  If I dont post before the holidays everyone have a safe and happy holiday season!

Thanks for reading,
Tom

PS dont mind the egg yolk on my lip in the pictures, didnt feel like retaking them haha sorry!

The dates are set!

Hi everyone,

So I had my 2nd follow up consultation with the oral surgeon today.  He had my teeth molds/model with him.  Took a quick look at some prevoius pictures of me that I brought with me and my night guard and deemed that the night guard was definitely not the problem and this is clearly something that has happened over time.  The one thing new he noticed by using the model is that I had a pretty bad crossbite.

He said first that they would put something in my mouth to expand the top teeth. I'm assuming an expander is what he was talking about (I just looked at pictures of these and yikes they do not look comfortable at all!). He said they would do something with my lower jaw surgically to fix the crossbite completely but he was a little unclear. I know he said it would require double jaw surgery to fix so obviously the lower jaw would need to be moved around.  I'll be totally honest I was more in shock of him saying the words double jaw surgery that I kind of lost track of what he was saying. This doesnt sound right to me but from what I remember he said the upper jaw surgery would occur and then he would perform the lower jaw surgery which would be a slight advancement of the jaw to have the teeth slide into place. To me I feel like my lower jaw is already protruding enough as it is.  I'm always trying to tuck my lower teeth back to try to slide my teeth into place. Maybe I misunderstood though and thats what he meant was to pull the lower teeth back I dunno.  Either way its double jaw surgery and they said it will be approximately 6 months following the wisdom teeth removal which are already scheduled for removal on January 4th.

Insurance is covering a good chunk of the widsom teeth which is solid, $300 out of my pocket to cover for them so not too bad.  Haven't heard anything as far as pricing for the surgery just yet, they said I'll hear more as we get closer but that the majority of these are covered under the insurance.  They just have to send everything (all the models, xrays, pictures, notes etc.) over within a 6 month time frame of the surgery to the insurance company and they review it.  The lady up front said this is definitely not cosmetic so you'll be fine.  Great news, in fact probably the best news out of all of this.

Wow and I went all this time without even saying that I got the go ahead to schedule the braces.  December 1st, 2012 will begin my 18 months of brace face. So I'm excited to get the process started in just two weeks and glad that the wisdom teeth removal is next year since I'm almost out of sick time as it is for this year. Thats all I can think of for now.

Heres a few pics...

Just wanted to add a few pics. 3 day weekend coming up and then my second appointment with the surgeon is on Tuesday.  Hopefully I'll have some more direction after that and I'll be able to provide some more information as to what the next step is.  I'll post then. That's all for now!

Seriously?

Ok just got back from my 'first' consultation with the oral surgeon today.  I'm pretty frustrated for a couple reasons.  Number one being that he really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know or find out from talking with the orthodontist.  He looked in my mouth a few times, wrote a few things down and that was about it.  He said if I were to get surgery it would be upper jaw surgery and he said that my face wasn't totally aligned right and they might make an adjustment there as well.  Apparently my jaw is slightly to the left of where it should be.  They upper jaw surgery would entail removing some bone just about the teeth and then advancing the upper jaw forward slightly.

I couldn't really see but it looked like he had a lot of the information from the orthodontist already, but apparently not enough.  He said he needed to have all of the models and molding of the teeth that made.  One of the other things I'm frustrated at is actually at myself for not bringing the night guard.  I brought it to my dentist appointment and to the orthodontist and they didn't need it at either place for any reason but he wants to know if perhaps the night guard is actually causing the problem in the first place.  He asked me to bring that and older pictures of myself to build a timeline so that he could see when it started to happen and if the night guard is the problem since I just started wearing it 3-4 years ago.

I asked about the wisdom teeth then and if I could schedule that at least and he said to wait because right now those are the only teeth that are touching for me.  I told him about the jaw pain after sleeping and how it seems to be getting worse and he didn't really respond.  So he ended with "This is just the beginning this meeting right here."  He went on to say he'd see me in a month after reviewing everything and speaking with the orthodontist.  Then he asked me if I scheduled the appointment for the braces and I said no they told me to wait until I saw you to get the go ahead and I've been waiting over a month for just this meeting. Then he said to hold off on scheduling anything with them and that he would get me in again within 2 weeks to get things moving.

So I guess I'm just disappointed at the lack of new information.  Ever since I got the night guard it never really felt right in my mouth but I just assumed that's how it was supposed to be, awkward.  I'm about to start doing some searches to see if anyone else has had any similar problems.  I guess I'll be posting again on or before November 15th when my 'second' consultation is with the oral surgeon and hopefully I'll get alll of the next steps, pricing, insurance coverage or not etc. Oh one last nice thing was my insurance said I'd have to pay a $25 copay and they didn't ask me to pay anything so I don't know if that will happen next time or not but at least that worked out.

Thanks for reading,

Tom

Let's do this...

Hello and welcome to anyone who just completed a successful Google and/or Yahoo search for someone else who is getting braces and eventually Open Bite Jaw Surgery.  My name is Tom and I am 26.  First let me say there are alot of other really good blogs out there for this very topic, and a few of them were so good that they inspired me to get this thing going.  I'm going to attempt to keep up with this thing although I dont know if I'll ever get into the whole posting videos and stuff.  Anyway I guess I'll start off with my story...

Once upon a time I never had anything wrong with me.  Never broke a bone (aside from a unofficial cracked rib), never was in the hospital for anything, I have 20/15 vision, and I've only ever had one cavity that was done extremely poorly at a very young age.  So poorly that my following dentist said never needed to be filled in the first place and had to redo the whole thing.

Some day in early September of 2011 I woke up remembering I had something to do, but couldn't think of it until I was walking into work at noon. CRAP! I forgot I had a dentist appointment that morning and missed it.  I called back immediately asking to reschedule and I was able to get in the very next day only I was going to have to see a new hygienist and dentist.  So the next day I go and both of them took notice of the excessive grinding my teeth have undergone (forgot to mention that flaw earlier) and I explained I already have a night guard for it which I wear religiously every night.  My wisdom teeth are fully grown in at this point and they were even improving my teeth by closing the front gap between my front two teeth.  Or so I thought.

Both of them each noticed that the wisdom teeth were beginning to crowd my lower teeth and they noticed something I wasn't really familiar with or even noticed at the time but they said I had something called an open bite.  They recommended I see an orthodontist for a free consultation saying they might be able to get some rubber bands to close the open bite.  I was feeling a little offended almost or cheated. Why at 26 years old are they noticing this now and what was different 6 months ago when my actual dentist looked at my teeth?

So I went for the consultation about a week after the dentist appointment.  They took X-rays and lots of pictures and the Orthodontist really didn't even take long to ramble off a list of things wrong with me after a few quick looks in my mouth and at the photos.  Still in my head I'm thinking they'll just slap some rubber bands on there and I'll be good.  Not so much.  They mentioned the possibility of braces and I guess now I misunderstood what he said but I came away thinking that I'd have to get braces for 6 months and that was that.  He mentioned the surgery but said it was completely optional and would be require a consultation with one of them but he stressed the fact that they aren't cheap and make sure insurance covers it.

Two weeks later I go in for the official results and they told me I'd be getting braces for 15-18 months (18-24 with surgery).  They were recommending I go see an oral surgeon because it would be necessary to get the 'classic bite' relationship that we should all have.  The insurance does not cover the orthodontic treatment at all.  I received that news on 9/21st.  My consultation with the oral surgeon is covered by my insurance fortunately, I just have to pay a $25 copay.  That is actually 40 days after that news was received and is now today 11/1st.  I've been so annoyed having to sit around telling everyone that I'm getting them and not really provide any detailed information about what the next step is.  I can't wait for tomorrow (I haven't gone to sleep yet so it feels like tomorrow) to find out more.

Here is what I do know.  I know I need to get my wisdom teeth out first, hopefully I can schedule that at the consultation. Once I've recovered, I need to get the braces which I'm assuming at this point won't even be until December some time.  I'm just hoping it doesn't take another two weeks after tomorrow to get the news back as far as what exactly they are recommending and how much it costs and if my insurance will cover it etc.  All that information will be for the next post.  Below is a copy of my Consultation Report from the orthodontist office. It should sum up just about everything I have going on.  I'll post some better pics tomorrow of myself as well.  The one they have on there is terrible haha, but I should say thats actually my teeth completely clenched down so you can see the size of my open bite. Wasn't like a year or two ago.

Sorry for such a long first entry but I guess I'm just a little late in the game as far as posting so the next ones I'm sure won't be nearly as long.  Let me know if you guys have any questions and I'll be glad to answer what I can.  I know I had a ton even after my dentist appointment so just let me know.


Thanks for reading!
Tom