Tuesday, July 5, 2011

1st Adjustment! 6 weeks in!

So today was my first adjustment... The ortho took off my wire and power chains... Some of the trap doors wouldn't open right away - youch! Then he looked at my bite at a bunch of different angles, he's thrilled with the movement, but acknowledged that my bite must feel very weird right now... Ha ha totally! Overall though he said everything looks fantastic. He didn't take any x rays though so no idea how my roots are moving - i'm terrified of root resorption - I read too much - my hubby says I should be banned from the internet lol! But anyways yay for so far so good! Happy both top & bottoms are moving!

Next step was for the assistant to put the new wires in... The ortho told her i'd had a lot of sensitivity on the top taking the braces off so she did the top first, a few zingers but not too bad. She hooked up the first top molars for the first time... I asked the ortho about the second back molars on top - the only bracket free teeth now and he said they will get hooked up later if at all... I then pointed out that one of those back top molars sticks out and he said then yes it will get hooked up but much later and that it won't slow me down, just that hooking it up can cause more harm than good at this stage?!? I have no idea but at least right now since one of those molars has the worst gum recession in my mouth, I can floss it and clean it well, but really hope it can get straightened and into a better gum position down the line.

Changing the bottom wire was way more problematic than expected, zinger after zinger and the assistant was struggling to get the wire in without lots of pushing... I kept wincing with pain... then the assistant would apologize and i'd apologize too... Finally half of it was in and the assistant then got an ice pen to put the rest in. Apparently this wire (but not all wires) is heat resistant or something and ice softens the wire - it helped a lot and she finally got it in. She told me that cold drinks and ice cream will help with pain relief from this wire... Time to stock up on the Ben & Jerry's!

The final step was to put in new power springs. The ones on the bottom go from from pre molar to molar same as last time, but the top ones now span canine through molar and wow one of them hurt soooo bad right away that I asked if it was normal to hurt right away... I thought I was meant to be in pain later in the day and was kindof concerned I was going to be in agony later but I guess i'm different as was in pain for 2 hours right after the appointment... the worst being when I was in the chair, but now just some soreness and mild pain all tylenol responsive and nowhere near as bad as the first day... Not sure how i'll feel tomorrow watch this space!

So a little off topic... I told the assistant how I saw a kid at a party the other day who'd just got braces bite into hard things like it was no big deal... She explained that for kids their teeth are moving so it's not painful when they continue that movement with braces... But for us adults our roots are longer and are teeth have been in place for so much longer so it's a lot worse for us... Which makes total sense...

So next I have my next adjustment (minor I think) in 4 weeks...

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