Powerchains!

So I had my latest ortho appointment last week. Little did I know that it would not be a regular change archwire and ligature day. Oh no, I was in store for much more because it was change archwire and powerchain day.

So I got my upper wire gauge changed again and a nifty set of clear powerchains at the top. The powerchains connect all the brackets on the teeth together instead of the ligatures on each individual bracket. This is to facilitate the closing of the gap and the flare. The pressure was noticeably increased as compared with the regular ligatures. I had some sensitivity when biting down for a day or two but nothing unbearable. I was shocked to see that my gap had started to close overnight. I know this because I cannot fit as much of my tongue through the space as I used to be able to.

The rotated molar at the bottom is moving slowly but surely and I can see that this will definitely be my major keep back in getting my treatment completed. The front incisor will simply not have enough room to fall into alignment if that molar takes its cool time to move where it should be. I was hoping that the incisor would have been in place by now but evidently that is not the case since I only have one powerchain. But nonetheless, powerchains mean progress and I am glad I have at least one still fairly early in the scheme of things.

One thing that kind of annoyed me was that I had a different dental assistant than what I usually have. For some reason she took it upon herself to change the colour of my bottom ligatures from smoke to bronze. (??????) It makes less sense considering the ligs on the back molars are smoke and only the ones in front are bronze. She never even asked me what I wanted or if it was ok to change them. In her opinion it may have been less obvious but in MY opinion I prefer the smoke. She also placed the CLEAR powerchain at the top (not Smoke0 so I have no idea how that will fare ove rthe next few weeks with staining.

My ortho was actually impressed at how clean I was able to keep my ligatures. I had to remind her it was only because I have forgotten to make a curry stop before teh past two appointments. So yeah, it has been about 3 months since I have had any curry. This sucks even more considering Divali and Eid are all around this time.

In other dental news my dentist's receptionist seemed to have completely ignored the fact that I need a root canal. She promised to call me to fit me in and never did. I stopped in and she had the audacity to ask me if I was 'ready'. Now I don't know if it was because she thought I did not have full payment and took it upon herself to delay my treatment even though the doctor clearly okayed partial payment. But she was definitely out of order. I have medical insurance regardless but that does not mean I enjoy pelting out $4 grand at once. So now I am pushed back again to the end of Novemeber and left up to her she might have let me wait until I come to her screaming in agony.

So onward and upward. Updated pics soon

The Tooth from Hell

My very boring Ortho experience got rather interesting about a week ago. However, it had nothing to do with orthodontics. I spend a great deal of time picking my teeth as I watch tv simply because I am completely paranoid that the 1mm of plaque that I may have missed is keeping my teeth from moving all that much faster. So last weekend I picked and picked and accidentally stabbed what I thought was one of my gums. It felt a little sensitive but nothing to talk about. Somehow, the next day...... anytime I drank anything cold , I got a shooting pain in the tooth (not the gum). Things went rapidly downhill from there to the point where I could not put any liquid in my mouth without a straw. Stragely enough when I chewed food I felt nothing. It soon occured to me that all my picking could have shifted one of my fillings to the point where liquids were just able to seep in and hit the nerve.

I immediately called my dentist who managed to see me between appointments. She reminded me that she had told me I would need a root canal on that tooth eventually. I however did not think eventually meant 4 months!! She indicated that if I had a non symptomatic tooth (i.e a tooth where the nerve was dead and I felt no pain) I could have postponed the procedure indefinitely. Unfortunately because the nerve is very much alive and cause severe pain, its gotta be done now. That lovely procedure will set me back $3750!!! Ok, so I have insurance, but still , to find that to put out in one shot is a problem. She said I could pay half and half but I hate owing anyone. Even worse, I could not get an appointment as they are booked solid. So until my pain becomes constant and unbearable and they are forced to schedule me an emergency appointment , I have to wait. I was concerned that I would have to remove my archwire to do the procedure but she says she can work around it.

Even stranger, after drinking from a straw for a week, I realised that I was again able to move liquid in my mouth when I should not be able to.Hmmm, so I sucked it up and took a drink the normal way and low and behold...no pain. So I dunno if the nerve died on me or if my filling just dropped back into place after a few nights of aggressive grinding in my sleep but it no longer hurts. I wonder if I can get out of that root canal now?

I can't help but be bitter with the ortho I initially consulted who after doing xrays told me I had no cavity in the troublesome tooth (which I specifically enquired about) although there was a crater in it. If it was big enough for me to feel it with my tongue, it was big enough to see on an xray. It was only because I was never in pain that I did not double check it with a dentist. All ofthis could have been avoided and I think it is sad that I need a root canal (maybe two!) at my age. And this is even with me always brushing my teeth. I was just alway slack with the flossing. I will see what happens with that tooth and how long I can avoid this root canal.

Adjustment Number 2

I must tell you, braces are really boring. Nothing much happens in between adjustments, at least not with me. I don't really get any pain or irritation in my mouth . I don't break brackets or bend archwires. Its also pretty obvious that you can't see any changes in tooth movement on a daily basis.

So I went to my second adjustment to see how things were moving along. My ortho was actually quite suprised that my teeth are moving as quickly as they are.Although they are pretty much aligned below there is still that pesky front incisor that does not want to rotate fully in place on account of that rotated molar that is taking forever to budge even one millimeter.

Nonetheless, I was able to change the archwire on my upper arch to a thicker wire. FINALLY that gap on the side will start closing up. At this rate I am hoping that I will keep my treatment time to about a year or a little more. I will actually be delighted if I get my rubber bands next visit. cause that will mean I am even closer to the end. Although every one has told me I can't avoid rubber bands I wonder if I will get away from it because I have already been told that my bite does not need any correcting. The one most annoying thing are my two upper front teeth that still seem more crooked than before I started. My ortho says we have a lot of moving around to do still, even though thats hard to believe since they aesthically look like they are almost done.

I have been compulsively flossing and picking between my bottom teeth cause I keeping thinking that there is this 1mm of plaque that is preventing that front tooth from finally just falling into place. I know I am not completely paranoid since I heard the ortho telling another patient that it does not make sense her doing anything else until she gets her teeth cleaned cause the plaque build up has suspended her progress. Thats not only whack but also gross.

As I said no discomfort, no excrutiating pain. Just playing that waiting game now.

First Adjustment

Well I had my first adjustment today. Nothing much to report because they just tightened the wires I already had and changed my ligs. My teeth look basically the same way it did last post so I did not bother to take any more pics. I mentioned to the dental assistant that I thought my top teeth were getting more crooked while the bottom where getting straighter. He claimed that if there was any movement at all that it was not noticeable but that it did not matter cause at the end of the treatment it would all be aligned. At least my incisor that was sticking out is back where it should be , that was the most noticable problem. The rotated incisor is usually covered by my overbite and is almost where it should be.Progress is shown here and at my rotated molar where the teeth were so close together that the ligature could not be placed on the bracket properly. Now they both have the ligature on the entire bracket. As a result there is some increase in tension in these areas.I am hoping that the molar will begin to rotate faster now that the bracket is fully engaged.

I was a bit disenchanted when I was given my payment coupon book today. It has reminders for all the days when payments are due as well as for my dentist appointments.Every time you make a payment you rip out the slip and hand it in and get your book stamped. So I made the mistake and asked what date is on the last page .....september 2009. That is over 2 years from now! I cannot imagine being in braces that long sigh. I am really hoping that time is cut to a year and a half. The assistant said that I may get my top wire changed next visit in 8 weeks. Again its torture to have to wait so long between adjustments. You feel it working for the first week or too and then you have 6 weeks where you feel like nothing is going on.

I am feeling the increased pressure but it is not even remotely uncomfortable.I will see if I will be singing the same tune tomorrow.

Two months in braces and counting

So I have not been really viligant in my updates. But thats cause I have been really busy in work and its funny how you kinda forget you even have braces especially when you're like me and you're not having any major issues. To date I have not broken a bracket or archwire and I have not popped a ligature. I have had several instancs where I am talking to people and they have stopped me to ask about my braces. I forget who has seen me with them and without them. The peopel who don't ask I don't even bother to explain. I have noticed that the clear ligatures have inevitably turned a shade of cream that is similar to tooth enamel so although discoloured, they are not really noticable. That is off course until today when my mom decided to cook Paella and they did turn kind of yellowish. My next appointment is in two weeks and I amnot really sure if I can live with them that look looking like that. I asked my mom what was in the paella that made it yellowish cause I've eaten spanish rice before and got away with it. She told me she put in fresh saffron which was my undoing. Any natural colouring is dangerous to clear ligs!! That includes curry, mustard and saffron!! Funily enough I actually got away with eating doubles a few times without changing the colour, I have no idea why that curry did not stain when obviously it stains in every other form. I still am trying not to have too much curry till closer to lig change day.

Soother than some occasional jaw pain I have been doing pretty well. I only get a sore mouth when I spend and evening taking with friends and forget to keep my mouth moisturised.I supposed that since I was not really in any pain nor was the gap in my top arch looking like it was closing that I wasnot making progress. How very wrong I was! On e day while looking in the mirror (which you do constantly when youhave braces) I realised that the zig zag look that my bottom archwire had was gone. So I had to pull out the old pics and check to make sure. (check previous post or gallery)

And I was stunned to see that although I had a bottom incisor that was still rotated, all my teeth were pretty much aligned in an arch. The other incisor that was sticking forward was back in line to the point where I was not sure which one it was. My guess is once that molar at the back rotates some more to give the incisor more space everything will fall right into place easily. That molar has barely budged so I imagine with my next adjustment that would be tightening and starting to move. So athough not all the teeth are level, the archwire is quite straight.Its funny how I was quite sceptical when I was told I would not have my first adjustment for two months. I could not understand how they expected anything to happen if they were not adjusting the braces on at least a monthly basis.This goes to show why I am not the orthodontist and she is.

I am really hoping that this positive sign is an indication that my teeth are moving very quickly. On the downside I think my midline of my front top teeth has actually become MORE crooked. I have heard that your teeth go through many changes as they rearrange them and may have to get worse before they get better. It is however beyond me why the top teeth are moving at all. I had them on for a full month before I got the bottoms and they did not seem to do anything but open up my bite. HMM actually, its probably the contact with the lower brackets that are causing it to shift. Or maybe the tooth that went back where it was supposed to be, who knows, I have to remember to point that out. I am certainly looking forward to get things moving.

One month in braces

So at the one month mark I still have not seen much progress if any. I must say I am a bit disappointed. I know I may be a bit impatient but I was at least hoping for a gap to close. My bottoms have not been for more than two weeks so I can't expect much there. Just noticed recently that I have another molar rotated but its not as bad as the other one. It was still and ARRGGGGHHH moment nonetheless.



I made the HORRIBLE mistake on chowing down on a wrap I ordered that I forgot contained mustard.Yeah so now my ligatures are lime green. You can't see it unless its close up but I know its lime green. No amount of attempts to baking soda,Listerine Whitening, whitening toothpaste is helping. Sigh, good thing I told them I was changing them before the next wedding in two weeks.Unortunately for you all I took the pics after the mustard incident.



The bottom brackets are feeling fine although my mouth is generally drier.Very little irritation. I took out the all plastic tongue barbell and put back in the metal one. No correction, I took out the half of the plastic barbell that I did not swallow and put in the metal one. I keep losing the o-ring that holds it in place underneath while I'm eating. I swallowed like 3 this week. I don't really want to order more right now and at the rate I'm eating them they won't last long.
Sigh.

You can call me....The Shredder!

So I can really identify right now with this guy, known as The Shredder. You may remember him from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies (the old school ones NOT TMNT). Aside from the fact that we now have a striking resemblance with all this metal in my mouth, I have literally become the shredder.No dental floss is safe around me!!

Now I guess because my top teeth were ok to begin with and were more spaced than crowded I did not forsee the problems I am now experiencing. When I flossed the top teeth I took about 10 minutes tops. And thats me taking my time. I got to be so good at it that I no longer needed to use the floss threaders to get under the archwire. Then again I had the fact that I am very handy with a needle and thread to my advantage. With my bottom metal brackets installed it has become IMPOSSIBLE to floss between some of the teeth. First there is the problem where my teeth apparently shifted overnight so the floss physically cannot pass between the teeth. Then there is the situation where the brackets are riding on top of each other so closely that you can't even see where the wire is to thread beneath it. So I was forced to start using the floss threaders for my bottom teeth which has now extending my floss time by about 10 mins. Yeah so I basically need a half hour to 'brush' my teeth.

In addition to which the metal brackets now shred just about every piece of floss that dares to come close. I have to pull at least four lengths of floss just to get through the bottom teeth. It is amazing that my teeth could be so close together even though the orientation does not seem to have changed.

I have also developed an unfortunate habit. Now that everything I eat sticks up in the braces ,I tend to run my tongue over them to try and dislodge the food as I am eating. This turned out to be a bad idea because now I am blistering the tip of my tongue. It literally took me the past few days to figureout why my tongue was feeling so sensitive. Yet another challenge in this journey.

Lowers Braced!

Well I got my lowers done today. I got the metal brackets. The process was just as uneventful as the uppers. On looking at the end result I had a harsh wake up call. I realised I was really being a bit delusional as to the status of my teeth. All along I was saying that they are ok and I was just being vain by fixing them. No. They are messed up. It really takes the installation of the brackets and the wire to get a true sense of how your teeth are orientated (or rather disorientated). When I saw how many kinks were in the wire and how one bracket on my incisor could not even fit on the rotated tooth I was both embarrassed and relieved for myself. Embarrassed that they have to look this OBVIOUSLY bad for awhile and relieved that I actually took the step to do something about it. Can you look at those pics? I did not even know that molar to my left side was completely turned the wrong way!

A few hours later they generally feel ok but I am starting to feel the pressure on that naughty incisor that is jutting out. I have a feeling tomorrow will be much worse than how my uppers felt on day two. I also discovered that I in fact DON'T have self-litigating braces on my rear molars on the uppers. The assistant put a grey ligature on the bracket instead of a clear one so I did not realise that it had a ligature at all. I enquired as to when I could hope to see my upper spaces closing adn I was told that she the ortho was not going to start closing until they were all aligned properly...SIGH. My lowers also have grey ligatures. I did not even bother with the clear ones on the bottom, I have a hard enough time keeping the top ones clean.Ironically I also learned that the guy in the wedding who interrogated me also went to the same ortho. I should have scrutinised him more to see his end results.

So now I have the best of both worlds and hopefully i will really see some action soon!

Here comes the braceface

So i stopped off at the ortho Friday to get my ligatures changed for the wedding I had to attend yesterday. Although I had advised the receptionist that i was coming in and the reason, the ortho assistants asked me what my emergency was. To which I responded,"I need to look fabulous and I can't do so with yellowed ligs". So the change took a minute if so much.They actually asked me if i wanted a colour to match my dress to which i responded, " Hells no".I then asked the ortho about my appointment on Monday to get my lower brackets. I was shocked when she told me that I would NOT be getting the self litigating brackets because it would not match the prescription she had in place for me. It was only after I left that I realised that the brackets I have further to the back of my teeth don't have ligatures. So if those are not self litigating then what are they? Hmmm I need to ask her again.

In regards to the wedding,the brackets definitely were not my favourite accesory. I was dressed to kill but I still felt a bit self conscious. I was not self conscious when I first got them , I guess cause the people who had already seen me with them were closer friends who already knew I was getting them so it was no big deal. Last week I got a visit from a friendly collegue who stopped by my desk on his way out from a meeting at my office and after a while of chit chat he came out and asked me if I always had braces. When I told him no, he said he figured as much cause I was playing with them as I was talking. I think I was actually trying to hide them as I knew I had curry that day and they were even yellower than before! YUCK! Then at the hairdresser Saturday morning another acquaintance asked me the same thing. Which again just made me feel like I was getting my close up on national t.v. I don't mind people asking when its a constructive comment. Cause to me the only point of asking about them is if you are interested in the process or getting them yourself. By just stating/asking, "Oh you got braces" and saying nothing further is just pointing out the obvious. So its better if you just say nothing at all, you already figured out I have them on all by yourself.

So after getting some shots to my ego, I get to the wedding and the best man asks me like 5 times throughout the reception why I have braces. The first few times I was with a friend and I figured it was a rhetorical question cause to me it pretty self explanatory WHY you have braces. Then he was like 'Oh, so cause everybody getting married now and you run out to get braces." I guess this was on account that its a general consensus that my boyfriend is eventually going to marry me (hint hint honey). Of course this has been in the back of my mind, more because I don't want to have jacked up teeth when the wedding day does come period (regardless of who I end up marrying).It certainly was not the reason I got braces. Then later on when I was with my boyfriend , the guy again asked why I had braces. By then he was asking my boyfriend more than me cause I was not really entertaning him. My boyfriend also ignored him at a first cause then he would start talking about something else and then somehow go back to my braces. I think my boyfriend eventually got a bit annoyed and snapped at him, "Why the hell do you think she got braces? The same reason you did!". I had to bit my tongue to keep from laughing scandalously. I had no idea the guy ever had braces. The guy seemed a bit stung but went on to explain that he got braces cause he had an incisor in the roof of his mouth so he had little choice but he had never seen anything wrong with my teeth so he could not understand what the purpose was. I think I was a bit more sympathetic once I heard he used to have braces and had that bad a problem. So I told him that my top teeth did not really need fixing but my bottom did. Then he was like 'but you only have on the top'. (Sigh) Then I had to explain that I had to open my bite to get the bottom installed. Thankfully after I explained he seemed satisfied enough to stop harping on it and did not ask me anything about it for the rest of the night.

The damage was already done however and I felt like I had flashing lights on my teeth for the rest of the night. Funnily enough after having a few drinks, my sensitivity increased and I felt like I wanted to rip them out my mouth.Before I got my upper bracket installation appointment I was actually considering scheduling it for after the wedding so I would not have them for the occasion.It so happens I got my spacers unexpectedly early and was forced to install earlier than expected. When I had accepted that I would have to go to the wedding with my braces whether I liked it or not, I was again relieved that the ortho would not be doing my lowers until after.Then I got to thinking why the hell was I so concerned about that in the first place? Why was I postponing my treatment on account of what other people may (or may not) think? At one point I told myself I to just shake it off because at the end of the day my teeth will be absolutely perfect so to hell with what everyone else has to say. My teeth will be perfect for my wedding so I really should not care how it looks at theirs. Anyhow you take it, I have another wedding to go to next month and I will definitely be fully braced so let everyone else better deal with it.

Braced Week 2

So week two of my adventure and nothing much to speak of. It tends to get a little annoying when I eat (especially bread) because gunk gets stuck in the brackets.It has also become a great deterrent for late night snacking. After you brush and floss for the evening its just too much hassle to do it again after a snack.

I have no seen very much progress at all in terms of the gaps closing up. I suspect that it because my treatment plan required that my bite be opened up before my bottom brackets can be installed.I am guessing the ortho has not even adjusted the brackets to start the gap closing. I called the ortho to see if I could move up my appointment on the 7th May to the 4th. I have a wedding to attend on the 5th and my clear ligatures are starting to look a bit dingy on my brackets so I really wanted to get them changed. I was quite surprised when I was told that my appointment could not be pushed up because they have special days reserved for installation of brackets and I would be getting my lowers on that day. At a glance, my bite does not look any different than when I started so I was surprised that I would be getting them so soon. It was then that I started paying closer attention to what was going on in my mouth. I had noticed that my mouth feels particularly dry and my teeth sensitive when I get up in the morning. At first I thought it was because I sleep on the side of my face. But now (andI might be paranoid) I think I have noticed slight changes in my bite almost daily.Its almost as if they only move in the night or rather that I only notice it overnight. On closer inspection I realised that my bite really has opened up quite a bit. It is just so weird to have your teeth sitting in a completely different position that I may have been subconsiouly trying to force my teeth back into the old bite position.

These pics are really after 1 week but blogger was giving me trouble to post them. I figure I will update the pics again again after my first adjustment.

Braced 1 week

So I make a turn in the uptown pharamcy looking for orthodontic supplies. I am sure at the end of it all the cashier thought I was mad or had OCD or something. I ended up with 3 differnt types of toothpaste, all kinda dental gadgets and two toothbrushes (One of them being Spongebob). Why? Cause I like Spongebob. Lol ok but seriously, from reading on the Metal Mouth Forum and from my ortho , it is advisable to use a toothbrush with a smaller head and softer bristles. All the small toothbrushes had kiddie designs on them so I did not have a choice.

So after 1 week in braces I have not seen any drastic progress, I really have not noticed any movement. Hmm this might be harder than I thought. If you can see a difference let me know! My teeth feel ok except for the incisors which feel a bit weird when pressure is applied. I am having a bit of difficulty biting into things since its still sensitive.

Things I've learnt this week...

1. Blue Listerine does not stain your clear ligs
2. If you drink cranberry juice with a straw it won't stain!
3. Dental wax is your friend.
4. Whitening toothpaste does not really whiten teeth, just removes recent stains.
5. Its going to be a loooong two years

Brace Day 2

My friend who used to have braces had me extremely paranoid that today would be HORRIBLE for my teeth. I go up this morning and rushed off to yet another meeting without even attempting to eat anything. Attempts to bite down created some discomfort that I just was not ready to deal with till later on. Later on turned out to be lunch time since my boss had me doing circles in work.

I found myself in the grocery nearby looking to stock up on soft foods and find something to eat for lunch. Fortunately for me I love pasta so I thought I would be ok. I soon realised it posed some challenges. Many pre-packaged pasta dishes come with marinara (red) sauce. Because I have the clear ligatures and the wedding to attend soon I am very hesistant to even risk eating it and then end up with red ligs. I think I will have to do some experimentation closer to my next appointment to see what I can get away with in terms of staining foods. I ended up with a few packs of Ramen noodles, some clam chowder and some macaroni and cheese (white cheddar variety). I was suprised to discover microwavable baked potatoes fully dressed in a remote corner of the grocery freezer. Then I realised I hate an entire half gallon of cranberry+grape juice in my fridge that I had not managed to finish off before I got braced. I tend to drink a lot of cranberry juice for health reasons but it definitely would not be ideal now. So I found the white cranbery juice but unfortunately its a juice cocktail and not 100% juice. Sigh. So with my food purchases I realsied that diet wise this experience could be really good or really bad. Good because I definitely will be keeping my portions reasonable , I have also just lost the interest of snacking late at night (every night) as I usually do cause it means I will have to get up and brush my teeth again. Bad because most soft foods are high carb foods e.g potatoes,pasta. I am generally all for low carbs after following the South Beach Diet for some time now to live healthier. This experience is really going to throw me off a bit.

My next stop was in the pharmacy for dental products. I figured I would get a wider variety of options than in the grocery. I was wrong, at least with this particular pharmacy chain. I wanted to get a new , softer toothbrush and some white toothpaste. So I gave up quickly on the toothbrush cause I was not sure which would be best..I will have to do some research. The toothpastes started frustrating me cause they all seem to be tinted with some fantastic flavour or other. I noticed in using an Aquafresh Brand that it was turning my plastic tongue ring orange. I figured it would turn the ligs ornage as well. Next thing, every single toothpaste claims to whiten. I am a little concerned about using whitening toothpastes for the next two years. I don't want to have brown squares on my teeth when my braces are removed but I can't seem to find a 'normal' toothpaste.Same with mouth washes..why are they all blue or green? Umm Clear please?Hello? The only clear one I saw was the Listerine whitening which again...is whitening! Now I realise that it does not seem to be antiplaque just anti funky breath so its not really helping me now is it? One thing that is annoying is my dry lips. I have a really bad habit of biting my lips nd ripping them to shreds. The fact that I have the braces is definitely not helping my case. I was already lax with the lip gloss, I dunno how I am ever going to maintain that properly.

So after my rounds I sat down to have something to eat. Although I had to eat a little more gingerly, I did not get the pain that I was expecting. Big relief! Doh mind that I had already stocked up on Motrin. All in all, day two was uneventful and bearable. I have a feeling the bottom teeth won't be as easy a ride!

Braced!

Well my boss completely pissed me off by telling me at the last minute that I HAD to go to a meeting at 9am in San Fernando. Well you may know the story with me and S'ando already. But I was even more annoyed that I would have to make that drive and somehow get back up into town in time to make my appointment to get my brackets put on. So I calle the ortho to reschedule for a later time or the next day and she tells me that I won't get another appointment for brackets until the 28th April! Oh hells no! I already waited a whole month to get my brackets on and I was not giving up my appointment for anything! I tell my boss straight up that meeting has always been a waste of my time and come hell or high water I was leaving early enough to make my appointment.


So, so said ,so done, I high tailed it out of there and got to my apointment on time!So I got my top brackets on. It was a pretty painless process. The worst part about it was when they put in the cheek expanders to keep your mouth open. Then there was the part where they inserted the wire....I felt the pressure on my teeth instantly. After that I was done in no time. YAY!It so happened that some dental assistants/students were training in office that day and the ortho was describing my condition. I was pleased to hear how she described my case as being very simple, with natural teeth, no extractions. She then went over the xray with them and indicated that my roots are well lined up on top. It made me feel as though my case was straight forward and simple. That is very encouraging in terms of treatment time.





When I checked them out in the mirror I was actually suprised they looked as good as they did.Once I had decided I was going through with it,I actually did a bit of prep by getting in the habit of brushing my teeth after every meal etc. I did this with whitening toothpaste in the hopes that when I got my brackets they would be closer to my tooth colour. Being a tea/cola/coffee drinker, I knew my teeth could have been a shade or two whiter with a bit of persistance.From the pics you can see I only got ceramics on the 'social six'. I did not really scrutinise them until I got back to work. Although my top teeth are pretty good,I have a bit of a flare that does not look cute when taking pics from the side. I did not even notice the spaces between my incisors until the ortho pointed them out.


The dental assistant went through some flossing procedures with me and which point I realised that I had something floating around in my mouth. I spit out a ligature which I actually thought was the keeper for my tongue ring. I asked him is that you or me? He was obviously confused as to what I meant. Oh yeah BTW, I have a tongue ring which I refuse to take out until I am middleaged with kids. My ortho give me a good lecture about it but I eventually compromised with her to wear a 100% plastic tongue piercing retainer. The keeper keeps the bar in place and it looks just like a ligature. It was then I realised he never asked me which colour ligarture I wanted! When I pointed it out he said he assumed that since I got the ceramics I was going for camoflage. I was like duh yeah but I was very iffy about using CLEAR ligatures. I was thinking more grey... to avoid stains.


I have a wedding to go to in two weeks and my next appointment is the day after that. So I have to maintain these ligatures in PRISTINE condition until the day of the wedding. Yeah they will think I'm mad when I pull out my toothbrush from my evening bag. I swear though, the brackets make your teeth look even more crooked than they really are! Oh maybe they are just more crooked than I would like to believe!lol


The only one who even noticed I got the brackets was the one person who knew I was going to get them that day.My mom actually asked me what happened and why I did not get them today.Yeah, then she put on her glasses and said.."OH!"

I was very pleasantly suprised when I read the ortho's monthly newletter and there was an article about them getting the self litagating braces. I immediately ran to the mirror to check outteh braces on my my back teeth. And yep..there were the self litigating braces with no rubber bands. FYI these are said to move your teeth faster with fewer appointments since they eliminate the need for ligatures.They are also a bit smaller in size than older metal brackets.Wow!! For a third world country we are really up to the times. It nearly got me thinking that I should have asked for all metal! I would be done in no time. That definitely motivates me more to put metal on the bottom.

So a few hours later and no real pain. Some pressure. I ate more or less as normal with just some extra effort to place the food on my back teeth. That is extending teh time it takes for me to eat as well. It is getting real old , real fast though. Between the food sticking up in my teeth and the time it takes to chew everything, I lose my appetite. Every now and then I might get a sharp pain in one of the teeth that a bit sensitive but I'm learning how to avoid thats sensation. I am so glad I finally got the ball rolling!!Onwards and Upwards!

Tsum times you can!

Yeah so my friend and I go to one of our favourite watering holes in the middle of the week for no reason. Of course while there we had to get something to nibble. At first we both ordered the crab cakes which i figured was pretty safe.Turns out they were more like carb cakes since it was more flour than anything. Although they tasted good, they did nothing to put a dent in my hunger. So we ordered one of their cheese platters which came with a large basket of Tsum Tsum bread (Arabic crackers). Sigh. My friend had braces as a teen so I questioned her as to the feasibility of eating the damn crackers. She was no help. She said she was good for about the first six months andthen she was eating everything she was not supposed to..nuts, gum etc. With the way I have been going, my track record is progressively worse. After a bit of contemplation I decided to risk it..veeerrry carefully. I picked and chose which pieces I wanted (only the very flat ones) and took my time in breaking them into small pieces before crunching them.

Shortly thereafter some other friends joined us including the girl I met last Friday with ceramic braces. She took one look at the table and was like, "Oh I LOVE Tsum Tsum bread!".She grabbed it up and began to munch away without a second thought.Not a caution in the world! I nearly choked on my Tsum Tsum Bread. Here I was with just BANDS thinking I was going to damage them. STEUPS. I of course wanted to ask her about it but she was some distance away for me to ask without the whole table minding our business.I did not want to put her on show like that since we are not exactly friends.

I hope she did not notice that I was still analysing how the ceramics looked. Being totally preoccupied with the notion I found myself thinking every so often ,"Oh thats how it will look when I talk', 'Oh thats how it will look when I smile". I actually was more concerned with how the bottom looks. I figured out she did not have any brackets on her bottom teeth but I realised it took me forever to figure that out just cause you don't see bottom teeth in general.Observation of the other unbraced people at the table confirmed this. I think I am getting a bit more comfortable with the idea of metal bottoms. I just hope I can hurry up and get this done soon so it will be at the point of no return or before I completely lose my mind. Whichever comes first!

Hanging Tough

Well I am getting kinda bored waiting for my brace day. I have yet to understand what is the reason for the delay. I passed by my ortho the other day to get some forms signed for my (much needed) insurance refund. I hinted to the appointment manager that I would love if my appointment could be moved up. She ignored me. Shortly thereafter she offered me a piece of gum. I thought it was a test to see if I would snatch the bait. FYI you can't eat gum with brackets/bands in your mouth. Apparently it was a 'joke' , I was not amused.

One good thing is that met another adult patient in the waiting room who had full ceramic braces. His set up looked really good, I actually had to ask him if he had anything on his bottom teeth at all, I could hardly see it. Being that I am slightly obsessed with how my brackets will look, I have taken to asking random people about their experience and who was their doctor. I guess once you on the inside you have a tendency to notice people who have brackets whereas you may have over looked it before.

A friend of mine brought his new girl to the club on Friday.He introduced her around outside. I had kinda known her from around since we had attended the same school at a point. She was a couple years ahead of me. The firstthing I noticed was that she had ceramic braces. I guessed it was kinda rude to ask her about them since she had just been intoduced around.... so I waited until we were inside the club.LOL. I am very bold faced. I think I caught her a bit off guard but then explained my situation. She then happily gave me some info once she realised I was not trying to make fun of her. Turns out she has the same ortho as myself and is very happy with the results and the customer care so far. Lucky for her she is getting debraced in two months. Her treatment period was 2.5 years. That was good news as I never really remember her having bad teeth to begin with and my treatment estimate is 2 years. Maybe I will get done even sooner!

The brackets have pretty much settled down more. I no longer feel that maddening poke underneath my tongue. I am still very aware of the contacts between the outer side of teh bands and my cheeks. I cannot imagine that this will ever go away, cause its just THERE ALL THE TIME. I was hoping it would just get numb to the contact.Maybe thats what these extra two weeks are for. I have managed to eliminate use of the wax for now. Which is good cause I'm sure I must have eaten at least two candles. I am toughing it out more because having to reapply the wax everytime you brush your teeth gets annoying as well. It is already a long process to floss ALL my teeth ALL the time.

My brother is investigating visiting a cosmetic surgeon in Miami to fix his teeth cosmetically for even more minor problems than my own. I have been trying to convince him that whatever they do in Miami can be done here now..for less. Like most Trinis, his faith in the local medical system is nonexistant. He wants to get his teeth levelled and whitened and a gap bonded. I advised him to check on the ortho because fixing it cosmetically isn't going to help the underlying problem if his tooth structure is off. (Don't we all become orthodontists during this process ?lol) I am sure he does not know what they really do to your teeth to place veneers. To me if I am going to pay $2-3grand US ($12-18 grand TT) to fix it cosmetically I might as well pay $19grand TT to fix it PROPERLY. But thats just me..my brother has a tendency to be a bit hasty.

Sorry to say I have been bending the rules a bit.My rationale has been that I have not gotten the brackets on yet so I bite everything thats kinda hard with my front teeth. I had a few kernels of popcorn on Saturday. Of course I made the popcorn as soggy as I could before attempting to chew it.I immeditately felt guilty so I stopped. Thats probably the worst of it. Soggy popcorn is not too different from wet cereal which has been ok'ed. I think its the kernels that supposedly get stuck in the brackets.I don't have brackets and how is that kernel different from boiled corn kernels (which have been a bit troublesome as well)?

I just realised that I have two weddings to attend in May and June. Which means I will be well braced up. I guess I will have to get a really hot dress to overshadow my grill. I will be taking a lot of practice pics beforehand to see how I will come out in the wedding photos.I have no intention of having my braces in for MY wedding. I definitely wanted my teeth perfected before my own wedding instead of after cause I would hate to see the pics and have my twisty teeth or my overbite glaring at me in the pics. Yes vain, I know ,but is my wedding dammit! I have a right to be vain!

I tried to get my b/f to take some 'before' pics for me. He thought I was just being dumb. He did take them however. I have yet to upload them, they're a bit better than the out of focus ones I took!

Band of the Year

My bands are driving me insane. I guess sometime in the distant future I will get used to it. At present I fail to see how that is even possible. The sensation of the hardware in my mouth is constant. There is one spot in particular one the right side of my mouth that is jooking into the underside of my tongue. I think that one spot alone is what has me so uncomfortable. I have been using the dental wax constantly in that one spot and one spot alone. If I don't have wax on it, I feel like I want to rip out my teeth. It all does not change the fact that my tongue is already sore. I am not sure if its because my tongue might be swollen or the strange way my mouth is still learning to navigate around the extra volume in my mouth but I feel like I am already starting to speak with a slight lisp (that I never had before).

Wednesday found me staring at the corn on the cob that my mom cooked for lunch in a very resentfull manner. I was having an internal dialogue as to how to eat the corn. On one side I justified it by saying I only had bands on the back so I could still bite the kernels off with my front teeth. On the other hand I heard the dental assistant's voice in my head saying "Broken band=3 extra months +$300". Eventually I cut off the kernels with a knife...my mom thought it was hilarious. She is being suprisingly suppportive. Suprisingly cause I thought she would have hounded me about the expense considering I pay no rent at home. Instead she seems very interested in the process and is glad that I am finally going through with it. I don't know if teeth can be hereditary but my mom, my sister and myself all have the same incisor rotated in the same way.I guess it is something she would fix if she could be bothered but is glad that at least one of us is doing something about our trademark tooth. It does not stop her however form telling me every so often , " Who told you to suck your thumb?!" My brother is getting ideas as well after noticing that he now has a space between his front teeth that he never had before.

I also have a tongue piercing that I am strangely attached too and did not want to take out for the treatment. I managed to beat down my ortho to let me put in a plastic tongue ring for the period. The whole dynamic between the tongue ring and the bands are still trying to sort itself out. The bands itself make me feel like I need to stretch my mouth all the time like how you would stretch your back when you sit in one spot for too long.

I'm starting to get a little concerned as to how I am going to survive when the actual brackets ar on...for two years!!! I don't know if I ever get used to this.

Banded not Braced

Well I thought I would have my braces today. Apparently I was a bit over anxious. Today I got my molar bands put on. These are the metal rings that anchor the braces on your rear teeth.

When I got to the ortho I met with my treatment coordinator who showed me my panoramic x rays and the plaster moulds. The moulds really showed up every flaw in my teeth. I noticed that one of my upper front teeth was actually rotating. The ortho said this is because of the twisted bottom teeth. The bottom teeth looked even more crowded than I thought. I can't wait until they're fixed.

The treatment coordinator went over my contract with me which basically listed all their rules and regulations and what expenses I will incur if I don't follow their instructions. I also got a list of all the foods I can and cannot eat. The actual list is pretty amusing and I am sure it is exclusive to Trinidad. So I can't eat Plums, Kurma, Chennette, Channa or Pommecythere. However I can eat pelau,roti and coo coo. LOLOL Them foods are a different language to people not from Trinidad! If I drop the ball and partake of such banned delicacies I will suffer the pain of paying $300 for replacement brackets. I also have to maintain a rigid dental hygiene so that I won't get decalcification (those yucky brown/white spots on teeth) or cavities.

Once I got into the chair they pulled out the separators. These popped out pretty easily although one required some extra force. I was asked to floss where the separators had been and were amazed to see how big the gap was between the teeth. Back in the seat they sized up my molars to see which was the correct sized band. Just my luck, all four of my banding teeth were different sizes. Even the dental assistant was a bit surprised. After she sized them she had to take them back out to put on the glue. I was given a heads up that this was NASTY. Fortunately she had but some spong ein my mouth to dry up the area and I kept my mouth as wide as possible so I was able to go thru the procedure without tasting it at all.

The bands themselves are not painful. But I can already tell why it causes discomfort. The metal just starts to rub against the inside of your mouth and just irritates it constantly. .After getting read the riot act again about what I can and cannot eat. I was given my own "Dentakit" by the Ortho. They have their own branded pencil cases with everything a person with braces would need. There was dental wax, dental floss, floss threaders, toothbrush (with cover) and a full instruction booklet on how to use all the nifty stuff.Fortunately for my bands seem to be settling in fairly quickly. I used some of the dental wax to buffer the rubbing against the underneath of my tongue but it was more of a pre-emptive strike as I felt that the area was the most likely to get irritated.

The receptionist gave me my next appointment and I was not impressed when she told me that it would be in April!! I asked if its usually so long between banding and bracing and she advised that the ortho decided that was when I should come back. Ok then...What pissed me off was not so much the fact that I have to wait an entire month with these bands chillin in my mouth it was the fact that I told her I would have preferred to wait until april to brace and SHE was the one who advised that since I had the separators in already, I had to do schedule for this week. Seeing that I STILL won't get braced till April any way why rush to put in the bands? Even if the bands have to settle in for a two weeks, I would have been in a better financial position if I had to pay the downpayment in April and not this week. STEUPS. After agonising on the whole braces issue for so long I am a bit disappointed that I did not get the party started today. Just seeing those dental records made me more eager to get started asap. SO....one month till braces.

T-Minus 1 day

The night before I am to get my brackets put on I still can't make up my mind whether to get the combo or all ceramic braces. The ortho's staff called me again today and after a moment or two of dead silence on the phone (ok you called me because...), they asked what I had decided. I was like ..ummmm ....I already had this conversation with the other girl on Saturday, by calling me and asking again all I will do is flip flop around.

I spent most of this evening reading brace stories (good and bad) and watching pictures on www.archwired.com. It really has been a good resource , especially when you want to get feedback from those who have already been through the process.

My bank finally got their act together and I actually overpaid the credit card.So I am good to go for payment tomorrow.

Funny story..when I first went in for my consultation the ortho asked me 'Darling,No ne came with you today?'. I said...why would they? I'm 26! She was actually surprised when she checked my sheet and saw that I was indeed 26. I guess I look even younger than I thought. Hmm..again braces aren't going to help. People might start id-ing me in clubs now lololol!

T-Minus 2 days

So I am preparing myself for what is to come on Wednesday. I thought I would have a conflict with work because of some deadlines that I had but luckily I got it taken off my hands and am a little less stressed generally.

I am not even impressed right now with my bank. I dragged myself out my bed on Friday (after having too much fun at my birthday celebrations) to go pay my credit card. This is credit card which will unfortunately be used to pay the downpayment on my braces this Wednesday.I wanted to pay cash but the cost of the extra dental work and the accelerated treatment schedule has put me in a bit of a bind. The line in the bank was of course ridiculous. I wanted to pay on Friday so that it would be safely posted to the account for Wednesday. The only way I would be able to afford the downpayment is if I cleared the outstanding balance on the card. First off I got pissed when their ATM limited my withdrawl amount because I was using another bank's card. On seeing the line, I asked a CSR if I could pay at the atm. She said I could but the fast deposit box was "just as fast as going to a teller". Great! So I fixed up and dropped the (short) payment in the box.Why is it that when I went to the bank today to pay the difference outstanding...my payment from Friday morning has not yet posted? I paid cash , how is that possible if its 'just as fast as the teller'. I happened to go to a different branch and was told by the teller there that the branch I went to on Friday closes later and usually they only clear the box once a day after closing. How on EARTH could that be just like a teller???Obviously if I knew there would be a delay I would have waited in line! Anyhow you take it why does a cash payment take so long to post??They alledge that the payment will certainly be there by tomorrow.If its not , or if they lost it I am screwed. They would not like to hear my mouth tomorrow.

In the midst of this I have been on a mission to eat all of the things that I will not be able to eat while in braces. Lunch today was a lovely Hott Shoppe Beef roti with lots of curry mango. I had a great snack of nachos later on. I really should have thought of this sooner cause I am pretty far behind in terms of eating all the banned foods. No way I can squeeze them into these two days. I also went and stocked up on ramen noodle cups and mac and cheese which may the only thing I may be able to eat on Wednesday. I don't even want to think how my teeth will keep me back from eating. I love my belly too much!

Well I'm going to eat some more chips..I'll let you know how it goes.

Ceramic vs Metal Mouth Jumbie

Much to my dismay I recieved a phone call today from the orthodontist's office. Last week I called them to confirm my appointment to start putting on my brackets next week. I still had not made up my mind whether I wanted to get ceramic or metal brackets. I asked what was the absolute last day to make up my mind. I was told that Tuesday (day before appt) was my deadline cause they were doing up my contract on that day. Contract!! Is all that bacchanal to get braces???



So when I got the call today I was surprised when I was told I had to make up my mind...NOW! ARGGGHHH! I coud not even make up my mind what section to play mas in. I literally changed my mind like 5 times standing in the registration line. They actually crossed out my section on my registration card and rewrote it.If I can't decide dthat , how I am supposed to decide on teh spot something I will have to live with for the next two years or so? That I can't change after the fact at that!!



So here are my options.....I crossed out the idea of getting full metal brackets from the get go.(see pics) I DEFINITELY did not want that. I am still a bit self conscious about how the braces will actually look (on a big woman like me). So it was down to all ceramic braces or half and half (ceramic on top,metal below).


Obviously the reason I am interested in the ceramic braces is that it is less "noticeable" than metal braces. I say that with a grain of salt because really and truly you are not going to fool anyone standing right in front of you that you don't have braces on your teeth. I just think its a bit easier on the eyes, especially as an adult. You still see the metal archwire (wire across teeth) and you still see the actual bracket although it belnds into your teeth more. However one of the downfalls of ceramic braces is that it is more expensive, in my case $1500 more per arch. I was also advised by the ortho. that because the ceramic is not as rigid as the metal that the adjustments are more gradual.For this reason the ceramic may take 2-6 months longer for treatment than having metal braces.

In my case, my bottom teeth are the problem area. I also happen to smile with my top teeth because of my overbite. The plan is to put braces on the top for a few months to decrease the overbite and reduce a slight flare (aka slight buck teeth from my thumb sucking days) so that I won't bite off braces on the bottom. When this has been corrected I will place braces on my bottom teeth to fix the crowding. Seeing that the bottom are my real problem it might make sense to put ceramic on top (for aesthetics) and metal on the bottom (for efficiency) seeing that they would be partially hidden .

So its between all ceramic for looks or the combo for looks and efficiency. And I had to decide on the spot! Well I still had to compromise..I told her I would pay down for the combo since I DEFINITELY want ceramic uppers. And since I would have to have those for a few months I would decide what to do with the bottom. I think I would have better idea if the ceramics are really worth the xtra expense aesthetically once I see the ceramics on my teeth. If they don't impress me at all I guess I might bite the bullet (no pun intended) and put metal on the bottom just to be done with it faster. My main concern is that I deal with a lot of prominent (older) ppl in my business and I already feel like I don't always get the respect I deserve being both younger and female. I already look young for my age so adding braces to the mix probably won't help my image.

Funnily enough I met a client recently that had the worst teeth I had ever seen in my life.Correction....what was LEFT of his teeth was the worse teeth I had ever seen in my life. Yeah, they were that bad. His front teeth both upper and lower were missing. What was left was yellow, twisted and filled with metal. You would think that being a professional he would take his nice fat paycheck and fix that shit. My teeth aren't that bad and I am certainly not swimming in money yet I will find a way to fix them. It boggled my mind how he even LET it get to that stage and how he could look in the mirror everyday and not be concerned. It hard not to stare at them as he spoke. I think thats when I told myself that I would be damned if my teeth ever got like that. It softened the blow of paying for those fillings. I so wanted to give him my ortho's number.Would that be rude?Maybe if I meet with him again and he sees me with braces he would be inclined to ask himself. While visiting the ortho I saw a grey haired woman who had to be in her 50s/60s who had a full ceramic set.I was suprised that someone at her age would even bother, but then again, I never saw her 'before' pics. If her before looked like his, I would definitely understand why!


So few days left till the big day!We'll se how it goes!Please visit archwired.com for more inmformation on the process.Its a very good site for adults who have or want braces. Pics and all!

New Carnival Diet

Yeah so this might be kinda irrelevant at this point and a bit of sidebar of the purpose of this blog. But let me tell you, if you ever want to lose 10 pounds for say...Carnival....then get lot sof dental work done and even get braces!

No seriously, my mouth still hurting me. Four days after separators...When I am talking or doing nothing its ok. But when I apply any sort of pressure to my teeth i.e biting or closing my jawor EATING it is extremely uncomfortable. Right now I can even tell the difference between filling pain and separator pain. Is just pain all round. I watching food whole day with longing. I so doh want to even try to eat anything cause its a hassle!It take me half hour to eat a sandwich just becauseI have to chew in slow motion. Its just too much trouble.By the time I finish my jaw hurting more from all the chewing!I not even tryimg to eat harder foods. But think about it..those are the ones that are more fattening.If I was on a diet I would be on easy street.Itreally is more discomfort than pain but lawd aye. This is what I have to go thru every month with them braces??NAH! Every time I get it in my head to just say to hell with it and look to pull out the separators I get a good look at my crooked bottom teeth and change my mind. Boy I have a loong road ahead of me.

Outta Space and more Cavities

Since I was on vacation before and after Carnival and tried to squeeze as many appointments as I could during this time so I would not have to take time off work.In hindsight, this was both a good and a bad idea. I had a filling to complete and my records to do at the orthdontist the same day.

I started off at the dentist at 9:00am to get the final filling done. This went much faster than the others as it was much smaller. Somewhere along I made a comment that my other filling felt as though I always had something stuck in between, then again my teeth always feel that way.Well who tell me say that! The dentist took another look at the first filling and decided it was not 'perfect' . I ended up getting anaesthia on both sides of my face as she went back in to jook up the first filling. I certainly appreciate the thoroughness but I was not bound to get all that jook one time.Now I know why they did not let me do all the filllings in one sitting in the first place. My face was so numb that I could not even gargle the water to rinse my mouth.

I left there with about 15 minutes to spare for my next appointment. I was a bit concerned as to how I was going to be able to do the records with my face all numb. I could barely feel my face to bite down on my teeth. A hop,skip and a jump later I was at the ortho.

After checking in myself, I was quickly attended to. The xray guy was very pleasant and showed me how to stand in front of yet another full frontal x ray machine. Afterwards I took my moulds where I had the choice between peppermint,watermelon and pina colada latex. Apparently they were all out of strawberry cheesecake. The moulds are the actual impressions of your teeth as they are before treatment.I was kinda glad I did not see them finished.

Well when I thought they were done I was still leaningback in the chair.I'm thinking they still have more impressions to take. Nope! Lucky me, they were putting in my separators one time.
These are small elastic bands which are placed between the teeth to seperate them so that the metal bands can be fittted around the tooth. The bands act as the anchors for the braces in case you did not know. Well I got them in with no problem, good to go.

When I met with the receptionist to make my next appointent she gave me my appointment. I was planning for first week in April based on my budget.I was told that I was getting braces on the 7th March. Ok then!! It will definitely take some clever juggling for me to pull that off. The ceramic braces require a $9000 downpayment. If I choose ceramic uppers and metal lowers its $7500. All metal is $6000. I am in between the all ceramic and the combo but any how you take it I was not really comfortable with pelting out that money so soon. The thing is if I postpone it to be cautious about my budget I won't be able to get another appointment until 10th April when my Ortho come back from vacation. I will also have to get these separators taken out as I can't have them in for that length of time. Decisions decisions. I decided to keep in the separators and work it out and then cancel and come back in for removal if I changed my mind.

I left the dentist very well.I went to the beach , yam down a bake and shark. Somewhere along I realised the anaesthia was wearing off. Boy, its that when the pain started. My separators are really uncomfortable.It uncomfortable by itself but then I have these fillings that are sensitive as well.I not even sure anymore what really causing the pain.The separators feel gross when I bite my teeth together cause it literally feels like you biting into a rubber band. Thats in addition to the fact that I have an almost uncontrollable urge to dig them out.Again, they feel like boulder betweenmy teeth.Its the teeth next to the separators feel like they want to move as well. I would HATE to have gone through this and then start over.I scheduled the records appointment not realising that they would be doing all this so soon. My hope for having a pain free birthday on Friday is out the door!Lucky me!

The doctor says to the patient....

Yeah, sounds like a old joke coming on..well I definitely thought THIS was hilarious. After my visit to the dentist and the pain of spending all that money hit me (notthe pain of the filling !). I made a call to Ortho Dr.1 with vengenance in my soul for the expense I was put under which was in my mind avoidable. I did not call t make noise however as I was rather disgusted with the situation, I called to politely cancel my appointment to do my records. I spoke to the receptionist and she asked when I wanted to reschedule. I am sure I laughed noticably. I told her no thanks I won't be rescheduling. She politely enquired to my reason and I politely advised her that I had decided to go with someone else.

To my suprise the doctor called me back a few minutes later. Doc's first words to me was that if I had a problem with the cost of the treatment that they would be able to work things out for me. You know that got me pissed.....I was more than willing a week before to pay for their over priced service based solely on the promise of shorter treatment times. I took offense to the fact that I was brushed off at the follow up consultation quite abruptly and here Doc was sounding almost desperate to reel me back in.Oh so now they realise I really looking to spend my money , now I am a patient worthy of their time.STEUPS. Yuh kow I tell them how it is. I said that the reason I went with someone else is that I was told by my dentist that I had a cavity in my mouth which I felt they should have picked up since it was evidently present when I pointed it out 3 years ago. Doc responded by saying that they saw nothing on my xray and surmised that it developed recently. I retorted that it was not so much a cavity as it was a canyon since it was almost a root canal. The Doc sounded a bit taken aback and flustered and again commented that nothing was on the xray.Then I was told that the dentist xrays are more precise than the full frontal xrays they take. After all they are only checking my tooth structure.Then Doc is demanding the name of my Dr. I had a mind they wanted they wanted the other Ortho's Name but I thought well enough to give the Dentist's name. I wante dthem to calland hear just how big it was. Well I always thought a xray was a xray, i suppose I am wrong. I was still not impressed with the doc's reasoning on the matter. Then Doc was soon back to haggling the price and talking about payment plan.I let them know that the price was not an issue until I had to factor in the cost of all the reconstructive work.I could fix my teeth and put on the CERAMIC braces for less than their base cost.The doc then did something I did not expect and undermined the practice of the other yet unamed doctor. Doc said that their treatemnt was better because they use real ceramic braces and not plastic synthetic braces like those other doctors. This was teh justification for their elevated costs. With that comment made in such a way that Doc was struggling to control the tone just sealed my decision. No way I want this person in my mouth. I just said that was so nice of them to make accomodations for me, I would definitely reconsider in light of their offer. (yeah right!)

Of course I immediately emailed my Ortho to confirm exactly which type of Ceramic braces they used.

Anti-Cavity

Sigh so bright and early I went to the dentist to have the larger cavity filled.(The two in one stunner). Thankfully they move on time so I did not have to wait long. I got into see the dentist within 5 minutes there.

As I sat on the dentist's chair the doctor warned me that the cavity is usually more advanced than what the xrays show. I may have actually had to do a root canal!! OUCH!! You think anyone at my age should have that going on in their mouth?? You know that just got me even more pissed off at the Ortho Dr.1 .How the hell they could not see the gorge that was forming in my mouth???

So after getting some nice drugs and some fancy equipment buzzing around my head. I had the cavity filled. It was much less painless than I imagined it to me. Doh mind I was tensed up almost the entire time she was in my mouth. I was also given a block to bite down on to keep my mouth open. I was too embarrassed to look to see what I did to the block. The impressions I left might have been able to cut through the block itself. The time flew quickly but I could tell she had her work cut out for her.Fortunately I avoided the root canal. I was advised that I would have to monitor it cause it could eventually become one. I opted for the tooth coloured fillings since I already had enough metal in my mouth due to my experience with another slightly suspect dentist. I got large metal fillings before where a cavity was not even visible with the naked eye!

So after a little over and hour I was done and talking like an idiot. I winced as the receptionist took my money.A grand gone easy easy. LAWD! And ppl complain about the cost of dental work in the states! I must say though, I can't even tell where the cavity is, the match was excellent

The Dentist

I have not been to the dentist in years so I certainly was not looking forward to this visit. Coincedentally the dentist was a few doors down from Dr.2. I got a bigger surprised when the Dentist told me that she remebered me from primary school. It took me awhile but I finally placed the face, she was a couple years ahead of me. So I relaxed a bit.

A short inspection and a few xrays later confirmed that I had 3 cavities that needed to be filled! Two of the three were actually in that one problem spot that both myself and Dr.2 thought was suspicious. The dentist told me that the one cavity had spread between the two teeth and that it was so large that it was almost a root canal. Funnily enough I have not been in any pain. At that point I made my decision that Dr.2 would be my orthodontist of choice. I had lost all confidence in Dr.1 as I felt that the cavity should have been picked up 3 years ago with their xrays especially since I had highlighted the area. That along with the fact that during my follow up consulatation no inspection/xray was done to observe changes in my tooth structure and I was not even referred to a dentist for a checkup/ cleaning.Maybe they meant to do that after my records were taken..I'll never know.

So I proceeded with my tooth cleaning and was rescheduled to get my cavities filled. The cleaning and the xrays came up to $660! The cavities would cost a total of $1500 to fill ($500/filling).My friend warned me that this dentist was the uptown destist. It was necessary work that would have to be done whether or not I was getting braces and I have dental insurance so I figured I would have to bite the bullet. The practice also has a reputation for having some of the most advanced equipment in the country so I felt safe enough. I left the dentist with a cup in hand to spit out my saliva as it came along. I got a flouride treatment with which they tell you that you can't swallow for half hour. Telling me not to swallow is like telling me not to breathe...it was the worse. Yuh spitting amd yuh dribbling everywhere.

Unfortunately the unexpected expense of the tooth repair is going to set me back financially in terms of when I get the braces put on. I have no idea how I am going to work it out.

Dr Number Two I presume...

My friend had insisted that I get a second consultation before I made any decisions and I was certainly glad that I did.Doctor two had already impressed me by sending me a letter in the mail greeting me and confirming my appointment. It also included a map to the office and an extensive patient info form that I had to complete in advance. I don't recall going through that long list of ailments with Dr. 1 in either appointment although I had verbally told them what i suffered from. I was completely impressed as soon as I walked into the offices of Doctor number 2. The set up was very professional and inviting. To my suprise there was a computerised check in system where you used a computer provided in the waiting room to register your arrival for your appointment. I did not even know ppl in Trinidad had them fancy ting.

Shortly thereafter I was greeted by some friendly staff who explained that they would be taking the "before" pictures of my teeth to help with the consultation. They had a seperate adjustment center with four stations where several people could be placed to do required maintenance.

I was then ushered into the doctor's office where a full visual inspection in the chair was done by the doctor. I was surprised to see that my photos had already been uploaded to my patient file on the computer which was networked to the office. I advised the Doctor that I was checking out several doctors out of courtesy. I was advised that I would not need extractions and treatment would take about two years. She assured me that she was being more realistic than the other doctor.I was also suprised when she told me that she suspected I had a large cavity that needed to be filled before we could progress further. Then I got pissed....Why? Three years ago when I first visited Dr.1 and took xrays I had mentioned that I suspected I had a cavity in the location that Dr.2 was now suspicious of. Dr.1 dismissed my concern and said that it was ok. I also dismissed it as I put it down to my pet peeve of having things stuck between my teeth and my frequent picking that made me feel as though I had a void in between my teeth. Dr. 2 immediately referred me to a dentist. I was also tol dthat there wasno way I could avoid having a full treatment (top and bottom teeth).My overbite was so deep that I would just bite off the bottom brackets.Although the bottom was the bigger problem I would have to put brackets on teh top for a few months before I even got started on the bottom. This was news to me as Dr.1 had not said it in this way. Dr.1 did indicate that I needed both top and bottom even though 3 years previously I was told I could just do the bottom if I desired. Dr.2 also mentioned that my top teeth were stating to rotate because of the contact with the rotating bottom teeth. After giving me some more info on the treatment I was ushered to meet my 'treatment coordinator'.

The treatment coordinator presented me with a full information folder along with a free pen.LOLOL. I was then given a full powerpoint presentation on the different stages of treatment. I was given the lecture on what I would and would not be able to eat and ended off with the pricing. I was shocked to see that Dr.2 was nearly $3000 cheaper than Dr.1 for basic treatment.The ceramic treatment was also cheaper by being and extra $1000 per arch. I was starting to lean towards Dr.2 although the treatment time might be longer.I had some time as I had already decided thatnothing would be happening until after Carnival and after my birthday at the beginning of March.

I made an appointment with Dr.2 to do my records as well. I was reserving my final decision until my dentist visit. I was giving a computer generated appointment memo and sent merrily on my way.

Dr. Number One I presume...

Since I was really serious about going through with this I scheduled consultations with two orthodontists.. One was with the Doctor I saw three years ago and the other was referred by a friend who has literally had braces for 10 years. (She did not keep her retainer and had to redo treatment).

My visit to the first orthodontist did not go as I expected. On my first visit the doctor seemed pretty thorough in terms of info and what I should expect. The bedside manner was also positive. I had only heard good things from others who had used her and was eager to visit again and get the ball rolling. Although I had another consulation line dup it was 3 weeks away and I had pretty much made up my mind that I was sticking with the first doctor. Although a little more expensive than most orthdontists in Trinidad, I was guaranteed a shorter treatment time because of the 'modern methods' they used in the practice.

Well after waiting over an hour for my scheduled appointment I was ushered into the room. The orthdontist basically greeted me and handed me an updated price listing.Of course the prices had increased over the years. I glanced at the xray screen and saw my old xrays which in profile made my teeth looked really horrible. Even the top teeth looked flared outward. I pointed out that I was concerned a particular tooth was shifting dramatically and the doctor took a brief glance into my mouth from across the desk. I was told that I could still proceed with the treatment without doing extractions.I was not placed into a dentist chair for a visual inspection nor did I take any further x rays. I was getting the feeling that I was being hurried out of the office. Although the doctor did me a 'favour' by not charging me for the visit I felt cheated out of the consultation. I had done a great deal of research on the topic and had several questions which I never got chance to ask. I certainly had not gone to the appointment expecting a free consultation. For the very least I thought I would have new xrays done to see the changes first hand.

I was instructed to schedule a follow up appointment to do my "records' which is a full plaster mould of your teeth and probably some more xrays and the 'before' pics. I left the office a little disgruntled and annoyed that I had wasted so much of my day. I don't know if the doctor felt I was not serious since this was the second time I was visiting and I was just being humoured. I certainly did not feel I got the attention I deserved as a paying customer and decided at that point that I would still pay a visit to Doctor Number 2.

Brace Face

After literally years of contemplation, I have finally decided to get my teeth straightened. Most people who know me and who have seen my teeth will tell you that nothing is wrong with them. Some even think I have had orthodontic work done before.Generally nothing is wrong with my top teeth. My overbite is so deep that the top of my bottom teeth disappear so you may not notice that its my bottom teeth that are crowded and rotating. The reason it bugs me so much is that they USED to be near perfect and now they're not. I think if my teeth were kinda crooked to begin with I probably would be used to them and would be so self conscious of it.Part of the reason may also be because really bad teeth is a HUGE turnoff for me. Two things I notice about a guy when they approach..is their height and their teeth. Lacking in either of the two would probably not help your case.If you are female, the first thing I notice is teeth. And as they say, first impressions are lasting. I would remember the rider someone had before I remember their name. Over the years I have also developed a habit of cleaning between my teeth (not in the open!). I don't know if its because they are getting so jammed close together or what but anything between my teeth feels like a boulder and drive sme crazy! I have also noticed that its getting progressively worse over time so before it gets out of control I am taking pre emptive action. So this is how my teeth look now...

I first got the idea in my head to get braces about 3 years ago after I graduated university. By this time my wisdom teeth had come out and I assume this is part of the reason my teeth started shifting.My mom was very supportive as she has been convinced that it was my thumb sucking as a child that had come back to haunt me. At that time I scheduled a consulation with a reputable orthodontist. During the consultation I took xrays and was told that my teeth could be corrected without the need for extractions in about 15months. I was suprised to see that the cost of my treatment would be approximately $20000 +. This all depended on whether or not i chose the regular metal braces or the ceramic braces (tooth coloured) which incurred a higher cost. The ceramic braces cost $1800 extra per arch and are preferred choice for adult patients as they are less noiceable (not invisable). At the time I was concerned about going back to school for my Masters' Degree and was working in a job that was well below what I should have been earning. I also did not own a vehicle which was a purchase that was personally important to me. I knew my parents weren't going to front any of the money.For that reason I decided to post pone the treatment until I found a better job.

Fast forward to present day....I now have a better job and half a Master's degree (long story). My teeth as I said seemed to be getting worse and I have also developed a grinding habit in my sleep. Supposedly that is due to stress but I am more inclined to think its because my bite has changed ( I live a happy life). I scheduled another consultation with the same orthodontist to hear what she has to say.