Separated Again....Ouch!

Well, I headed back to the ortho today to get the spacers put back in...not a pleasant experience unfortunately. I've mentioned a few posts ago that I've had braces before, I also have worked for an orthodontist so spacers are not new to me. Unfortunately my teeth thought differently...they were so tight that the pour assistant was practically standing on her head to get them in. She had four that she got in part way and just left to sit, she put these on with the pliers...after breaking a few with the pliers and my tight teeth she decided to try an old trick. She took out two pieces of dental floss and laced it through the spacer so she was holding a piece of dental floss in each hand. She then would work it back and forth as she pressed down on the floss to get them to slide right in...not exactly but it did work like a peach...for a few anyways. This trick seemed to go a bit better, she got in about four that way and then decided to go back to the pliers...there were just two spacers left out of 12 when she was pushing so hard to get it down between my molers that it broke and her hand slipped and jammed my face. OUCH!!!!!!!! I tried to hold back the tears but it felt like being punched...poor girl, she felt so bad especially when she saw a few tears trickle down...quite embarassing I must say.

I'm sitting back there with all these pre adolecents and teens and here I am the adult and she makes a big fuss over the fact she made me cry...LOL...I was wishing I were somewhere else to be honest with you...I felt like I was in the ring with Ali by the time I walked out there. She told me that maybe I'd better to to a chiropractor...LOL! One hour later I was up and out of the chair...*big sigh*...and just glad to be verticle. There were two assistants who worked on getting the spacers in and on my way out they handed me two coupons for free ice cream cones...LOL...I was like "thank you, but I think I'll be ok"...LOL...they just felt so bad that they made me cry so they wanted to make it up to me and one hug and two free ice cream coupons later I was on my way out of the door.

I go back next week for the expanders to go in...what fun, I can hardly wait...well...let's just say I'm glad to get started but I'm not looking foward to the expansion and slurring my words together, drooling and having a sore tongue...the price we pay for a nice smile though..eh?!:!

A Good Impression

Well, today I went back to the orthodontist for the impressions and removal of my spacers.

The assistant leaned me back so that she could remove those awful looking green and blue spacers. My teeth had been quite sensitive the entire week of wearing them so I'm thinking that getting braces again might be a bit more painful than it was the first time around.

Unfortunately having experience in removing spacers in a previous job I knew that there would be some pretty foul smelling food that would come out with them...yuck!! Well, I am no different...she took gauze pads and as she removed each spacer she covered it before she pulled...thank goodness.

She suggested I might like to go the ladies room to rinse and brush and to be honest with you...I couldn't get there fast enough...the taste was horrible and embarrassing all at once. The pre-toothpaste toothbrushes were nothing to write home about either...I'm not sure which was the worse of two evils...but it did feel better to get the taste of old food out of my mouth.

The impressions went smoothly. She did the upper first and then the lower. Before she started mixing the powder with the water she asked me what flavor I would like...LOL...when I did this over twenty years ago there was no choice of flavors and now look...you can have cotton candy, cherry, watermelon, rootbeer, cinnamon and the list goes on and on...I chose cinnamon. I really couldn't taste it really...who could with all of that rubber pressing into every nook and cranny that it cold find. She was sweet to ask though and there was a bit of an aftertaste where it resembled a light flavoring of cinnamon.

That was it...I was done and we made an appointment to come back a week before the appliances come back so that they could put those lovely blue and green spacers back in....can't wait!!

Surgery In Another Country???

I know many are going to think I'm totally out there on this but it just might be an option. I was on a forum where they were talking about going out of the country for their surgeries and how pleased they've been with the outcomes. You hear the horror stories of people who've done this and it makes one extremely cautious.

I have begun researching this option and I'm taking it slow. I want to make sure that I'm not jumping in over my head and being the researcher I am that is just what I'm doing...Researching the possibilities available to me.

I was given a doctor by the name of Oscar Reiche, DDS, who is an Oral & Maxillofacial surgeon in Costa Rica. The young lady I'm speaking to just had her SARPE surgery by him and she and her orthodontist are quite pleased with the results. She'll be going back for more surgery in several months by him.

I found his website and emailed him a list of questions, let's see when he'll respond.