Saturday, September 8, 2007

Lost My Expander...Gained some Ovations!


Yesterday I went into Dr. K with a loose molar band on the upper left side of my expander. This was my second visit to the office because this and I knew it wasn't me or anything I'd eaten. My diet has been mostly softer foods because of the pain in my teeth and lack of tolerance for that pain over the past few months. I had also been dealing with a few sore spots on my pallet due to the expander cutting into my pallet.

I wriggled in pain as the assistant tried to get the bar off of the band on that side so she could take the band out of my mouth to reglue it, but finally they decided they'd just have to leave it in and reglue it without removing that bar. They dried the tooth, aired it out, had cotton roles to keep the moisture away from the tooth and then reglued the band. They then had me bite down on the bite stick to push the molar band up and around the tooth. It didn't want to stay and when they saw that it was causing sores because it was digging into the roof of my mouth Dr. K said they were going to remove completely.

Those were heavenly words I must say...but then I began to wonder where that was going to leave my treatment plan he had leading up to my surgery in several months. He said he is confident that having moved my teeth as much as he had that using the braces he'd be able to get the results he wanted prior to surgery so I was comfortable with that. Now the removing process of the expander was another painful story in of itself.

It was quite painful due to the rotating of the teeth behind my incisors which were banded for the expander. Both have crowns on them and on 'my' right side the crown had begun to slip down (look in the picture above you'll see it how low it sits). I was in tears by the time they got that thing out of my mouth. I'm pretty tolerant of pain but I was ready to jump out of the chair as they pulled this thing out of my mouth.

Happy to say, I now have some Ovations on my uppers and they are looking much better than those silver bands I had wrapped around my teeth. My teeth are quite sore and will be for a few days. My bite is way off due to those crowns slipping down so eating is quite a challenge right now for me. It's been really a soft diet since yesterday I can barely even bite down because these teeth are hitting together and they're the ones that are causing all the pain. I'm just happy to be in braces and out of the upper expander.

3 comments:

nabukay said...

wow your braces look really good. i have not even joined braces world its still 3 weeks but as the time draws nearer i get more scared. i don't have a high pain threshold like you do and i hate the dentist, but i reckon its time to be brave adn fix my teeth. thanks for being one of those people that inspire me.

Michelle said...

Wow, I kinda lost track of you for a couple months. Glad to see you are doing well. So, how long did you have the RPE in the top? Your braces look great and your teeth are very pretty, they are really going to look good when you are done. I may be considering lumineers once I get the braces off. I have some odd discolorings on my teeth that I want to do away with, the OS said I should wait on making that decision because he thinks with a little bleaching I will be happy. So we shall see. Im glad your doing well.

Anonymous said...

WOW~ I am needing to talk to someone like you, I just started the whole corrective jaw surgery quest after talking to my ortho today in Scottsdale AZ at age 32!! I also did braces when I was younger but really needed jaw surgery since that time! Who did you see for OS and ortho? I have to do the expander thing too, I am so interested in your story please email me lesleybush44@aol.com Thank you