I'm in the Power Chain Club!!

\

Well, with the holidays I haven't been so good at keeping up with what has been going on with my ortho treatment. On Dec 6th I went in for my third adjustment since acquiring my sparkling Ovations! Yup...their still sparkling! Dr. K put in a much strong wire this time around and my wonderful ortho assistant asked him if she should put a nice powerchain across the front 4 to close the gaps, and of coarse he thought that was a wonderful idea. I have gone down the powerchain road before so I knew what to expect in terms of soreness. So the lovely assistant asked what color Powerchain I would like...LOL...I was like, I have clear braces for a reason, you really don't think I want a colored powerchain now do you???? LOL...ok...I'll take red so everyone thinks I have been sucking on one of those tablets that reveal plaque. I of coarse choose "CLEAR" and she laughed and thought I just might want to be a bit adventurous and I told her I was being adventurous for the second time going back into braces at 46. :)

So, my teeth hurt quite a bit for the first few days but it wasn't unbearable. I will tell you those powerchains are pretty amazing, by a few hours after having the powerchain on the space that was right next to both sides of my two front teeth was gone! WOW, pretty amazing little rubber bands they are. Because the powerchain is only on the front four I still have a pretty good size space between my canines and the front fours but I'm sure they'll bless me with another Powerchain on my next visit...but you never know they just might do something much more extreme.

I've posted a few pictures that I took today, Dec. 19th, so it's been a few weeks since my visit. I will be making a trip back this week to have them put a fresh powerchain on because they do tend to stain and that's what you see in the pictures. A bit too much coffee and spaghetti...go figure. :)

Just a side note, my son will be getting his braces of the beginning of next year. I'll have to post a picture of the two of us in braces before and after. Have a wonderful Merry Christmas and may the Lord bless you and your families!

Moving Along

Well, it's been about two months now since I received my new Ovations on the upper teeth and things are moving along. I've had two adjustments between that time and can see my teeth starting to really move. I love the clear brackets and so far they're holding up well. I had a few trips back to the Ortho that first week with the brackets coming off but nothing since that time.

I go back in for a new wire early December and hopefully I'll find out when they think I'll be ready for surgery. I'm not too sure about surgery because that obviously is a huge step of faith but I've been in touch with the OS and I'm just waiting on some referrels of previous clients he's worked on.

My husband and I just had our annual benefits enrollment for his company and we set up our Flexible Spending account for the maxiumum you can have taken out monthly for the surgery. We'll probably have about $5,000 in expenses we'll be responsible for, the chin surgery will not be covered because it's considered cosmetic and then some other fees that we'll be responsible for. All pre-taxed dollars and hopefully that will cover us.

The lower pallet expander is working really well. I see spaces developing in front of my last molar on both sides as well as a small space in the front. I'm not certain when that will be coming out but to be honest I really don't notice it much until I get food caught in it. :)

Life has been pretty quiet with my treatment and so I haven't posted much but I'll be posting more as we move along. I've been doing quite a bit of reading on some Orthgnathic Surgery Forums on Yahoo and you learn a lot from others who have gone through the same experience. Move to come...

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.

Before and After Photos of Expander

Here is some photos when I just got my expanders put in and four months later. There seems to be some widening on the uppers but I'm not noticing a whole lot of the lowers...maybe just a tad wider there too.

A New Adjustment...

I went for my monthly checkup today and all went well. The plan was to put brackets on the 6's and put a wire from the 5's through the 6's & back to the 7's. There's been a lot of space created between the back three teeth in only just a few short months, it amazes me how much. He's going to start pulling them back with this twisted wire. So, it was pretty uneventful this time around. Took a few things of wax home with me and have had it on to help with the new wire and to keep the inside of my mouth from getting chewed up.

It's funny, but I hardly even think much about having the expander in. A friend of mine just went to Dr. Kawakami with her daughter and she'll be getting a pallet expander too. She wanted to see mine and I think it scared her a bit...she hid behind mom when I showed her...LOL! I told her we could be twins...and she said "no way...she doesn't even want it." :)

Overbite Update

Just thought I'd post a current picture update of what everything is looking like. This view you can see how much of an overbite I really have...pretty, eh? I can notice that my pallet is a bit wider than a few months ago...I'm excited to see just how full/wide my smile will be once the full expansion has occurred. I'm not drooling am I???? sheesh...what's a girl to do?!?!?

To Pik or Not to Pik...

This week my upper pallet has been a bit sore as things seem to be moving right along. I have a little swelling in the back right quadrant and it's sore because it's pressing against the acrylic of the expander. There's also been this little wire on the lower expander that has been scraping the underside of my tounge which is quite irratating...literally...LOL ...or did I mention my teeth are sore too...wahh...wahh...wahhh...ok...enough crying.

I've been eating a lot of yogurt, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs and ice cream although yesterday I made myself a turkey and cheese sandwhich on Jewish Rye and boy was it good...but I was "tongue chasing" my teeth and expander because they were packed full of caraway seeds. I find when I try to use my tongue it pays a high price and comes out like it was in battle so I turned to trusty water pik to do the job. I'm always amazed at what those forceful sprays will emit and what a good job it does. I don't know how my son had his expander without one...TWICE...what a terrible mom, eh?!?! He forgives me...LOL...but he says the little thing they gave him to flush out the food worked just fine. It was like a food injector, where you fill it with water and push the end of it and it sprays the water through this long thin adpater thingie...

The water pik I have attaches right to the facet so I can adjust the pressure of it. It works great, I can take it with me and I'm not having to lug around anything heavy...the only downfall is that you have to remove the little filter thingie on the faucet and attach the adapter for the pik before you can actually hook it up. Above you see a pic of the one I have, it's called a RediPik. I prefer the RediPik because of the ability to control the pressure. Just to let you know...I am not a distributor nor do I know who's bright idea this is...LOL...I just know it works and I'm quite thrilled with it.