Where Have I Been????

I know...it's been quite some time since I LAST updated my blog and my apologies for the delinquency of my post...life has just been quite hectic for me over the past several months and there's been a lot of change going on in this life for which I won't bore you with the details.

OK...well as you can see I had my lower TPA removed last week and I'm a happy girl! Progress is finally being seen. I wore that thing for a year and two months and I was ready to say "Si-A-NORA"...can't spell but you know what I'm trying to say. It's gone and I'm not a bit sad about it. Although I will say it did a great job and there's quite a bit of difference from when I first had it put in. With the removal of that appliance the wonderful assistant cemented bands around my back molars and put some pretty silver brackets on my eye teeth so I'm quite colorful below.

So now it's just a matter of closing the spaces below between my back molars and the few spaces that have developed from the TPA. Dr. K put in those hurtful POWERCHAINS on both the bottom and top this time around and I could not eat for days...LOL...ok, a little exaggeration there but you know what I mean. My teeth were so sore and today is four days since the inflict of pain and it's just now starting to feel painless. :) The next visit they'll be putting in a strong wire on the bottom to start to move those back molars forward which right now there's a huge gap on my lower right side where food likes to get trapped and my tongue works overtime pushing it out.

As I mentioned in a previous post I have the "OK" from the insurance company for surgery and now there's a rush against time because Dr. K told me last year that I would be ready for surgery by May and it's now August and I HAVE to have the surgery before the end of the year as we had put the maximum we could put into our Flexible Spending account knowing I'd be having surgery this year...so I am getting bit anxious as to it happening this year or else we lose that $4,000 that we have sitting there. It is more for the genio surgery as insurance won't cover it but it needs to happen before the end of the year. Pray that things move along or I'm going to have to insist that they move along...LOL...ya right...well I will, we'll just have to have the surgery whether I'm ready or not because I can't afford to lose that kind of money. Also, my husband may be losing his job so time is of the essence here and we just have to pray that my teeth move quickly to where they need to be for surgery to take place. Thanks for your prayers! More to come soon....this time I won't wait several months before posting again. God Bless!!

Six New Lower Brackets & 1 TPA

Well today I had six new brackets put on the bottom, things seem to be moving right along. Dr. K wants to keep the lower expander in for now because it's doing such a good job and he's just not ready for it to come out. I can see a bit difference from May when it was installed. See the pic I posted in a earlier post. I did speak with him about surgery and he thinks that by May I would probably be ready but it's hard to say. I just want to get this moving, and I'm happy to see there's progress in my teeth. On my next visit I'll be getting bands around the molars and he'll start pulling everything back so I don't see too much more time before everything is moved before I have surgery. I've waited quite a few years to since my last orthodontics experience to have my jaw in the right position.

I'm in the Power Chain Club!!

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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." :)