End of the Month Update!

Hi everyone, hope all is well and that you're enjoying summer (if it's summer where you live!).

I had my braces tightened earlier this month and it wasn't bad at all! It had a little sensitivity for the rest of the day and went away, no where near the sensitivity that happened at first when the braces were initally put on.

To close the gap (The gap is quite small as it stands now, I'm not at home at the moment so I don't have a mirror and ruler to measure but its' probably 4mm I'm going to guess?), the orthodontist took a transparent string-like band and attached it to the two braces to have the teeth come together in the front since the SARPE gap was quite large. It was closing on their own, but they said they wanted to help it a long a bit.

Me being somewhat cautious person, asked if there was any potential risks in doing so, such as root resorption - they said no and not to worry! :) I also asked them if things such as mistakenly hitting your teeth with a fork or sneezing and then hitting your teeth with your arm (lol yes it happened while I was covering my sneeze) can cause root resorption and they also said not to worry. You need a decent amount of trauma to the teeth to cause root resorption, plus, the x-rays they take during your treatment will show any signs of such and they will take the necessary action to curb or deal with the problem.

The top teeth are very nice now, they weren't bad before but my god the transformation already is noticeable  They said the top was progressing very well and in fact they changed the arch-wire to a thicker one as the thinner one has done it's course. The bottom though still needs some work as it was quite crowded down there before.

I also had an appointement with my Orthodontic Surgeon for a quick check up, everything is great! *knock on wood* and the arch is a perfect size and shaping up nicely! *also knock on wood* :). He figures by sometime in September we'll have an estimation from the ortho as to when the orthodontic process will be complete and then with that information tentatively book  me in for surgery. Due to scheduling, I probably won't be having the surgery until Fall of 2012, but that's fine with me - I'll take the greatly improved jaw and teeth as an amazing Christmas Gift :P

Aside from that, nothing much to report! Which is of course a good thing. I'll be posting in September after my other appointments!

All the best to everyone!

Nathaniel

Swelling Gone, Cankers Basically Gone... But... a Bracket Fell Off! Haha. And, potential relapse!

Hi everyone, pretty cool to see the stats on here, 148 page views so far this month! I hope my information is helping anyone who is going through/will go though this process!
Okay, so, as I posted last week I developed some cankers and swelling from the braces. The swelling is gone and the cankers are almost gone. My mouth has actually taken to braces quite well I would say as I no longer even need to use wax! Sweet! I mean, the wax isn't that bad anyway it's just annoying putting it on and having it fall off if you're eating, taking it off and  then re-applying it when you're brushing your teeth, etc.

Last Friday though I noticed some tenderness in the top of my mouth from what feels like the expander pressing firmly on the top of my mouth. The Ortho suggested it is most likely relapse, which freaked me out at first but he said it's to be expected in almost any situation with jaw movement and that is the exact reason why the expander is in there, to prevent it from moving any further. I was happy to hear that, and, to get peace of mind, I made an appointment with my surgon for him to take a look at all the developments. He's very happy with everything and all is well! Great! :)

As I was eating lunch after the appointment a braces bracket on tooth #7R (last tooth before your wisdom tooth I believe, right side) broke off my tooth. Thankfully my orthodonist was up the street and had a free spot available an hour later, I got that fixed no problem.

So, that's some updates this week! If any one has any questions please feel free to comment and I'll respond to them.

Have a great day everyone!
Nathaniel

Last Ortho Appointment Before Braces. Met Someone With Double Jaw Surgery!

So I had my last ortho appointment to check up on my expanding before I get my braces on. It appears as though one side is under expanded where the other side is perfect, so the ortho wants to expand another 6 turns, so that means I will have expanded to 12mm when I'm complete. He mentioned to me that it's no big deal (in fact, no deal! haha) so that's good to know.

I met someone there too who had double jaw surgery, after my check up the ortho brought me to another patient who was there for braces adjustment, he talked to me about his double jaw surgery (LeForte I and BSSO). He had the surgery in October and the only thing he has now is a tiny little nerve sensation in corner of the top lip! That's pretty good considering if you were to get full nerve feeling back it could take a year!

I got the date for my braces too, May 4th! Wow. the process is moving quite along I must say!