One of my personal issues, pretty much my entire life, has been my teeth. I have great big teeth with not enough jaw to put them in. I had braces as a teenager and 4 teeth extracted and, like a lot of teens, didn’t wear my retainer enough so my teeth both moved around and I had a great case of TMJ from bad orthodontics.
I also have a dental-phobia. I strongly feel it’s related to the fact I’m highly resistant to any caine drugs and even when given them in sufficient quantity, I burn through them quickly. I bet some dentist in my childhood thought I was faking things still hurting and went ahead anyway. Wish I knew who – I might go back and bite him.
But it’s left me with a fear so bad that for a while I couldn’t bring myself to go in. Then I could only do it with valium and gas. With a great deal of coaxing, nice care from my current dentist and just gut-wrenching stubbornness, I finally got all the dental work I needed to have done completed. Some nice crowns (I have crappy teeth and TMJ so I stress fractured them) and some fillings.
Then I decided to take advantage of the fact I had some orthodontic benefits and try to reduce my overbite while straightening the rest of them. I really want to have non-embarassing teeth so I can smile and not feel like gumby or bucky-beaver. My dentist is a certified orthodontist and does Invisalign so I had an evaluation. We can do what I really want with Invisalign which is a blessing to my cheeks – regular braces chewed the heck out of them.
Today I picked up my first aligners. They are tight but you can’t see too much of them. There are about 10 little attachments that look like rice on the surfaces of various teeth to give the aligners somewhere to grip. I took them off once to eat and the attachment on my porcelain crown popped right off – something I’d read of before – so I called the dentist and left a message. I’ll deal with it Monday if need be.
I am breaking the rules a little and drinking coffee with them in but my dentist said it was okay as long as I brush the aligners when I take them out for eating or to brush my teeth before bed. Right now I have 18 aligner sets. It’s always possible that corrections are needed, or refinements, but at every 2 weeks or two average, that’s about 9 months. I figured about a year so I may be close there.
In the meantime, my teeth and jaw ache and I just popped some Advil. Next time I put new aligners in at night and take a couple of Advil before I go to bed.
After my treatment is over, I can use the trays for bleach gel. :)
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by Orthodontic Retainer September 26th, 2008 at 6:13 pm