Fitting Day!

Heading to the orthodontics I was feeling pretty anxious if I’m honest. I’m a born worrier so had spent the last week fretting about pain, lisping, drooling, not being able to eat properly, being self-conscious  etc. But ultimately I realise that if I don’t do this now my teeth will only get worse so I need to suck it up and get on with it.

Once I was settled into the treatment chair I was given a pair of funky shades to wear and fitted with a mouth piece so my orthodontist could get proper access to all my teeth, along with a couple of cotton wads to keep my tongue out of the way. 

He started off by cleaning my teeth and drying them with air and then used a small brush to apply the bonding agent. He then positioned a bracket onto each tooth and set the bonding agent with blue light. Next he measured out the wire and slotted it into each of the brackets before fixing the wire to each bracket with the small elastic bands. The wire was trimmed and voila – they were on. I couldn’t have been in the chair for more than 40 minutes at very most.

Pain

During the fitting the most painful part was the air he used to dry my teeth; I always find that my teeth are particularly sensitive to it for some reason. The amount of pressure he placed on each tooth whilst positioning the brackets was also a little uncomfortable too.

It’s now 6 hours since they were fitted and whilst a couple of my teeth feel a bit sensitive and achey, there’s not been any severe pain and I haven’t felt the need to take any painkillers. 

From what I read, the 2^nd and 3^rd days onwards tend to be when the pain sets in (if it’s going to) as that’s when your teeth start moving. My mouth is really though so I’ve been guzzling water all day. Apparently you tend to be a dribbler or a dry mouther and so far I’m the latter which I have to say I think I prefer!

It’s such an odd sensation having a mouth full of ‘stuff’. I’m also surprised at how rough the surface of the brackets are. I think I expected them to be quite smooth but they’re pretty bumpy – I can see now why they rub on your gums!

Eating

I plumped for a bowl of soup for lunch which wasn’t too traumatic. The liquid part obviously slipped down easily but I had to more or less tip each spoonful into my mouth as the feeling of the metal spoon touching the brackets was freaking me out. Mr Tinsel Teeth is picking me up some plastic cutlery on his way home! The soup had quite chunky bits of potato in and I managed to eat most of them by manoeuvring them to my back teeth and chewing gently. There was no pain but I was paranoid that a bracket would pop off any moment. It will take a while to get used to the fact that they are cemented on!

Afterwards my mouth felt pretty horrid as if the braces were clogged full of food. A quick check in the mirror revealed it wasn’t as bad as it felt but I still gave them a thorough brush and a good rinse with mouthwash.

Speech

I phoned Mr Tinsel Teeth straight after leaving the surgery and he commented that I sounded pretty much the same, to his surprise. I can notice that I have a bit of a lisp – especially when saying an S or F but it’s not nearly as substantial as I expected. I made sure I went straight to the shops from the appointment so I would be out in public, speaking to shop assistants etc before any paranoia had chance to set in!

I found this passage on another brace wearer’s blog so am going to read that a couple of times a day to see if that helps the lisp to clear up.

Photos

And here they are…

I have to say I’m really pleased with the way they look. The brackets are coincidentally a perfect match to the colour of my teeth and from a few feet away you can’t even notice they’re there. I met someone I know in the supermarket and even after chatting for 5 minutes or so, they didn’t even realise I’d had them fitted to my bottom teeth!

The photo gives you a bit of an idea of how my teeth are out of line. My bottom 4 middle teeth sit at funny angles, a bit like a zig zag and my top teeth are crowded causing my one of my central incisors to protrude forward and overlap the two teeth either side of it.

So there you have it, my braces are on and the countdown to pretty teeth has begun. My first adjustment is booked for 20th December (7 weeks time) but I plan to update the blog weekly with my progress so see you in 7 days!