Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

Finally!

I feel like I am finally starting to see a difference in my gap. It might not be noticable in this picture but I have been measuring it with the tip on my eye shadow brush. When I first got the braces I was able to put the whole brush in the gap and move it back and forth and hit the sides of my teeth. Now it wont even fit in the gap...woo hoo!! I think it has moved because of the rubberbands that I have been putting over the brackets. I started out with only one and moved to two rubberbands...it also helps hide the gap a little. Im very excited that it has finally started to shift!!

1 month post op and nothings changed

Im a little disappointed because I am not seeing any noticeable movement with my gap. I was sure that I would start to see some difference after braces but it has been a week and nothing. A couple of days ago I decided to take one of my rubberbands and put it around my two front brackets and then I started noticing some shifting but only a teeny tiny bit. Anyways, guess I am just playing the waiting game now.

I was confused....

I went to the ortho on Thursday and I thought I was getting braces on the bottom....well I was confused cause it turns out I was only getting two bands on the bottoms and two brackets on the top. Which I am pretty happy about because they can start moving that darn gap together. It is now Sunday and I stopped expanding last Monday. I do not see a difference at all in my gap. Also, I figured that I would be in at least a little pain from the braces but I am not, at all...which makes me a little concerned that they didn't make it tight enough to do anything. I don't go back for another 4 weeks and I don't want to just waste that time wearing something thats not doing anything. I also got start on rubberbands. These don't really bother me much at all except the inside of the bottom bands rubs my tounge like crazy. I will post again in a couple of days...hopefully there will be a difference then.

GREAT news!!

We are selling our house and having one built!! I'm so excited!!!

Expansion finished - 16 turns total

I am done expanding...yay!!! I couldn't be more excited...hopefully that gap will start to close up quickly. I am not sure why I didn't take more pictures in between the turns. I am looking forward to my ortho appt on Thursday to get my bottom braces on and these dang spacers out!

17 days post op and 15 turns

Today I actually branched out a little and ate some different things that required me to chew a little more than normal. First I had In-and-Out french fries at lunch (along with a chocolate shake) and then at dinner I had some spinach and cherry tomatoes along with brownies.....mmmmm. Im feeling better about having a bigger variety of things to eat. One thing that I had that I would'nt have normally ordered was a baked sweet potato at Claim Jumper. It came with butter and brown sugar and it was really good. Well you can see from my photo that my gap is getting bigger as promised. At this point, I only have one more turn tomorrow! Yay!
So far, I have not really been able to see a difference in my profile but I think that is because my teeth are still sticking out even though I have expanded quite a bit. My ortho told me that if I was bored that I could start to put pressure on my two front teeth and start pushing them upwards towards my nose but not back together yet...bummer. So I have been trying that but it hurts my fingers to do it so I can only hold it for a minute or so.
Ug.....thats how I feel about this smile right now. It just looks so choppy and messed up. So many people don't understand why I am doing all of this. They think that my teeth were perfectly fine before....but they don't realize how much having messed up teeth has been hanging over my head for years. Because I had braces before and had to get them off early and then 7 years later was able to actually finish what was started.
Here is my bite right now....pretty bad huh. Even if I was allowed to chew I don't think I could and I kinda look like a camel when I do. I am looking forward to Thursday when they start the process to fix this.....
Peace out!

My worst days....

So yesterday and today are officially my worst days so far but its not really because of the surgery or the expander. I have canker sores, one on the side of my cheek from me biting my cheek and the other is a fairly large one in the very back of my throat! It is so far back there that I have to push down my tounge and look at it through a well lit mirror in order to see it but it is big and it is very painful. It hurts to swallow, talk, eat, just sitting there it hurts. Yesterday I took 10 ib profen and 2 excedrin, used Chloraseptic, sore throat lozenges, Ambesol and I am taking medicine for the herpes simplex virus to try and speed up the healing. Not to mention vitamins, lysine, zinc & b-complex! And yet, I am still in pain over a tiny little round ulcer in the back of my throat! I am so frustrated and tired of these things. I would rather go through surgery all over again than to have this!! I cried last night because it was so bad and then again this morning when I woke up and it was still just as bad. Not only does it hurt but it makes me feel sluggish and grumpy.

On a good note, yesterday I went to the ortho and he took me down to 1 turn every other day for one week and then I am done expanding! Woo Hoo!! So I am scheduled to get braces on the bottom on 7/12. With those, they will rubberband me so that my bottom teeth line up with my top teeth and they will also do something to pull my adult teeth down. I am very excited about all of that and excited that I am almost done with expanding! I have spacers in now on my bottom teeth which are also causing me a little pain but nothing compared to the canker sores. Anyways, guess I better go back to work!