Wow, it's been a LONG time.......

Here are some progress pics:

12-10-07

02-19-08
04-23-08
My very subborn impacted canines after re-exposure
These ones are lining up very nicely!

On March 25th I went back to my oral surgeon to have those two impacted canines re-exposed. They had moved in at least three months but I am guessing even longer than that! That was a very weird experience but i was not put under, they just used local anesthesia. He told me that I would feel some weird sensations like some tapping....well, it was more like pounding! Over and over he pounded at my right canines. It hurt my head. It almost felt like my nose was going to bleed because my brain was shaking. But other than that the procedure was easy, the pain was very minimal afterwards. Just a little sore if I touched and it healed up in a little more than a week! Since then, I am not sure that they have moved much. Hopefully this will do the trick!

Starting to look somewhat normal again....

As you can see, the gap is closing up very nicely. It has only been 3 months and my gap is almost gone! I feel very blessed because of this, I don't know if it is any faster than normal but it has flown by and got here quicker than I thought. I go back to the ortho on Oct 1st where they will put a bracket on the adult tooth that is erupting (you can see it from my open mouth picture) and they will start pulling that down. Yay! I still can't tell a difference in my profile but I think that may take a little while longer. Also my left side has finished uprighting but my right side is being very subborn and taking quite some time.

It's been a few weeks....

Since the last time I posted here is what has happened...I went to the ortho and got a new archwire as well as a plastic tie on my front four teeth. They also took the hardware off of one of the adult teeth that is growing in. Yay! Since then my gap has closed quite a bit...this I am very excited about. But one thing I noticed is that my left front tooth has moved back into place already and is lined up correctly with my bottom front teeth. But my right front tooth is the one that is not lined up and is probably the one that needs to move in order for the gap to close. I don't know if this is normal or not but you can tell by my pictures that its not even on both sides.

Gap!!

I think I have finally come to the point that I HATE this GAP!! Yesterday my husband and I were looking for a new car and the salesman asked if I was his daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do I really look THAT much younger with a huge gap in my teeth?!?! My hubby is six years older than me but he doesn't even look old enough to have a child that old, which I am assuming he thought I was 12-13...I don't know. I wanted to slap him. Needless to say, we did NOT buy a car from him. UG!!

Running out of rubberbands...

I am running out of rubberbands...my ortho is supposed to mail me more. Anyways, It has been 1 month and 15 days since my surgery, 26 days since I have stopped expanding and 21 days since I got braces. I have noticed change but you know, it just never goes fast enough. But I guess I am not complaining too much at this point.

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!

Post Op Day 10 and Expanded 10 times

I did my 10th expansion today. I have an ortho appointment on Monday and I hoping but doubtful that they will say, Ok we're done....time for braces! Wouldn't that be cool! Anyways you can tell by my pictures that I am moving along as I should be. My swelling has gone almost completely down and I only ended up having one bruise on the side of my face that turned up to be light green and then faded from there (you can kinda see it in the last pic). So I think I am pretty lucky about that. I am not in any pain whatsoever. I still have my stitches and my entire gumline above my top teeth is completely numb. It is so weird not to be able to feel myself touch there. Every once in awhile I will get a twinge where my stitches are but its not bad. Well I must go watch a movie with my honey now....

6 days post op and feeling pretty dorky!

Hello!
Well it is day 6 after my surgery and I feel pretty good. I went to the ortho today and did my first real expansion. I am to expand twice a day for one week. It is a weird feeling but it's not really painful at all. Just a lot of pressure in my head and sinus areas. All of the ladies said that I look really good for just having surgery. Some of them couldn't even see the swelling. So that was very nice to hear. It must be from all of the vitamins that I took. I go back to work tomorrow so that should be interesting. I am getting really frustrated with eating. I have a big appetite right now and I can't eat squat! I hate that. I have lost 4 pounds already. Also, I get hot flashes. I have always had them but I have had like 3 in the past couple of days and that is a lot for me!

4 days post op

Well it is day 4 post op and I feel pretty good today. I have decided not to take anymore percocet, only Ib profen. This picture was yesterday evening: And this picture was like 10 minutes ago:

And this is my lovely gap:

Its terrible already but oh well...I will get used to it I suppose. There is still a lot going on with my mouth. I can feel stitches and wires and of course the expander. It makes brushing a little difficult. So far, no bloody noses like the doc said there would be and I am taking stuff for nasal conjestion which is either working really good or I just don't have any. Also, no bruising! Soups are getting really boring mainly cause I can't find any that I really like so I am just eating chicken noodle. For my other meals I have been eating Malt-o-meal, gogurt (really good frozen), shakes, smoothies and drinking Vitiman water. But I am craving all kinds of food that I can't eat...which is good cause I really thought that I wouldn't have an appetite. Anyways, I am kinda all over the place but just wanted to say, that I feel good!

3 days post op

This was just before surgery around 6:00am:

Several hours after surgery, after I finally woke up:

Post Op day 1 am:

Post op day 1 Pm:

Post Op day 2 Pm:

You can see here that my swelling was the worst on Day 2. I would say that my discomfort was the worst that day as well. I had to take two painkillers throughout the day to even make a difference. I feel ok today (no pics yet). My face feels very large and talking is a little slurry but my hubby understands me just fine. The stitches underneath my top lip feel very odd being there. It makes it feel like my lip is stuck to my gums and I can't move it very well. I also have a gap already, which is REALLY weird. I have never had a gap in my mouth before so I look totally different. Anyways, I feel better than I thought I would and this surgery was much easier than I expected. Of course, I did go into it with a very positive attitude, which may have helped.

There's no turning back now

I am officially committed to this teeth thing now. I just got my expander put in an hour ago, and to be completely honest, this is definately not as bad as I imagined. I put wax over the brackets as soon as I left the ortho and I think I will keep it that way. As for talking, I am not doing so bad. Im quite surprised and pleased with the way I talk actually. I have not tried eating so I will have to let you know how that goes. My surgery is a day and a half away and I am getting more and more excited. My only hope right now is that I will be gap free by Christmas, which I think is perfectly do-able.

Getting closer!

Fitted for Expansion

My husband is out of town and as much as I enjoy being by myself, I am missing him greatly. He will get back on birthday...yay!

Anyways, I was fitted for the expansion device yesterday and I must say that the bands that go around your teeth have brackets or something on the outside that are very spikey! I hope that they aren't like that when I actually get the expander otherwise I will be one unhappy person for awhile. I get canker sores really easily and I am just worried that it is going to tear up my mouth! Oh I hope not....