BRACES OFF!

 It was a Tuesday to never forget.... alright done with the dramatics...

October 1, 2013 - a day to be documented in history! Only after 9.5 months of my braces I went to my appointement & they came off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hip hip hoooooray!

The days before I was concerned that the ortho was going to tell me that I would have to keep my braces on for another month! I had already convinced myself of this, so when he said they could come off I nearly thought he was joking!

The process was so quick, not painful, and i have no clue what those people are talkign about when they say "there's so much pressure"

The wire is removed  just like when you get an adjustment & there is that slight pressure feeling but nothing out of the usual. Then these clamp things click click and remove the bracket. Then a little teeth cleaning to get all the "crud" off and then tada!!!! you have a new improved straight smile!
They immediately took a mold for my retainers & I waited....
Everyone constantly was telling me "you're going to want to run your tongue across your teeth non stop" so being a rebel I made sure to not make it obvious to the assistants when I would steal a slide across those smooth babies! They gave me a photo of the pictures that I took before I got my braces and my response was "ew, gross" hahaha

I mean what else was I supposed to say when your mouth looked like that....
RAWR RAWR RAWR

My retainers are still moving my teeth a little & I've actually gone back since & had to get an adjustment to my retainer already. They're clear & I'm supposed to wear them 10-12 hrs a day.... I'm hardly home so I just wear them at night - Dr.Kolodziej didn't seem too concerned when I mentioned this thankfully!

 

 

 

I'm so glad that I made this decision

 

I will not miss

 

-cutting everything up because I know that the mess in my brackets isn't worth biting into anything

-wondering if something is stuck in my braces

-Steak getting caught on my brackets

-not being able to eat corn on the cob (although that tool to cut it off is very useful)

-taking 3 hours to eat a simple dish of food

-broccoli everywhere even when you're being careful

- having braces at 23/24 years old when meeting new people

- People assuming I'm a teenager

- my lips being push outwardly because the brackets are big

- the stuck taste of coffe, pop, milk, everything in my mouth even after rinsing with water

 

 

I will miss

 

-making em"brace" jokes

 

yep, that's really all that I can think of!

 

 

Here it is folks!

Weekend before my braces came off - Eat Dirt mud run - no mud in my braces --- success!

 

 

Right before I went to my final appointment

 

 Bye bye braces!!!! back in my car & braces no more!!!

 

 

Quad Photo- top left picture from 2008 horrendous teeth, top right- day I got my braces on, bottom left- weekend before I got them off, Bottom right - after they're off!!!

 

Frustrated with trying to remove my retainers.... these bad boys are ridiculous! They do it so easily in the office but the first few times I tried it took 10 minutes it seemed like! Now it's easier but still I think the ortho has a trick up his sleeve that he's not sharing! you can kind of see the retainers

 

 

this is what happens when you dont wear your retainers... :)

 

Selfie!!! Smile

 

Wouldn't change my mind about braces even if I would have had to have them on for the full estimated 2 years! It was definitely worth it!

 

 

 

 



Fingers crossed for my next appointment! Braces are coming off!

Per my previous blog with my estimations I was nearly close... obviously August wasn't my month to get my braces off but October 1st my teeth will sink into everything that has been cut ever so nicely with a fork & knife since December. Okay, so getting braces doesn't mean that you can't bite into things, but for the sake of not wasting time wondering if I have food in my braces it was my best decision.

Now just to close some little spaces and bring one tooth down a little and this mouth will be golden. I'm back to the rubber bands though... which in this case "will only give you even better results. You are going to have excellent results either way but they will just make it even better" So now I'm forced into the aches & pains of rubber bands. Having all that pressure on your jaw is just about as much fun as stubbing your toe, messing up your fresh manicure, or getting bitten by a shark.

Let the count down begin!

Orthodontist & Dentist all in one week! always getting such great news from my appointments

I went to my ortho apt first and I was given even better news! This girl will be feasting in celebration on Thanksgiving because My braces will be off before feast day! I'm always last at the table already because of all the food I consume on thanksgiving & this yeas just imagine how much easier it will be without the braces & expander holding me back! I am beyond excited! I think only my family could possibly understand as they're the ones always waiting on me so they can clear the table & bring out desserts.

Dr. Kolodziej said his typical "I don't want to say any sooner" but I can tell you that you will have your braces off before Thanksgiving, if not even sooner but we will see at your next visit how it goes.

Every time I go I just keep getting better & better news. This is what happens when you follow their rules or maybe it's just that I'm really fortunate!?!
Whatever the case I am now at an only braces point - no more elastics! see ya back in 5 weeks!

The following week I went to the Dentist and I was very honest to admit that flossing is not one of my strong suites with braces. I LOVED flossing until I got braces and it takes like an hour to do sooo I just make sure that I always use those Wisps and clean my mouth really well after eating. It seemingly has been working out for me... the hygienist said only a littttttttttle bit of redness on one little section of my gums :) scoorrreeeeee!
Alright it's not the smartest idea but flossing is just a pain with the braces! I do not recommend for any one to skip it but if you are going to then be sure to be brushing and using Wisps!
I even got complimented on how well I am at brushing with braces!
Also don't let your hygienist skip out on flossing your teeth ... some are lazy and don't want to take the time but that's what they're getting paid to do!
The dentist came in and said I have great teeth no cavities, healthy, and good roots!

I'm like a goal medalist at the dentist!

only a few more weeks until another update on these teeth hopefully Dr. Kolodziej gives me great news :)

Here is a picture from 2008 & then a current 2013 picture. Good to see I'm still making the same faces 5 years later but check out those teeth! & you can hardly even see my braces since the pic is grainy :)

Expander is OUT! Getting my expander out and what a joy it is to speak properly!

Finally!
CONVENIENTLY my dad wanted to have CHEESE PIZZA the very day that my expander was out. INCONVENIENTLY I was looking too SWEET in my work outfit so I CHANGED into JEANS and ordered a MEDIUM PIZZA.

hahaha I know, I know what does any of that have to do with braces or my expander? Welllllll everything!
Remember all those words that I struggled with? well they all came back to me every so gracefully.... I meannn oh! MEAN I couldn't say that properly before either! so any capitalized word is a word that I had issues with saying since the end of August 2012 & now I have freedom of SPEECH. haha I love remembering these words as I type.  I also have cut down the amount of time that it takes me to eat and I can eat spaghetti noodles with out trying to figure out which part of my mouth it is going to. Believe me I was just as confused as you are as you read that.

I was so excited to be able to pronounce that I made a video.... okay multiple videos to share the excitement with my friends! I'm sure they were just thrilled listening to me say the same words and pointless sentences over and over just to show them that I was no longer a struggling young lass with an expander.

When Dr. Kolodziej told me that my expander was coming out first thing I just literally thought he was kidding... then all of a sudden the tools came out and the two back bands were being snapped off. It was so strange to be able to put my tongue to the roof of my mouth without a bar being in the way. Now don't think that an expander is the end of the world, I gained from it.
Pro's of having an expander -
1) my teeth look like they fit in my mouth
2) it's helped my teeth to shift quicker
3) I learned how to make this annoyingly creepy noise that I thought for sure would only last with the expander in but sure enough I can still make it :)
4)I now Know how people with silver teeth feel as I had 4 silver bands around my teeth and 2 visible for several months
5)I never developed a gap tooth from it.
6)I could hide lifesavers between the expander and the roof of my mouth and talk mostly normal.
7) When it finally came out I could make such wonderfully fantastic videos for my friends - videos below!

& I'm not going to dwell on the Con's because clearly the Pro's outweigh the Con's
Thanks Dr. Kolodziej for the belated Birthday gift of being expander free!

Breaking news I am now (as of April, actually) a 24 year old brace face!

so that was April... letssss seeeee

In April I was also introduced to the wonderful little elastics... or more commonly known as rubber bands.
These little guys sure were achy and a pain in the jaw. I was instructed to wear them from top front to bottom rear on both sides. Sometimes my mouth couldn't handle the pressure and during the night I would take them out with out knowing. I started changing them twice a day to help the progress and not lose the elasticity but with my TMJ it just became less of an option to do that.

May
I went and now I am down to a rubber band only on my left side... I sure hope I've been wearing it on the correct side or else I'm going to be scolded next week when I go back. I was told only the one side to even things out a little but I'm almost feeling like it's doing more harm than good. I think my mouth shifts so quickly that when I have to wait an entire 6 weeks to go back it's nearly impossible for the progress to be positive. currently I'm pretty sure that my right front tooth is shorter than the left one, and today when I looked I swear they are moving toward the direction that the rubber band is tugging at them but I'm not sure if that is off center or not! I guess I'll just find out next week.

Dr. Kolodziej told me that I am about 10 months ahead of schedule.... BUT he won't tell me an estimate of when my braces will come off because he doesn't want to get me too excited in case it's longer... ugh typical!
But according to my calculations.... (here's the part where you can zone out if you want)
originally I was told 1 1/2 years to 2 years of having braces but not sure because it all depends on how the expander works. Well guess what! It worked fantastically! and I quote "better than I could have possibly imagined it to work"   Something else to consider I was told they will be off before the end of the Calendar year. And as previously mentioned I am 10 months ahead of schedule...
Okay
so here's my time line
Braces on - December 18, 2012
+1.5 years or 18 months = May 2014
If I am 10 months ahead (in May I was) then  10 months+5 already completed months (dec-may) = 15 months
18-15 = 3 months left of treatment.
which means a possibility of braces off in ... AUGUST?!?!?!?

Okay so maybe I'm jumping to conclusions & I did do that scale based on the short term period so I'll do the long term conclusion... 2 years

2 years or 24 months
10 months ahead of schedule + 5 months completed = 15 Months "complete"
24-15 = 9 months left of treatment
which would be February 2014

okay pay attention again!

sooo I was told before the end of the year so 2 years estimate of treatment is out, so it must be that he estimated 1.5 years (after the expander was out and he could see the results) sooo August!?!?!

hahaha seriously jumping to conclusions but it's good to be hopeful!

Here's some updates on my mouffffffff....I unfortunately couldn't include any of my entertaining videos documenting the rejuvenation of speech! Maybe I can figure it out later
These next few are from The past few months... and oddly in order, clearly by my attire it was hot then cold then hot. Check out my GRILL!! :)

Words I had issues with:

Cheese, Sweet, Q, Coupon, Pizza, Tina, Dina's, Neat, Jeans, Convenient, Inconvenient, Bee, Changed Mean, Medium... oh I wish I could remember the rest ... I'll add to it if I remember any.

Best Decision EVER!

Not that I ever regretted my decision to get braces but I seriously am sooooo sooo sooo happy that I didn't chicken out.  I didn't want to "deal" with braces so I almost said forget about it... but then I realized I'm only 23 & I still have more than double my life ahead of me & I WILL regret it if I don't do it!  Well it's been 3 months and I am so incredibly happy to report that I would never ever discourage braces from anyone! in fact I'm like a little "what you hate your smile? get braces, you wont regret it" person now!

I was painfully sore a lot in the first month of braces. I remember thinking that my teeth don't have any feeling & that they will never feel normal again. Well even though that may still be slightly true I've accustomed myself to the lifestyle that braces bring.  I don't bite into anything with my front teeth instead I always cut or tear my food.  My brother said "you know you're not the first person to ever have braces, suck it up" and yeah that might be true but I just feel a lot better not biting into things and just being extra cautious.
A little word of advice... it also prevents that messy stuff stuck in your braces performance. Now if food gets stuck it's only on the molar part of my braces & I can worry about that later, the people I'm eating with won't even know. The problem that I've had is the fact that I still have my palate expander in so food doesn't always know where to go. It can't make it's way to the side b/c the brackets & wire and it cant go to the middle/ roof of my mouth b/c of the expander. so basically if I take too big of bites I'm eating like a savage... or so I've been told haha!

My first wire adjustment went alright....it was a lot more painful then I had anticipated but that's the price you pay for straight teeth. I'm pretty sure the entire week afterwards I was sore sore sore. I didn't want to eat anything solid but my problem is that I don't like mushy food so I loaded up on Advil and dealt with it. after that I could feel my teeth shifting and you could definitely tell they were and finally my bottom teeth started moving. Now I'm not sure on how fast teeth normally move but mine are moving at light speed! My orthodontist said "you are light years ahead and I'd say you're going to have them off this calendar year" YAHOOOOOOO
only 1 year with braces! I can totally deal with that! I was expecting longer over shorter!
At my 2nd visit I was sure to floss while they had the wire off because it's like normal flossing instead of having the struggle of sliding the floss in and out of your braces... and boy was it glorious! I seriously am in love with flossing and this whole braces thing is making it much less enjoyable. It's the small things like once every 5 weeks being able to floss like a normal person that keeps me going. It's also a weir experience because I am so used to havign to floss with angling the floss every which way and now it's a breeze!

at my 2nd adjustment my expander was also "turned" one more time ... it hasn't been turn since November so that was an interesting process to have to remember again. Dr. Kolodziej said that I really could use that little extra room and he's looking at getting my expander out by the begining of summer. Hopefully that'll be true because even though I've gotten used to it I still can't pronounce some words and I am starting a new position at work on Monday and it takes extra effort to pronounce it w/o sounding like a moron.

If anyone is doubting braces just check out this transformation that only 3 months has made
 My teeth went from this shape of crookedness below (left)...

Now looking like this below...

And I am so pleased!

They're on!!!!! Braces on... check!

Well as every other day starts I laid in bed as long as I possibly could before realizing I only had 20 minutes to get ready and document my teeth being bare with out metal attached... After all it will quite possibly be 2 years before I even remember what they look like.  So after a mini mouth shoot and running out the door I made it to my appointment at 10:20. I walked back to the chair and there she was that "careless assistant" from my horrible office visit.... as if I wasn't nervous enough about getting my braces on this just added so much anxiety. But I just prayed that it wouldn't be so terrible and leave me crying like the last time she was at the office.
Alright Step 1: buff teeth maybe prime or something along those lines, go rinse then return.
Step 2: take off my other front silver band from my expander. slice time
enough with the steps...
so then Dr. Kolodziej rolled on over and explained the process then got right to work... that was the easy part just little rub a dub of something on my tooth then the assistant would come over with the bracket and it was placed then positioned on my tooth. While Dr. Kolodziej was positioning the brackets ever so carefully... I had my eye on little miss careless assistant. I decided she isn't careless and may have just had a bad day. She isn't careless but lacks confidence. She isn't careless but is nervous. Then I thought maybe just maybe she read my blog and I am making her nervous ... then I remembered careless people don't stumble upon blogs and such so no it's not me. So I think maybe careless is named Cassandra... so from now on she shall be called Cassandra. sooo Cassandra was standing there waiting and twitching, shaking, twisting, making expressions. It was maybe the highlight when I decided that Cassandra gets a second chance but come on I'm the one getting the braces please stop shake, rattling, and rolling.
So then the top was on & Dr. Kolodziej said "actually I could put your bottom braces on if you wanted but it's totally up to you. I said well sure might as well (go big or go home, ya know) Cassandra then said she hadn't discussed silver or gold with me for the bottom. which was true and that's when I remembered that ceramic isn't an option for the bottom. But BEHOLD an angels voice spoke... :) Dr. Kolodziej told me that it was totally up to me but basically with the era that we live in he has to be realistic and do some tests on ceramic braces on the bottom. and guess what I am a perfect candidate... yahoo!!!! I of course asked why he doesn't typically offer ceramic on the bottom and there were risks but he said that my bite was protected enough that those things really are things that I should worry about. So Merry Christmas Michelle, ceramic on top, ceramic on bottom, happy girl!  Same process that he used on the top apply goop,apply bracket, push, adjust, check with mirror, next. It was just about then that I realized that the staying in bed as long as I possibly can game wasn't so fun when you don't eat before a painful appointment .. ugh stomach shut up so they don't notice how hungry you are!
So now the fun part....the wireeeeeee! ahhh the wire!
alright well Dr. Kolodziej's work was done and now it was time for the assistant to step in and lace the wire through. after pressure and pain it was all there. Apparently there are 4 somethings that the wire has to loop through so each takes a little time & a lot of pressure. The bottom was much easier than the top and in no time I was done.1.5 hrs later, task complete, emBracing life as it is now.  A short demonstration of how to floss, brush, and care for my teeth and I was out of there. There's a few cuts on my bottom lip or it feels like cuts, just a little rough so hopefully that's not something that will last the entire process. The top feels smooth still so I'm sure it'll be fine.
I went home & I thought alright well this is my life. I made myself some soup, plopped down on the couch, and POP a bracket popped off my tooth... whoops I guess sitting on the couch is off limits when you have braces.
So just after my visit I was headed back... this time it was much worse. My teeth were already starting to hurt but then they had to remove and re-wire the bracket and all that pain and pressure was just so horrible I just wanted it to be over and not even have to think about it ever again.... little did I know that I'd be thinking about it all night. I went home and was in pain so I took a 3 hour nap hoping to just stay asleep until 7am but not the case. Instead I woke up with pain pain and more pain. hey guys why didn't I think that pain would be involved?
Well I also had my stomach growling and knew I needed to overcome that obstacle so on the hunt I went searching high and low for something not on my list of foods to avoid. Something had to be soft that I liked to eat.... everything that stuck out to me was much to crunchy... celery, grilled cheese(that just seems messy), oh I could make rice... psshhh who am I kidding I don't want to stand around and make rice when I'm this hungry. Then there it was an idea just sitting on the shelf, Shredded Mini Wheat .. yeah I know not ideal they are hard, fall apart, and have serious potential to get lodged anywhere and everywhere in my braces. But I thought outside the box, I'll just let my cereal soak in the milk and get to a point of not as crunchy as normal. TADA!!! So soggy cereal I had and soggy cereal I will have for all my meals. It's like my grandma says "cereal provides all the nutrients that you need." The cold milk and the little bit of crunch that I got when I bit into the cereal was exactly what my painful mouth needed. It hurt so good!!!!
So now off to my first night of bed with braces.
It'll all be worth it in the end! straight teeth here I come.

 regressing to age 15... I guess you can hardly notice them...

 Until you look up close and see how crooked these teefers are...

My dinner from now until eternity....

All Tool Kitted out!

PreBraceFaceDay

Dearest loved ones we are gathered here today to mourn the parts of my teeth that will be hidden for possibly 2 years. In just 9 short hours we will lose sight of everything that was great in life... Popcorn, Starbursts,  Twix, hard candy, and of course fruit roll ups! Poor things, I'll miss them.... as well as all my friends because I am probably going into hibernation. Today my last meal was salad, baked potato, and Steak! Mmmm Mmmm MMmmmm I've almost even decided on giving up pop so i don't stain my teeth, but life with out Coca cola is no life at all! We shall see on the morrow how I like it!

My time has come to say goodbye... goodbye teeth, ever so crookedly smooth.
MUAH!