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!

Something I didn't really notice until recently

Sooo I knew having this expander made me have to form my words differently and I've definitely adjusted if not mastered mostly everything to be understandable. BUT lately I've been using apps on my phone like Voxer, Skype, and just plain old video messaging and let me tell you I'm not doing quite as well as I thought. I can barely listen to my own messages, I hate watching myself talk, and it's it's it's... just not right! Everyone says "I can barely notice" and that is the biggest lie I've ever heard! Have you listened to my voice? and the way my words sound because I'm not sure if you're aware but I never sounded quite so disgusting in my life! ugh just a little longer I can't believe I have to have the expander & braces on together aghhhhhhhhhhhh I want it out NOW! I feel like Veruca Salt "Don't care how I want it (gone) NOW"
alright, back to everyday life :)

Last turn of my adult expander!

Today I went back to the ortho and he yet again told me that my results are great and more than we could have hoped for. Besides the whole left top molars being tender I have to admit it hasn't been an absolutely horrible experience, I've learned how to chew, speak, and swallow differently. And the best part.... No awful gap was created!!!! Hoorah!!!'
I think my left side is tender because of my last turn of my expander and the fact that I have been clenching my mouth so hard at night. It's basically like I'm trying to prevent one breath of air from escaping my mouth, that's how locked in my jaw is at night. Sooo every morning I have to consciously open my mouth bc it just wants to be held together still. So yeah that's probably part of the reason I have soreness.
He turned my expander with the key for the very last time ever today (I hope) woohoo!!
My next news is what I ended up smiling at. He told me that next time he will be able to remove the other right front band(my other bling) and then.... I'll be getting on my top set of braces!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! This will be December 18th at 10am. I'll have to keep my expander in my mouth for another term and then it can be removed but it has to stay because of my sensitivity and to make sure nothing shifts. That shouldn't be so bad considering I've been with it for this long. Maybe I'll get to keep it, hahaha gross!!! Any way I guess smiling at the news of my next appointment becoming a brace face snapped me into reality and there's no turning back now! I, Michelle Black will have braces for Christmas and will embrace all the food that gets stuck in them. More waiting around but I bet this 6 weeks goes by quickly.

Another expander update.... it's still working, my adult expander is working!!

Wellllp went back for another check up on my expander. Again my mouth seems to have the best possible results that it can get so far... which is of course the best news I could hear and at least this contraption is working as it's supposed to. I got one of my "silvers" (as I call them) removed because that section of my mouth is done expanding. Now it doesn't look like I have a silver cap on my tooth on the left side... although it was my little bit of gangsta blinggggg and I missed it for like one second! That tooth is a little tender but not terrible and Dr. Kolodziej said that it would be okay in a couple days.  I have 5 more turns, one done in the office, and then the rest once a day every other day. I go back in 2 weeks this time, so on Nov 6th. Hopefully more good news comes from it! Meanwhile I wait.... wait wait wait....
The turns are a little more pressure and my bite has been different several times and eating is hard on some days of the turns. I still haven't developed a gap tooth in the front..... maybe I'll be lucky enough not to, that'd make the happiest!
All those people that say that adults can't get expanders because they never work .... boooyaaaa mine is working beautifully and I am so glad that I didn't just write it off because of what other people said. Ultimately I hope that people give things a try when your ortho advises you and backs up why he thinks it will work. Not all Dr's are looking just to make more money... and I'm not even sure if they are making more money off of this it's just putting off getting my braces on a little longer.

side note... I couldn't resist eating a fruit roll up (or like 30 of them) but one time I got careless and let me tell you that was a bad idea. I had a ball of fruit roll up wrapped around my expander for like 5 minutes... no way will I just toss the whole fruit roll up in my mouth again.

and now we wait again!

no more bling....

P.S. Dear Dr. Kolodziej since you thanked me for liking your Facebook page this means in case I ever post anything on FB about my blog that means you may read it... I'm sorry if you see this and I get details mixed up or have offended any of you or your staff (I can only think of one time that could happen) but I'm just being honest :) I really like my experience so far & am impressed with you & most of your staff!

Expander progress & check-up

Today I went to the ortho to check on my progress on my expander. Although I was being selfish & wanted my expander to not work so I could get this thing off, I am glad that this month hasn't been a waste of my time. Dr. Kolodziej told me that I have had more progress than he expected & that my results are turning out beautifully. My bite has changed already which I thought I felt it once but then it went away... haha I'm obviously very good acclimating.  I will give it 8 more turns making my mouth 2 more millimeters wider. So since I did 11 turns & he did one today, my mouth has already expanded apx 3 mm. Dr. Kolodziej told me that he's glad I'm keeping a positive attitude about it (hahaha I mean as much as I complain when I can't speak properly, it has gotten so much better) & that he expects even better results. He asked me how getting used to the expander was and truthfully now it's just something I've learned how to work around...mostly by eating pasta, good thing it's the love of my life! I will go back on October 23rd to check my results & then there will be a waiting process to "trick" my mouth into forming bone or having the bone in my mouth adjust to it. At least this annoyance in my mouth is paying off! Slow & steady!

Awaiting results

It's been 2 weeks of this device putting a damper on my life & I've been over it since day 1!
The first time I turned my key for my expander I didn't turn it enough and I started freaking out because I couldn't find the next hole. For future ref find the one you just turned instead of attempting to find the one on top. I say attempt because after a half hour of trying to angle the key just the right angle I gave up. Frustrated and nervous that I wasn't going to be able to use the expander correctly big brother Rob came to the rescue & started telling me the technical way of how they work & then it all made sense. At last I understand the device.
The turns aren't painful, they just feel like a little pressure it in a weird way good pressure. Each time I turn the key I think I can talk a little better which makes a happy Michelle. & why would they call it a key when were's are the hardest to pronounce? Sick joke, ortho's of the world! Also cruel jokes of my friends are not much better "what's candy taste like? Is it sour or....?" "Sweet" we get it I can't say my e's wahh
Consuming food is becoming easier. Just avoiding crackers. The  worst problem after like 7pm is trying to drink pop. Because of the constant hitting of the expander & middle of my tongue it causes pop to hit it directly & burn. It's basically the most depressing part of my life when I have to say no to Coke. 

This is how I sit for a good minute or so every time I "expand"

Getting my expander... not so bad.. well sort of

Today well actually yesterday I started to outwardly get my brace face look about me. I went to my appointment and they took out the spacers, easy enough. I closed my mouth and could feel all the little spaces and even swallowing my spit was so strange. I feel sorry for the people that have side gaps because of the weird suction feeling you must have every time you swallow anything! That being said an assistant (I should probably learn their names) started to fit my expander in my mouth but my again my mouth is a weird special case so Dr. Kolodziej worked on me instead of the assistant.  "Open, touch together, bite, open, touch, bite.." is all I heard & did until the expander was fully on & cemented to my teeth or at least I'm pretty sure that's how it works. I read my informative paper work about how I probably will have issues speaking and getting used to how it all works, I realized ohhh how true that little paper was! I was practicing saying things that I normally would and I almost gagged myself. I'm not exactly sure how that happened but the only way to not throw up was to just stop talking! Such a weird sensation.
Eating is a completely horrible awful thing to attempt. I thought in my head oh soup will work because it is so simple to eat. As I was making it I realized I can barely even swallow my own spit how in the world did I think I was going to be able to swallow broth. But I attempted it anyway because I knew I eventually had to eat something & my growling stomach was a little bit of an influence on me too!
Bad. Idea.
I ended up looking like a baby bird waiting for it's mama to regurgitate into its mouth! What you don't know what I mean? Well I could only swallow the soup by tilting my head backwards... like so

So needless to say going out to eat is off the list for a loooong time.... ok probably just a little time, I like to go out to eat wayyyy to much to give it up the entire time of having this contraption on.
 On top of tilting my head backwards I also had to put my tongue on the other side of the bar/expander in my mouth & then swallow. Let's face it if you can't put your tongue to the roof of your mouth not everything is going to go down your throat. Well I was a failing child & gave up on soup so I tried a peach thinking this will be more solid.... wrong-o! A peach is so juicy, what was I thinking? I decided to give up food & just starve to death.
Hours later I tried pasta & chicken I had nearly a cup of pasta to give my stomach something because the pain was too much. But then decided that would be sufficient enough. Wrong-o again! I felt like walking to the door of my house was so much exercise that I might faint. I decided I should be an adult about this and just eat even if it's the most uncomfortable thing in my life to do! So there I sat, the pasta & me, me & the pasta. Baby bird Michelle tilted her head back ever so awkwardly and ate most of that pasta! My lovely mother even made jokes but I toughed it out & conquered that stomach which was aching for food. I also ate an apple afterwards. The expander didn't hurt all day, it is just the oddness of trying to swallow food or a drink that is making my life so difficult.
I decided to research & discovered that I'm not the only one with these issues but "you will get used to it". Well ya know what I want to be used to it now!
Eating was one thing but let me just brief you on speaking. I can't really even pronounce the word speaking so it's a good thing this isn't a video blog!
Words I can hardly say- you,me,be,need,eat & so many more that I was really shocked about.
I've changed the word eat to "consume food" because I can pronounce that clearly. & instead of saying "you" I just say the persons name. So for example as I'm sitting talking to my friend Holly I said "Holly was so right when Holly said that about walking" Poor Holly started talking in 3rd person after that conversation! It's all about how I can try to use another word to mean what I am really trying to spit out.

Here is my super special customized expander. Dr. Kolodziej said it was as small as they could get it because it's easy for a kid to have to get used to an expander but as an adult it is much more difficult.

So all I have to do it put a little key device in the center little tiny hole, push it up, and push it back & that is one turn. I'll do that 12 times & return to him in 20 days!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've also now had my turn at sleeping in this and it's not comfortable. When I woke up aches & pains all around. Not to mention I thought I was going to be able to speak normal but that was a big False! I'm still avoiding all "e" sounding words as of now! I'm just glad I didn't drool all over the place, at least I controlled that.

I should stop reading articles...

Well I think it's my future to have a gap tooth. 

Tomorrow I get my expander on so I decided to look into the process of what the expander will do. I was hoping it wouldn't be the case but every article I read seems to agree that I, Michelle Black will get a gap tooth! Perfect, I mean word on the street is that they're totally in this season! I guess we'll find out on the morrow.

I'm a little nervous because only one of my spacers fell out & he said they would likely come out, so in my head I was preparing for at least 3. But only 1, that's not good enough. So I'm pretty sure these little rubber bands have just become my friends & never want to leave their up close & personal view of my mouth. Don't worry I've taken good care of them, I brush!
Can't wait for tomorrow's joy and pain!

Traumatic... Dramatic... Michelle.

As if I wasn't already having a stressful day I arrived at my appointment 10 minutes late but was luckily taken right back! Some ghetto-ish, definitely careless assistant started leaning my chair back & told me to open my mouth. I felt so lost and confused because I had absolutely no clue what in the world she was doing! I mean I assumed that she was going to remove my spacers. When I felt a weird snap I confirmed my guess. She took all 4 off of the right side then started putting something that hurt in my mouth...
uhm
A- What is that?
B- Please stop!
C- Do you have any sort of communication skills?

Luckily my mouth is a special case ("of close contacts"-teeth are close)and the actual orthodontist always has to step in... which let's face it I'd rather him do the work anyway because I feel much more comfortable & he explains things. I am a "know all the details" kind of girl so these people better remember that for next time. As he started saying "because you have close contacts this will be a little painful" and he must have spotted the confusion in my eyes because then he paused and looked at me so I said what are you doing? and then he looked at the assistant and said in a stern tone towards her "I thought she had explained to you already" & I proceeded to say "she didn't tell me anything at all" HAH! put her in her place!
He then explained that today they were removing my spacers, fitting these metal bands around my teeth  to see which fits best, and these bands will taken off before I leave & be sent out with a mold of the roof of my mouth and make a personalized expander. Okay, now I can feel comfortable because I mean if I didn't know what was going on then how could I blog about it!?!?!
So then he asked for a 36 and showed me that it was a metal band and how it had to fit around my mouth so I should feel pressure. Dr. Kolodziej is really a great orthodontist, he always makes me feel like I matter & he genuinely cares if something is going to hurt me.
He started to put the band on & it was kind of weird and I felt a pressure & not really painful, but sort of... it's hard to explain. then he would put a plastic tool in my mouth, tell me to close my mouth, then bite. This was the process over & over again on 4 teeth. It would seem as though I was in pain but really the tears running down my face were my emotions that were being released from still being angry at that assistant!
Dr. Kolodziej kept asking me if I was okay & he understands that I am in an extreme amount of pain but admires my pain tolerance. The tears just kept coming though.... he kindly asked me things like are you alright? Do you need a break? Let me know when to continue? Anything you need? He was being really accommodating. That assistant however was just still frustrating me and the tears kept leaking out of my eyes. She was a little useful & offered me a tissue.  I kept telling them "it doesn't hurt, I'm fine, I don't know why I'm crying" which was mostly true.... only one was actually painful but the rest were just uncomfortable.
When he finished they had to make a mold of my mouth with the bands on & that assistant did it... they let me take a little break from all my trauma & then she put the putty in my mouth & then wouldn't stop talking...
I just wanted her to stop talking but instead she blurted sooooo much that I did not want to hear from her because she lost my respect already. Plus when someone closes their eyes and hardly answers uhmmm don't continue asking me questions that I have to answer!! I was just at a point of LEAVE ME ALONE! Luckily it was over quickly &  Dr. Kolodziej was back to put new spacers in my mouth to stay until I get my expander on! & he said that they would probably even start falling out because my teeth would have enough room :)
I was so upset over a combination of my bad day & ghetto rude assistant(mostly her) that I drove all the way home trying not to cry, sat in my driveway crying for 10 minutes, went inside seeking sympathy but there was only the couch in sight so I laid there & cried for 10 minutes. The only comfort I was finding was from Mad Eye Moody, the cat who thought rubbing his furry fluff in my face would help me feel better... he was at least trying to comfort me. I finally broke down, knocked on my brothers door & said "I'm being stupidly emotional, and I had a really bad day, and I just want a hug" and being a GREAT, WONDERFUL, BEST BROTHER he gave me a sincere hug until I composed myself. What a rough day! But I'm pretty sure it will never be that bad again... but never say never!

Turning down bacon! Who is this person?

Today for the first time in my entire 23 years I said no to seconds of bacon.

How did I resist? .... The pain was worth it, but more pain was pushing it! 

How in the world did I turn down a whole fresh veggie platter & bacon in the same day I just don't know.

With the 2 little slices of bacon that I did manage, I had to bite & chew with my front teeth. When your friends are waiting to play Clue FX you're not allowed to take your time eating so by the time I managed to get to my second piece they were very fed up with my slowness, & my plate was ripped out from under me! (I think they were trying to say get a move on!)

Then of course someone brings out a vegetable tray & I was hit with sadness. How can people tempt me with so many treats in one day? Sure I can eat brownies & ice cream no problem... so you might think "Michelle, why are you complaining" but truthfully my soul is with the vegetables.

I couldn't resist the veggie tray for long so I attempted broccoli and only ate the top part... with my front teeth, again. I'm starting to feel like a rabbit just nibbling away on things. Life is so rough, it took me 15 minutes to my one piece of broccoli. 

BUT it wasn't that painful so I guess that's good news for my future meals :) 

Can the weeks move by any slower?

running, not my brightest idea!

I really really didn't expect this to make my life so difficult... for goodness sakes it's just rubber bands shifting my teeth that have been there for more than half of my life... that shouldn't be painful at all, right?
False false false
Ouch!
I decided that I was focused too much on my mouth pain so to distract me from the pain I figured running would be the perfect activity. So there I am running, panting from not running mostly all summer, and about half way through my run I felt a hollowness in my stomach. Whoops forgot that I haven't been eating a whole lot due to the pain of these contraptions, so probably running with only a cup of applesauce in my system wasn't the best idea. Secondly, a little further on in my run I had the most painful feeling in my mouth. I guess a run won't take my mind off my spacers but make the pain so much more real. After running with my hands held to my jaw for several minutes I gave up and my run became a walk in the park. I really thought that running was a great idea but I was wrong.
Lesson learned: don't go running when you have mouth pain.

Also Let me just mention how long it takes me to eat!
I am a slow eater, everyone that I eat with knows this fact about me. Now that I have mouth torture devices in, my eating habits are on super slow motion speed.
All that I've eaten in 3 days is ... (& in very little portions)
-soggy cereal
-vegetable beef soup (which stained my white spacers)
-Ice cream & Hot Chocolate (gloriously no pain)
-a hostess cupcake (never again)
-a small McD's fry (took me 20 minutes)
-potato soup (this was a pretty successful meal) & grilled cheese pita (NEVER AGAIN)
-Hot chocolate (really soothes my mouth)
-a cup of applesauce
-Princess Spaghetti o's (so easy to eat, probably my 1st food option from now on)
-Ice cream
-Mozzarella sticks, Salad, bread sticks, rigatoni, fries. (all of that had to be cut into 2cm size pieces and then chewed with my front teeth- it took me so long to eat just half of everything probably like 2 hours)
-& More ice cream

I recommend spaghetti o's & soft squishy french fries.... anything else will hurt & it won't be fun no matter how much you think it will be okay.... it won't.

This better get better
p.s. I'm almost sure that I have to keep these spacers in until I get my expander on in September! Life without a satisfying meal is miserable!

Can I just add

I hadn't yet been brave enough to eat with the spacers until just now & let me tell you this is going to be a rough 19 more meals that I have to consume. The rubber bands are below my bite so I feel the rubber bands on my food instead of my teeth first. It is by far the most complicated thing to have to chew but not really feel like you're chewing. Not to mention that I'm a flossing freak & I'm not allowed to floss... I mean I know that obviously nothing can get in those spaces in my teeth but now I just have the urge to floss. I probably have food stuck in my teeth because I'm too afraid that I'll pick out a spacer! Life is so hard!

Spacers... oh the pain!

Today marks the day that my life starts to end.... Okay okay maybe the process of getting braces isn't the end of life but the beginning of a great smile. Yes, I will start to think positively about this because whether I like it or not, today, when I slammed $850 down on the counter after my appointment that was like sealing the deal for real. 
I went in and immediately was called back to the chair of doom. An assistant had little bitty baby rubber bands out on her sterile tray & got started. They just tell you to open up and then they take a metal tool and stretch the rubber band in between your teeth, kind of like flossing but then it stays there. Of course I would have issues. The assistant had to have Dr. Kolodziej come in to get most of the spacers(separators) in because of course my mouth is the worst case scenario of close teeth.
This process was seriously SERIOUSLY the worst pain I've ever had in my mouth. At one point I said "oh my Gosh" (all mumbled of course) because it hurt sooooooo horribly. They had to attach 2 pieces of floss to the bands and then floss them up into my mouth.The one is around a crown on my tooth so it was extremely tight, and  Dr. Kolodziej seemed to seriously hate the fact that he was causing pain but I got through it. He told me that I did pretty well considering it was such a tight squeeze.... I didn't cry so it must not have been that bad, I did dig my nails into my side and cause nail marks there but I was also told that this week will probably be the most discomfort that I will have throughout my whole treatment, which made me really thankful! 3 ibuprofen later and the assistant instructed me to not eat anything sticky.... does that include gummy bears? I definitely have a fresh bag of them just waiting for me to consume! Paid & off I went! Next appointment next Tuesday August 28th at 12:10.
Oh & I'm not supposed to touch the spacers or rub my tongue against them BUT it's soooooooo hard not to! How do they expect you not to play with things that shouldn't be there! I can do it I can do it... nope I can't. Let's just hope that I don't knock one out due to not following the rules.

Plan of Action

I went to my next appointment with high hopes of them giving me all the important information that I need. Dr. Kolodziej gave me a little run down of risks including losing teeth, root damage, ya know all the really horrible things that happen 1/1,000,000,000 times (all which will probably happen to me) 

Before, the plan of action for my mouth included braces, looking into an expander if my mouth wasn't shifting right, and then if necessary surgery for my cross bite... well now before I get my braces it stands as

August 21         Spacers

August 28         Mold of roof of my mouth

September 11   Expander

I was told to try to bring someone with me to that appointment that will be in charge of twisting my expander OUCH. My family will just love inducing pain on me and I'm such a control freak but baby that I'm probably going to have to to it myself and it'll take me 10 hours to just do one turn. 

Here's the x-ray's of messed up mouth ... 

Dear doctors, never leave me unattended I will take pictures of anything that I think looks interesting.

 Oh & they gave me a Good Luck shirt... which is obviously just promotional material! But hey I'm not complaining! :)

The Begining

My dentist must have known that I had been thinking about perfecting my smile because when I went to my last cleaning she pressured me into going to see an orthodontist. Sure my teeth are always well taken care of & the dentist always compliments how healthy they are... but they lack the prettiness. Now as a 23 year old I am taking the braces adventure.... hold on tight this is going to be a rough ride.



Step 1 See the orthodontist for a consultation

I went to my ortho appointment and the orthodontist let me down basically right away by telling me I am not a good candidate for invisalign. So I suppose I will have to settle for ceramic. He told me that I have a very symmetrical face and a truly beautiful smile that will be 100 times better with straight teeth. Then he assured me that he doesn't tell everyone that and that I have a good chance of positive outcomes. The fact that I am 23 and petite he said increased my chances of my mouth shifting easily. He did mention that If my braces don't fix the cross bite on one side of my mouth that I might have to consider surgery... I chose to ignore those words and pray for the braces to work.

At this appointment they gave me a rough estimate of what my cost would be and different payment options. I'm looking at$4,500 well actually $4,850 because it's extra for ceramic.




Step 2 Go back to the Orthodontist

The second appointment after my consultation was an appointment where they take pictures, x-rays, & molds of my mouth. I thought this was going to be terrible so I put it off for 6 months all of which I could have been getting my braces on & over with. Good thing I did my hair because they took ACTUAL photos.

1) front facing full smile

2) front facing no smile

3) Side view smile

4) side view no smile.



Next I got 2 different x-rays.

1) putting my mouth on a stick like thing and it scanned around my head.

2) another x-ray that held my face and went around my jaw. (much harder to hold my balance on that one)




Lastly I got the mold of my mouth, they had to use the smallest child sized mold because apparently my mouth is baby sized. They filled it with a gummy type of play dough texture to make a mold of my top teeth then bottom. No need to bite down on this the assistant just pushed it around my teeth and all I had to do is sit and concentrate on breathing through my nose. I've had one of these molds before and it was awful but this was a new type that had a little of a minty taste and no after taste.



After that I just rinsed my mouth I made an appointment for a week later to discuss financing and the plan of action for my teeth! No turning back now those x-rays cost me a whopping $176!