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.
