Wisdom teeth removal and 9 months of braces

Hello bloggers, sorry for my lack of contact recently. I moved house a couple of weeks ago and we've only just got the internet.

So, 21st December was 9 months. Nothing exciting to report in terms of teeth movement, I'm sure it's all much the same but I will put up some pics this weekend anyway.

On a slightly more exciting note, I had my top wisdom teeth taken out on 15th December. Although I'd already had my bottom ones taken out, I was a bit worried about the top ones just because it's only a local anaesthetic...i.e. you're awake while they do it! I was expecting it to be much worse than it was! I was expecting loads of people all around me, hacking away at my teeth for ages, but it was nothing like that!

I just went into a room in the department I usually go to for my normal orthodontic appointments, and there was just two women - the surgeon (not my jaw surgeon) and a nurse. The surgeon explained it all to me, and showed me the x-ray of my face and where my wisdom teeth were. She explained that the piece of bone between your top jaw and your sinuses is really thin, so there was a small risk of her making a hole through to my sinuses when she pulled them out, but she said that was unlikely.

She gave me two injections in each side of my mouth. They hurt a bit but I didn't care as long as I was numb when the teeth came out! Straight after she said 'ok we'll just test if it's numb yet', and I was thinking 'already?!' I couldn't believe the anaesthetic could work that quickly, but she poked my gum with a metal stick and I couldn't feel anything, so it obviously does work that quickly! So she started with the tooth removal, and it was so quick and simple! She just used the pokey metal stick to kind of prise it out, and then she had some plier type things and pulled it out of my mouth, but it was already out of my gum by then so it was more picking it out of my mouth than pulling it out with the pliers. It took about 10 seconds. I couldn't believe how quick it was, and all I felt was a tiny bit of pressure, but nothing horrible. The second tooth was fine as well, although I did hear a bit of a cracking noise on that one!

After they were out I just had to sit for 5 minutes with cotton wool in my mouth. She said that because of the thin bone between the mouth and sinuses (which she luckily hadn't made a hole in), I should try not to sneeze or blow my nose for two weeks...so I wasn't best pleased when I got a cold a week later! But she said if I did need to sneeze to do it through my mouth, so I just had to do really big loud sneezes and put things up my nose to clear it rather than blow it! She asked if I wanted to keep my wisdom teeth, and I thought I might as well, so I said yes. They're now in a pot in my room...I don't really know what to do with them! I can't believe how mouldy they were! They were already going brown and I must've only had them a year or so at the most. According to my dentist, my teeth are very susceptible to decay, and that was definitely evidence of it!

But all in all, for anyone having their top wisdom teeth out, don't worry about it, it's not scary or horrible, and I didn't have any pain, swelling or bruising after. I wish I'd be saying the same thing after jaw surgery!

Hygienist visit

Just a quick post. I went to the hygienest at the dentist the other day. I've never been before. I can't say it was a pleasant experience...in fact it was quite painful at times! But I think it did work wonders! Since having my braces I've developed brown stains on some of my front top and bottom teeth, especially on that tooth that was bracketless until recently. Because of this I was thinking I would probably have my teeth whitened when all this is over, but the hygienest did such a good job I don't think I'll bother! As long as the brown stains go, that's all I'm really worried about! It's £40 a visit, but I suppose that's cheaper than getting my teeth whitened, and this actually cleans your teeth rather than just whitens them. The hygienist said my gums are inflamed so I've bought some medicated mouthwash which is meant to prevent gum problems.

I'm having my top wisdom teeth taken out this Thursday, I'm a bit nervous about it only being a local anaesthetic. I hope I don't hear the sounds of my teeth being yanked out! I will update my blog after that, although I'm moving house this weekend and don't think I'll have the internet for a couple of weeks. I'll try and update at work, but I'm always wary of people seeing my blog/the blogs I'm looking at as I still haven't told them about the surgery :s

8 months of braces and a bracket on every tooth!

Wednesday 23rd November marked 8 months of braces, and coincidentally I had an appointment on that day too. I finally got a bracket on that tooth that had no bracket, so it's being pulled forward in line with the others. I took the photos below yesterday, which shows how quickly the tooth has moved in just 3 days. It now just has a gap across from the tooth next to it, but is pretty much in line with the other teeth.

My ortho asked me how I got on at the joint clinic (my last appointment where I saw the surgeon - she was there for the beginning of it but then had to leave). She asked if I felt reassured by it, and I said 'reassured but disappointed by how long I've got left to go until surgery'. She asked how long they said and I told her they said 9 months (which was a month ago so 8 months now). She indicated that that might be more a case of just having to wait until they can fit me in rather than my teeth not being ready, so I asked her how far along we were in terms of my teeth moving. She said that she'll need to see me another 3 or 4 times before I'm ready for surgery, so she said that orthodontically I'll be ready by about April/May (which will be when I've had my braces on for about a year). She asked if I'd be willing to go in at short notice if somebody else cancelled, and I said 'yes, I just want to get it done as soon as possible', so she said she'd tell the woman who's in charge of booking surgery dates that I'm desparate to get it done as soon as possible and that I'll take any cancelled surgery dates. So perhaps there's a chance that I may get it done sooner than they said at my last appointment, but I'm still going to keep July/August in my head as when it will be, and anything sooner is a bonus. But I think I'm going to make sure I'm prepared and have bought stuff I'll need by April, so that I'll be ready just in case I do get to go in earlier. I haven't told my work about it yet, but am planning to tell them in January when we have our staff review. But I'll make sure I tell them that I might have to have it done at short notice. People at work have been asking me a bit more about my braces, but I try to keep off the subject as much as I can at the moment, because I don't want to have to say anything about my surgery until I've told my boss/manager about it.

Anyway, so my next appointment is on 15th December when I have my top wisdom teeth taken out. Then my next one after that is on 5th January when I'll see my ortho again.

Here are my 8 month pictures:

My cant really is a lot more noticeable in photos than in real life...I think...I hope

I still have a gap between my recently bracketed tooth and the one next to it...

...but at least it's in line with the others!

7 months pictures

7 months of braces...and still a long way from surgery

So, 26th October was 28 weeks (7 months) of braces. I had an appointment with my surgeon on 27th. Because I knew my appointment was going to be with my ortho and my surgeon, I thought that this might mean that things are really starting to get going with all this, and that I wouldn't be too far away from surgery. I know they told me 1 - 1 1/2 years of braces before surgery, but I've heard about so many people that are told that and get it done much earlier, so I was thinking that this appointment might've been scheduled because they were going to tell me it's not that long until surgery...but I was very wrong...

Let's start with the most important news from the appointment...I'm not gonna be having surgery for at least another 9 months!!! I was quite disappointed, but strangely not as disappointed as I would think I would be, if that makes sense. Maybe it's because deep down I'm terrified about having it done, so it still being 9 months away makes me less scared. I just don't see what else there is to do?! They said that my wonky no-bracket tooth is now ready to be brought forward. I felt like saying 'Just do it now while I'm here then!' but obviously they won't, and I've got to wait til my next appointment on 23rd November to get that done. But apart from that I don't really understand what else needs to be done. I think I'll ask my ortho next time I see her.

On a slightly more positive note, my surgeon did say that the longer you have your braces on pre-surgery, the less time you have them on post-surgery, so I suppose that's good...but he also said that I'm not even 1/3 of the way through this whole process yet :(

But anyway, I'm still glad I had the appointment. I got to ask him lots of questions. I'll summarise the things he said in bullet points:

• He agreed he'll do my upper and lower jaws - he said they'll impact my upper jaw by about 5mm. It was quite scary cos he was showing me a model skull and showing me where/how they cut it, and showing me all the things they have to be careful of, such as cutting my septum and giving me a wonky nose! But I suppose it's good that they're aware of these things and will try to stop them happening!


• He also said that they'll be careful not to impact my top jaw too much because it could turn my 'slender' face into a bit of a 'podgy' face :s But he did say this is probably something I wouldn't even notice, but as it's his job he would and it would bother him that he hasn't got it perfect


• I said to him about my cant and wonky midline - he didn't seem too concerned about this and acted a bit as if I was worrying about things that aren't really a big problem, but he said it would be fixed in surgery


• He said that he thought I was being sensible with regards to my approach towards the genioplasty by waiting until the jaw surgery is out of the way and then assessing whether I think I want the genio, but I said that at the moment I don't think I will. He agreed and said that, in a perfect world where you're trying to make the perfect face, you might want to bring the chin forward a bit, but I said I'm not aiming for perfection, I'm just aiming for my jaws in the right place


• He said that they have a 'hierarchy of stability' for the different jaw procedures, and that the two types of surgery I'm having are pretty high up the hierarchy, and therefore very stable, and more safe and predictable than other types, so that was reassuring


• I asked about my nose getting wider, and he basically in a polite way said that if anything the surgery will improve the appearance of my nose. He said it will make me show less nostril, and that it would get rid of my 'bobbing tip' - apparently the end of my nose moves up and down when I talk because my top lip is pulling it down because my top lip has so far to go to meet the bottom one. I never knew I had this, but getting rid of it will be a bonus I suppose!


• He said their rate of permanent numbness at my hospital has decreased from 8% to 5%, so again that's reassuring


• I asked how common it is that someone has to be taken back into surgery to correct something, and he said that he hasn't done that for a very long time, and that when he did it was nearer the beginning of his career - however, he did say that there are often complications with jaw surgery and 'any doctor who says they don't have any is lying'


• After surgery you have your train-tracks (i.e. fixed braces) for around 3 - 4 months (this was less than I thought it was) and then a retainer that you wear all the time, and then just a retainer you wear at night

I think that's pretty much what he said. So it seems likely that I'll be getting my surgery next summer, around August hopefully. Also I now need to have my top wisdom teeth out, so I'm having them out on 15th December. Having these teeth out is nowhere near as bad as the bottom ones, so I'm not too worried, but I don't like the fact that it's only a local anaesthetic and I'll be awake! It's annoying because both the surgeon (who I think took the bottom wisdom teeth out) and my ortho don't know why the top ones weren't taken out when I had the bottom ones out! Never mind!

So although I'm a bit disappointed about it still being at least 9 months away, I know I shouldn't complain because I'm so lucky and so grateful to be getting this done at all. This really hit home when I saw on the Orthognathic Surgery Facebook page that it cost someone $58000 to get just their upper jaw done. I really am so lucky that the NHS are doing this for me for free, so I promise there will be no more moaning about it! I'm incredibly grateful to be having it done at all.

They said that the progress would be slowed down by any breakages and by not keeping it clean, so I was wondering whether it's worth investing in a Waterpik now? I don't really know much about them. Any advice on this would be appreciated!

I will post some 7 month photos later, although I'm sure they're not much different from the 6 month ones!

6 months of braces and appointment update

So, 28th September marked 24 weeks since I got my braces. Hopefully that means I'm at least half way to surgery.

I had a hospital appointment on Thursday 6th October. I had my wires changed, they seem to be a bit thicker now. Apparently I still need another mm of movement before she can bring forward my backwards tooth with no bracket, so I had a new spring put on. My teeth have been a bit achey so hopefully that means they're actually moving.

It was meant to be just a normal check-up appointment, but as I was the last patient of the day my ortho started talking to me a bit about my surgery. She started looking at my face and said what she thinks they'll do during the surgery. She confirmed that I do indeed have a cant, which I was pleased about because I was starting to worry that I'm just being completely over paranoid and analytical of my face.

She re-took some of my photos because she said they were a bit blurry. Then she got another man who I think is a surgeon to come and have a look at me. He kept getting me to push my jaw forward and do a really big smile so that he could see the extent of my gummyness and cant. He said that I should definitely have both jaws on, and said to me and my ortho that I should make sure I push for the surgeon to do both jaws because I won't get as good a result from just having the lower jaw done. He also said that he thinks I should have a genioplasty. This isn't something I've considered before, but he said that I do have a 'diddy' chin. But he said that this is a secondary procedure and that they would do this after the jaw surgery, which means that I can see what I think of my appearance after the surgery and decide whether or not I want the genioplasty. At this stage I don't think I will, as I don't think I'll want to put myself through more surgery, and I don't want to risk my chin looking too big. But I'll worry about this after surgery. They also said that my midline on my top jaw is 2mm to the right so my top jaw will have to be moved 2mm to the left. This isn't something I've noticed before but now she's pointed it out I can see it.

Then my ortho showed me my x-ray on the computer and showed me what they'd do in my surgery and what effect it would have. She clicked the measurements that they would move each bit by on the computer, and as she clicked each mm it moved my x-ray to show how it would look. So I've seen a rough idea of what my new profile will look like.

When the ortho and surgeon were talking to each other about me, the surgeon was weighing up whether a bi-saggital split osteotamy or a Lefort 1 would be better. I don't know what a Lefort 1 is...I'll have to google it. But I'm a bit worried because he said that one of them had 'lower morbidity' than the other. I don't really know what that means but I'm a bit worried because the only meaning of morbidity I know is death...but I'm sure he doesn't mean that...I hope not anyway.

Here is a very rough guide to what they will do during the surgery:

• Upper jaw moved forward 2mm


• Upper jaw moved up about 5mm


• Greater impaction of the upper jaw on the right side than the left to correct the cant


• Upper jaw moved 2mm to the left to correct midlines


• Lower jaw moved forward - probably about 8mm at a guess

I never realised I had so much wrong with my top jaw. The reason I got into all this was because I hated my bottom jaw being too far back, but it turns out I actually have much more wrong with my top jaw!

Here are some photos I took today...I look very ugly as I have no make-up on, so please excuse my ugly face lol. I can really notice my cant in these pictures.

You can see here that there is a bigger gap between my top and bottom teeth on the right of the picture than the left, which is because of my cant. I essentially have an open bite on one side of my mouth now because of this.

Here I can notice my cant and my midlines being off centre.

New spring and big overjet


Again you can see the uneveness of the gap between the top and bottom teeth on each side.

Wonky gummy smile.

Wonky gummy smile again

Horrible profile and open mouth

5 months of braces

This is just a quick post to mark 5 months of braces which was on Wednesday 31st August. It only seems like the other day that I was writing my 4 months post, so I'm glad it seems to be going so quickly. I won't bother posting any pictures because the ones in my last post were taken just a few days before my 5 month mark.

I started my new job on Thursday. Nobody's said anything about my braces...not that I expected them to really. Eating has been ok because so far I've eaten my lunch outside so I haven't had to eat in front of my new colleagues, but I will have to soon. But as long as it's not something I bite into I think it should be ok. Also the sink in the toilet is in the actual toilet cubicle, rather than being a set of sinks like in public toilets, which is good because I can spend time cleaning out my braces after my lunch without fear of people walking in. I still can't wait til the days when this won't be an issue, but it will be a very long time until I can just eat anything I want.

Springs and possibly exciting future appointments

I had an appointment at the hospital on Thursday morning. My ortho changed my wires first of all. I've noticed that lots of you bloggers say about getting thicker wires as time goes on, but as far as I'm aware mine have been the same thickness each time. Anyway, so she changed my wires, and then 'rebonded' one of my brackets. When she said she was going to rebond a bracket, I was worried that would mean taking it off and repositioning it like she did before, which I was not looking forward to as it really hurt last time. But luckily 'rebonding' apparently just means sanding of the glue that's around the bracket and putting some new glue round it, which was a relief!

Then I asked her about this stupid tooth that's out of alignment. She said that she wants the gap between that tooth and the one next to it (not sure if she just means one of the teeth next to it or both of the teeth on each side) to be 1mm bigger, so now she's put a spring going across the out-of-alignment tooth between the teeth on each side of it. This is meant to push those teeth further away from the tooth with no bracket. So once this gap is bigger, she's going to try bringing the tooth forward, but because I apparently have thin gums on the bottom, if she thinks that my gum won't take the pressure of the tooth being brought forward, she's going to take one of my bottom teeth out. I'm not sure which one, and I don't really understand how this would work because then I'd have an uneven number of teeth on the bottom...but I'm sure she knows what she's doing. I hope this doesn't happen though as I'd rather not go through having a tooth pulled out.

Here is a picture of my new spring, followed by some other general pictures of my teeth. Although it wasn't long ago that I posted pictures of my teeth, I feel like they've moved a bit since my appointment on Thursday. Every time I get my braces adjusted my bite feels really bad, and at the moment my teeth only touch at one point at the back on the right side of my mouth, so chewing isn't fun at the moment.

My new spring! There's a little bit of metal that sticks out at the bottom of it and cuts into my bottom lip but it's really easy to position wax over it so that it covers it. I'm hoping I won't run out of wax before my next appointment. I'm pushing my lower jaw forward in this picture so that it was easier to take the photo.

Teeth from the front...I'm still convinced I have a cant...either that or I have a wonky lip lol

After my appointment I went out to speak to the receptionist about the two appointments that I've got booked for 6th and 27th October which got sent to me in the post, just to confirm them. She said the one on 6th is with my orthodontist, but the one on the 27th is a 'joint clinic' appointment, which is when I'll talk to the surgeon as well. By then I will have had my braces on for 7 months so I'm really hoping that we might start talking about surgery dates!

I start my first job on Thursday, and I'm a bit worried about three brace-related issues:

1) What am I going to eat for lunch? I really don't want to take sandwiches because when I bite it I will have brace full of bread. Sandwiches that I can easily break apart with my fingers will be ok, but that's pretty much limited to jam, peanut butter, chocolate spread and marmite. Basically I don't want anything that I have to bite into. I suppose I could make pasta, or salad...any other suggestions for brace-friendly lunches? Also does anyone brush their teeth after lunch at work? I want to but I'm worried they might think I'm a bit weird taking a toothbrush and toothpaste to work!

2) I'm going to have to keep going to hospital appointments. I hope they don't make me take it as holiday, or I'll be using up my holiday very quickly.

3) The actual surgery...at some point I'm going to have to tell them that I'm going to need a month off work after my surgery. I think I'll leave it a while before I break this to them though lol.

I saw my dad again this week (he lives on the Isle of Wight so I don't get to see him much). I showed him some before and after pictures of some of you beautiful bloggers (Dani, Nora and Whitney were the stars of this demonstration lol). I'm still trying to convince him that I'm doing the right thing by having the surgery, and I chose these three bloggers because I think they had very similar bites to mine before surgery and they've all had great results. He agreed that they all looked better after surgery, but still said 'there's nothing wrong with you'. I think people are just so used to my face the way it is that they don't see the problems with my jaws, even though they can see it when I show them pictures of other jaw bloggers.

4 months of braces

Wednesday marked 4 months of braces. I'm doing this in weeks rather than counting it on the same day of the month that I got my braces on if that makes sense. So technically it's 16 weeks. This is going to get complicated by the time I've had them for a year, because there are obviously 52 weeks in year, but 48 divided by 4 is 12 months...hmm I'll have to worry about that when I get there!

Anyway there's not much change in my teeth - nothing I can really notice anyway - so these pictures are probably pretty boring, but I'm just doing it every month so that I have a record for myself.

There are some occassions when I see a photo of myself and think 'THAT's why I'm having this surgery'. This happened the other day when I got my graduation photo sent to me in the post. I think I look terrible, all because of my smile. It looks so gummy. I'm not saying I think I'll consider my face to be perfect after surgery, but at the moment I just feel like my face is ruined by my teeth. Another thing I noticed in my graduation photo is that I show more gum on one side of my smile than the other. This has got me worrying that I have a cant, and I really don't want them to start saying about tilting my top jaw, as I know that this is what ended up with Tina being unhappy with her surgery. I'm probably just being over analytical and paranoid about it, but now in every photo I take of my mouth I seem to be showing more gum on one side than the other. But for some reason I can't see this in the mirror, only in photos. If I do have a cant I think I'd rather they just left it alone, because I've never noticed it before and I don't want to risk them overcompensating for it and risk having an asymetrical face after surgery.

Anyway here are my 4 month (16 weeks) pictures. I don't know if anyone can notice this cant I'm seeing, but if anyone has any thoughts about whether this actually exists or if I'm being completely mad, please feel free to let me know!

This is my natural smile and I'm sure I'm not imagining that there's more gum showing on the right side of my mouth (the left side of the photo) :s

There also seems to be more gum showing on my right side photo (below) than my left side photo (above)

I spent a few days staying at my dad's this week. He's probably the person who's the most sceptical and unaccepting about my surgery. He just keeps saying 'I don't know why you're going through with it'. But we've had that conversation a million times before and I couldn't be bothered to have it again, so I just kept saying 'Well I do, so let's not go over it again'. My sister said to him that nobody knows why I want to do it, which is true, but at least my mum and my sister have accepted that I am doing it. I said to my dad 'I'm sure you'll see the benefits once it's done'. He agreed and said he was sure there would be benefits, but kept insisting that 'There's nothing wrong with your face now'. I wonder how many times I'm going to hear that...

I have my next hospital appointment in just under 3 weeks on 25th August. I really hope my ortho sorts out that stupid wonky tooth with no bracket on at my next app. I think I'm going to start nagging her about it. I'm starting my first job on 1st September and I think I'd feel slightly less self-conscious about my braces if she'd bring it into alignment with the others.

Vitamin B-12

I was just googling B-12 as everyone's been saying it's good to take for nerve regeneration after surgery, and I found this website which says some useful stuff about what's the best way to get it into the body. Apparently just taking B-12 tablets isn't the best way as your body doesn't absorb it. Seeing as I'm nowhere near surgery at the moment I didn't read it too closely but will keep it for future reference, but it might be useful to some of you who are approaching or have just had surgery...

http://www.mcvitamins.com/neuropathy.htm

Not sure if that will work as a link but if you put it in your browser it should work :)

3 months of braces

Grr blogger just signed me out and now I have to do my whole post again! So annoying! So, second time lucky... Wednesday was 3 months of braces. In these pics I've got my new bands and wires but you can't see/notice them here. I've got wax on part of my brace in these photos because I've got an ulcer that keeps rubbing :(

You can really see in the next two photos how my teeth are starting to move and bite is changing. You can see that I now have gaps between my top and bottom teeth which used to meet but now don't. I'm really starting to be able to sympathize with people with open bites, because although it's obviously not as bad for me, I can start to imagine how annoying it is to have back teeth that don't meet.

Also the other day I went to some caves (random I know lol) with some friends, and my friend took this photo which I demanded she deleted from facebook, but I just got her to send it to me because it shows everything I hate about my profile/teeth...big nose, goofy teeth, big gummy smile, no chin...the list goes on...

I hope that one day I'll be able to do a post like Dani just did where she's shown a photo of herself which has caught her from the side and finally she's happy with how she looks. Hopefully I'll be able to compare this photo with a post-op one and be as happy as Dani is with my profile.

New bands, a wire change, a lot of pain and skanky lips!

I have not had a good week mouthwise. My lips have been pretty dry and sore recently...probably because I have an annoying habit of picking them all the time, so it's my fault...but anyway, they were really sore on Tuesday and even started bleeding. Before I went to bed I looked in the mirror and realised I had loads of what looked like little ulcers all over my lips! I put loads of Bonjela on my lips cos that's what I usually use when I have ulcers in my mouth, but I don't think it was a good idea because the next morning I woke up with the biggest lips in the world! Unfortunatley this also happened to be the morning I had to go to the ortho, so I was frantically putting an ice pack on my lips to try and make the swelling go down. By the time I had to go they had gone down to a fairly normal size, and I had covered them in Vaseline so the ulcers weren't too noticeable, but seeing as I was going to a place where someone would be looking at my mouth for half an hour, I thought the ortho would probably notice...

Strangely she didn't say anything but this was the most painful appointment of my life!!! First of all she took the plastic rings out and put my new bands on my back teeth, but because my lips were sooooo sore just having her hands pushed against them really hurt, and she kept getting the wrong size of band so was taking ages pulling them off and putting them back on again! At one point she pressed my bottom lip against the brackets and because of the ulcers it was so painful, I think I flinched and she must have wondered why.

Anyway, after the new bands were on she took off my wire, which was relatively pain free, but then she decided that one of the brackets needed repositioning, so she pulled it off and it hurt soooo much! She was like 'you'll feel a bit of pressure'...a bit of pressure?! I felt like my tooth was going to come out with it! After experiencing this I really am not looking forward to the day (if it ever comes!) when I get my braces taken off cos I will have to experience that pain many times! I don't remember it being that painful when I had my braces taken off before! So anyway I got a new bracket put on and a new wire put in which is attached to the new bands.

All of the poking around and pressure she was putting on my mouth during the appointment was making my lips really hurt and I could feel them throbbing, and it felt like one area was really starting to swell up again. She still didn't mention it but I was wondering if I was looking ridiculous if they'd gone swollen again. When I got out and went back to my sister in the waiting room I asked her if my lips looked big and she said yes! So straight after we went to a pharmacy but the woman there said she didn't know what it was and told me to make an appointment with my doctor. So I made a doctors appointment for two days later cos that was the earliest they had. By then it had gone down a bit and there were less ulcers, but he said that he thought it looked viral and has given me some cream for it. Both the pharmacist and the doctor asked if it could have been caused by my braces, and I said I didn't think so because I'd already had them on for nearly three months so I didn't see why it would start now. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

So apart from the pain of my lips, I've also had the usual pain that you experience after having your braces adjusted, so I've been back on soft foods. Just to make things worse, my wires are too long and keep poking into the back of my mouth! It really hurts. I've tried putting wax on it but it doesn't really help. I might see if I can go in just to get it clipped because I can't wait til my next appointment in August.

My ortho asked again about my top wisdom teeth. She asked if they were hurting at all, and when I said no she almost seemed disappointed! It feels like she's looking for a reason to justify me having them out because it would make it easier for her or something! I'm happy to have them out if it will help, but maybe the NHS aren't happy about doing these things unless they're really necessary.

I also asked her about that tooth with no bracket. I mostly just wanted to make sure that she does remember that she's left it out! She said she was leaving it because she was worried that my bottom gums would be too thin and it might cause a problem with all my bottom teeth being moved further forward, so leaving that one further back meant that she could see how my gums would react to the braces, but she said she thinks it will be fine. She still hasn't put a bracket on it, but said that she will.

Anyway so my next appointments are in August and September. I'll post some new brace pictures next week cos that will be my 3 month mark! Sorry for such a long post for anyone who's still reading at this point!

Can Katy Perry make braces sexy?!

Has anyone seen Katy Perry's video for Last Friday Night? I'm glad to see that even after her transformation from a geek with glasses and a headbrace to a pretty girl she still has her normal braces on...and she manages to still look annoyingly pretty, so this gives me faith that I can still look attractive with braces! Although every time I see photos of myself from nights out recently, all I see is a big brace face! I've got used to seeing myself in the mirror with braces, and although obviously I don't love having them, I don't think they're too detrimental to my face, but when I see photos I think they look so noticeable and so horrible! Since having braces I haven't tagged any photos of myself on facebook!

More bands

I had an appointment yesterday and my ortho said that she's going to be putting some silver bands on my back teeth as at the moment I only have them on my second to back teeth. So yesterday I just had some of those little plastic rings shoved in the gaps to open them up ready for my bands to go on at my next appointment next Wednesday. Luckily it didn't hurt as much this time as only one ring snapped, whereas last time they kept snapping over and over again which meant I got all of the metal instruments wacked around my mouth! I'm not really sure what the point of having more bands is, but I just let her get on with it!

She spoke again about me having my top wisdom teeth taken out, and said that she needs to talk to the surgeon about it, but she said that obviously she'll only get me to have it done if it's really necessary.

She also asked me to make an appointment for 6 weeks time, but because she's going to be on holiday it's ended up being 9 weeks time, so will be on 25th August. Although this is annoying because it's slowing the process down again, it could be quite good as I might be starting a job at the beginning of August, so it would mean that I won't be disappearing for an appointment as soon as I start the job...if I get it!

Still not sure what's going on with this tooth with no bracket, I'll have to try to remember to ask her next time I go.

More successful eating but told I look like a teenager

I went out last night for dinner and drinks with my friend. I ordered a panini and chips for dinner. I wasn't sure if the panini would be a good idea, but being a vegetarian I'm already pretty limited in what I can eat when I go out, so I thought I'd give it a go. It actually went suprisingly well! I managed to bite the panini ok, but biting the tomato in it was quite difficult and I ended up just having to eat massive slices of tomato in one go otherwise it would've been hanging out of my mouth! Needless to say I still had bits stuck in my braces despite the success of actually getting through it, so I had to go and clean my braces in the toilet in the restaurant/bar. I was too embarrassed to do it at the sinks in front of everyone so I went into a cubicle with my little brace cleaning brush and a mirror, and wiped the chunks of food on a piece of tissue! When I came out of the cubicle I managed to have a quick rinse in the sink while nobody was around!

So dinner was quite successful, but I got a bit annoyed later because some old man came up to me and my friend in a club and told me that I look about 17. For some reason people don't seem to think it's an insult to be told you look young and they just come up to you and say it. I'm 22, I don't want to be told I look like a teenager! I already look really young for my age, and I'm sure the braces aren't helping!

2 months of braces

So, Wednesday marked 8 weeks of having braces. I've been so busy with exams the past couple fo months, that I haven't been posting much, but I finished my last ever exams yesterday, so I now I have lots of free time!

Anyway, yeah 2 months of braces, I don't feel like my teeth have really changed that much since the 1 month mark to be honest. I kind of feel like the braces aren't really doing much at the moment, as nothing seems to have changed, so I'm looking forward to my next appointment as I think I'm getting some elastics put on, so hopefully that should get things moving again!

Yesterday was the first time I've really had to tackle eating in public with my braces, and I had to do it twice in one day as well! I had lunch with a couple of people, one who I know really well so I wasn't bothered about having a brace full of food in front of her, but the other I don't know as well. I made the stupid decision of getting an egg and cress roll, and the cress was probably a bad idea. But anyway it didn't go too badly, managed to keep the cress confined to just getting stuck in the parts of my braces at the back!

Later that day me and the same girl from the lunch episode decided to get pizza takeaway to celebrate finishing our exams. However, her friend decided he wanted to get pizza too, and let's just say that me and this friend have history, and I did not want him to see me looking unattractive with a brace full of pizza! But unfortunately I had to sit opposite him while I slowly made my way through this pizza, and it was not an enjoyable meal! I find it hard to eat pizza without pulling half the topping off anyway cos of my stupid bite. Secondly, I know how much food I get stuck in my braces when I eat, so I was just paranoid the whole time about having pizza braces! I just tried not to open my mouth too much, but then when you have a stupid mouth like mine and your lips don't really close naturally, that's easier said than done! Anyway, so basically I had to sit in front of him, unattractively making my way through a pizza and hoping I didn't have too much food stuck in my braces - it really wasn't a good look haha!

Anyway I took some pics the other day, but as I said I don't think much has really changed that much since the last pics.

This is a pic of my stupid wonky tooth that has no bracket on it. I'm still wondering why my ortho decided to leave this poor tooth out! The gap is so big on each side that the other day I got my little brace cleaning brush stuck in it! (By the way, I'm pushing my bottom jaw forward in this pic...my jaw hasn't just miraculously moved forward unfortunately!)

By the way, has anyone else found that they can't see any of their followers? Every time I click on mine they don't show up, and they're not on my blog either. It's annoying cos I've had a few new followers over the past few weeks, and I like to see who they are and have a look at their blogs.

Horray I can comment again!

For anyone else having problems with this, you need to untick the box that says 'stay signed in' on the login page! After just posting a very angry comment on the help pages I then saw that somebody had suggested this, and it worked! Yay!

Still can't comment :(

SN said she's also been having this problem, although hers now seems to be fixed as she managed to comment on my blog. Did you do anything to make it work or did it just happen by itself? I STILL can't comment, it's getting very annoying. I posted a comment on a discussion on the blogger help pages (ironic that I can post a comment on there but not on blogs!), but their help system seems pretty crap - from what I can see you can only post questions/comments to discussions, there's no way of actually emailing or phoning someone for help. Does anyone else know any way of contacting them?

A message for Dani and Rihanna because I can't comment on any blogs!

As you might've seen my blogger's being weird and I can't comment on any blogs - I seem to be the only jaw blogger this has happened to, unlucky me :(

But I just wanted to say congratulations on your surgery Dani! I've been eagerly awaiting your first posts! I can't believe you being awake in the operating theatre, and even more I can't believe you putting your tongue ring back in, and even more than that I can't believe that stupid woman trying to talk to you about religion when you've just had jaw surgery! I really don't think I would've had much patience with her! I know I'll be exactly the same and not want to look at my big swollen face, but to me you really don't look to swollen considering it's Day 1! Hope your recovery goes well!

And good luck Rihanna!! I hope it all goes well and look forward to seeing your post-surgery posts!

Thanks to this problem with blogger, I can't even comment on my own blog, but according to their help pages it's a problem that lots of people are having so I'll just have to wait :( As much as I love blogging with my jaw buddies, I must say that blogger is not great, it often seems to be going wrong!

A technical question for my fellow bloggers...

Blogger is being VERY annoying! Earlier on I wrote a big old long comment to go on Rihanna's blog, and then when I tried to post it, it said 'choose comment profile', so I clicked on 'Google account' and then it tells me to sign in, so I sign in, and then it takes me to my 'dashboard' page, but as soon as I click on a blog which opens in a new window, it says I'm not logged in again!!!

It's so annoying and means I can't comment on anything! Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone know how to solve it?! Thanks!

A question about splints

Do you only have to have a splint if your upper jaw is widened out? I think I'll just be having mine shortened, is it likely that I'm going to have to have the dreaded splint?!

Debuting the braces

So I went out on Friday night and was a bit worried about going out for the first time with my braces. It was what is called 'Fetish Night' at my student union, which basically involves wearing as little clothing as possible, so in a way that was good because at least it drew the attention off my teeth, but in a way was bad because I was meant to be feeling sexy but really wasn't because of my brace paranoia. Anyway, I ended up getting very very drunk, and said to this boy I know 'Do I look really ugly with my braces?' and he said no (I think I would have punched him if he'd said yes haha) and I ended up in my drunkenness telling him about the jaw surgery - I don't even know this boy that well but I talk far too much when I'm drunk. But the weird thing was he said his sister's meant to be getting it - it seems like every time I tell someone about it they already have some experience of it somehow!! Another boy said to me 'I like your braces' and I told him not to say it, and he was like 'Why? I said I liked them' and I said 'because you obviously don't and that's just told me that they're noticeable'.

Anyway, up to Friday I felt fine about my braces, I felt like they didn't look too bad, but then on Saturday the photos appeared on facebook...They were all completely horrendous, admittedly partly because I was completely drunk, but also because of my braces :( I don't mind them much 'in real life', but in the photos they seem to stand out soooo much! I hated them, and it made me feel really down about them for the next few days. Most other people on here seem to have clear brackets which make them less noticeable, but I just feel like a big old goofy metal mouth! On the one hand it's making me even more glad that I'm getting the surgery cos I feel like I looked so ugly in the photos, but on the other hand it makes me want these braces off so bad!!!

I had an interview today and was worried that the braces would make me look really young - they say first impressions are important so I didn't want to seem like a teenager! But it seemed to go well so I'm sure the braces can't have had that much of an effect.

I know that nobody else notices or cares, but I feel like my braces are so big and obvious! Oh well, it will all be worth it in the end!

Stupid blogger!

Seems like blogger's been playing up recently, so if you've commented and it hasn't been published it's because it apparently no longer exists! Mai thanks for your comment which I now can't see, but I hope you're right and that it's not another 11 months of braces!

1 month of braces

Today is my one month brace-iversary! 1 down, probably at least 11 more to go! I came back to uni this week, so was anticipating what people's reactions would be to my braces. The people who already knew I was getting braces have pretty much just gone 'Oh you've got your braces on', maybe asked a few questions, and that's about it. However, the people who didn't know haven't even said anything! I know it's not a big deal to anyone else, but surely they must have noticed?! I don't know whether they're just being polite and not saying anything, whether they genuinely haven't noticed (but surely it's pretty hard not to?!), or they just don't even care enough to say anything! It's weird! I'm going out on Friday night and people will be drunk so maybe they'll be a bit more blunt and might say something about them! I kind of hope so, I just feel weird when people don't mention it, somehow it makes me feel more self-conscious of them.

I had one of those moments today where I was reassured that I'm definitely doing the right thing. It's weird cos whenever I look in the mirror to try and convince myself that I'm doing the right thing, I end up thinking 'oh maybe it's not even that bad, am I being completely ridiculous?!', but then when I just happen to see myself from the side I think 'Oh my God, how have I lived with this stupid face for so long? How do people not look at me and think what a weird face that girl's got?!!' I do know that nobody else notices or cares, but to me sometimes I just think it looks so abnormal that I can't believe people don't notice. I was positioning mirrors so that I could see my hair from a different angle, and I caught a horrible view of the profile, but as much as I hate it, it makes me happy too cos I know that I'm definitely doing the right thing by going through with this.

Recently I've been getting a bit more worried about the possibility of permanent numbness. I remember when I met my surgeon he said that only 5-8% of people (I don't know whether he meant in general or his patients specifically) have permanent numbness, but through my own research I don't think I've found anyone who hasn't been left with at least a bit of permanent numbness. I could cope if it was like a bit of chin or cheek or something, but the thought of having no feeling in my lips forever scares me :s

Anyway, here are some pics of my 1 month braced teeth. They probably don't look much different and it's probably not very exciting seeing the same pics of my teeth over and over again, but I want this blog to be a record for myself too so I can look back at my progress.

I don't know why the alignment of my teeth looks wonky here :s

The gummy smile

That canine on the left of the pic is continuing to be pulled out further in line with the others. My teeth look so wonky from this angle, reassures me that my teeth definitely aren't normal.

I said before how this tooth without the bracket on was annoying me...Well now it's doing more than annoy me, it's causing serious pain! The other day when I spat out my toothpaste, the bottom of my tongue got caught in the newly formed tight gap between that tooth and the one next to it, and it bloody hurt! It really bled, and then for days after I kept catching it again, and it was really painful if I caught it on a bit of metal when I was licking around my mouth to get food out of my braces! It seems to have healed up now luckily!

Also, the other day when I was looking in the mirror, I noticed that my chin is slightly unlevel! I told myself that I was just being over-obsessive, but in this pic you can really see it!! It's got a massive bump on one side! But I'm pretty sure that in real life it's not something that notices. God I really don't want to have to start sorting out my chin as well as my jaw!

I also noticed the other day that behind my front four teeth where my old brace used to be, I've got some lovely brown marks all over them. You can see them a bit in this pic. I'm guessing it's the staining that's resulted from the brace being on for so long, but as long as it's behind my teeth I don't really care!

Overbite's not looking much different yet