Bands but no braces!

I went back to the hospital again on Wednesday. Since I last posted I've realised that the little blue plastic rings I had wedged between my teeth are called spacers. I've now had the spacers taken out and had what, from my Google research, I think are called bands put on. They're like metal rings around four of my back teeth, which I assume the actual braces will get attached to eventually. I don't really understand the point of having them on now though, because it looks like I'm not going to be getting my braces for another couple of months. I've got my dentist appointment to have my fillings done on 11th March, and then my next hospital appointment is 13th April. She didn't actually say that I'd be getting my braces on then, but she did say she's going to take off the little brace I have behind my front four teeth which was meant to be permanent but obviously that's all changed now that I'm having braces again! So it would make sense that she's going to take that off and put the new braces on, but I don't want to get my hopes up!

Yeah so I don't really see the point in having these bands on now. They just seem to be creating an extra 2 months of unnecessary pain! Well, I say pain, but they're not that bad. When I first ate something with them in it felt like I was eating shards of metal or something because I just kept scraping my tongue across them! But I think slowly my mouth is learning to eat without touching them. At first they were really cutting into the inside of my cheek, especially when I ate, but already that seems to be getting better. I don't know whether I'm subconsciously learning how to eat differently, or if my mouth's just getting hardened to them already. The ortho gave me some wax to put on them to stop them cutting me, but they only really hurt when I eat, and then the wax just comes off anyway and I end up swallowing it! The most painful thing is when I manage to bite the side of my cheek when I'm eating. This seems to happen quite a lot at the moment, and it bloody hurts! But I guess I'll learn how to eat without biting my own mouth soon!

I'm also a bit confused about this whole dentist and filling situation. Because the ortho said she couldn't put my braces on til my fillings were sorted out cos my braces would be in the dentist's way, but now she's put these bands on and I can't see how they're not going to get in the way, cos they're on the teeth I wanted fillings put in! Oh well, the dentist will have fun trying to work around them I guess!

In my last post I said about me apparently having a meeting with all the big important people to actually talk properly about my surgery, but when I went back the other day she said that that won't be until really near the time of surgery. She said that I could have another appointment to talk to the surgeon again, even though I already did this in September, but I said there's no point because I've decided I want it done and I think I know pretty much all the pro's and con's of the surgery! I told her I'd researched it all loads and she seemed surprised at how much stuff there is online about it cos I told her about the facebook support page and all the blogs.

I've started being a lot more vigilant about cleaning my teeth recently. I've got an electric toothbrush which I love! I never knew my teeth could feel this clean! I hate cleaning them with a normal toothbrush now! And I've also started cleaning my teeth three, and sometimes even four, times a day! I just want them to look nice seeing as I'm going to all this effort with them! I'm thinking about trying to get them whitened when all this is over, but I suppose I don't need to be worrying about that just yet...got a long way to go!

Oh, just remembered another thing to say, if anyone isn't completely bored by this point in my very long post and is still reading! My bite seems to be changing already, but not really in a good way. Some of my teeth that did meet don't seem to be fitting together any more. I seem to have a bit of a gap between my top and bottom teeth on the left side which wasn't there before, almost like a minor open bite. I suppose it must just be from where my wisdom teeth were taken out they're starting to move, and also the spacers moved my teeth a bit so maybe that's affected it.

And one more thing I've just thought of...apparently not everybody goes through as much pain as I did when they put my spacers in. When I went back on Wednesday she remembered that I was the person with the 'tight contacts' (i.e. my teeth were really close together) and said that they were still really tight even after having the spacers in. So I think that must be why it took her so long to get them in my mouth and why she had to use so much force!

Anyway, here's some pics of my lovely bands...

Today I had probably the first of many people saying 'But there's nothing wrong with your teeth'! I was talking to my friend about my upcoming braces, and her friend said 'Have you got braces?' and I said 'No but I'll be getting them soon' and she was like 'Why? You're teeth are perfectly straight!' I guess I'm going to get this a lot seeing as my teeth are actually straight...they just have a massive overbite too! I don't really know this girl so I just said 'Yeah but I still have an overbite so I'm getting that sorted out' and that was all I needed to say! So I think that will just be my response to anybody who asks once I've got the braces on...no need to go into all this surgery malarkey if I don't need to!

Still no braces :(

I went to the hospital on Wednesday and I was pretty sure that I might be getting my braces either then or next Wednesday as I have another appointment. I didn't get my braces on, but instead I got some little plastic circles wedged in 8 gaps between my teeth! I had these when I had braces before and remember them really hurting, but luckily they've been ok, it's just been a bit harder to eat.

However, it did bloody hurt when she was putting them in!!! They kept snapping which meant that her metal tools she was using to put them in kept wacking me in the mouth! And then when she was putting one in on the bottom right of my mouth, she was pushing my bottom lip into my teeth with her hand and it REALLY hurt! And then it got even worse, cos when she was trying to put the last one in on the top left of my mouth, it just kept snapping over and over again, so she had to get a stronger one, and then when she was trying to get it in she just kept pushing this metal instrument thing into my top gum over and over again, and it hurt soooo much! My mum said she could see I was really in pain cos my whole body was really tense! But there was nothing I could do so I just had to lay there and bear it!

Anyway, now that they're in they're not hurting which is a pleasant surprise cos I was expecting them to! The point of them is to make bigger gaps between those teeth. I'm not really sure what she's doing when I go on Wednesday. I did ask but I was a bit confused with her answer! So I'll just have to wait and find out. I do know though that I'm not getting my braces on on Wednesday...she said that she can't really do the braces until I've had my fillings that I need sorted out, and also she informed me that I have some decay under one of the fillings I already have, so need that sorted too! She's writing a letter to my dentist to tell him to do it, and luckily I already have a dentist appointment booked for 11th March, so she said it won't really delay things much.

Despite the pain of having the circles put in, I was really pleased with what happened at the appointment...Firstly she spoke again about me having my top jaw done too if the gummyness of my smile bothered me, and although when she said this last time it terrified me, I've actually decided I'd be really disappointed if they didn't do it - I just don't want to go through this and not come out with the best possible result I could get. So, secondly, she said she'll sort out me getting an appointment to have a big consultation with, I assume, her, the surgeon, and any other important people, to actually have a proper talk about what I want done and what the operation will actually involve (although I probably know anyway seeing as I've done so much research on it! But it'll be nice to hear specifically about my jaw!) And lastly, a man came in who was obviously either more of a senior orthodontist than her, or maybe he was a surgeon, but anyway, he looked at my teeth and kept getting me to push my bottom jaw forward, and they had a little technical conversation about braces, and then he said to me that I'll get a really nice result from having the surgery! And he said that it was definitely a worthwhile thing to do! It was so nice to hear him say that, cos it was so reassuring! Because, 1) he's reassured me that I'll look good afterwards, and 2) he's reassured me that it's worth me doing this, and that I'm not just being massively vain by wanting to get it done! I suppose it kind of reassured me that what I'm doing is justified and not just me being overly obsessive!

So all in all I'm pleased with the progress...I might not have the braces on yet, but I know obviously the ortho knows what she's doing! And also there's always benefits to having a few more weeks brace free! And I'm pleased that my big consultation is being arranged, and that the ortho/surgeon man thinks I'll get a good result and that it's worth doing!

Here's some pics of my teeth with my blue (and one purple!) plastic circles in the gaps!

Sorry for such up close pictures of my throat! Not the most pleasant pictures I know! And sorry for the blurryness too, my camera's not very good at close up pics!

Wisdom teeth update and upcoming braces

So it's now been just over a week since I had my wisdom teeth out, and in general the whole process hasn't been too bad! It's still a bit achey sometimes, it even feels like it's hurting in my top jaw sometimes too, which is odd seeing as I only had the bottom ones out! But I'm pretty much back to normal now...still eating a bit slower than usual and brushing my teeth very carefully. I'm only taking paracetemol occasionally, usually once a day, whereas last week I was constantly taking a combination of paracetemol and ibuprofen. I've heard that other people really suffer after having this operation, but I was feeling almost back to normal just 2 days after, so I think I got off quite lightly!

I think I'm going to be getting my braces on either next week or the week after. Now that it's getting closer I'm starting to get more worried about having them on again...I'm not worried cos I think they'll hurt or anything, I'm just worried that they'll make me look horrible! When I see other people with braces I don't think it makes them look ugly, but I guess I'm losing confidence just cos of my obsession with my jaw, and I feel like the braces aren't going to help!

I'm also wondering how people will react to the braces. I mean, for people who don't know about the surgery, will they wonder why I've got braces on at 22?! Will they ask or just think it's normal? The truth is most people probably won't really care, but I feel like it's going to be hard to try to explain the surgery to people, and also I hate drawing attention to my stupid no-chin big-nose face but it's kind of inevitable to talk about it when I'm trying to explain my reasons for having the surgery.

Natural and pushed forward comparisons

I often push my bottom jaw forward to try and see what I'll look like after the surgery, and I know it's not really a realistic representation of what I'll look like when it's done, but here are some comparisons of me with my jaw natural and then with it pushed forward...

More (uglier) before pictures!

I know this sounds weird, but I'm not happy with the before pictures I put up already because they're not ugly enough! It's not that I want to look ugly, but I don't think those pictures show my jaw problem as bad as it is...or maybe they do, but they don't show it as bad as I see it. The whole reason I'm getting this done is because I'm not happy with the way I look, and I know the way I see it may not be accurate or the way anybody else sees it, but it's what I see that matters. So I decided that I wanted to put up some more pictures which show my face in the way I see it, and therefore show why I want to have the surgery. So, be prepared, these pictures are very ugly! But I wanted to show some photos of my face which look like the way I see it. As you'll see from these photos, I'm wearing different clothes in them all, and it's because I had a phase a little while ago where I just took a million photos of myself over several days! It was just before I had my wisdom teeth out and I kind of felt like it was my last chance to back out, so I really wanted to make sure that I was doing the right thing! Anyway, here they are...

So here are some with my teeth closed together but my mouth relaxed from each angle. Maybe these are particularly ugly pictures, but this is why I want to change it, cos I obviously do look like this in everyday life, whereas in pictures I'm posing for I obviously try to look nice! All I see in these profile photos is a big nose and a gormless dopey expression! (By the way, I don't know why my nostrils look so asymetrical in the picture from the front, that's not something I've ever noticed in real life!)

The next few pictures are of my attempting to close my mouth! I can close my lips, but as you can see from these pictures, it's a strain, and makes my chin go all dimply, and to be honest I just think I look stupid! So I'm trying to remind myself to not try to close my lips now!

And this last picture is of me with my mouth open and my teeth not together if you know what I mean! This is quite worrying cos I do this a lot of the time, in fact I'm doing it right now as I'm typing this, so it's obvious I must look like this quite a lot of the time! I think I just look so ridiculously dopey! And my nose looks huuuge!

The wisdom teeth are gone!

I had my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday! I only had the two bottom ones out, but apparently they hadn't even come through the gum yet, so they had to cut through it.

When I got to the hospital I wasn't even completely sure that they were going to do it cos I think I might've had the beginning of tonsilitis, but every time I mentioned it to someone they didn't seem to really care! I was glad though cos if I couldn't have had it done yesterday then I probably would've had to have waited ages for another appointment, and it would've just set the whole thing back further!

Anyway, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I've never had a general anaesthetic before so I was nervous about that. I had a stupid fear that I would either die or wake up during the surgery! But luckily I didn't! The worst bit was waking up from the anaesthetic. I was in a recovery room for about 20 minutes and I just wanted to go back to the ward so that I could see my mum! I had these big gauze things in each side of my mouth, and an oxygen mask over my face, and cos I couldn't close my mouth it was just making my throat really dry and sore.

They wheeled me up to my ward and I got in the bed and my mum came over. I felt a bit sick at first, and I tried to be sick, but nothing came out cos I hadn't eaten anything all day, but a lot of blood from my mouth did come out! After that I was in a constant cycle of drinking water, spitting out blood and wiping my mouth with a tissue! But after a while I started to feel better, and after I'd been in the ward for about 2 and a half hours I was allowed to go home. It seems like a long time but it went quite quickly.

Since I've been home I've been ok really. My face is getting more and more swollen, so I'm not looking my most attractive! But I wouldn't say it really hurts that much, it's more just achey, and I'm managing to eat quite a lot, it just takes me a long time!