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...