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!