Braces - Two Months Later - OUCH!

 September 20, 2010

    So, I listened to Whoopi on the View - take care of your teeth! Your life depends on them! She was doing Invisiline.
      Then the admin at work was doing Invisiline.
      I had done the braces bit - and the all metal bands had caused me to lose all my back teeth (9-12 cavities at a time). They are all capped except the very front 8 upper and 8 lower. Bleaching was hilarious. And the caps are different colors.
      Never mind that replacing them (some need it) will cost 10x what it cost originally. I won't try that until I have better dental insurance. (You know, the supplement to Medicare.)
      When Johnathan was in the hospital, I lost the very back tooth, lower left side. Only tooth missing. They could kill the root (root canal) so they decided to pull it. Took the dentist and the tooth fairies in the next building. I was left with a hole.
      Well, years have passed, and I have a wandering tooth above the hole. Caused by the hole no doubt. Eating became difficult. In fact an ordeal. I could only eat certain things when not at home. Food would jam into the hole (and under the cap) leading to trips to the dentist, swollen gums, Water Piks in both houses and discomfort.
      OK - time. The first set of braces had - besides ruining my teeth - done nothing. My crooked teeth were always a cause for embarrassment.
      Now they were contributing to my health. Or the deterioration of it.
      Even salads are a chore.
      Time to get something fixed (now that I have such poor insurance). About $6000. In installments.
      In I go.
      Well, Invisiline is removed from the table pretty damn quick.
      My upper and lower jaw is out of line. (The cracks in the teeth upper and lower center should line up - mine don't.)
      The wanderer can be pulled back up.
      12 months in braces.
      6 months in retainer 24/7. Sort of line doing Invisiline after the metal.
      And then a retainer at night forever.
      Well, it will stop me grinding the caps to pieces.
      I tried a mouth guard for awhile before. Under stress I bite my tongue or my check - severely. My jar SNAPS shut and oh Lordy how that will wake you up!
      At the last minute, after money changed hands (deposit - then installments for 10 months), I learned that the braces tend to pop off of the cap since the glue is designed for real teeth. Nice. Would have been nice to think about.
      I go in (I work 4 1/2 days a week so the 1/2 day gets used for Dr visits.)
      The first month wasn't too bad - after they were installed. They did the front teeth so I chewed in the back and learned to cut my food up in tiny bites.
      The second month, 6 weeks in actually, they added the bands to the back. Believe it or not, the teeth are already lined up, I can touch the front teeth upper and lower together. (I could bite thread again!) (Still moving, they aren't doing that again.) I don't look snaggletooth.
      But the addition of the back ones means a whole lot more pokey things. Biting is only for soft foods. And tiny bites are required. After suffering for a couple of weeks, I went to the wax - lower jar - and rescued my poor torn-up mouth. I need a supply of that! Because I am reading (for an hour) the first sex scene in my novel Rollover to my writing group this coming Saturday. It is written from the male point of view. Rollover is a Hot Cop story. Talking tears my lips up.
      So there I will be, the target pasted to my chest (it is the Magic Bulldozer - a reading critique), was on my braces, trying to enunciate clearly. At 8:30AM!
      OY!
      Wish me luck.
      Oh, and the extracted tooth - that they said I could repair with an implant?
      The orthodontist said I had enough teeth to eat with. The bone had closed up and doing an implant would be about as much as doing the braces!
     
      There is something else about suffering with a mouth full of wire.
      Supposedly you lose weight.
      NEVER EVER CHALLENGE A PERSON WITH AN EATING DISORDER!
      Baked custard. Rice pudding. Noodles (messy as all hell). Soft banana bread. Smooth peanut butter. M&Ms. Let me tell you, I can even manage cashews. French toast. Veggie burgers. Vegetables (Steam Fresh). Tiny cut up bites of pizza. Coffee Cake. Cheese cake. Chocolate fudge brownies.
      In short, I can gain weight. And spend a lot of time with the Water Pik and a tooth brush. And yes, you can floss while in braces.
      Knowing that I can rise to the occasion, time to rope myself back in.
      I had reached 187 (down from 199) and my new goal is 175.
      Back on the damn calorie restriction!
     
      Oh yes. While in San Diego, a rear band came off. There was no "pop". It did not "stay on the wire". I bit it. I returned it to them. I was eating seedless grapes.
      They cut off the extra piece of wire and said they would band it when it was time to move it around. And they had a better way to do that so I shouldn't worry. Back caps always loose their brackets. Nice.
     
      Two months and counting.
      Oh Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.