Let me introduce myself, my name is Cristi, I'm 27 years old. Like many others in this day and age, I'm embarking on the 2ish year long journey of ADULT BRACES. I'm in a massive amount of pain, so I thought at least a blog will help me document the journey and keep my mind off of it.
My journey to braces started a few years ago. I have a weird bite, my teeth aren't horrid in the front, but in the back - absolutely nothing lines up. The left side of my teeth meet when I bite down - the right side doesn't. Years of the left side then having all the pressure resulted in a few instances where my jaw fully dislocated on the left hand side, it would slip out, then the muscles all around would inflame instantly and stop it from going back in. Each time I'd head into a dentist, or an emerg and I'd get muscle relaxants. Once they kicked in and the swelling started going down, the jaw would go back to normal. An X-ray showed that the ball joint on the left hand side was flattened, and that's why it was easily slipping in and out of its socket. I had two choices, I could either undergo surgery to break my jaw, insert a pin, and try to re-align the jaw, or I could get braces. I chose braces, because I don't think it's an issue with the way my jaw is aligned, but a way my teeth are aligned.
I started out with a certain ortho in Calgary, who I won't name, who was amazingly unprofessional. Didn't have very great technology, and looked at me like I had two heads when I mentioned I was a tongue thruster. How can an ortho ask a patient what tongue thrusting IS? It's a huge cause of a lot of people needing braces to begin with.
I ended up switching to Dr Corey Low at Icon Orthodontics in Calgary, Alberta, which is one of the best things I could have done. He is amazing, and his office had a ton of new technology that the other one didn't. Not only that, during the initial consult he looked around at my teeth, and the first thing he said was, "You're a tongue thruster! We'll need to do retainers when you're done so you don't push the teeth back out." You may ask, what is a tongue thruster? Well I won't take offense if you don't know, because y'all aren't orthodontists, and you're allowed to not know (unlike the first certain ortho..).
Tongue thrusting means I have an overactive tongue muscle. It just moves all around, without me trying to. I know that sounds totally ALIENish, but it's just always moving. It constantly pushes against the back of my teeth, even when I'm sleeping, and over the years it's caused the teeth to stick outwards a bit. I wake up sometimes and my teeth are SORE from thrusting against them. It's horrid for teeth, because the tongue packs a huge amount of pressure and oomph, and years of doing this while you're sleeping can really mess up your teeth. I think it's genetic, because when I try to floss my 3 year old, his tongue just goes crazy in there trying to attack the flosser, and I can tell he's not trying to do it.
Instead of the traditional brackets of the other ortho, he had a ton of new technology to choose from. I chose the 3M Unitek SmartClip self-ligating system. Self ligating, apparently after days of research to figure out what the heck it was, means the brackets hold the clip in and allow movement, instead of having each bracket secured with elastic bands. It's supposed to work more quickly and need way less adjustment than traditional brackets. Better technology and for about the same price as the other ortho's traditional treatment.
I'm one of the only adults amongst pre-teens in my orthodontist office, first of all, people look at me like they expect to see a kid with me, but no, it's just me. Corey Low is a hugely personable guy though, and makes you feel at ease right away. He's one of those guys who looks genuinely excited to see you, and remembers your name, even though there's at any time, 20 other patients all around.
I got my braces put on yesterday.
How I feel about that, deserves a post all on it's own...
