1/8/2023 0 Comments Broken age flawless executionI’m now one year into the process, and have to say it’s hasn’t been too bad. It’s literally rubber caulk, and I highly recommend it! If you, or your children have braces, be sure to ask your orthodontist for it! Or, click the link above to purchase yourself. Let me tell you….it’s AMAZING! You extrude two tiny streams of “caulk”, smoosh them together and press it wherever your braces are chewing up your cheeks. They gave me syringes of some stuff called Gishy Goo. But I didn’t think about the beating my cheeks would take, especially those first few months. I knew there would be pain, and some headaches. Swollen cheeks after my appointment were just the start. I’m smiling here, but that didn’t last long. Here I am (below), just after getting my braces. I find them all over the house, in my car, my office… ![]() But, I sport snazzy little rubberbands that sometimes fly like the wind when I sneeze. A mere three hours later, I was sporting shiny new bling! I don’t have headgear, thankfully. It took me a couple months to decide if I was up to the process, and it’s a heck of a process…fascinating really….an engineering feat! I chose the most “invisible” clear brackets, hoping they wouldn’t be quite so obvious. Guess which one I chose… Getting BracesĪt the ripe “old” age of 54, side-by-side with 10, 12 and 14-year olds, I was outfitted with top and bottom braces – full blown metal mouth, tinsel teeth, radio-tuners. He gave me 3 choices – jaw surgery (no thanks!), top-teeth only braces (won’t fix the whole mouth), or full-mouth braces for about 2 years. But, when I actually saw what he was talking about, holy cow! So, what does all that mean? If I want to keep my teeth as long as possible, realigning them is a priority. Did I tell you my two front teeth are crooked? Talk about a mess. I learned my teeth hit tooth-on-tooth instead of between the cusps, my teeth are wearing faster than they should and enamel is cracking in the back. It was not unusual for me to shred floss and get it stuck. He was terrific, explaining exactly what was going on with my teeth – they tip inward, which disqualified me for the invisible type. I had no idea that my mouth could open that wide, or my cheeks stretch that far! A few x-rays later, I sat down with the doc to review my case. Before I met with him, the technician took what felt like a million photos of my mouth, face and profile. I went to my referral orthodontist for my free consultation. Well…he got that right! Meet the Orthodontist But, that referral came with a caution – it’s not usually just a simple “straighten that tooth” process. When I shared that I’d started catching my lip, son dentist offered an orthodontics referral. It had moved so much that I was becoming self-conscious of my crooked “buck tooth”. Dentist, I now have a crooked tooth.įast forward 40+ years, and wouldn’t you know that was the tooth that started moving outward moving the one next to it inward. Because the chip was small and more surface than tooth edge, our family dentist simply filed it off. ![]() Yup…bang went my tooth on the chair (no idea how I managed that!) and out went a chip. As a child, I chipped a front tooth at a neighborhood gathering whilst hiding behind my mom…who was comfortably sitting in a metal folding chair. My teeth have never been perfectly straight, but they weren’t perfectly crooked either. But I did point out that I noticed front teeth on the other side had been shifting. We can replace it so it matches your teeth again.” Not being one to ASK for freezing and drilling, I politely declined. During a regular cleaning, son dentist said, “You know Barb, that filling is discoloring. Over the last couple years, thanks to my coffee-drinking habit (some call it an addiction) and simple aging, that filling has discolored some. ![]() Dad dentist did a great job matching my tooth color, and the filling was perfectly invisible for years. Over 20 years ago I needed a filling between two front teeth. Son #2 has now taken over my file, and it’s clear the apple hasn’t fallen far from the father’s tree. He’s on his happy way to semi-retirement now. I couldn’t convince him to simply glue my old, filling-filled broken teeth back together since I had all the pieces. Heck, I put both his boys through college and dental school! He’s taken great care of me over the years, literally held my hand through two crowns. I’ve been with him and his family for over 30 years. As much as I hate going to the dentist, I love my dentist…I really do.
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