Staining of the Glue on My Teeth

To all the naysayers, you were wrong.  The glue behind braces does indeed stain.  This was one of the reasons that I did not get clear brackets.  I can't stand that my teeth look so yellow now.  On the first day that I got braces, the glue was undetectable.  Now, 6 weeks later, I am sad to see the glue so stained.  I brush my teeth many times a day and use a Waterpik.  I don't let drinks or food sit on my teeth long.  My oral care has been meticulous since I became a metal mouth.  Sigh...  If I had clear brackets, I would be ticked right now.  Glad I switched to metal just before they started to put the ceramic ones on.

{Day 1 compared to week 6}

The top is looking great and the bottom front teeth are finally moving.  Interesting thing to note-It has taken me 5 1/2 weeks to finally be able to bite into something with my front teeth. It was too painful up until this point.

My Birthday and My New Best Friend (8/2/14)

Yes, that is a beer.  Clayton gave me an assortment of gifts and this beer was a part of it.  What made it special?  Well, it is a beer from Fort Collins, CO, that combines two great breweries-New Belgium Brewing Company and Odell Brewing Company.  When we used to live near there, we visited Odell many times and loved their tasting room.  Unfortunately, you cannot find their beers here in NC, so this was a nice surprise.  New Belgium is another favorite of ours, so this beer was perfect.  Great find hubby!

This thing is my new best friend.  I am amazed at how well a Waterpik works on getting food out of my braces and from in between my teeth.  I use it several times daily and it takes the place of flossing (which is a HUGE pain in my rear right now).

Clayton arranged for my parents to take the boys for the night, so that we could go on a food tour of NoDa.  He totally surprised me with this as I had never heard of such a thing.  We started off with treats from Amelie's.  Heist Brewery served up beer samples and some amazing flatbreads.  Ozpresso was our next stop for coffee drinks.  One of them included vanilla ice cream---yum!  We then walked over to a King of Pops cart for ridiculous good popsicles.  I got coffee and doughnuts, while C opted for cucumber mint.  Revolution Pizza invited us in for curry chicken kabobs and bruschetta.  We ordered a beer sampler to go with it.  That included: Sierra CANfusion-Oskar Blues, Triple C Hefeweizen, Greenflash West Coast IPA (MY personal favorite), and NoDa Ghost Hop White IPA.  After that, we walked across the street to Boudreaux's for shrimp and crawfish etouffee.  We ended the tour at Dolce Vita with blueberry tea cocktails.

After all that indulgent fun, we went over to a folk festival at Triple C Brewing Company.  It was a bust.  Too many people, nothing to do, nowhere to sit, and the beer wasn't all that good.  We left and went by Maggie Moo's to pick up cupcakes that C had special ordered for me.  They were 4 of each flavor, with cake and ice cream being a part of each one.  I can't remember the flavors, but they were very good.  Dinner was bought from my favorite food truck, Tacos Morelia.  It was a great day!!  I want to do it all again. :)

Braces-3 Weeks In (7/30/14)

Day 1-7/9/14
Week 3-7/30/14

Well, it has been a looooooong 3 weeks.  I hate these horrid things and can't wait to get them off.  I can already say that there is no way in heck I am going to wear them for 2 years.  On days where I talk a lot, my mouth feels like I have razor blades in it.  Regardless of how bad they feel, I love how they are providing quick results.  My top teeth look so much better.  The one tooth on the top right in the photo, has almost completely tucked into where it belongs.  That was fast!  Look at how crooked my wire was at the beginning and how straight it is now.  My bottom teeth don't seem to be doing anything though.  Hmmmm...  I will see the ortho next week and I hope he will reassure me that those teeth will indeed move.  They are crowded upfront.  

Brace Face

Day 1---7/9/14 (top), Day 5---7/14/14(bottom)

The top teeth have already improved.  The upper lateral incisor (the pink bracket to the right of the upper front tooth in purple) has started moving back into the proper place.

Ok, so I totally changed my mind on ceramic Clarity braces at the last minute.  I was already in the chair and they had the box of ceramics on the table next to me when I began drilling them with lots of questions.  The answers didn't make me happy so I chose to go with metal.  The reasons were:

1) Ceramic bonding glue stains and can be seen behind the bracket.  There isn't anything you can do about it.

2) The clear or light-colored ligatures (rubber bands that go around the brackets) change color and don't do anything to hide the ceramic brackets once stained by coffee, tea, soda, tomato sauce, curry, etc.  In fact, they can look downright gross if you stain them.

3)  Ceramic brackets are larger and my bottom teeth are tiny.  Considering how hard it is to get my lips over my small metal brackets, I can't imagine doing that.

4) The removal of ceramics can be difficult.  The bonding material is stronger and can pull the enamel off of your teeth.  That is a risk I am not willing to take.  I have a small amount of bonding on the surface of one of my top front teeth and the thought of getting a ceramic bracket pulled off of it scares me.

5) Ceramic brackets are brittle and they can break.  Enough said.

6) Metal is stronger and can work a little bit faster than ceramic.

Some people pay more for ceramic but my ortho charges the same either way.  I really wish that the ceramics didn't have so many cons because I really wanted them, but I am happy with the metal.  Since I have metal, it was easy for me to go with colorful ligatures since there is no way to hide the fact that I am in braces.

The only bad thing is that I cannot eat properly.  My molars are so sore that biting isn't something that I can do as of yet.  It has been weird eating soft foods all the time.  Oh well, it will all be worth it in the end.  Heck, I was having a hard time eating before braces because my molars had just enough space between them that they caught food every time I ate.  It was terribly painful and the main reason that I opted for braces in the first place.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...(Hair and Teeth)

I finally cut off some of my ridiculously long hair last month.  I got 8 inches chopped and now it feels so much better.  It has been 3 years since I last cut my hair.  That is too long to go between cuts, I know.  My feeling is that I would rather spend possible salon money on spa treatments (massages, facials, etc.).  I love being pampered but don't really care about getting my locks chopped.

I have been having a horrible problem with my back teeth getting gaps in between them.  Pockets in the gum have formed due to this.  They catch food constantly and really hurt.  I am in pain almost every time I eat and I am sick of it!  It all has been happening because I had 4 wisdom teeth and 2 molars removed back in 2005.  The removal of those teeth caused the rest of my teeth to shift.  My molars stayed in place but the rest of my teeth moved toward the front of my mouth, causing them to crowd.  I really don't care to fix the minor crookedness of my teeth as that doesn't really bother me.  It is the pain that prompted me to correct my mouth.  I will be getting ceramic braces on Wednesday.  They will be the color of my teeth with a small silver wire.  It will look like I am wearing a retainer unless you look really close at my mouth.  Wish me luck!