Adult Orthodontia

... A.K.A.  ....The Halloween Costume that Never Goes Away.

Well, ok, that was just me. Because, yes, people. I am an adult, and YES -- I have braces now.

So here's my not-so-little post about my experience (so far) with having braces as an adult. This isn't so much for you, as it is for me. You just get to read along. (Or not!)

Almost everybody who looks at me, tells me that I had [have] a great smile, and that I didn't need braces. I'm sure it looked that way to the average person-who-wasn't-my-dentist-or-orthodontist. And actually, if it were just a matter of looks, I probably would have just let it pass. Because honestly, the only thing that most people could tell, was that I had one lower front tooth that was up-and-back out of alignment.  And you only saw that if you were the average lay-person and really looking. It was not a big deal. Flossing isn't easy, because my mouth is crowded, but it was a livable condition. I looked like this:

(Wow, that breeze-tossed hair is really something!)

The reason my teeth look pretty good is because I was the adolescent with braces. I wore them for 21 months, when I was in 6th-8th grade. And I really am grateful to my parents for footing the bill for that. That smile was a confidence-booster for me as a teenager. And I really needed that.

As I think back on it, I realize that my old orthodontist back then was some sort of workaholic with a certain level of avarice. Because man alive, an office visit there really was like a cattle call. The sheer numbers of patients moved through that office per day was unreal. And there must have been 20+ chairs there. (My orthodontist now has 8 chairs, and most of the time isn't using all of them. And he still is pretty darn busy.) Anyway.

Since then, and over the years, my teeth have moved. Everyone's teeth move. In case you were wondering, yes, I did wear my retainers back then, just as I was instructed. The idea was that eventually, you would reduce the time you wore them, until you almost never put them in. This is a fallacy. And my teeth had moved by the time I got married. A few years after that, I couldn't even get my retainers in.

I decided to get braces now for a couple of reasons, and one really clincher reason. I never liked my snaggletooth. I still have all my wisdom teeth - which is different than when the original braces came off. My teeth weren't ever going to get better. It could only get worse from here. Flossing has been really difficult. We had gotten each of the older kids through the braces process (Darcie just got hers off in August 2012). But the biggest, clincher reason, was because of the alignment being off, my upper teeth were starting to wear on the lower teeth, and it was starting to show. I have seen older people whose teeth are worn down from rubbing like that, and I do not want that for myself. It reminds me of a horse: you can tell how old they are by how far their teeth have worn down. No, thank you!

So, it was time. And, here's what I have found out (so far) about braces.

Truth #1:

Braces back then were very different than braces are now.

First, I had bands on almost every tooth. Imagine a ring that goes all the way around each individual tooth. Yeah, now you're getting it. Today, they use brackets that are bonded onto the front of the tooth for most of your teeth. NOT the same. This is not to say that it doesn't hurt. Because yes, they did put spacers in for the bands that are (now) on my molars, and oh. my. goodness. OUCH!! Yes. Spacers do hurt.

Truth #2:

There are more options now than there used to be.

In actuality, I had three options to choose from. Regular braces, porcelain ones, or the Invisalign system. Although Invisalign sounded tempting, I had heard that it took longer, and wasn't as effective as conventional braces. I had also heard that my orthodontist's wife had been using Invisalign, but it was taking too long, and she chose to have regular brackets put on, to get it done and over with. I figured, if she went conventional, then it was good enough for me, too. After that, it was a choice between porcelain and standard tin (well, not tin, but you know!). I went with porcelain because I still wanted them to be as unobtrusive as possible. See #4 below. And I didn't realize when I chose porcelain, that I could only get porcelain on the top teeth. The bottom teeth had to be tin. Might be something you want to find out before you commit. Although there was no price difference between the two kinds.

Truth #3:

The technology has upgraded.

My experience: I got these braces on my teeth on Halloween. If you were to look into my mouth on Day One, you could have seen the zig-zag line that the lower wire made as it went from tooth to tooth. It was pretty obvious. This picture (from Day 1) doesn't do it justice, because the lower wire doesn't show.

Sorry, that's what you get with just a tiny phone picture. And my hair isn't that red, really. But I can tell you that in the first 30 days, that zig zagged wire MOVED my snaggle-tooth. Todd could tell the difference, too. (This is not without the accompanying pain, I assure you. See #1 below.) I can also tell you that in the first 45 days, that snaggle-tooth was almost completely in-line with its neighbors. Now, I don't claim to know the first thing about orthodontic technology, but I'm pretty darn sure that it was the wire and ONLY the wire that did that. Today's wires are (titanium?) like memory yarn in L'eggs pantyhose. Remember those old commercials? "Stretches out, stretches back!" Sorry.... I digress.

No, seriously. The wires now are pre-shaped, and as they're in your mouth, they are trying to flex back to their memory position. I'm pretty darn sure that's what moved my tooth. And though my lower teeth aren't perfect, I was impressed that it had changed so quickly. And I know the old wires didn't work like that. They were more like forcibly pulling teeth around by tightening. The new wires are just in there, being themselves. Not sure if I explained that well.

So, here's what I know:

1. I am the biggest baby about this. Ever. I'm not just like, [tiny whiney voice]"Oh, it hurts."
No. I'm all like -- "OWWW!! This REALLY hurts!!!!"

2. To my children: I am SO sorry that I wasn't more sympathetic when you got your braces on. I was all like, "It's not so bad," and "Get over it," and the worst was, "I had braces, too. I know what you're going through".

NO. I'm pretty sure that it must have been so traumatic that I blocked it out.

Well, maybe I'm being a little dramatic about it. But it is a bigger deal than I tried to smooth over with my kids. Pick a mid-range level of drama.

3. A Water Pik should be listed as required equipment. No joke. I don't know how my kids did braces without a Water Pik. I certainly wouldn't want to live without one right now. Of course, the fact that my teeth are really tight might have something to do with that. I ended up getting a 2-machine-combo pack that was a regular one and a travel version. I use the travel one at work. It makes me more comfortable knowing that I can get my teeth really clean after lunch, and before talking to customers again.

3a. The amount of food that gets caught in braces and wires is UNREAL. It's like I've got my own personal food storage system here. There's more I could say, but let's just leave it at that. ;-)

4. There is nothing unobtrusive about braces. Porcelain or not, they are THERE. And everyone sees them. People who know me, noticed immediately. It's not like all my peers have braces too (like kids). People who don't know me, stare. Yes -- if you think people are staring at you? You're right, they are. Only one stranger actually commented to me about them, and that was because he'd just had them himself. The rest just stare. It's a little creepy.

5. My eating habits have had to change. Hard, crunchy things can't happen. Not just because they tell you not to eat those things, but because (refer back to #1) it hurts. And I avoid biting into things almost always. This means I eat things like pizza and hamburgers with a knife and fork. Biting hurts, but it also jams food into the front of my braces: embarrassing. Maybe this will get better with time. The hurting part, that is. I know I look weird while cutting my Arby's roast beef sandwich, though! Fortunately, chocolate is mostly unaffected. "Mostly" unaffected, because I did have issues with the annual box of See's that arrived at work this month -- caramels and nuts don't mix well with brackets and wires. And I still couldn't bite into anything.

And finally,

6. I think it's worth it. For all my whining, I think the end result will be worth it to me -- which, I suppose I'm the only one that matters, right?  I won't know for sure until I get these things off. I'm told if I'm a good girl, I should have these things on for a year. "Or less." (I'm not holding my breath for "less". I'm counting on the "year" part.) And I'm counting on permanent retainers to help make this investment worth it. By the way, the cost for braces keeps going up and up. I probably should have saved a few bucks and done this years ago.

I have more to go through. There was more wrong with my mouth than I'm indicating here. My bite doesn't line up right.... a crossbite. So still coming is something about an arch across the top of my mouth that will "open up my bite". And oh, those fabulous rubber bands: I'm in for them, too. Yes, this will get interesting.

When I want to feel young again, re-living this experience isn't QUITE what I had in mind.