Get Braces

by admin

The orthodontist has given up trying to perfectly align the teeth for bite, he says they are 99% in place and to be honest, that’s good enough for me. I can see them all now so cleaning should be much easier.

The advice is to take painkillers about 2hrs before the appointment. This is because the brackets have been placed using a ceramic glue on the upper teeth, and a regular glue on the lower teeth. When removing the brackets, a special tool compresses the bond and breaks the glue off the tooth. The ceramic glue can be much harder to remove, and shatters noisily on removal – apparently loud enough to be unnerving!

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Nov 07

Abcess on gum

Categories:

Adults Teeth, Treatments

My solution was to wait to see if it went away.

Well it didn’t go away, so I thought I’d look up the options. Turns out, the most likely thing is a type of abcess called a peridontal abcess. These form when he root infection breaks out through the gum wall. The solution is a root canal.

So, back to the dentists to see what the lump is, and what can be done.

At first, because there is no associated pain, an X-ray of the tooth was taken and various spiky tools were used to prod the lump. Mild discomfort. The X-ray showed dark shadow around the roots, so the conclusion was that a root canal should be booked in.

To be honest, I felt this coming – this is the tooth I’ve had trouble with before, and wrote a series of blog posts last year when the infection was very painful. This year, I get an abcess without the pain. Perhaps pressure is relieved by having an abcess ?

Anyway, I’ve been prescribed amoxycillin and need to return for a root canal. The RC1 operation is booked for the end of the month. The RC2 happens 1 week later.

What fun. Still, if it solves the problem, that’s all good. The abcess has already gone down after just one day of taking the anti-biotics.

Let’s hope there’s no pain while I wait for the first stage of the root canal.

Tags: Abcess, Root Canal

Dec 06

Brace is spreading the teeth out

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The re-arrangement of the teeth has caused gaps near the gum line to appear, which close as you get closer to the tip of the tooth. This means I can get my tongue pinched if I lick the interior surface of the incisors from behind in an upwards direction. It actually traps the tongue in the ever decreasing gap – quite novel. A sort of tongue trap.

The upper jaw, meanwhile, is taking a bit longer to see any progress. The incisors either side of the central pair are becoming more visible as they emerge from behind these monster teeth. The upper jaw is also being spread out by the brace as the wire no longer engages with the ‘end’ bracket and is left to dangle loose.

To help the brace and speed up the process, I have been drinking hot beverages and deliberately immersing the wire in the liquid to cause the titanium wire to contract. The contraction of the brace wire increases the tension on the teeth and help to encourage movement to align the teeth.

I’ve also been pushing on the teeth using the tongue – an ineffective tool against teeth, but with repeated push my tongue is certainly getting stronger, even if the teeth aren’t moving any faster!

Tags: Canine Teeth, Incisors, spreading jaw, Tongue

Oct 30

Teeth moving with a brace at last

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I can tell the teeth are moving because one of the brackets is rubbing against the inside upper lip now. It didn’t aggrevate me prior to this week, but I think the canine it is attached to must be moving out in order to accommodate the incisors.

There’s still a lot of movement necessary before the incisors in the upper jaw have room to sit together, so I guess the canines will move out further yet.

To stop the rubbing, I applied a little brace wax again to this new area.

After the check-up tomorrow I’ll post again with the results!

Tags: Canines, Orthodontists, Toothbrushes, Upper Incisors, Upper Jaw

Oct 04

Hurray for emergency dentists

Categories:

Adults Teeth, Treatments

Well, went to the dentists and they took an Xray.

Apparently, the roots of one tooth are infected and inflamed. That troublesome molar is giving it some welly. The dentist said it was widely acknowledged as one of the more painful things that can happen and it definitely wasn’t regular brace related pain. In fact, the brace pulling on the infected tooth was probably making it more consistently painful. Nice.

The nice dentist has prescribed amoxycillin for the next 5 days to try to bring the infection under control. He also thinks that I should be able to sleep tonight.

hallelujah

sleep tonight

The first anti-biotic didn’t touch the sides, straight down with a Solpadeine and Voltarol chaser.

I’m looking foward to the next 5 days and the reduction of pain!

Tags: Antibiotic, Dentists, Emergency Appointment

Oct 04

Called the orthodontist, called the dentist, who’s next?

Categories:

Adults Teeth, Treatments

Ouch. Still hurts.

Thought I’d set up an appointment back at the orthodontists, the soonest they can see me is after 4pm today. The pain is pretty bad so I’ve called my dentists too.

Damn. The dentist can’t see me until tomorrow morning – not looking forward to another night without sleep, I’ll start hallucinating soon. Hypnogogic hallucinations, no way I can work with giant catterpillars all over the keyboard and teeth marching up and down outside singing.

No, need to get to work, suffer a bit more, and sort out better pain relief and look forward to another sleepless night.

Next on my list of chemicals to try is Solpadeine mixed with voltarol tablets (diclofenac). Shouldn’t that be spelled with a ph ? Anyway, if it works I don’t mind how it is spelled, so long as I can swallow it and the pain is reduced.

Tags: Diclofenac, Night Without Sleep, Orthodontists

Oct 04

Another night without sleep

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Well, I’m pretty tired. That’s the second night without much sleep. I spent the whole night staring out of the window in pain or sitting on the sofa, upright trying to nod off. So as not to disturb the other half, I left the bed part way through the night and went downstairs.

Pretty tired.

When the rest of the world wakes up today, I’ll be calling a the orthodontist to see if I can make an appointment. Got to check out if this brace pain is supposed to be so bad that it stops me sleeping at night.

Perhaps I’m simply being pathetic.

The trouble is, at the back of my mind and in the lower half of my jaw, I know that the pain is coming from the troublesome tooth. I hope it doesn’t need pulling or else I’m back to the decision of having four teeth pulled again. Oh dear…

Tags: Appointment, Orthodontist, teeth

Oct 03

Went to work with toothache

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Well, work was a bit hit and miss today. The waves of pain prevented a telephone conference call from going as planned. All I could do was listen and wait for the toothache to subside.

Perhaps the brace is pulling the teeth into alignment?

If it does this to all the teeth I’m in for a pain filled ride.

Still, I was not incapacitated, so could work steadily at the desk job and the only problems were eating, drinking and talking. So the by the end of the day, I was dehydrated, hungry and no-one really noticed I’d said nothing all day!

Note to self: once this pain goes, I must talk more.

Tags: Conference Call, dental pain, Toothache

Oct 02

Lower molar pain keeping me awake

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Can’t sleep.

The pain from the lower molar is simply too great every time I lower my head towards a pillow. It’s bearable if I’m awake and looking straight ahead, but as soon as I look down – ouch!

I don’t think I’m going to get any sleep tonight, I’ve tried taking Ibuprofen combined with paracetemol but the pain cuts through that. In fact, pain killers never seem to do much, there must be something stronger I could use, morphene or some other opiate?

It comes in waves, tooth ache really sucks when it stops you sleeping.

Tags: Ibuprofen, Molar, Pain Killers, Paracetemol, Tooth Ache

Sep 28

Getting used to the brace

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I’ve established a pattern now I’ve had the brace for about 3 weeks.

Never eat without a drink nearby, as it is useful to swill around the mouth while eating.

Always pick food you can bite through easily.

Before eating, I pick the wax off the teeth and store it unhygienically nearby (on a desk at work, or in a pocket). The removed wax gets hairy and dusty once outside the mouth, but at least I don’t swallow it when chewing and it remains free of little pieces of food.

Then I eat, taking care not to bite the food (risking breaking the wire), trying to avoid running my tongue over my teeth too much (in case I hit a sharp bracket or wire end).

I keep a drink on standby so I can make unpleasant swilling noises to upset people nearby and clear the bulky bits of food trapped in the brace.

Keep a drink nearby

At the end of the meal, a quick brush and then the furry wax can be placed back over the sharpest brackets.

Tags: Brackets, furry wax, teeth, Tongue