Friday 5 June 2015

My Braces Journey Day 1: Braces Day


My initial appointment should be on the 9th of June, thought of having it set on my teeth, then I can spend my rest time at home during this end of posting period. Got a call from the clinic that my orthodontist will be outstation for a period of time. Got my date reschedule to 5th of June, instead.

I'm actually excited!

Commercial break
Went for bowling with colleagues few days back in MITC

Back to the topic

For the past few nights before I could fall asleep, I've been scrolling through stories and blogs about the procedure. Giving myself an idea how it is done and what to expect. I'm mentally prepared and excited about being the new member of metal mouth gang.

I was among the last patient that day, since they give me the 4pm slot (seriously killing my excitement). After a long day, Dr Kok still being very nice and friendly. Not much exchange of conversation, well, I couldn't talk during the procedure while she was being really focused.

Scaling and Cleaning
COFFEE LOVER just can't escape this step. I have this guilty laugh when she told me "You need a lot of cleaning". Yeah, coffee stains the teeth a lot, but I'm not giving up (Grin and slowly roll away).

The amount of discomfort during scaling is way disturbing. Some areas of my teeth and gum are quite sensitive, the sharp poking and scraping pain gives me some jolts at certain part. I wish it will be over soon. However, it took about 15 minutes. It might sound like a short one, but no, I freaking don't like it.

When I was ask to rinse my mouth, quite an amount of blood from my gums. 

Putting the Braces On
All I was focusing was watching the busy hands of my orthodontist and her assistant. I have no idea what's going on. The whole process is fairly comfortable. Keeping my tongue relax is one important step that I need to keep myself reminded. 

I could taste how sour the adhesive is. I was informed that she was placing the bracket starting from my lower set of teeth, followed by the upper set.

Pressure was felt when she placed the archwire into each bracket. Each bracket of the Self Ligating Braces has their own door called Auto Clip, once the door is closed, the archwire stays in place. This is where the difference from the conventional braces, where coloured elastic band was used to keep the archwire stays in place. 

The archwire has memory of its own original shape. It exerts pressure on the brackets and then to the teeth for it to go back into its own straight line. I guess this is the simplest way to explain how it works. I'm not the best person to describe this. Hehe.


WARNING!
Awkward gigi pictures ahead!



Mirror image (The coil spring on the left of this picture is actually on the right side of my mouth)

Pay attention to how crooked the archwire is crossing every bracket in each tooth. 
They must be crying to get their straight position back.

Lips is super dry, effects from all the foreign objects in my mouth. Taking time to adjust.



Right side

This is an open coil spring, used to open up space.
Open coil spring is the most annoying monster in my mouth now, it is jutting out, scraping my inner lips 24/7. Due to its most outer position and rough surface. Wonder how long this monster gonna stay there.

Another monster is the hook attached to the bracket on the canine. It has a blunted round end, but it still happily scraping my inner lips.

Notice that one tooth that doesn't own a bracket? Because it has insufficient space for a bracket until my right canine fill up the empty place, where my premolar was extracted.

The criss cross wire at the side is called colligation, it is to close the empty space by pulling the canine.



Left side

This side is less troublesome, the hook over this side is a bit more in the inside, staying in a further distance from my inner lips. There are times it still try to scrap my inner lips, but way better compared to the right one.

Edited the colour of this picture to emphasize on the colligation over this side, for the same purpose, to close the gap.

See that monster on the left side of this picture, the most jutting out part. That's the coil spring LOR!



I called this Life Saver!

All the sharp hooks' worst enemy, the dental wax. Just take a pinch, roll it into a ball and had it paste over the sharp area. Safe me from getting more ulcers.


Twin!

I didn't feel any pain on the first day.
Just a mouthful of metal, taking time to adjust how to close my mouth and my lips just feel weird. Definitely lots of pressure inside, but no pain felt at the moment.

The most significant changes is that I can't bite!
Even the softest food in the universe. My teeth feel so tight that bitting is painful and sensitive.
Well, no problem la, since I've been on soft diet on the past few weeks, full of experience fuhhhhh....

Cost: RM 2,900 (RM 100 for consultation)



Love

Thursday 28 May 2015

My Braces Journey Part 3: Tooth Extraction x3

My Braces Journey Recap:




Here comes the last pre-braces step!

The most significant thing after my wisdom removal is how tiring it is to chew only on the right side of my mouth, besides some weird pounding and sharp pain over the suturing site. Food might stuck around the suture, and yeah it is yucky. Still, had to clean them despite the pain over the raw area.

Just 6 days after the wisdom tooth left its root, another 3 are the upcoming victims. Due to overcrowding (hate this word now LOL), both of my upper premolars and left lower 1st molar have to bid goodbye. Sorry, your owner has a cute small jaw to fit too many of you. Teehee.

During my first consultation, Dr Kok mentioned that she will do the extraction in view that she was the one that decide which teeth to be removed for her to fix the braces. After I had my suture removal with Dr Leong, both of them were discussing about my extraction. She came over to Dr Leong's office and did another examination on me. In the end, she decided to have Dr Leong extracts the other 3 for me as well.

"You sure you want to have 3 extraction on the same day? You can try both on the same side first, and come back another time for the one on the right."

Well, I understand the situation that eating will be easier if the tooth on the same side being removed together, so that I still can chew easily on the other side. But, making another appointment sounds tedious to me and my working schedule.

"It's okay, I want 3 out at the same time"

As expected, eating is getting more difficult. Wisdom tooth removal area still kinda raw, now I have EXTRA 3 sockets in my mouth.

Bleeding took quite some time to stop because I couldn't focus to put on constant pressure to 3 bleeding sockets at one time.

I had to bring porridge to work. Until about day 4, I couldn't stand taking too much of soft diet. Soft diet makes me super hungry. My satiety is not satisfied at all.



Day 5 post extraction (with 4 teeth less in my mouth), I finally had Korean food for dinner!

I had to drag my friends out to eat with me. And yes, I'm finally a happy girl.
I insist to eat the crunchy anchovies and peanuts, which I might not be able to eat once I have my braces put on.

I'm excited.


Love

Friday 22 May 2015

My Braces Journey Part 2: Wisdom Tooth Removal

Here's the recap for My Braces Journey:

Part 1: Consultation (07.05.15)


Call me bad luck.

How many wisdom tooth a person has?

FOUR (4)

How many I had mine removed?

THIS IS THE FREAKING THIRD ONE in just a span of 7 months. Sit one corner and cry.

Putting that aside, I calmly called up Dental Clinic of Mahkota Medical Centre to schedule an appointment for my left lower wisdom tooth removal. Time and date was booked under Dr Leong SY, an oral maxillofacial surgeon.

I went to the clinic on my post night, thinking that being sleepy is good enough to bear the pain. Ah, yes, I hate the local analgesia injection. The dentist has a bigger, silver high tech looking LA syringe, as compared to what I used in hospital. Troll!

My wisdom had to be removed surgically in view that it is only partially out, at the same time it is facing at my buccal mucosa. The alignment is so out, so not wisdom at all!

The surgery took slightly longer that predicted, my surgeon sort of missed out that one tiny hook of the tooth at the bottom of the gum. It was a bit vague on the X-Ray, even I didn't notice that tiny notorious bit. That is when all the DRILLING and DIGGING came in to get it out.

I am not sleepy anymore after the drilling. I can even feel when the hole was being sutured, the pressure, not the pain of course!

Since I have so called the experience of removing 2 wisdom tooth previously, the pain was expected, the numbness was expected.

I have to go on soft diet for a week AGAIN. Bye bye to all the crunchy keropok in Emergency Department.

While I did my next booking for STO, I made it the same day for extraction of the other 3 tooth on 28th May, which is actually 6 days after this surgery. They were like "Girl, are you sure?"

I'm not out of time. It is just tough to plan off days for appointment.


Love


Thursday 7 May 2015

My Braces Journey Part 1: Consultation

Hey there, it's time to CPR my blog here. It has been pretty dusty here. Anyway, I bet it will interesting to jot down this new journey of mine, should be pretty interesting to be reading it again in the future.

The thought of getting a braces was way back when I was in Secondary One. I've pretty bad overcrowding since my baby teeth were replaced. All the permanent one was growing everywhere within the gums. However, the thought of having to go through the pain fears me, so I defaulted the idea of getting braces done. To make myself feels better, I thought my fangs were pretty unique, and that's for who I am. The decision has been on and off until now.

Many reasons why I decided to embark this journey now:

1. I can finally pay the expenses on my own.
2. I am ready to be responsible to the discomfort.
3. I want straight teeth (echoing x100000).
4. My teeth is getting harder to brush.
5. I want straight teeth.
6. I want straight teeth.
7. I need a change in life (shh secret...).

It's all started on the 7th of May 2015.

I had an appointment made under Dr Kok, an orthodontist in Mahkota Medical Centre for my very first consultation.

Here's the journey before I could have the braces fixed on me.

1. I need to get my left lower third molar (wisdom tooth) out surgically. The tooth is partially out, however it was severely misaligned laterally towards my buccal mucosa. It does give me some discomfort upon manipulating the tooth.

2. After that, 2 of my upper premolars and my left lower first molar will have to be extracted due to overcrowding. Thank God I had one missing tooth naturally, so nothing need to be down over my lower right side of my teeth.

P.S: 6 months ago, I had my right lower wisdom tooth surgically removed because it was impacted. On the same event, the upper right wisdom tooth was extracted because it was too long with slight misalignment causing injury towards my buccal mucosa.

3. A mould of my teeth was done. The taste of the pink color mould yucks!!!

4. Dr Kok explains the different types of braces available with all the pros and cons. On the spot, I picked self lighting braces. However, I still have to go through all the steps above before I could have it fixed on me :(

5. A lateral cephalometric X-Ray was done showing that my upper set of teeth was protruding causing slight overbite.

Next appointment was made to remove my wisdom tooth on the 22nd May, scary shit!


It didn't look so bad from a far portrait of myself, but certainly can't deny it wasn't a set of nice straight teeth. Gonna miss my FANGS the most.



Close up with friends.
Now you see how bad my set of teeth was compared with my friends.


Want to read more? Here:




Love
 

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