One month with my Harmony lingual braces!!!

Well I've had my harmony lingual braces for just over a month now and been using my acceledent for a few weeks - although I have to admit I was on vacation for 10 days and didn't exactly keep up with it : s I do believe the acceledent is working though because it seems like when I wasn't using it my teeth didn't feel like they were moving as much. So it's time to get back on track! I still find the teeth on either side of the extractions to be quite tender when biting down but other than eating my teeth don't hurt at all any more. Also, happy news - today a coworker told me she is starting to see a difference in my smile!! That's awesome because I was feeling like there was no difference at all lol. I have an appt next week so will update again after that.

Harmony Lingual Braces - 1st official visit

I had my official follow up visit today, to check the wires and positioning and to get pontics (fake teeth to fill the extraction gaps) and also get power chains. Those are to help close the gap. I actually got power threads instead, they're like little stretchy elastics, Dr. Alexander thought they would work better with the lingual braces. I felt them right away so hopefully that means they're working already! I have a wedding Saturday, so I'm pretty happy about the fake teeth because I've been really self conscious about smiling, and getting pictures taken, because you can see them if my head is turned to the side at all. Dr. Cliff put them in really quick and I couldn't even feel anything while he was building them up which was great. Basically the fake teeth are for cosmetics only, I can't eat with them and they don't actually reach if I bite down, but they hide the gaps and look amazingly real. I'm not sure how long I'll keep them after the wedding, just because I feel like it's an extra place for food to get stuck etc. but we'll see I've been using the Acceledent, not every day as intended (I missed a couple days on the long weekend) but trying hard. It seems to be less powerful now and I'm not sure if that's because I'm getting used to it or if it actually is doing less vibration but either way it's super easy and doesn't hurt at all. My teeth are pretty much fine now, it seems like they rotate aching lol, one tooth will be sore for a couple days, then a different one, etc. and sometimes when I chew on the right side it feels like one is loose, but I'm just careful and it's fine. I am still careful about what I eat, nothing hard or difficult to chew, but I've had pasta, chicken, shrimp, rice, eggs, bacon, even pizza. I'm still having trouble with my "S"'s but everything else seems to have improved a lot so I'm happy about that as well. That's it for now, will keep you posted :)

Pics with harmony braces

almost forgot, they gave me the pics from right after I got my harmony braces on - I'm almost embarrassed to post these but that's the point right? Notice what a huge difference there is in my bite, you can actually see my bottom teeth now

Braces are ok

Just wanted to give y'all a quick update - I went to Dr. Cliff today (Alexander & Alexander Orthodontics) and he checked all my brackets for me to check if any more were loose. He said all is well, and thankfully the bracket I had reattached in PR is also good to go - a side benefit of these custom Harmony braces is that they really only fit in one place! If I had regular braces I would have had to have him re-attach it in the proper position, of course only if I didn't lose it when it came off :s So whie I was there they also fixed the wire that was poking up and cutting my tongue, so that feels a million times better, and I got a new supply of gishy goo since I used up the last one protecting my tongue from said wire lol. They also gave me a new appliance to try, called "AcceleDent" which is supposed to help accelerate the movement of my teeth so the treatment time is shorter. I have to plug it in overnight so I'll try it tomorrow and let you know what it's like. That's all for now, ttys

back from vacation - 2 weeks with harmony braces

well, I survived my week in Puerto Rico, and my second week with braces! I'm still recovering from the busy week but wanted to post an update. All in all going on vacation with braces this new was not fun. I was very limited in what I could eat, and even what I did eat was slow and frustrating. The worst part though, is that on day 2 of the vacation, one of my brackets came off!!! Of course it was on a molar, at the very back, so it was just flopping around and I was terrified of losing it. I couldn't eat anymore at that point (and had taken all of 2 bites of my pasta when it came off) so that was extremely frustrating. Also because it was at the back the wire was cutting the heck out of my mouth. I wasted an entire day of my vacation finding a dentist in PR who could reattach it (I was looking even for someone to cut it off so I could eat again and take it back with me for Dr. Cliff to reapply). Luckily I found an American who was able to reattach it, but it cost me $100 out of my limited vacation fund, which was another bummer. I can also tell that at least one more if not 2 or 3 brackets (all molars) are also loose, so I'm praying that they stay put until my appointment tomorrow afternoon, because I do NOT want to go through that again. So all in all I would definitely not recommend going on vacation within the first month of getting lingual braces. On a happier note I seem to be able to eat more real foods now, like pasta and scrambled eggs, without pain. But it's still almost impossible to bite into anything with my front teeth, and the wires are still hurting my tongue a lot. And one weird thing I've noticed - it seems like when I sleep my braces are crushing my tongue, so my mouth is really sore every morning. I've tried applying wax right before bed but it only helps a little. That's it for now, back to work tomorrow and I'll keep you updated on my progress :)

1 week with my harmony braces!

Well it's officially been a week since I got my brackets on and my teeth yanked (sorry for the graphic) but I realize this could be a bit misleading since it's only really day 4 with the full braces including wires - which seem to be what is the real adjustment. I was hoping to pretty much be able to eat like a normal person by now, not anything hard or tough, but at least eat pasta or similar easily. No such luck I'm afraid - my teeth are really just tender now, sort of like a healing bruise feeling, almost itchy, hard to explain. It's not agony, ,just irritating. But when I try to eat something with any substance it's a fair bit of work, that's when I really feel how tender my teeth are - of course I try to eat with my molars but as soon as I put any pressure on them it's like jabbing a bruise :s so it ends up being slow and frustrating and I give up. And I find I'm using a lot of gishy goo, going to have to order more very soon as it's kind of a small tube. One other thing I've noticed is that yesterday and today I keep hitting my front teeth together - that is REALLY painful, but I'm hoping it means either my teeth and/or my bite is moving so I just try to be careful when I talk. Still lisping quite a bit, tomorrow I have 4 meetings including one where I am doing all the talking so it should be interesting. I leave for my vacation on Sunday, so I'll try to post an update Saturday before I go. Will also do a new video post on youtube tomorrow or Saturday so you can hear how I sound. I do have to say though, this whole "lingual" behind the teeth braces thing is pretty cool, at least I don't worry about people noticing my metal mouth when I talk, or feeling self conscious at all (except when I talk haha).

Day 5 - dinner out

Well I had a terrible sleep last night, kept waking up trying to get comfortable :s My teeth were driving me crazy in the morning and I had to take 2 aleve just to take the edge off! BUT I am happy to say they feel a lot better now Thank God. My friend from CA is in town this week so after postponing last night we went out for dinner tonight. I chose the Olive Garden because I figured pasta was my best bet lol. The gnocci was awesome' warm & soothing but also filling and soft to eat. I tried chicken penned Alfredo but it was frustrating and after eating about 1/10 of it I gave up and had it boxed up. Hopefully in a day or two I can try again. I'll say again thank God for gishy goo! The one wire is sticking straight up at the back and ripping my tongue to shreds but the gg totally protects it and stays on forever Lastly, I bought a water pik to help since flossing is REALLY irritating. I actually like the waterpik - its very odd and I sprayed water everywhere lol but it really made my mouth feel clean and got all the little bits out that brushing couldn't. So all in all I'm adjusting pretty well and hoping im back to almost normal by the end of the week, so I can enjoy my vacation next week!