Friday, November 7, 2008

You're Very Welcome

To Susan, Ute, and everyone else who has said, "thanks for the blog." That's why I started it and I'm glad it's helping out. But I'll also say that I never would have guessed the amount of support I've gotten from complete strangers as well. So if you're reading this and thinking to your self, "Self, I'm glad I've read this fine publication. I feel ready to take on this challenge," you might want to swallow the pride, post some pictures, (we all know how awful they feel don't worry, you're in the most sympathetic company) and spread your story too. It's a great way to keep track of progress, timewise and picturewise; you make new friends; and it'll keep your family informed.
Meanwhile, I'll be checking in with Dr.Styrt next week. Tuesday I think?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Three Words

So I go in to Dr.Styrt's this morning for a tune-up. Get seated. They have a peek and a poke. And he says to change my top wire to an 18-25 stainless and then I'll be..."ready for surgery" !! It's really hard for me to gauge how my Leaning Tower of Molar is moving so I thought it'd still be months down the line. Needless to say, I was not expecting to hear those words today, even in a forecasting context. The less awesome news is that I had a busted bracket AND a loose band on my lower chompers so we had to fix those, then go backwards to a nitinol wire on the bottom. So actual "ready-for-surgery-ness" will be bumped back at least 5 weeks. What makes this less not-so-awesome news is that I've already planned a snowboarding trip to Tahoe for December so surgery will have to wait till at least January one way or the other. This also is the best scenario as far as work is concerned so I'm not sweating it. Things are moving. I'm gonna have a great vacation. I'll get to eat real food on Thanksgiving and Christmas. So things are sweet!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

As Promised






Here's some pics to get you all interested again. As you can see everything is lining up very nicely. A little gap has opened up between 23 and 24 but I'm not too worried about it. Oh and I've been growing my hair out. Whatcha think?



Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Catching Up

You'd given up hadn't you? Two months or so of checking in just to see what's going on and you must've thought I'd either given up on the whole thing or have been hiding in a cave somewhere. Well the latter wouldn't be too far off the mark. It's been mindblowingly busy at work this summer (as is our busy season) but it's all starting to come to fruition and I'm slowly becoming human again.

Anyway! I'm still here! I'm still interesting! Come back and things will get exciting soon I promise!

Since I'd last posted I've had two ortho appointments dedicated to that stubborn #31. As I've mentioned before, #30 has been missing since I was 16 or so. Which means #31 has had over ten years to lean forward as much as it likes. It was probably close to a 50 degree angle before we started straightening it out. Well they bent my archwire around a bit to get it tilted back and put a spring in between 29 and 31 to push it back. It's starting to move but I feel like this will be a long process. Dr.Styrt offhandedly hinted at maybe August for the second surgery (come and gone) so again I'm not holding my breath. Just patiently waiting.

I also had a cleaning last week and congrats to receptionist Linda who got her braces off since I last saw her. You look amazing!

So there it is. Not much has happened but I do apologize to everyone for disappearing for so long. It happens from time to time. I'll make it up with some updated pictures this week.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Treading

I have certainly not been meeting my obligation to my readership. But it's not my fault! There's just nothing exciting happening. The arches are all lovely and round. The crowding is gone. That pesky second gap is gone. Everything looks great from the front. But now we have to work on that tilted #31. And it's had over ten years to get in the predicament it's currently in so I have no idea how long it could take to right itself. I'm a month away from my next adjustment so it's all about patience right now. Boring!

Well here's a tidbit for you to chew on. Make it last, things could be slow for awhile.

Did you know Dr Charles Tweed was the first certified orthodontist in the US?

Way to go Chuck. Your mother is proud of you.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Rebanded

Yesterday's appointment with Dr.Styrt was sort of uneventful. They did fit me up with more spacers for my upper 7's though. I'll be going back next Tuesday to get the banded brackets put in. Closer and closer...

Friday, May 23, 2008

10,000

I would have never guessed that my face would be this interesting to anyone else.

Thanks and Cheers.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Trivia #2

"There are nearly 4 million people in orthodontic treatment throughout the United States. Three out of four are younger than 18."

Here's to being in the top 25%

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Surprise

Got a call from Linda at Dr.Misleh's today asking if I could come in. It's usually not a problem for me to hop in ahead of my scheduled appointment. In fact, it's kind of nice. That way I don't spend the entire morning dealing with pre-cleaning anxiety. Everything went well and I'm convinced the straighter teeth really are helping them stay clean. I haven't changed anything in my brushing routine since I bought an electric toothbrush a few years ago and my cleanings don't usually go as quick and easy as today. So Dr.Misleh was right way back when he said I should reconsider getting braces. Less nooks and crannies for plaque to hide makes keeping those teefers clean much easier.
Oh and I wanted to say I've been really good about not eating all those orthodontically unfriendly foods and candies but I've constantly been having dreams about chomping on things like gum and caramel.
Obviously, things have been slow on the updating front. My apologies.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Peeps #2

Here's the latest shout out to Trish, Kira, Kelly, Wonderful Jessica and the rest of the lovely ladies over at Dr.Styrt's. (And Dr.Styrt too.) Dental alignment couldn't be practiced by a finer, friendlier, classier group of people. I had an adjustment today and was showered with good news like jelly-beans on Easter morning.
First of all, who can lick the roof their mouth with their tongue? That's right, I can. Kelly ground that buggering RPE out and my tongue feels like it's moved out of a New York apartment and into a French chateau. The roof is really tingly when I touch it and Kelly said to be careful of hot foods because it needs to get roughed up a little bit before it can handle that sort of thing.
Next, I was given new wires. I think they're both 17x25 nitinol wires. For those less geeky as me, they're rectangular. How is this different than square? Well, without going into the physics of how a rectangular cross section is stronger than a square cross section (and way stronger than a round cross section) because of the amount of material that is further from the neutral axis, just know that it is a stronger wire and you'll probably be happy I spared you the details.
And finally, Doc said things will take as long as they take to be ready for surgery (which I agree with) but his guess was somewhere around 4 months from now. 4 months! I've learned not to hold my breath when waiting for the praise of the orthodontic deities, but I'm kinda stoked.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Back Home

Well Europe was a blast. We were undefeated in the Netherlands tournament and finished in the middle of the pack in the Czech tourney. All in all a great time and amazing experience. Saw lots of wired adults in Holland. And I stayed with a lady who had a BSSO recently. She was in the "I-don't-want-to-know-any-details-just-do-it" camp so we didn't get into it too much. So, just wanted to stop in. And for Dr.Tawfilis, no unlucky accidents.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Gap #2

I posted some new pictures and it still amazes me how much has happened in two short months. My arch is scrumptiously round and the gap is gone. Looking back on the pictures just after expansion stopped I never realized how weird it really looked. Remember how I mentioned that it seemed like during expansion, one side of my jaw seemed to move and the other just stayed still? Well I feel like the same has happened with the braces. My left side has obviously done more shifting to close the chasm than the right side, resulting in a new gap between #9 and #10. Because of this offsided shifting my midlines are now ridiculously off of CL (centerline for those of you outside of the entertainment industry.) I'm sure it will all get fixed later, just have to ignore it for now.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Tocar

v.- to touch. Mis dientes estan tocando.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Orthodontics and Hockey

I don't see how anyone can see this combination as anything but the will of The Almighty. They go together like first graders and paste.

We had a team meeting for my Europe trip this weekend. There will be 10 skaters plus a goalie on the team and there will be 10 NON-players coming along too. Cool. Fans in the stands thousands of miles from home. Our goalie is also wired and one of our non-players I noticed has a giant gap in her teeth. Sure enough, as she was talking I saw flashes of the bands on her top molars for her expander. Bingo! SARPE victim! So we got to talking after the business stuff was done and she's a bit behind me in the process. She just finished expanding and she'll have her wires on right before the trip. I hope it doesn't hinder her bratwurst eating ability. She said they had to expand her so much that she needed a second expander made after she maxed out the first one! I'm realizing more and more I might have gotten off easy.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Square

Had my first adjustment today. Not very exciting. It was nice to floss without the wire in. I mean NICE. I never thought I would ever enjoy flossing but comparatively it was heaven. I got a square wire and won't be back in for 8 weeks. 6 wasn't enough and I'll be out of the country through week 7. So if things were to keep on the way they have been the gap should be completely gone by then. But I know how these things work. Orthodontics are like football, that last two minutes takes as long as the entire game up to that point. So I'm not holding my breath. Do your thing little powerchain. You've got all the time in the world.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Peeps

I gotta give a shout out to Amanda, Linda, Miko and Dr.Misleh. Keepin my grill polished couldn't be done by a finer group of people. I went in for a cleaning yesterday and it was the first time they've seen me since the surgery.
Also, it's been almost 4 weeks with the hardware. The gap is down to 2.6mm and I thought I'd show off my newly rounded upper arch. I'm giddy over it.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Whoops

So there I was sitting on the couch watching the football game and picking my teeth. And as I tried to get a piece of parsley or something out of my front bracket my nail got caught by the edge of the metal and was just enough to break the bond. Who knew? So I went in and saw my favorite technician Kira to get it fixed and viola. Lesson learned. Don't pick at your braces with your fingernails.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Speed

Before I went in to get my orthodontic decorations on Monday, I measured the gap at 4.1mm.
Today it's at 3.4mm.
That seems fast to me. I love it.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Tinsel Teeth

Let's get this gravy train a' rollin'. I'm not sure exactly what to say about having braces again. The word "again" seems to be a recurring theme though. Throughout the appointment I found myself reassuring the technicians that I'd been through this once and I really didn't feel any of it was a big deal. Not that it's not a big deal but in the "I'm-ready-for-this-and-barring-any-dramatic-changes-in-orthodontic-technology-you're-probably-not-going-to-surprise-me-with-what-you're-about-to-do-to-my-mouth" kind of way. I think I said "yeah I remember that/those" about 157 times. I've got a section of power chain between my 1's and lips naturally red enough to make a young Donna Reed jealous.



For the uninitiated, the 80 minute appointment went something like this:

-Accept jaw-opening cheek-spreader into mouth. Gag as necessary.

-Dry teeth and prep with some chemical applied via syringe.

-Apply brackets onto what I can only assume is at first a gooey substance.

-The orthodontist tweaks each bracket individually.

-Zap with Beeping Blue Light Zapper Gun (R) to cure adhesive.



I was then immediately transported to my 7th grade self that consciously covered my braces as much as possible and hesitated to smile openly. (Now that I'm cocky as a farmer's alarm clock I imagine I'm gonna get over that crap really quickly.)



So that's about it. You can go on to bed children and know that when you get your braces it won't hurt and it'll just take a couple days to get used to them.



Ok?



Now, run along.



Sweet dreams.



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Are all the kids out of the room? Great. Because I have to know, when everyone else was having their brackets bonded did it smell STUNNINGLY like marijuana? It couldn't possibly be just me.



Thursday, January 3, 2008

Stubborn, Table for One

Happy New Year everybody. I hope your holidays were as fruitful and drama-free as mine.

I had my 6-week follow-up with The Chainsaw this morning. I've been eating psuedo normally for two weeks now so I didn't expect him to tell me anything profound. Pretzels are still out of reach but the rest of my diet is for the most part status quo.

I did have one thing to ask about before we parted ways for 12-18 months though. See, I've been invited to play on a hockey team that's playing in a tournament in late March.

In Europe.

Needless to say, I'd kick myself forever if I had to miss this opportunity. I explained how it's a non-checking tournament so I don't have to worry about being laid out in the middle of the ice, and that I wear a full face shield with my helmet. And let me tell you, no matter how much wheeling and dealing I did Dr.Tawfilis was not happy about the idea. He said that if my jaw wasn't protected it could be "disastrous." Which begs the question, "How disastrous exactly?" He said in that event it could require another surgery to straighten things out.

Now at this point I'm thinking I've already gone through one surgery and have another one slated. So why would the thought of one more deter me? In his exact words he said I could play "if your jaw is protected." Well I can't think of any way to further protect my jaw than what I play with now.

So I'm going to play in the 14th Annual World Amateur Tournament in Klasterec, Czech Republic.

And I get my braces on Monday.