I'll start at the beginning...
A couple of years ago I got braces. A week ago, I finally got them taken off. Yay!
The orthodontist's assistant then made casts of my teeth and booked me an appointment for yesterday. I was supposed to pick up my retainers then. I forgot to go. Oops. So she rings me up and reschedules the appointment to today. Okay, so that's not much of a delay.
Unfortunately, during the week after getting my braces removed, I'd noticed something disturbing. My teeth were all starting to move back to where they were two years ago... dun dun DUN! My two front teeth, the most visible, were maybe halfway there already.
Staring in the mirror one day contemplating this problem, I tried putting my two front teeth twixt finger and thumb and pushing. To my surprise, I could actually move them! It only took me about three seconds to squeeze them back to where they were from the braces. Not cool! It looked like they were about to fall out or something - not an event I would look upon kindly, seeing as I'd just spent several years and thousands of dollars of my parent's and grandparent's money getting the darn things into the correct position!
So I trotted in to the orthodontist and sat down in those dentist chairs they have, and the orthodontist peered around and went "hey, your teeth are moving". I was like "yeah, I know, can we fix that?" And he was like "well, your appointment should have been days ago, I never leave it this long before fitting retainers", and I was like "darn that assistant!" (not that I vocalised it), and he was like "here, have some retainers!" *SLAM*
OW. MY TEETH.
In half a second, he'd just moved every tooth on my upper jaw the same distance as the braces had moved them in a year.
OW OW OW.
I got over it after the first few minutes, but boy was it painful.
Anyway, so it turns out that retainers are pretty annoying - more so than braces in many ways. These particular ones are transparent (which is good!) and basically wrap themselves all the way around the teeth (not so good), and they have to be taken off every time you eat, play sports, or go to an important social event. (Good thing I never do the last two, then!)
So I get home and feel the need for some snackage. I open the cupboard, grab some food - oh, yeah. Retainers. Well, I guess I'll get them off then.
After a lengthy two-minute struggle involving much grimacing and hoping I don't rip my teeth out of their obviously-not-very-solid resting places, I finally manage to tear off the retainers (and my teeth promptly zoom out towards their original positions again). Okay, that hurt, but at least they're off.
Wait, what's that I can taste?
I look in the mirror and run my tongue over behind my top front teeth, and all this blood comes gushing out from between my teeth. Eek!
You know how in movies when someone's been shot and they're saying their final words and blood comes out of their mouth? It was kind of like that.
So I hurriedly put the retainers back on (hey, at least then the blood just pools inside them inside of going everywhere) and grabbed some painkillers.
I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to eat for while without bleeding all over the table. I hate orthodontics. :-(
ID:8840
 Feb 16 2006, 12:47 am (Edited on Mar 10 2006, 7:11 pm)
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I didn't go for braces.
A few years back my dentist was like, you might need braces for for that over bite. I said "Would it be a physical problem or like a image problem?" He goes: "Well an image problem, you got a quator of an inch of an over bite." I said: "Forget it, I don't care." My mother had TMJ tough, and it she had to have several teeth removed and have her jaw broken in several places. Not fun at all. Finally I am having problems wiht my jaw lately, and I think its cause onf o my wisdom teeth in the back are like growing into my jaw. I gotta see the dentist about that. | |
Myself, I don't have a dentist. The last time I went to one was like ...3 years ago. I've never had complaints about my teeth.
Sad to hear this, though. | |
Holy crap, that sucks Crispy! I hope your teeth get fixed. It'd suck to get wooden ones (<_<).
Shades said: I said: "Forget it, I don't care." Amen, brother. My bottom set of teeth are totally crooked (with the top set being fine). Thankfully, I can bite and rip | |
I have an overbite and overcrowding.
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Ack. They shouldn't be moving back to their original positions like that. I wonder if maybe Australia's dentists learned the trade from their British colleagues.
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Lummox JR wrote:
Ack. They shouldn't be moving back to their original positions like that. Yes they should. Braces straighten the teeth out, but not perminatley. They close all of the spaces within your teeth and do many other wonders. Once they come off, they begin to go back to their original position. Everytime you speak, move your mouth, etc. your teeth move. They slowly go back to their original state before you had braces, that is what retainers are for. They retain your teeth from moving and keep them in place, permenatley. Luckily, you do not need to keep them in for years, like those dreadful braces. Retainers are only required to be in on a month or so. Once your teeth are used to being retained in that one position, they become permenant and stay that way. My older brother never wore his retainer after he got his braces off so now they are the same as they were before he got braces. What a waste of money. | |
I wonder if maybe Australia's dentists learned the trade from their British colleagues. Haha >_< Why did Austin Powers just pop into my head? | |
Picture?
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Bad picture. :-(
I'd take a picture except there's not much to see now - the bleeding has slowed down a bit (I was spitting blood into the basin all through cleaning my teeth, but it's not quite as bad). Besides, I'd have to take off my retainers, and I just put them on 10 minutes ago, so no way. :-P Lummox JR wrote: Ack. They shouldn't be moving back to their original positions like that. I wonder if maybe Australia's dentists learned the trade from their British colleagues. Ha. Firstly, minor nit: orthodontist, not dentist. This guy is less concerned about plaque and more concerned about the position of teeth. And secondly, I'm told that's normal. The bone that holds the teeth in place has softened during the process of shifting teeth around with braces, and they have a natural tendency to want to go back to the "easiest" position - which is where they've been for most of my life. My dad has crooked teeth because his orthodontist, back in the day, didn't even give him retainers. So they shifted a bit. Though I really didn't expect them to be THIS movable! Anyway, thanks for the words of sympathy everyone (except for Ben :-P). It's not hurting as much now, and I think the bleeding might even stop in a week or so! | |
I've had lots of teeth problems over the years, too. I've got too many teeth in to small a mouth!
Basically, eight or so of my baby teeth became anclised - they'd actually fused to my jawbone in such a manner that they weren't coming out any time soon. I had non-baby teeth on the way, and I don't think that it would have been too good if those adult teeth tried to grow up through my anchored baby teeth. In the end, I had to have all eight surgically removed, under general anasthetic. I had cat gut in my mouth for a while after that one... And that's AFTER I had to have four teeth removed in year 3, because of overcrowding. Which was BEFORE I got a plate to fix a serious underbite problem. Thankfully, the orthodontist reckons my teeth are pretty much fine now. Although my wisdom teeth still haven't come up yet... | |
How's the teeth situation going?
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Better, thanks for asking! My teeth (well, gums) are no longer bleeding on a regular basis, which is a definite plus. And it doesn't hurt any more.
Dental hygiene is turning out to be a problem, though... food tends to get under the retainers when one is taking them off and on all the time. And food is bad for gums. I worked that one out myself. | |
Well, my teeth suck alot also. I still have my braces on (which sucks) and for some strange reason, two of them were broken. I mean, down the middle, and still in my mouth. So I could literally put my toungue between a single tooth. And when they fell out, they fell out by halves, and I ended up having half a tooth for a few days, and it was annoying as hell, and very painful to eat and brush my teeth. And then I ended up choking on half a tooth and a belgian waffle. All Im really trying to say here... is that I absolutely love waffles!
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Holy shit Crispy. This scares me, cause I have my braces on still and only got them last year. >_> Sucks for you though. Hang in there buddy.
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Nothing is as bad as having a root canal. Infact make that two root canals :(
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Spade489: And then I ended up choking on half a tooth and a belgian waffle.
Heh heh e.e | |
It was only bad for a couple of days, it's okay now... the only reason this is the first post still is because I haven't had anything interesting enough to write about yet. :-)
Most people's experiences won't be as bad as mine either... so I don't think you need to worry too much. | |
I wore braces for half a year in an effort to move some of my molars out of the way of some wisdom teeth that were coming through.
No dice, the wisdom teeth came through causing most of my molars to crack, lost one to an absess (however you spell that) and have a bunch of fillings now. But I have nifty wisdom teeth!