I have big news to share!. I have been in a roller coaster last 3 weeks. On Thursday 18th of January I finally got my adult metal braces installed. A very big step after many appointments and discussions with dentists / endodontologists / implant surgeons / paradontologists. 24 metal brackets have been installed and I’m happy finally doing this! I will explain here what happened that day!
Not stressed anymore
I thought I would be very stressed but that very moment when I arrived at the orthodontist office no more stress could be found. I was 100% prepared to get things going. The day before (On Wednesday) I visited the implant surgeon. He extracted my front tooth. Put the extracted tooth in a very small box/cup and send me home. Not really my favorite experience but this moment was the real moment things started. So I was sitting there in the waiting room waiting for the orthodontist to call my name. She was 15 minutes late, but ok…
Come to the chair
She told me to sit in the chair and didn’t ask too many questions. Her assistant started to explain how to brush my teeth as soon as I get my metal brackets installed. She explained it in detail while the orthodontist installed the necessary hardware needed. I was lying in the chair while she put a plate on my chest with the small box with brackets and some other typical “dentist stuff”. After the explanation of the assistant, the orthodontist selected some brackets from the small box and told the assistant: “We don’t need these brackets”. (I only needed 24 brackets). A few minutes later the orthodontist explained she would insert a cheek retractor in my mouth to make sure all my teeth stayed dray during the installation of the brackets. After installing the cheek retractor my orthodontist and her assistant started the application of the braces.
cheek spreading!
I knew it would take a while. But… having your lips/cheeks spread for one full hour… I can tell you… Not easy! Each and every bracket was glued to each and every tooth. 24 brackets in total. Clean the tooth, dry the tooth, glue the tooth, fix the tooth with a special purple light… And again and again and again. This procedure took about 40 minutes. In the meantime the orthodontist and assistant were chatting and talking about their private life. The only thing I could do was… Waiting waiting and waiting…
What LIGATURE color do you want?
But then I ended up in a surprise. After installation of each and every bracket my ortho started putting the top wire in the brackets. Meanwhile her assistant showed me a set of BLUE elastic ligatures. At this very moment I started to stress because I didn’t expect this to happen? I thought I would get Damon (self-ligating braces not needing elastic ligatures!). But I was not able to talk due to the cheek retractor… The orthodontist added: “Or do you want just gray… Maybe this will look more adult”. I quickly nodded “YES! GIVE ME THE GRAY!!!”. So she started fixing an elastic ligature over each bracket.
You have to know I’m a pretty self-conscious person. I didn’t want my mouth to end up with elastics and all such thing. I thought the looks of Self-Ligating would be less “visible”. My brain started racing and I tried to imagine how I would look like if I would look myself in the mirror.
The riding pontic!
My orthodontist decided to wait with the riding pontic until the very last moment. She took my (extracted) tooth out of the small box and put some glue on the tooth to attach the final bracket. She installed the tooth on the wire closing the gap in my top front row. Before removing the blue cheek retractor the orthodontist asked another assistant to take pictures (with a big camera) of my mouth. I really felt uncomfortable about it. But I think it is needed to compare and follow up the progress of my new braces pulling and pushing my teeth. She took the retractor out of my mouth and showed my “new face” in a mirror… OUCH!!! I have to be honest…pretty shocking to see…
So what’s next?
After the installation of my braces I experienced a pretty acidic taste in my mouth. The assistant explained me this taste would go away pretty quickly. I was invited to the reception to schedule the next 3 check-up appointments. This will happen every +/- 4 to 5 weeks. I have payed the amount of 900€ and I left the building. Sitting in my car I stared in the mirror watching myself with all that hardware sticking to me teeth. I already started hoping to get these brackets removed soon. But I know I will have to finish this and undergo for the next (minimum) 9 months!
In the next few days I’ll bring you some more updates on how things are going. Because there is a lot of information to share with you!