I got my braces on the 16th of June 2015 at 8.45 am. When I got To my orthodontist clinic (Ong Dental Surgery), I had to wait a while before they called me in. This was the first time I actually had to wait because normally I get sent in immediately. In the waiting room, I was pacing, my hands were sweaty, and I kept talking. Needless to say, I was nervous, BIG TIME. Also did I mention that I met my best friend Danielle there too. We go to the same orthodontist. Her appointment was before mine. After a hug and telling me good luck, she left (insert crying emoji here).
Anyways, back to the subject. I finally got called in. My darling little sister Lynette (or you may know her as The Fangirl Diaries) came in with me. Dr. Eddy was just sitting there in his chair, wearing the white surgeon gloves (cue dramatic music and some lightning strikes). But he was very nice reassuring me telling me that the hard part was over and this procedure was going to be easy...... but did I listen? No!!!!! No I didn't. I went on telling him how scared I was to have my implants put in..... Thank God he reassured me by saying that they knew what they were doing....
After some prep talk, he began my procedure..
Step 6 (con't from last post): Polishing
First, they inserted a 'smile maker into my mouth to keep it open. Then, they polished my teeth with a electronic tooth brush looking thingy. This does not hurt or taste bad.
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| Smile Maker |
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| Teeth Polishing |
Step 7: Putting the Brackets on
They then swiped some glue on each tooth and started re-positioning the brackets. They then put a UV light over it for a few seconds. This process took quite a while as they had to do it tooth by tooth. The glue does taste bad and it stung my lip, but all in all, it wasn't terrible
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| Positioning of the brackets |
At this point, your orthodontist should start putting on your archwires, but for me the orthodontist had to inject some anesthesia into my gums so that he could insert the ortho mini implants. He waited for a while to let the anesthetics to kick in before screwing, literally screwing the implants in, and let me tell you, it doesn't hurt one bit. Not even a pinch. Amazing right? Considering two little screws just got screwed into your gums. After that, he inserted the archwires.
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| Basically what he did with the mini ortho implants |
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| Arrows on the archwire |
This is probably my favourite part of all and the most fun in my opinion. The best part is that you get to pick a new colour each month!! This month I went with a light blue colour. Depending on your orthodontist, the colours may vary. Some even have a glow in the dark version. you just have to keep smiling in the sunlight for it to glow. after picking your colour, they simply put it on and you're done! After the whole process your lips will feel dry, very dry, so I recommend putting on a layer of lip balm before you go for your appointment. My best friend throughout this journey so far has been lip balm, I know a lot of people say its wax, but for me it's lip balm. My lips are always super dry. Carry lip balm or lip gloss wherever you go especially if you're the type that doesn't like make-up, (like me) I always forgot my lip balm, you'll suffer.
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| Braces colour wheel |
So that was the process of getting my braces on, I hope you understood it. For me, it started hurting immediately and I had to take painkillers three times on the first day and once on the second day. I had to stick with a lot of liquids and mushy foods for the first two days, but I was back to eating solids on the third day!! It depends on the person. I actually have a friend that didn't even need liquid or mushy foods on the first day. For some reason, my teeth hurt the most at night, I got a tip from a friend telling me to sleep on my belly and it helped tremendously. I was extremely blessed because I got used to my braces very fast and I didn't get any ulcers on my lips at all. Every ones braces experience will be different so don't worry. Here are my first week with braces pictures.
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| From the front |
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| From the side |
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| From the bottom |
I actually received comments on how much my teeth improved in only the course of one week so I'm optimistic for the future. Talk to you guys soon in my next post. My next post will probably about my mouth care routine and the things I got from the orthodontist. See y'all soon... Byesss
