But. This is my blog on my braces journey, and I'm all for a candid show and tell of the process. This is part of that candid tell all.
I got both my top and bottom wires changed today. Both for something stronger. And I definitely, most definitely, one hundred percent-ly felt the change as soon as the assistant snapped in the stronger wires to both arches. That wasn't even the bad part about changing of the wires--I had anticipated that I would be getting a wire change this time around (as per what I was told at my last appointment), but I did not anticipate the assistant having trouble snapping the wire into the bracket on my bottom right molar ("Teeth 7"). I knew she was having trouble, because normally, it doesn't take very long for the wire to slide in and the gates closed...but with the bottom wire today, she just couldn't get the wire into that one specific bracket. So the orthodontist did it. And well, he got it in by wrangling with the wire and bracket a lot. And I felt every single bit of that. I don't blame the ortho for doing what he had to do to get the wire in...but did that ever hurt. On a completely different side note, I imagine that's how my patients feel when I wrangle in difficult IV starts and Foley catheters. Not fun, but needed.
(Does this make me want to be a little gentler in the future with difficult IV starts and Foley catheters? Maybe. But not really. Does that make me a bad nurse? Maybe. But not really. Well. You all know what I do for a living now, I guess.)
I also had power chains applied to both my top and bottom arches. And yes. Every single thing about them hurting like bitches is true. They do. Hurt. A lot. I mean, it makes sense for them to hurt. It's basically a chain of elastic over your teeth, putting even more forces in addition to the forces the wires bring. The orthodontist explained to me that they were to close some gaps I was developing in my arches (the most noticeable being the gap between my bottom lateral incisors and canines). I definitely felt the power chains as soon as the assistant placed them on. Here I was, thinking that I've been doing just fine with braces so far, and that the pressure I was feeling on my teeth weren't all that bad. Quite manageable really. Along comes these power chains and...this feels like I'm back at the beginning.
On top of all that, as if all those things weren't enough, I was given a new elastic configuration to wear for when I sleep. And that is I am to wear a box configuration on the front, because apparently an open bite is starting to develop. A box. The assistant have added these posts by my top canines. And I'm supposed to loop the elastic through the posts on all four canines to make a box. And I wear it for sleeping only. I did a dry run of it today after my appointment, to figure out how to put it on...and let me tell you. It's no fun. It hurts. I can't really open my mouth after the box configuration is on.
Oh and? I'm to wear my elastics in the Class III configuration as before (which isn't bad at all) at all times, like before. This means that I have to wear them with the box configuration, and it definitely will not be fun. At all.
I just hope that this open bite thing fixes itself soon. Because this new box elastics thing is reallllly the anti-definition of fun.
Not that I was expecting braces to be fun. But...this is my blog, and I reserve the right to complain once in a while. Even if I did willingly put myself up for this.
Next appointment is on Oct 11, so hopefully, things will look up by then!
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| New wires with power chains. New posts for my might time box elastic configuration. |
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