Week Twentytwo, What's new?

What's new you say? Hmm...not much and a lot, lol.

The pain is mostly gone, thank goodness! I don't think I could have stood another month of pain from the power chain. I do have a whole lot of wiggling going on. It seems that every tooth is wiggling and moving around, even the molars. It's not that painful, just very weird. The center pulp of my teeth seems really sensitive I sometimes can feel the pulp pulsating with my every heartbeat. It's so strange, not painful just a weird sensation that theres some gentle throbbing inside each tooth.

I know I've mentioned it before, but this week was the first time anyone pointed out how lopsided my teeth are right now. I was visiting my mother and she asked to see my teeth. I smiled and she said, "They look funny." I asked, "How so?" She replied, "Your mouth's crooked."

I then had to point out two things to her. One, the ortho isn't trying to move my teeth down yet, so the one side that did come down, did so on it's own. So it's going to look a little lopsided. Two, it also accentuates the angle my top jaw actually sits at, the angle that's pushing my jaw out of alignment and causing my TMJ issues.

I had to tell her then (I had been trying to avoid this, she is a worrier) That if when the ortho tries to bring my teeth down, if he can't move them to compensate for my misalignment of my jaws, they'll have to cut my top jaw from my skull and reattach it 'level'. It's not what we want to do, we really hope that the braces will do the trick, but I have to be aware that it might be necessary.

Needless to say, she wasn't happy. I'm not either, but if it's what the ortho and the oral surgeon say needs to be done to keep the TMJ from reoccurring, I'll do it. I'd rather be in pain from the surgery for a few months, than have the TMJ pain the rest of my life. I mean, if we can't get the teeth to realign to compensate, and I don't have the surgery at that point, really the braces would have been for nothing. Yes, I'd have a much prettier smile, but I didn't go into this for vanity. I want my jaw to stop hurting. The pain from my TMJ was so bad that I don't know what I would have done if there wouldn't have been an option such as the braces/surgery to stop the pain. I can see how people could take to drugs or alcohol to dull the near constant pain. I hope to GOD we can get this to a point where I never have that again. I know the braces are doing some good because A) my teeth are lining up better and my chewing is better B) I haven't had any TMJ incidents since we started the braces.

To me, the lack of TMJ issues since beginning braces tells me that my doctors know what they are talking about and I'm on the right track. So yes, if they tell me they need to cut my jaw off of my skull and reattach it so that everything fits the way it should, you'd better believe that I would be willing to do it.

As always, it's Thursday and I have my "anniversary" pictures. The first week, this week, week 22 and I've also added a picture with lines drawn over my braces so you can see the angle of "crookedness" that my mother pointed out to me. I exaggerated the lines a little because when you see them in 2D it's not as easy to pick out as if you are seeing them in 3D.

First Day

Week 22

Week 22 with lines

Week Twelve

Well, here we are. 3 months in. *sigh* This week did not bring any major changes and it's almost disheartening that things aren't happening as quickly as they did when I first got my braces.

The only thing I've noticed was a little more of what I mentioned in my last post. The left side of open bite seems to be closing and two of the teeth are banging together. It also makes my mouth look VERY lopsided, at least to me. I'm sure anyone who's not staring at my mouth won't notice, but I do.

As always, here's the first week and current week pictures:

Week Twelve

Week Eleven, I'm in Heaven...well not really...

Well, here we are, week eleven. *sigh* I still haven't needed to have my wires trimmed. The first wire needed trimmed after only 8-9 days. Here I am, two weeks later and no need for trimming. *sigh* I guess this just means the movement has slowed down. *sigh* On the plus side, that does mean my mouth is a LOT less sore than it was before and I can eat almost normally.

I do, however, notice the tooth on the bottom (marked by red arrows on the picture below) is bumping the one above it now. It seems that they are aligned in such a way that they touch. It's very weird to see my bite closing and getting your lip/tongue caught there where they could slip through before!

I'm also getting new abrasions along my the inside of my lips, so I suppose this means everything is moving slowly together to touch new uncalloused areas of the inside of my lips. No big deal, a little Peroxyl for a day or two and they are all better.

So here's this weeks pictures:

First day

Week 11

Week 11-Marked

I also feel much more self conscious right now. With the one side of my mouth "closing" the gaps, to me, I think my mouth looks VERY lopsided. VERY lopsided. I know this is temporary, but I feel "ugly" about it. I just don't want to smile much right now because I feel like my face is crooked. It's not as apparent with my "just the mouth" pictures, but if you saw it in proportion to my whole face (sorry no face shots) it really looks "off".

I guess for a few months, I'll just smile like the Mona Lisa.

*ADDED I just posted then looked at the pictures. If you compare the first day picture to this week's, is it just me, or does my mouth look wider? To me, in the first picture my teeth look VERY narrow--especially when you look toward the back to my mouth. I think it looks like it's getting to be more of say an upper case D shape as opposed to a lower case b shape...you know what I mean?