Adult Braces: Rubber Band Replacement

Getting your rubber bands replaced at adjustments or because your eating adventures dyed the clear bands orange *cough* Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, NY and Skyline Coney Dogs in Ohio *cough* feels as if someone is trying to rip your teeth out of your face.

I suppose it isn't really so painful as it is disarming.  There is a lot of pressure that truly does feel as if they are trying to pull your teeth, but I think it is the fear of the unknown that makes it even more weird than the physical aspect.  You don't know what's going on - you can't see anything, you've never been through this before.  All you know is...*ow.*  You make a few weird faces and in sixty seconds it is all over.  The pain isn't even bad enough to need ibuprofen and only lasts for the moment that tooth is worked on.

Then you leave the office with beautiful, clear rubberbands and teeth on their way to perfection.  I'll take that deal any day.

Adult Braces: Making the Decision
Adult Braces: Getting Spacers aka The Prep Work
Adult Braces: Getting Braces On
Adult Braces: Learning to Eat with Braces
Adult Braces: My First Adjustment
Adult Braces: Rubber Band Replacement (the first few)
Adult Braces: My Second Adjustment
Adult Braces: My Third Adjustment

Adult Braces: My First Adjustment

So. Not. Bad.

On December 3rd, I received a new bottom wire, my top wire was flipped, and my rubber bands were replaced.

I was not sore for one second afterwards.  I felt perhaps I was living in an alternate reality, but ends up I just got lucky.

Adult Braces: Making the Decision
Adult Braces: Getting Spacers aka The Prep Work
Adult Braces: Getting Braces On
Adult Braces: Learning to Eat with Braces
Adult Braces: My First Adjustment
Adult Braces: Rubber Band Replacement (the first few)
Adult Braces: My Second Adjustment
Adult Braces: My Third Adjustment

Adult Braces: Learning to Eat With Braces

Until you have braces, there is no way to comprehend the dilemma most commonly referred to as "eating."

The first two days were simply odd - almost as if my mouth were numb.  We are used to our teeth feeling all the sensations of substance and temperature as we enjoy the bursting of molecules of foods jumping around our mouths.  Braces block most of that.  Even swallowing at all caused my tongue to rub on metal.  Days three and four brought on a lot of strife.  I tried to eat.  I tried to drink.  I work out a lot, so I knew I needed calories and forced myself to eat, but cried simultaneously. I've been through my fair share of blisters on the back part of my tongue and I know I still have to get my bottom back molars wrapped, which means I get to go through this transition process again soon.  Oy. That joke of days three and four only lasted two days, luckily.

Braces also block the capability of fully chewing with my molars (because of my build ups) and I've heard this is the same for many others.  Imagine taking a bite of pizza, chewing two or three times, then swallowing.  There will be big chunks of food you haven't had the opportunity of "flavor-bursting," as I like to call it.  There is something beautiful about the process of biting your food until you have pulverized each crumb and burst the flavors open in your mouth.   For me, no matter how many times I chew, my molars can't crunch down, always leaving me swallowing chunks of food that I wish with all my heart I could enjoy much more.

Speaking of enjoying food - this has been a huge mental hurdle for me.  I love food.  Understatement.  I LOVE food.  Imagine the frustration of, let's say, wanting to chew a Skittle and chomping once, then swallowing.  What a gyp, right?!  No savoring, no texture-enjoyment, no flavor-bursting, nothing!  I don't eat Skittles, that's just all I could think of that most people can relate to.  I have tried to eat all my favorite foods, but I just don't enjoy them anymore.  If it isn't the chewing dilemma, it's the fact that everything involves my tongue hitting metal.  Having that texture and taste involved with every bite kinda ruins it.  Now that I am six weeks in, I am through with the worst of my withdrawals and cravings.  I am not close to joking at all when I state that I felt like an addict going through withdrawals.    

When I do chew, I have to cover my mouth because I haven't yet gotten used to the food sticking on the front of my teeth and I think more food will get between my molars for the sad-sack chomp if I open wider.  I have to take bigger chomps to try and free the captive crumbs from their cages, which leads to a lot of embarrassing spitting and drooling.  Yes, I am not above admitting there has been a noticeably higher amount of saliva escaping these days.  I hear this all goes away pretty quickly.

Five weeks after I got braces, I was finally able to bite into soft breads with my front teeth, which weirds me right out as I feel the food sinking into my front braces.  I prefer cutting up all my food and shoving it directly to the back of my mouth.

What do I eat?

• Squeezy fruit snacks.  Yep, the ones for kids like pureed mango, applesauce, peaches, and berries.
• Mashed potatoes.  I prefer the instant because they take five minutes and there are no lumps I have to "gum" or suck on til they dissolve.
• Milkshakes.  Oh Milkshakes.  Sonic peanut butter fudge is my best friend.  
• Soft Serve.  Iceberg chocolate soft-serve has saved me too often.
• Chocolate milk.  I drink 8 oz. before and after the gym and sometimes when I know I need to eat, but just can't work up the energy.
• Protein drinks.  Calories, protein, calcium - it's efficient.  
• Smoothies (nope).  We bought stuff for delicious, healthy, balanced nutritious meals, but I can't bring myself to make them because I'm too darned cold at home.  Will someone tell Rob 66-degrees is not warm?  I eat the soft-serve and shakes in the car on the way home, people.  
• You might think popsicles and the like would be good, but anything that involves sticking your tongue out repetitively means a lot of abrasion and escaped saliva - not pretty and pleasant.
• Avoid anything highly pigmented if you have ceremic braces with clear rubber bands - spaghetti sauce, curries, that sort of thing.  These will dye your brackets and your bands.

You may be wondering if I've lost weight.  Truth be told, I lost six pounds pretty quickly, but then I went on a trip to The Montage in Park City for a convention and immediately to Rochester, New York.  The Montage is a five-star hotel with five-star food.  I did my darndest to try everything I could at each meal.  In regards to Rochester, if you don't know a lot about the east coast, let me just tell you that it is food mecca.  I kept trying to eat everything I got my hands on.  Nothing was really that great because I couldn't enjoy the eating process, but I kept trying over and over again.  My mouth was so sore from all my trying I had to take pain medicine.  I gained all the weight back and didn't even enjoy the process.  I guess lame sauce is on my menu.

My final thoughts on this whole eating debacle is that in a few weeks everything will be fine and I'll have adapted.  In the midst of all of this, I've had many times where I can't imagine "getting used to" this new way of eating, but I know I will.  This is my honest point of view six weeks into the process.  I want other adults to know that it is ridiculously wonderful and ridiculously difficult all at the same time.  I didn't really find a lot from a patient's point of view before I got my braces, so I'm sharing.

Again, final thoughts: So worth it.

Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, New York - notice the fork for cramming things into
the back of my mouth to avoid biting with my front teeth

Adult Braces: Making the Decision
Adult Braces: Getting Spacers aka The Prep Work
Adult Braces: Getting Braces On
Adult Braces: Learning to Eat with Braces
Adult Braces: My First Adjustment
Adult Braces: Rubber Band Replacement (the first few)
Adult Braces: My Second Adjustment
Adult Braces: My Third Adjustment


  

Adult Braces: Getting Braces On

Once I made the decision to get braces, everyone I consulted with told me, "Getting them on is the worst part."

Being an adult with good oral hygiene and no orthodonic work until now, I haven't really been poked and prodded and pushed.  People told me my mouth would be stretched beyond what I ever thought possible with a contraption and to make sure to take pain medication before going because my jaw would be ridiculously sore.

I forgot to take medicine.  I also forgot to have a painful jaw, apparently.  I wasn't sore one bit. The worst parts for me were the taste of whatever adhesive or cleaner they were using and then the cold air/water blowing - wooo, doggy, that was intense!  I've never before had cold tooth sensitivity.  But within an hour, they were done.  Totally brace-ified.  I had no idea we were already done even though they apologized that it took longer than usual for my tiny mouth and getting the brackets to stick.  I stood up carefully after being upside down for quite some time and still no pain.

Before Braces and After Getting Braces On

Rob, the generous and understanding hubs, took the above picture before I'd looked in the mirror.  Want to know the first thing I thought?  "Wow - I didn't realize braces came with complementary collagen injections for my lips!"  I could not believe, and still can't believe, how much more voluptuous my lips look when my mouth is shut.  I'm going to miss these plump kissers when the braces come off.

In fact, I was in entirely pretty pain-free bliss for the first two days.  Eating was weird, as I was tentative of knocking off these strange new things on my teeth and all my food gravitated to them like magnets.

Days three and four brought on quite a bit of misery.  By that point, the metal had been rubbing at virgin skin for enough time to create raw spots, blisters, and general swelling on the tongue and cheeks.  Enter the wax.  One friend was very firm in her conviction that powering through this tough time without applying wax to the braces opposite where my skin was raw would help calluses form more quickly and I'd be better off quicker.  I took her advice.  I only applied wax twice.

By day five I was doing much better, verging on "okay."

Within a week, my pain and general getting used to the braces had subsided enough that I noticed the "build-ups."  Build ups are basically temporary fillings in two teeth to keep your bite from going down far enough to knock off your brackets (the square part in the middle of the tooth).  I knew this, but it didn't sink in that I would no longer be able to shut my molars all the way.  I'll talk more about this in my post about learning how to eat.

I can't describe the weirdness of waking up with your cheeks totally stuck to your braced teeth.  Or biting down as you have your whole life and your teeth only coming into contact in two places.  Or spending time cleaning out your mouth after every meal only to find a huge piece of something you aren't even sure you ate stuck to your front tooth.  Where is that crud hiding?!

Generally speaking, it took a few weeks to get used to my cheek skin catching on parts of my braces (which hasn't happened for two weeks now), figuring out if I needed to get my wires trimmed (if your teeth have moved enough, there will be excess wire towards the back of your mouth), and eating foods that won't dye my clear rubber bands.

I ended up having to get my rubber bands replaced three weeks in due to eating some brightly-sauced buffalo wings in Buffalo.  I knew better, but I had to!  I would highly advise against doing this while your teeth are still tender from the initial application of the braces.  Yowzas.

My teeth were actually sore until about a week ago.  The best part about my teeth being sore is knowing they are moving.  One of my bottom teeth, in particular, was the longest victim of pain and I couldn't figure out why until one morning I looked in the mirror and realized it is now in front of a tooth it had been hiding behind for 17 years.  There is nothing like waking up and feeling something different in your mouth only to quickly realize it is exposure to part of your tooth you have no memory of ever feeling.

But folks...

My first adjustment appointment is tomorrow.  I've told several people this week and they all make the same agonizing groan followed by a pained sucking in of air.  I've stocked up on chocolate milk and mashed potatoes, so I'm good.  I think.

I'm more excited than anything, truthfully.  The amount of change I have seen in six short weeks is unbelievable.  I sit in front of the mirror almost every night staring.  Seventeen years I have wanted these changes and, *poof,* in six weeks they are here.  In spite of all of this initial discomfort and perhaps a few emotional break-downs, I have three words to summarize my feelings so far: "So worth it."  

Adult Braces: Making the Decision
Adult Braces: Getting Spacers aka The Prep Work
Adult Braces: Getting Braces On
Adult Braces: Learning to Eat with Braces
Adult Braces: My First Adjustment
Adult Braces: Rubber Band Replacement (the first few)
Adult Braces: My Second Adjustment
Adult Braces: My Third Adjustment

Adult Braces: Getting Spacers aka The Prep Work

Spacers.

I had never heard of these little suckers until I walked into my appointment and said, "I decided to get braces!" (instead of Invisalign)

Immediately, I was escorted to the chair to get my spacers in for a week before the braces.  Apparently these suckers separate your teeth enough to allow for space for the wires to go around your teeth in the back as needed.  My teeth have always loved each other very much and even occasionally gang up in a game of tug-of-war between me and my floss.

They are so tight, in fact, that these cushy-looking foam spacers in the below picture would not fit between my teeth.  I had to have metal.  Ouch.  For some reason, I wasn't prepared.  I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to eat without those metal pieces jamming into my teeth and gums.  On top of that, the pressure of my teeth moving was unlike anything I've ever experienced.  To top it all off, one of the metal pieces did not get along with my bite and came apart to start stabbing my gum in a bloody brawl within 8 hours of placement.  Needless to say, I pulled that sucker out and went back to the doctor the next day.  In just that little bit of time, my teeth had separated enough to allow for a foam spacer, but then my bite is so wonky that I immediately bit right through the thing.  The doctor said it would be okay to wait and work on that particular space later in the process.

I finally started getting used to the spacers one day before I got my braces.  I'd been nibbling at everything with just my front teeth, not yet realizing that front-teeth-nibbling is not something I'd be able to do again until the braces are off.  I had to learn to eat one way with spacers and an entirely opposite way with braces.

When I went in for my application appointment a week later, I was shocked to see how quickly my teeth decided to part ways with each other and leave room for the braces.  Seeing results fast is encouraging.  I was also shocked at how quickly braces are applied because less than an hour later, my life for the next two years was changed.

Adult Braces: Making the Decision
Adult Braces: Getting Spacers aka The Prep Work
Adult Braces: Getting Braces On
Adult Braces: Learning to Eat with Braces
Adult Braces: My First Adjustment
Adult Braces: Rubber Band Replacement (the first few)
Adult Braces: My Second Adjustment
Adult Braces: My Third Adjustment