Metal Mouth x 1 Month

Wow… it’s been a month already? Goody, only 35 more months to go, he he he. Looking back, the first week was tough for me. Adjusting to them -the pain, the sore, the discomfort, the look. I couldn’t eat anything harder than a banana. I have sores and cuts inside of my mouth. I had lost about 12 pounds. I had difficulty talking, and constantly self conscious about how I look.

Working as a medical receptionist makes it hard. People got frustrated with me on the phone because they couldn’t understand me. Especially the hard-of-hearing old farts. “WHAT?? WHAT DID YOU SAY? I COULDN’T UNDERSTAND YOU! DID YOU SAY 9:50 OR 10:50? CAN YOU TALK LOUDER?”   When talking to patients in person, I got a little touchier when they leaned towards me and said, “I’m sorry?” then talk slower as if I don’t speak English.

Part of it was probably because I didn’t [and couldn't for a long time due to the pokey wire] want to open my mouth too big. I didn’t want people to see my braces, especially the bottom ones. I often found myself covering my mouth when laughing. I thought I look like Betty Suarez from Ugly Betty; glasses, black hair, and braces. But hubby and some friends told me I look [kind of] cute and not to worry about appearance *mwuahuahuauha*  According to the American Association of Orthodontists, more than a million adults in North America have braces. Things to consider: many adults wore braces as kids, many adults have kids who are (or were) in braces, and many adults think about getting braces themselves. Some people even gave me their kudos for taking a proactive role at the age of 30s.

What I found as the most challenging was the cleaning in public restrooms. I just couldn’t do it. I had to wait until it’s everybody’s gone, then I’d brush my teeth real quick. I’ve always had my dental kit in my bag, consists of: a travel toothbrush, a small tube of toothpaste, dental floss and floss threaders, a little spiral dental brush, and dental wax. To me, it’s almost as important as my purse. I don’t feel ’safe’ eating out without making sure that my dental kit is with me.

Today I had my first monthly adjustment. They took the old little rubber bands off and the wire. When they placed the new rubber bands, man… it was painful! They were all brand new and tight. Ooooooooo myyyyyy gaaaaawd!! I had to take some pain reliever afterwards (I hope this won’t take days). Last month I went with the lavender color for the rubber bands, this time I picked navy blue. Daring, aren’t we?

Mouth Is Better After 10 Days

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Finally, after 10 days, my mouth is starting to feel better.  The nurses were right, they said that the sores inside the cheeks and around my gum would turn into callous and by then I won’t be in too much pain. I am getting used to it now. I used to dab a big chunk of wax on the particular part of the braces to minimize the painful rubbing against the sores. I don’t have to do it now! Yee-haw!

The other thing is, I was able to eat stuff other than mashed potatoes, mashed bananas, or mini wafers. That was my big relief. I like to have lost some weight, but after 9 pounds (4 kilos), my pants are starting to look droopy. I am enjoying roast beef sandwich with lots of au jus again, eating grapes (still need to cut them up in half), and Oreos!

Next goal: chips and salsa!!!

Pokey Wirey

I am a loser. I had to go back to my orthodontist this morning already. Last night we went out for dinner at the Hickory Park (eek!). Kids and hubby wanted to ‘celebrate’ the day I got my braces on by taking me out to a BBQ restaurant (go figure… braces and ribs don’t go together, right?).

In the middle of waiting for the food (I wasn’t even chewing anything), I felt something popped in my mouth. I thought, “Oh great… what now?” I did a quick search with my tongue, tried to be as discreet as possible, but I couldn’t find ay foreign object in my mouth. Nor I feel any discomfort (at that point).

Then the food came. I, of course, didn’t order the ribs. It was a plate of BBQ chicken’s piece with side dishes like mashed potato and  cottage cheese. I took a bite of the chicken with my front teeth, felt fine, and continue chewing with my back teeth. Omg, it felt weird. Can’t really describe the feeling, it was a mix of numbness and some weird feeling that has to do with the braces being attached to my teeth. After a couple of bite, I noticed some pokey feelinf on the inside of my right cheek. First poke, I thought, “Ouch!” but continue chewing slower. The next poke was more like, “Shit… it hurts!” and completely stopped chewing the yummy BBQ chicken. Feeling bummed, I ate my side dishes slowly. Hubby felt sorry seeing me so miserable, he ordered a strawberry shortcake ice cream for me *smile*

So that’s why I called my orthodontist office and was seen this morning. Maybe it was just me being such a whimp, couldn’t handle a poking wire. But hey… with the amount they’re charging me, I have all the rights to whine!

It was a sweet and fast in and out appointment. They took a quick look, snipped it shorter, readjust here and there and off I go. They did advice for me to put some wax on the part that is bothering me so it won’t hurt too much. Also for me to be prepared for some sores in my mouth, not only because of some poking wires, but because my mouth is not generally used to the braces. Great.

Call Me ‘Metal Mouth’

Today was the day I put myself at the orthodontist’s mercy. She’ll have the power to put me in great pain and suffer for the long 36 months. She’d fix my crooked teeth and overbites. Will I be able to last til then? Will I soar as a winner 3 years from now? I sure hope so. I’ve lost 8 teeth already, endured the pain (to some extent), incapable of indulging the luxury of culinary,and sold my soul to the devil for five grand or so to pay for this. I shall face the pain with a lot of Advils in hand!

Felt nervous last night. Wasn’t able to eat supper nor breakfast this morning. Read way too much literature on what’s going to happen on the day the braces are put on, it scared the bejesus out of me. Like this one, for example. Two hours procedure? Gawd!

At noon, I brushed and flossed my teeth real good at work (just like they wanted me too), snapped a picture in the car for the ‘before’ picture and drove to the orthondontist’s office. First step was to take all the spacers out. Off with those little blue devils. Sure was glad. But wait… who said you’re allowed to feel relief? It’s time to put the bands on. And holy shit… it hurt! My back teeth which were still sore from being pushed were tortured when they tried to adjust the right size of brackets to fit.

Assistant: “Umm… let’s see. I think this medium one should fit your lower molar.” Pushing the too-small-metal-band into my tooth. “Theeeeere. How does it feel? Nice and tight?”

Me [whimpered with mouth wide open]: “Owwwww…”

Dental Assistant: “Oops. Too small. Let’s take it out and try a bigger one.” Yanked the too-small-metal-band which were secured tightly out of my molar with some kind of pliers.

Me [with eyes shut real tight]: “…”

This process was repeated maybe about a dozen more time for a total of 6 bands. She actually apologized for hurting me, but then she was kind of blaming it to my ‘out of alignment’ teeth. Wtf? That’s why I’m here, duh… Besides, you took panoramic X-ray and did impression of my teeth (molds). You should’ve known that my teeth aren’t alligned perfectly.

Then entered my orthodontist. The next step was to put those brackets onto each and every tooth. But first of all, she dried my teeth and put a clear solution they called ‘cement’ so the braces would stick on my teeth. A blue high intensity plasma light is then quickly applied to the surface of the bracket to set the bond. They did the bottom ones first, the ones with the metal color. They asked me to get up and go to the rinsing area to rinse the ‘cement’ residue away. I looked at myself in the mirror and gasp, “Omg… this is really happening!” I guess it’s too late to walk away.

They then did the upper one with transparent brackets. Asked me to get up to rinse my mouth again (sheesh… with the amount of money they’re charging, you’d think they’d be able to have a rinsing area in each rooms). These babies looked so much better than the metal ones. Wished I had chosen everything in transparent, but that’d required additional couple of hundred dollars.

Done with the hard work, the orthodontist stepped out and let her assistant finished up by attaching the arch wire to the brackets and also the little rubber bands that go around the brackets. Ooooh, I got to pick a color for the bands from the color palettes. What a thrill!

Tightening here and there… cutting the edge of the wires here and there so it won’t poke my cheeks (supposedly)… and off I go.

Just a precaution, I popped in 2 pills of Advil before leaving that office.

Annoying Little Ones

OK… my teeth are starting to hurt now. Actually, since yesterday. But today’s the worst. Those spacers are doing they’re job. Slowly but surely, they’re pushing my molars; creating these gaps. Like little tiny torturers. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. Kept popping Advils to reduce the pain.

Annoying little f***rs spacers… so tiny yet so powerful! Arghhhhh!!!!

Blue Thing in My Mouth

The soreness in my mouth had finally gone away yesterday after this horrible procedure. Sheesh, it took almost 10 days to healed up, it traumatized me. There’s a point in time during the healing process that I had regretted the decission to do this. But it’s life… you need to be ready to sacrifice something in order to achieve some kind of betterness.

Some of my tooth sockets have not healed up yet. Everytime I eat something, I have to do extra cleaning to make sure there will be no food debris got stuck in there and cause dry sockets. However, I am scheduled today to go to my orthodontist to have some spacers (separators) put on. Again, I’ve been hearing a lot of discomfort stories related to this. I thought to myself, “What else is new? If I can survive multiple teeth extraction, I should be able to handle this.”

I chose the after work hour so I could just go home after the torture. The actual procedure itself took less than 10 minutes and done by the assistant. I had no idea before, what’s this gadget called ’spacers’ are going to look like. When they showed it to me, I almost laughed. It’s just a tiny rubberband-like thing that is positioned between two teeth to separate them in order to create a gap between them. This gap is needed for when the braces are ready to be put on. They placed 7 of them in my mouth. The actual process of placing them in was like a painful flossing ritual. You can imagine, trying to insert something -even though that thing is so small- between your teeth to separate them, not a pleasant experience. Well, this spacer is smaller than a penny, so I don’t think it’s going to hurt that much. Supposedly…

… and they’re blue. Bright blue. I asked, “Do you have other color? Like beige, or transparant, maybe?” The cute orthodontist assistant shook her head with a big smile showing her perfect teeth, “Nooooo… I’m sorry. All we have is blue.” Of course. You guys probably bought it in bulk.

So now when I smile or overexcitedly say ‘Hi!’ you’ll see there’s some blue thingy in my mouth.

So geekily purrrrty…

Diet of Twinkies and Hydrocodone

Fourty-eight hours after the surgery. Doing much better. Bleeding had stopped, thanks to the tea bag tricks. Yesterday was like a blur, since I kept taking the Hydrocodone every 6 hours to deal with  the pain. I couldn’t instantly falling asleep after taking it, I don’t know why it took so long for  my body to surrender.

Doug took the kids last night to Iowa City. They do need some time to get out from the house, just because I’m sick and miserable, doesn’t mean everybody has to suffer. So they went to Gary’s house to watch the meteor show. Left the house around 5-ish in the afternoon, and got home late at night when I was asleep.

Finally able to eat something, my diet up until today consists of Jello, instant noodle, Twinkies, and banana. I could smell the bacon Doug fried yesterday when making BLT, I was so jealous. No desire to smoke yet, I’m surprised.

Tried to brush my teeth extra careful, but I could only did the front ones. Still scared in doing the back ones. Other way of cleaning: gentle rinsing with warm salty water.

Let’s see, what did I watch yesterday? Umm, a Portugal horror/mystery Coisa Ruim which was interesting and Mark Wahlberg’s Shooter which wasn’t bad at all.

Hm, I hear the caramel ice cream’s calling me. I think I’ll watch another movie while treating myself with goodies.

Post Oral Surgery

Here I am. At 5 in the afternoon. Eight hours after the oral surgery. They did take all of my 8 teeth out; all 4 of the wisdom teeth, 3 molars, and 1 tooth right next to an upper right molar which had a root canal few years ago.

The surgery itself took 45 minutes. They then took me to a recovery area and I spent 20 minutes there, feeling groggy from the narcotics in my IV. The first thing I noticed when I sat down in the recovery area, that my mouth felt full and that I couldn’t keep it close. I brought my right hand up try to figure out, but the nurse told me not to and then explain, “You have some gauzes in there to stop the bleeding.” Cool. I couldn’t remember what I did or do but she said, “You should try not to open your mouth or talk too much. Keep the gauzes pressure the teeth, OK?” Oops, I hope I didn’t piss her off or say something stupid.

Then the goofy oral surgeon walked in and informed me that somehow in the middle of the surgery, one of my tooth had lost its filling. I was supposed to contact my dentist to have it replaced. Now sitting here in my bed, I’m thinking, “Should I pay for it or should the oral surgeon?”

Doug walked in at 10:30 am to take me home. With a mouth filled with bleeding gauzes, feeling drugged and sleepy, I couldn’t say anything much. All he said was that he got my pain killers and asked how I was feeling. I gave a hand gesture that I’m feeling so-so. “Are you in pain right now?” he asked. I shook my head.

At home, I went right to bed. Best to raise my head to maintain the forming of blood clot in my teeth sockets. Doug had creatively made a dual ice pack packed in a ziplock bags then inserted into the pipes of his clean pants made of parachute-like fabric. He wrap around those pipe pants with ice pack in them around my face and tied it on top of my head. Now I look either like a babboon with huge cheeks or like a pocong. Hey… anything to reduce the swelling.

I just felt like I close my eyes for a second when I heard Doug said, “Wake up, hunny. Time to change the gauzes.” Oh man, this is just like in the hospital after a child birth. It’s hard to get a good night sleep because either a nurse, a lab tech or a doctor kept bugging you even in the middle of the night.

I could tell from his face that my mouth condition wasn’t pretty. The gauzes were covered in blood and that he was having a hard time replacing them. All done, I went back to sleep.

Bedroom light turned on again and there he was, my loving but annoying hubby ready with another new batch of gauzes. Is it time, already? This time, one of the gauze he took out got some blood clot attached to it and freaked me out a bit. I haven’t drink anything since last night, my mouth is super dry and really thirsty. He gave me a glass of cold water. No straw, since the action of sucking can dislodge a blood clot that has formed. I took a sip, and the water just pouring out of my mouth, creating pretty blood stained on my shirt. I felt like a retard. “Why can’t you drink like normal?” he asked curiously. I gave him a killer look with some mumbling trying to say, “I don’t know! I just can’t drink!” Instead of sipping slowly, I then tried to gulp the water from the back of my throat. It worked. Phew.

“Do you want the pain killer?”
I nodded. Yes, yes, yes.
“You should take it with food. Want some Go-gurt?”
I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. Sure, whatever.
Swallowed two gulps of Go-gurt then the Hydrocodone with the same trick I did earlier.
“What do you want to do now?”
I pointed at the TV screen.
“Wanna watch a movie?”
Nodded.
“Which one?”
Doug grabbed the pile of DVDs and started reading the titles.
I gave a thumb up on thriller movie ‘Vacation‘ with Luke Wilson. Not so good.

Movie’s done, time for another gauzes changing. Still bleeding, we called the oral surgeon and was told that it’s normal for the bleeding to continue to 24 hr. Great. He recommended to use bag of black tea wrappen in the gauzes. It tasted icky, but it helped a bit. Watched another scary movie, The Descent. Wasn’t very goo either.

Hm, it’s time for another Hydrocodone. My jaw’s starting to hurt a lot. Done with movies for a while, and  computer. I’ll try to go to bed and hopefully I’ll feel lot better the next mornig. Funny, I haven’t eaten anything but I’m not hungry.