"Before" Pictures

I took some pictures before my oral surgery this morning to get some official, before-any-Invisalign-or-other-treatment pictures.

Here's my actual smile:

Here's my smile while trying to show less of the gum region:

Here is when I opened up my mouth as wide as I could so you can see the big picture of what all of my teeth look like currently (Can you say crowding?) There's actually a lower tooth hiding behind the others on the right side.  You can see the gap of where it belongs.  This was the tooth that was originally going to be pulled but is now going to be brought forward during treatment:

And here is my bite from both left and right sides (seems like my front teeth point inward?):

Oral Surgery

Today is August 29.  I actually started this blog today, so all of the posts up to this point have been written while healing from my surgery 3 hours ago.

Rewind:  I've been excited all week for my oral surgery.  I had 3 wisdom teeth removed during high school, and I had a good experience both times.  (2 teeth removed in 2007, 1 in 2008, I think.)  I'm not afraid of needles, and I have a high pain tolerance.  Lots of people have asked if I was nervous, but I haven't been.  I've been excited.

Today:  I slept in this morning until 7:45 (WONDERFUL!) and then started to make sure I was ready for the day.  I flossed, brushed, swished (mouthwash), flossed, and swished again.  I was apparently supposed to do this a lot according to my instructions.  My appointment was at 9:20, so I left the apartment around 8:55.  Here we go!

The office staff was again wonderful.  I was eventually called back to my room where I answered some routine questions.  An intern swabbed my mouth with what I think was some numbing stuff (but I'm still not sure?)  The doctor then gave me five numbing injections.  The worst were definitely those in the roof of my mouth, but they were tolerable.  My eyes watered during this part, but it really wasn't that bad.  (Unless you hate needles... then it would probably be awful.)

I sat to "marinade" for awhile; my upper mouth got more and more numb.  I didn't opt for laughing gas because the first time I had it in high school, I didn't really feel the effects of it, and the second time, I didn't think it made me less nervous or anything.

The doctor and his assistant came in to do the deed after maybe 10 minutes or so.  They didn't talk much during the procedure.  The first tooth to go was the wisdom tooth.  I was surprised at how little I could feel (weird, right?  I was numb.), but at the same time, I felt like I was trying to give the doctor leverage to pull that sucker out!  It seemed like he was really yanking on it for awhile... which I sort of found humorous but also kept thinking to myself, "How the heck is he getting this thing out?"

I could tell when that tooth came out.  The next tooth was the one on the same side as the wisdom tooth.  This one was weird because it was so much closer to my face than the wisdom tooth.  I was worried I would feel more, but I didn't on this one.

The worst (but still not bad at all) was the last tooth on the other side of my face.  I felt a lot of pressure with this one.  I felt so much pressure that I was worried I wasn't numbed fully!  (But I was.)  Again, I felt like he had to pull a lot, and I felt like I kept moving my head back to help him pull it out better.  It was a like a wrestling match with the doctor and my mouth.  It was so bizarre to be fully conscious of what was going on!

When he finished (after what seemed like less than 10 minutes), they packed my mouth with gauze and let me sit for awhile.  He asked me if I wanted to keep my teeth, and I said "YEAH!"  I've never gotten to see my adult teeth after removal.  I thought they were pretty cool.  The roots are HUGE!

After a few minutes, I got my stuff and drove home!  Here's my post-surgery selfie:

I'm feeling pretty normal now.  I want to go back to school, but bleeding hasn't stopped yet. :( Here's to a weekend of healing!

Getting the Call

August 18 was the first day back at school.  We had an institute day.  I don't have very good phone service inside the building, so when I was heading to lunch with my department, I saw I had a voicemail from my orthodontist's office.  THIS WAS THE CALL I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR!  I was almost to the 10-week point on this day.  I was so thrilled to hear from them.

I called the office back, and they told me my aligners were in, which meant I had the green light to set my surgery appointment and then make an appointment 5 days later with the orthodontist to get my aligners.  They also told me that my treatment was changing slightly, and I was not going to have the bottom tooth pulled after all.  Even though I was at a restaurant for lunch, I was too excited to wait to make these calls.  I first called the oral surgeon, who had an opening for the next Friday, August 29.  I had already determined that should the school year start without me starting my process, August 29 would be the best day for surgery because 1.) I wouldn't miss any instructional time, as it's an institute day and 2.) it's part of a long weekend with Labor Day the following Monday.  I set my appointment for August 29 and then my orthodontist appointment for the next Wednesday, September 3 (after school!)

In order to get to August 29, I had to make it through the first 6 instructional days of school.  I'm happy to report that they were great... and the day finally came!

Initial Consultation, Impressions, and Surgery Consultation

Initial Consultation

I've been doing research on Invisalign for about a year now.  I knew I wanted to try to start everything during the summer between school years when I wasn't teaching, so this past May (2014), I called a local orthodontist's office to set up a consultation for Invisalign.  Choosing an orthodontist was pretty easy for me; I had received multiple mailers from different local dentists with discounts for Invisalign, but only one orthodontist sent one to me.  I decided to stick with an orthodontist 1.) in case I had to go the traditional metal route and 2.) this is obviously his specialty.  I was also relieved to hear positive reviews about the office I called from people I knew.

My initial consultation was on June 2 after giving finals at school.  The office staff were extremely friendly!  This is pretty much how the appointment went down:

Dr:  "So you want Invisalign, huh?"

Me:  "Yep, if it's possible."

Dr:  "Alright, we'll take pictures and then set your appointments."

Easy as pie!  I had some pictures taken of my teeth/smile/face and had some x-rays done.  The orthodontist looked inside my mouth, made some notes to his assistant, and gave me some details about the process and timeline.  He said I'd need to have three teeth removed (one on bottom and two on top), and my course of treatment would be around 24 months.  They gave me the pictures, a price estimate, and a date to get impressions, and then I was on my way!  It was a fast appointment.

These are the pictures that the orthodontist gave me.  The arrows represent the things he's going to do with my teeth.  Also, this was the day I learned I had a serious overbite.

Impressions

My impressions happened on June 12.  Many people told me it would be a horrible process where I would gag and taste nasty stuff, but that didn't happen.  I had to have two sets of impressions done; 30 seconds on top and bottom for the orthodontist's office and 3 minutes on top and bottom for Invisalign, which had to be perfect.  I asked the technician what her rate of success was on the first try for those, and she said close to 100%.  She got them on the first try with me!  It was such a fast and easy process.  I guess maybe these things have improved since my peers got braces when we were teens?

The funniest thing about the impressions was when I left the office, I looked in the mirror in my car and realized I had some remnants of the pink goop all over my teeth still.  :D

When I had my impressions done, I was told I would have to wait 8-10 weeks for the Invisalign aligners to come in.  That's when I realized that I wished I had started this process much earlier in the year.  When does the new school year start after June 12?  8-10 weeks.

Surgery Consultation

I was referred to an oral surgeon near the orthodontist's office who would eventually take out the recommended teeth.  Because I had 8-10 weeks until the aligners came in, I waited until July to have my oral surgery consultation.

Everyone at the oral surgeon's office was amazing as well.  They were very friendly and professional.  Like my initial consultation, this appointment was also very short and straightforward.  I talked to the oral surgeon about the teeth that were to be removed (we added a wisdom tooth to the docket), we discussed anesthetics, and I talked about insurance with another wonderfully professional/friendly employee.  Done and done!  All I had to do at this point was wait...

Introduction

For the longest time, I've wanted to get braces or some kind of orthodontic treatment to fix my extremely crooked teeth. (My fangs have been around for quite some time.)  After starting a great teaching job two years ago and getting married last year, I'm finally at a steady point in my life to get my teeth fixed.  My husband agreed to this a long time ago, so when the last school year ended in June, I was completely ready to get all of this started.  More details about starting the process will come in future posts.

I thought I should post some reasons why I want to change my teeth/smile, so here is an incomplete list of things I'm currently dissatisfied about.

1.  The previously mentioned fangs.  One is definitely more apparent than the other.  What bothers me most is that it, in my opinion, ruins a lot of my pictures because it's a HUGE focal point on that side of my face  I'm also self-conscious about laughing at times because I know it sticks out when I do! (I know some of you understand me here!)  Examples:

2.  Shadowed teeth.  Because some of my teeth stick out and others are tucked behind the others, taking pictures in the sun (or without a flash) can result in them being shadowed... making it look like I don't really have teeth there or just plain weird.  I've been aware of this one for quite some time.  The fact that I have really small teeth doesn't help the issue. Examples:

3.  The amount of gums that I show when I smile.  When I was in younger, somebody told me that I needed to "show more teeth" when I smiled.  I eventually took that advice and opened up my smile but ended up showing half gums/ half teeth when doing so!  When taking pictures, I often have a glare on those gums that shines brightly!  I've been trying not to show as much, but I go back to that 7th-grade smile when I do.  I'm not sure this is something that can be fixed, but I sure hope it can!

Okay, so I only got to three things on the list... but I think I've expressed myself well enough here.  Although there are many thinks I dislike about my current smile, I'm grateful that I have enough confidence to smile and laugh normally (most of the time!)  I'm completely thrilled, though, to see what my smile is going to look like in a few years!

So... here we go!