One side to go!!

8 months 16 Days

In another 15 days I’ll have done 9 months! If this was a pregnancy I’d be due on January 2012.

I am pleased to report that my bite is almost completely closed.

My dentist had said repeatedly, as this blog will testify, that he may not be able to close my bite completely, but to his pleasant surprise yesterday the right side is all done. He was so jazzed he even called another doctor to come see the progress. 

The left side still has a bit of distance to go.

On my left side, I have a rubber band in a square formation holding the inside hooks to those of the canines. I have another tiny band holding the canines together. The pressure applied is immense. It is quite painful, I have to say. 

The memory of the rubber band I wore the past two months is what keeps me going.

I remember when I first put on the ones that attach the bottom canines to my two front teeth, it was so so so painful the first night, I was planning to call the doc and ask for something looser. Two months down the line, the pain was gone and the bands were actually loose because my front teeth had moved.

That keeps me going even as I struggle with the pain. I am drinking a lot of water, it somehow washes the pain away or at least soothes the soreness.

I am hoping, praying, oh dear Lord, at most let me do just one year… and not the one and a half anticipated.

Meanwhile, despite the rubber bands and braces I have been able to do pretty much everything. 

Meanwhile…Christmas!! Can’t wait to sing :) ...

(Still not sure how much longer) to go…but tell you what, I am confident it won’t be too too long from now.

I don't have an Orthodontist LOL!!

6 months 28 days

This is going to be a short one.

It turns out the poor guy I’ve been referring to— blog after blog— as my orthodontist is actually a general dental surgeon. 

I understand there’s probably just three orthodontists  in the whole republic…

And all this time I assumed orthodontist and dentist meant the same thing…*shaking head*!

It’s ok, you can laugh too!

My teeth are doing ok so far…no breaking news to report….

Oh oh...just this one tiny thing....I went for a hike on the 20th...and then one guy takes a look at me and says:

"You are the one who had funny teeth!" Like he had spotted me earlier or something.

"Still am," I said, baring my metals for emphasis. I assumed he was put off.

It was such a surprise when after the hike he came to 'get to know a little more about me.' And a much bigger shocker when he showed up at my  church the following Sunday.

No..he didn't ask for my number..

And good Lord, no! I don't fancy him.

Not too long to go….( I speak by faith)

Things get tight

6 Months 11 days

We are making headway people. Once upon a time, 6 months seemed a distant future. It is here now.

I went for my 6^th appointment 3 days ago. It was brief and to the point. Elastics were changed. Then the orthodontist had one long look at my teeth.

“You’ve been wearing your rubber bands faithfully?” he asked.

“Yep.”

“Keep doing what you’ve been doing.” He meant with the rubber bands. 

“Remember I can’t close your bite completely.” He has been saying this a lot lately. I just nodded.

I happen to have had a rubber band in my hand. He took it to try something with it. I suspected he wanted me to wear it differently, so that it puts pressure on other teeth. He left abruptly and then came back just as fast.

I could feel him place something tight in my brackets. 

“Go see how I’ve put them.” He directed me to the mirror.

The rubber band was holding itself on the hooks of the bottom canines and my two front teeth.

That must have meant everything else was firmly in place save for the two front teeth.

I braved through the first day. Unlike the previous rubber bands which were sometimes not very visible, these ones can be seen cutting across my front teeth. These ones are also very tight.

The first night with the new rubber bands was a true nightmare. My gums ached from the tension, my upper teeth were sore; my entire face felt like it was being stretched. I planned to soldier on thru’ the night and contact my doctor in the morning to say that these things are way too tight.

The next morning I wore a fresh band and it was surprisingly bearable. I have now worn them for a week and I am completely used to them. 

I don’t mind the progress actually. My bite looks much more closed than it did in the past.

I don’t mind the rubber bands either. They help keep the teeth together so I don’t bite and graze my inner cheek as I would before.

Still don’t know…(how many more days to go) but hopeful that it may not run into two years!

Mirror Mirror on the wall

6 months 5 days!

6 months already yaaay!

But….. never imagined, the one thing that I now cannot do without (too many negatives in that sentence!) — the mirror would be my greatest enemy!

I have to carry it everywhere…but the more I carry it, the less changes I see. This month, I saw the least improvement in my bite. It looked the exact same way every single day!  Now that is not in any way to suggest that there has been no improvement. It’s just that when you look at yourself in the mirror constantly, it is unlikely you will see change.

So I promised that this will be a special edition. Well, at the time, things promised to be exciting. They weren’t. As such this is just your good old fashioned regular posts.

Which includes updates like “I am now used to wearing rubber and..and that I wore them all day at a stand that I was manning and people didn’t notice.”

More updates like “One guy took such keen interest in my braces that we had to sit down, thru many interruptions, and I explained to him the whole installation process!” Looking back I should have emailed him the link to my blog. He was so interested that he even took my number! Don’t get excited folks, he had a very visible wedding band, and I am not in the business of breaking homes…!

So you see, nothing major, just me and the rubbers…a discomfort I have now grown so accustomed to, In fact, I do feel strange without them.

But I do promise my dear readers (and the following is quite impressive, I have to admit), that if I happen to stumble upon something …….anything (at  all) exciting then I will most definitely brag about it here.

Yep..once again no clue how many more days to go!!

Soldiering on

5 months 14 days

Blogging steam is back, it appears…and so is my general enthusiasm for life. I was a little grumpy in the last post…which does happen to ordinary and otherwise peace loving human beings such as I— happy times and grumpy times are all part of life.

Interesting thing about this blog is that it’s usually quiet, then out of the clear blue it gets mad traffic. I am still yet to figure out the science there.

ANYHOO…

I had decided prior to my fifth appointment not to have any expectations.

As soon as I was propped on the dentist’s chair, the dentist-assistant, perhaps in his early 50’s (also mentioned in  http://gotbraced.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/introducing-pinky-braci-ani/) began to prepare to remove the elastics. That is when I noticed something on his arm.

“You have a tattoo!” I gasped in disbelief. He pulled back his arm to hide it. Too late.

Now, this guy is the picture of a pastor in a story book. A tattoo is the last thing I expected. And especially one shaped like a love heart with cupid’s arrow striking through.

“I was in the military in the seventies.  We did this for fun. I have them everywhere.”

The orthodontist walked in as the assistant told military stories.

It was back to work. Mouth open, elastics removed. Hooks screwed loose and then voila. They removed the arc wire!

“Will I brush my teeth?” I asked eagerly.

“You brought your toothbrush?” the orthodontist asked.

“Yep.”

And that marked the end of that idea. Needless to say, there was so much to do; I didn’t get to brush my teeth.

In between putting a new arch wire, and cutting it to fit, conversation ensued.

“So where did you grow up?” asked the dentist.

“Mombasa.”

“Haiya, so you went to school  there?”

“High school was in Nai,” I said.

“Which one?”

I told him. 

It turned out we cleared high school the same time. He went to a high school that we interacted with much, back in the day. This is like WAY WAY WAY back. (Hyperbole is allowed in blogs, is it not?)

No wonder he had this young-ish thing about him.  

There was much —“Did you know so-and-so?"   — that went about after this revelation.

Back to braces….(and more recently rubber bands)

I have worn rubber bands for more than a month. I have also discovered that nearly everyone so far that I know; who’s had or has braces, wore rubber bands at some stage in their treatment especially towards the end. And the way I thought it was such a big deal. It was breaking news!! *sigh*

I seem more aware of the rubber bands than I did before my fifth appointment. I try to stretch them for fun. The other day, I opened my mouth wide to try and snap it to show off to my workmate. They took forever to snap, but when they did it was PAINFUL.
The other night I wore two - to speed things up a bit...It was the classic case of lock-jaw..not felt that tight in my life. My head spun from the pressure!No more double-double- for this here lady!

Oh, and I can play a melody too!! Well, not a real melody but it does make a stringed-instrument sound, it does! Oh oh and most of all I always eat with them. They snap 80% of the time but that does not deter me. The motto is “stay or snap but no taking out!.”
I nearly forgot to mention, there's absolutely no scarring with the rubber bands. It holds those offending teeth so tightly together they have no opportunity to go near my delicate inner cheek! WoHooo!!

My fellow bracefaces friend (both former and current) all think I must be in the last stages for my orthodontist to have me wear rubber bands. I am trying not to get too excited about this. Trying not to think about the possibility that it could end sooner than I imagined.... just in case it doesn’t. I want to leave room for that. I crush easily,  you know, I need to create soft landing way in advance. Meanwhile, I soldier on!

So my birthday is coming up soon. In 4 days…Yay!! This is a special and very significant birthday J. And I plan to do a very special blog. Look out!!

(Still clueless about  how many) days to go

Hello rubber bands!! …..Enter Vampire

5 Months 7 days!

Last month was my least blogged month, which is ironic because it had some of the most dramatic updates.

I went to for my fourth appointment last month and my bottom teeth have aligned almost completely. It’s hard to believe that once upon a time, my bottom left canine jutted out. Because it is now firmly in place.  Amen!

I expected they would change my arch wire, as was done on the second month. In fact, I even had my toothbrush ready for a comfortable brushing session when they remove the wire. Instead, they changed my elastic in a less than 5 minute procedure. The orthodontist kept asking for a certain tool that he said I needed, but this was not located. I was already feeling disappointed. My dental clinic is out of town and to go all the way there, a more than two hour journey (to and fro) and find there’s missing equipment is quite upsetting.

My orthodontist then began to insert a new thing into my mouth. “Let’s go to the mirror, I show you how to put this on.”

To my amazement, it was, a rubber band, that was to be held on the four hooks of my canines.

Now, up to this point, NOTHING had even remotely suggested or prepared me that I would ever wear rubber bands! I may have seen them online during my initial research, but I didn’t pay much attention to them as I assumed that they are for the more severe cases.

I laughed in disbelief for several minutes as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. 
“Haiya, seriously?” I kept saying.

“Yeah,” the dentist said, with a straight face.

“How often?” I could barely open my mouth comfortably as the rubber band kept my teeth from going too far apart.

“24/7.”

“And eating?” I was still in shock.

“You eat with them on.”

I began to envision my life. IT WAS OVER. How was I going to walk around with a very visibly brightly coloured rubber band in my mouth? From the side, I looked like a vampire!

I had a coffee meet up that day with my gal Faith, but before meeting her, I swung by a cybercafé to read about this new gadget in holding my lower and upper teeth together.

Alas! They do exist, and I am, apparently, not the first. My heart rate began to calm down a bit when I read the positive things people said about them. The positive things being that they do accelerate the treatment period and you will be glad you got them on.

With that small consolation, I went for coffee and cake, and was dismayed to discover that my mouth couldn’t open wide enough for the cake to pass. And even sadder that I couldn’t remove the rubber band because I needed to take a picture I coz didn't memorise how the dentist had showed me and I’d have to be putting it on— on my own.

Life with rubber bands is far from  glamorous. What keeps me going is keeping my eyes on the goal. Sometimes they snap broken and give me (and everyone around) a scare.

Most of the time the problem is the metal torture. My mind is a real battle field I tell you. They say it's typical of the melancholic personality type, which I am purported to be. (I am not keen on all that psychology hogwash - forgive my strong language).

So I keep thinking , that they must be thinking…The things people do for beauty! or how vain I am, or my goodness what’s that ridiculous thing you've got in there. or isn't this going too far!

Interesting that no one has actually said these things to me! Oh I do need help !! It’s more than just braces and the horrid rubber bands!

I know I shouldn’t care what people think, but sometimes it bothers me. I do not want to come off as vain, or on the flip side, with low self esteem.

That said, time heals, including these torturous feeling…and I am gradually getting over whatever hang-ups I may have had about rubber bands. I am purposing every day not to give up prematurely. I now wear them proudly. 

Before I would only leave the house with the colourless ones. Now I wear green orange, red  bands to work! 

I have truly come a long way in the last month. I noticed my upper and lower canines are now touching. I am guessing with consistent wearing, it will only be a matter of time before the rest of the bite closes. I hope someday I’ll look back on this with gratitude.

I am beginning to truly appreciate my orthodontist’s expertise and candidness.

Apparently, the other treatment he would have performed would have moved my front teeth in place, but moved my back ones as well, and that’s a whole ‘nother mess.

So kesho, I have my 5 ^th appointment! (How about that aiy!) I have no expectations. Let’s see how that goes.

So August was a dramatic month. Both in my brace face experiences and in life in general. The drama wasn’t necessarily positive, but I do thank God, for these seemingly negative and painful things, do keep us human and humble…

Still no clue, how much more to go

4 Months on………. whatever happened to my blogging steam!!

4 Months 3 Days

I hit the 4 month mark with little ceremony. Glad July is over, for it had its own tribulations that were not braces related.

The other day there was a board meeting for the directors of our company. (Where I am employed, I mean). Most of them in their 60s.

“What are those?” one of them gasped, when he saw my brand-new smile.

“Braces,” I said.

The other took out his glasses so that he could get a clearer look.

“What are they for?”  This was all very strange to him.

“They are cosmetic.”

“No no.” Gave me that ‘you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-look’. “They can’t be cosmetic!”

I knew what he meant; there’s no way you could put metals in your mouth for cosmetic reasons!

Lipstick is understandable, earrings and bangles that’s normal, but a row of metal in the mouth…not cosmetic! I could read his mind.

                “It is eventually, “ I tried to explain. “Once out they will improve appearance.”

                “Aaah.” He finally understood, and I could tell he wanted to say that he didn’t think there was anything that needed improving, .. but he refrained.  He had the the vijana- wa- siku- hizi  look.

So jana I run into my dentist on the street. He even had a quick look at the progress.

“The ka-canine has moved well,” he said. “But that open bite is going to be tough.”

“I’m scheduled for next week,” I changed the topic. I requested to be rescheduled to the afternoon.  

Didn’t want my August to begin on a sad note. THINGS WERE TOUGH ENOUGH AS IT IS!!!!!!

Which reminds me I need to call their receptionist at the clinic ASAP to slot me in!!

 (I still don't know how many) days to go

July dentist-free!

3 months 19 Days

July is a beautiful month teeth wise. Why? You ask. Because I don’t have an appointment this month!! Do I hear a WOHOOO!!?

My next appointment is next month on the 8^th  .

Meanwhile, my braceface life continues to fall into a predictable routine. I can’t complain. Much better than sudden scratches, pain and general discomfort.

One time this month, I think, my gums got a little sore and I couldn’t floss. From then on I’ve been flossing every other day instead of every day as I did before.

I don’t see much change in the open bite that my orthodontist says, I guess I should stop focusing on this, maybe that’s when things will really start to move.

Today blogging is not coming as naturally. So let me end here until the craving (to blog) kicks in.

Attack: Hook, in Canine and Sinker

3 months 15 Days

I have to say I am quite pleased with how my bottom left canine has moved. It almost seems like it has been like that my whole life. My bottom teeth are well aligned..well aligning.

This makes me hopeful that I’ll do less than the two years my orthodontist has threatened.

With canine’s movement comes a new problem. The hook on that tooth is now attacking my inner lip. It’s brutal. It even hurts when I talk, so I have to open my mouth wider. It’s the classic hook on canine sinker assault on innocent inner lips.  And this gives me a strange accent, not quite a lisp, but lispy nonetheless.

Someone has just suggested I put gum. I think it’s a brilliant idea. I know I am forbidden to eat gum but desperate times call for desperate measures. I’ll try the gum thing and see how it goes. I’ll go hunting for sugar free gum to avoid adding cavity to an already grave (well, I have a propensity for heavy words) situation.

Other than this, I have continued to get used to my braceface life. Many times I forget I have them on. My life pretty much goes on as usual. I go to parties, eat out, run, work …life basically.

Meanwhile the open bite seems unchanged. I decided the other day, that the day I get fed up, I’ll have them removed…but that will be after a year, because even after all the scratching, wounding and discomfort, I am not overwhelmed quite yet, or feeling ‘ I can’t take this anymore.’

So, for now soldiering on!

XYZ  Months more to go!