Almost 2 years to the day I finally got my braces taken off. I am here today to fill you in about my experience with braces. So if you are thinking about getting braces or just curious about them this blog should answer your questions.
As you can tell from my before picture my teeth were overcrowded so the first thing I had to do was to get 2 upper teeth taken out. I was a bit nervous about this part to be honest but it was over so fast and I didn’t feel any pain. Then a week later I was back to get my braces on which took about a hour. It takes a while to get them on because each bracket has to be perfectly aligned by the orthodontist so your teeth will move in the certain direction. It didn’t hurt getting them on but about an hour later I could start to feel pressure.
The next morning it was a bit uncomfortable. I had a headache and my teeth were tender. This lasted a few days but after that my mouth and I adjusted to the braces. I would suggest eating soft foods like soups, mash, ice-cream eggs.
After getting them applied I had to go back every 10 – 12 weeks to get adjustments done like wire change, power chain bite blocks. The next stage of my braces was to improve my bite. In order to improve the alignment between my upper and lower teeth I had to start using elastics. These elastics hooked onto my upper and lower brackets. The biggest challenge with these I found was remembering to put them on and hooking them onto the brackets. Overtime this became easier and my orthodontist gave me a elastic hook to help me put them on and in a matter of weeks I could see a difference.
Finally, after 2 years it was the big day and I was so excited. The process of getting the braces removed was easy, the orthodontist uses a debond pliers to remove them. I felt no pain all I could hear was click, click, click and they were off. The orthodontist then just had to polish the teeth and remove the remaining glue. The final stage was to take impressions of my teeth for my retainer which was pain free. After waiting so long I cannot describe how excited I was to be able to look in the mirror and see my new smile for the first time. I couldn’t have been happier with the results and haven’t stopped smiling since.
Tips, Tricks and Advice:
Stick with it!!! I now it can be annoying wearing elastics and brushing your teeth after each meal but it’s so worth it in the end.
Food I ate when my mouth hurt: Mash, Stuffing, Broccoli, Scrambled eggs, Ice cream, Soups
Take pictures!! Take them throughout your treatment as it’s a nice thing to have when it’s over and you can see how much they have changed and in years to come it be great to look back on.
