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by
AK710
, 05-04-2011 at 01:11 AM (622 Views)
Waterpik?

First, I've been gone a while because the hubby came for a visit, we're going through immigration and I'm writing a book (not mine, but my name will be on it), so I've been really busy but I haven't forgotten you all!

Well, I had this idea that a waterpik wasn't necessary, and then I bought one and was hooked. It was absolutely necessary for me (with the crowding and whatnot) but I was only able to experience it for all of a month until it was murdered during its prime.

My mom has "stray" cats. I say stray because they were born on our porch during a rainstorm (1 yr. ago today actually) they grew up and we then released them back outside. Everything was great until my mom accidentally killed one (RIP Ewok). About a month after I left to travel to Central and South America, my mom ran over their sister but broke her hip. She told me that the kitten looked so lonely without her sisters that she brought everyone inside and they proceeded to have a cat party in the house.

Don't go awwww, the kitten with the broken hip runs, is a one-kitten wrecking crew and can climb trees better than her sisters. So, everyone is healthy then....they go into heat so we have to keep them inside until they are spayed.

So I'm being held hostage by little furry kidnappers which have to know about everything that happens in the house. As I was brushing my teeth and using my nice little waterpik, Guppy (the story's antagonist) decided to hop on the counter (my pet peeve) and start chewing on my pic's charging cord. This was no ordinary chew, you would have thought that the cord was made out of salmon and tuna and that Guppy had come down with a severe case of lockjaw. I freak out and stop her, but not before one side of the cord has been chewed through and the wire on that side was severed.

Attachment 1767Attachment 1767
Don't stare directly at its eyes. You've been warned.

I love cats, look at my avi, but I LOVED that waterpik. I knew there was something I could do and then I had an aha moment. My mom has been renovating the house so we have a lot of electrical tape just sitting around. I decided to cut a piece off of it and wrap some electrical tape around the cord and ............drumroll please............... it didn't work . Now I'm sad and am trying to figure out how I ever lived before I had a waterpik.

Before I go to pop a Motrin (more on that later) here are some things I realized along the way.:
The first few times you use a waterpik, it will feel like you are cleaning your teeth with a machine gun. I had no control at all, even with the soft tip, until a few days later.

Yeah, waterpiks are not a sub for flossing at all.

Cats really and truly don't give a !*$@ and the smarter they are the more h--l they raise. I guess I'm a masochist.

You know how everyone thinks that if you marry a foreigner on a Thursday, they will be here on a Friday. No, the process is considered fast in the scheme of non-immigrant/immigrant visas. When everything goes right, the process takes about 7-12 months (but can take longer) and they don't like for your hubby/wife to visit you here while they are waiting on the visa. I have read of a few people not being reunited with their SO until 2 years later. YIKES!

I will probably have a lot of blog posts coming up soon. I've been taking pics; I really haven't forgotten about the braces community!
Tags: braces, waterpik
Categories
Need Advice , Pictures

Comments

  1. Sunny's Avatar
    I have two perfectly fine waterpiks and don't use them. In my job I saw the damage that people had done to their gums using waterpiks and I decided not to risk it.

    Great that your teeth continue to progress well.

    Hopefully your journey through immigration is a smooth one!
  2. Ellebraced's Avatar
    Sunny I can't believe the waterpik can damage your mouth, I love my waterpik. I direct the spray more at my brackets then my gums to be extra careful.

    AK710, sorry your cat ruined your waterpik, email the company they may be able to send you a new one, maybe for a cost but probably available.
  3. Sunny's Avatar
    It's sad, but true. The main problems are that the advertising doesn't warn of the dangers of using waterpiks on full power ... or letting the water loose on gums. The water should only be on around the teeth and should be done gently.

    Gum recession can happen for many reasons, but it's sad when young people who've brushed incorrectly and/or used a waterpik incorrectly, find their teeth loose due to gum recession when it could have been avoided.

    The other main problem is from people who believe that waterpiks can replace flossing ... and then find themselves with gum disease and the large bills and pain that accompany gum disease ... and the many other problems that can be result of gum disease.
  4. AK710's Avatar
    Oh yeah those waterpiks can be super dangerous, but I had a technique like Elle. I would place the pik parallel to my braces and on top of my gums and just let the water go down. Worked perfectly every time. I did accidentally hit my gum once and it hurt and then my hand slipped another time and hit my throat and it was sore, red and swollen for a few days. It was a Godsend though especially when I couldn't get between 2 teeth on the bottom. Amazingly I can fit a pipe cleaner through there now.

    I still can't believe that people think that using a water pik replaces flossing. I would use the pik to get some food out of my brackets and then later on I would floss. I would still get food on the floss, not to mention the pik is too wild to really get in there like you want to. I'm going to call the company. I should be able to purchase a replacement and not a new pik.

    Sunny, thanks for the immigration wish. It is a long process but we are towards the end. I can say that he got quite a kick out of seeing me in the braces!