catgyrl

My August appointment wasn’t actually scheduled until 8/12, but I “done a bad thing” last week, and had to go in earlier.

Last Thursday, I was using a flexible plastic toothpick thingie to try to dislodge a piece of food from what I thought was the ligature of my upper-left central incisor. Well, in the process of doing that, I accidentally popped the lig off, instead! (And discovered the food was actually stuck in the woven chain UNDER the lig.) There was no way I could put it back on, as it was all stretched out. Even though the wire was still safe and snug in the bracket slot, I called the ortho’s office anyway, just to make sure I didn’t need it replaced. She said as long as it wasn’t the chain that came off, and that the wire was still in place, it could wait until next week. Cool!

“Bless me father, for I have sinned…”: When I got home that night, I decided that the lig next to it (upper-right central incisor) looked disgustingly yellow, so I removed that one, too. I think I was bored... BAD IDEA! That particular tooth was not as straight as the other one, so around 7 hours later while I was sleeping, the wire popped out and began pressing down on the bracket and tooth. I felt horrible pain and woke up at midnight and saw that. All night I tried to put it back in the slot, but it just kept popping out. MAN, that wire is STRONG!! I’d forgotten it was the stiff, rectangular one. No sleep for me that night…

So, I stopped by the ortho’s office on my way in to work on Friday morning (they open at 7:00 AM), and he didn’t even bat an eye when he saw me (though the receptionist did). I didn’t confess my sins, and just said that the two ligs in the front popped off, and the wire was pressing down on my tooth. It actually caused that tooth to be pushed further UP into my gums, so I looked like I had one really short tooth, and one long rabbit tooth (left one). I should’ve taken a pic; it was scary looking. I wanted to cry, actually! It looked worse than my teeth ever looked, even before braces. He just nodded and said “that happens sometimes” and thought the ligs popped out because the wire might be too strong, and I’d have to go down a size. He removed the ligs, popped the wire back in easily, and finally… FINALLY… removed that stupid zigzag powerchain because he said it was messing up the alignment of the front teeth (like I said before… they looked high-low-high-low). He told the assistant to do away with the single ligs and just used a powerchain all the way across because it was “safer” (Yay!!). (Apparently, I’d also popped another lig waaaay in the back that I hadn’t even noticed. That’s the second time that lig has popped off. Methinks my teeth and this wire don't like single ligs.) He told me that if the alignment didn’t fix itself in 2-3 weeks, to give him a call. He was SO nice about everything, considering I’d just ambushed him before he’d even had his tea. The receptionist was a bit snippy; commenting that “people usually CALL instead of driving all the way down”. I told her that I HAD called the day before, and was told that as long as the wire was in place, I was fine. Since it popped out and was moving my teeth around, I decided to swing by ON MY WAY TO WORK, since I only work about 10 minutes away. That shut her up quick. Sassy thing..

Well, my front teeth were all leveled back to normal within a few hours. (Still working on the too-high upper left ones) In my rush to get out of there and not disrupt their morning any further, I forgot to get more elastics, so I had to call them back on Saturday. Surprisingly, they were open and the receptionist said she’d be happy to put some in the mail for me so I wouldn’t have to drive down there. Hmmm… think they’re being nice, or just tired of seeing me? LOL!

Monthly pic: (Please ignore the small bit of food stuck in the bottom teeth…)


Lesson learned: Do not mess with your orthodontic equipment!!! That could’ve had really bad results had I not caught it in time.

-Cathy

P.S.: Abbaker asked last month if I was going to get some of the gums removed from between my two front teeth. I don't think I need any removed. It's the same amount of gum tissue that I started out with. I think what she saw was the color of my tongue through the space between the teeth, and thought it was my gums flappin' away! haha