Jude63

Today (Weds 29th) I got my spacers and had my final consult before Brace Day (Weds Oct 6th) with my ortho.

This is my first blog post. I previously wrote quite a few postings in the introduce yourself forum. If you want some cheap entertainment have at them. Talk about a huge learning curve!

Here's what happened today in no particular order:

* I decided to go old school all metal brackets. I truly was on the fence pretty much up to the end on whether I'd do ceramic on the "social six" or metal. Realizing the bracket will be Ormco's mini-twin made it a pretty easy decision. They are apparently 30% smaller than your average bracket. I'll use coloured ligs.

* I walked away with 7 spacers for the bands. They definitely had to do the top teeth because I'll be wearing the Forsus appliance for about 6 months (starting in about 4 months) and you need bands on top for that.

* On my bottom teeth they had to band my left lower molar on the left side as there's a crown and brackets can pop off crown's fairly easily. The crown was fairly big and they had a heckuva time getting the spacer in, they had to use a metal spacer on one side of the tooth. On the other side of my mouth they could only fit one spacer and finally just let it be, after trying quite a few times, the Dr said he could use the space. so I'll only have a band on one side of my lower teeth (I can live with that.)

* It's almost 11:00 pm Pacific time and the spacers aren't aching. The front desk gal's last words to me were "Advil & Ibuprofen" so I've got it handy for the days to come. I think having just the one spacer on lower right will make eating easier.

* The big news today: I'll also wear a Transpalatal Arch (TPA) for the duration that I'll be wearing the Forsus. While I was absorbing this fact I pretty much missed exactly "why" but I'm sure it's all for the best. I googled pix and an explanation about TPA: It doesn't sound too awful. The Dr told me I'll be getting a written report detailing our meeting.

I must say tho that both Forsus and TPA's are things I've read about while researching braces and my comments were along the lines of, "Those poor dear unfortunate people" and, well, now they are my people. Pass the kleenex <grin.>

* When I was about 11 years old I had a big problem with my 2nd molar on my right lower side. The tooth was taken out and consequently the others all leaned over and covered the hole. That's the good part but my bite has suffered over the years (left side near perfect; right side not so much) in the last 6+ years I've really noticed the problem with the bite. [That said, if it wasn't for the crowding, etc, I'd have probably just lived with the bite hoping the issues wouldn't get much worse. I am very pleased we're going to fix this too.]

ANYHOW the great news today was realizing that the way my Dr is attacking my situation (crowding/rotating/bite issues) is different from the Dr I almost went with. That Dr had told me the way they would fix my teeth would leave me with the original open cavity where that molar was, and then I'd get an implant or bridge. So today I realized my guy is going to keep the slanted teeth (but straighten them) and pull my upper bite over one tooth width (hence zee Forsus.) So this is saving me mega bucks on an implant.

That's about all the news from today. I'm raring to go. See ya!