A Lady of Leisure

A fantastic development to report - I have left my hated job, and received redundancy payments enough to allow me to take the next 6 months off work! This is great news as I will now be able to take a good long time to recover after surgery :) It's such a relief, i'm convinced that the stress of that hateful role had something to do with my recent ill health, and now i've left it hopefully those problems are all behind me - now I can give my full attention to building up to the Big Day!

Speaking of the big day, I have my next adjustment on 12th November and i'm hoping for some further indication of a surgery month. Given I havn't yet had my moulds taken or elastics fitted I think I can safely assume December is out, so i'm going to keep my fingers crossed for early Jan.
Also hoping I can meet with Mr T. again soon, it's been over a year since i've seen him so it would be good to go over the plans again.

Teeth-wise all is pretty boring, the second molars are now tilting upright but everything else is the same. I can't see what else there is to do in there, but hey what would I know about the dark arts of orthodontistry?!

PS - Attention All the Better to Bite you with Kate! Hope you're out there and doing well, really miss reading your blog!

Well THAT was unexpected!

I’m back! It’s been an absolute age since my last update, but I can assure you that the delay was for very good reasons…

As you may recall from my previous posts, I was going through an incredibly stressful time at work and was struggling to deal with it emotionally. Well, this anxiety had a heavy price to pay as I became very ill and landed myself in hospital. To cut a long story short I ended up spending 10 nights there and came out with a diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease! This was devastating news and has taken me quite some time to come to terms with it, but now I’m on the road to recovery and am once again able to turn my attention back to my favourite subject :)

“So what’s this got to do with your teeth?” I hear you ask. Well, for a start I found out that Crohn’s causes mouth ulcers, which explains why i've been suffering from the pesky devils these past few years and why all my previous dentists' attempts at cures have failed (SLS free toothpaste, special mouthwashes, dietary changes, you name it I tried it), so anyone else out there who is suffering inexplicable canker sores may want to get themselves checked out. Also, my first concerns on hearing the diagnosis were the implications for my jaw surgery; what if Mr T. won’t operate because of it?! Surely I won’t have to give up after coming all this way?! With these alarming thoughts in mind I rushed along on Monday to my appointment with Dr H. and hesitantly broke the news. Luckily it’s nothing to worry about, Dr H assured me he’s had several patients with Crohn’s who have gone through with surgery and all have been ok. PHEW!!!

As for my progress update here’s the latest: Dr H extended my lower archwire so it now connects up to the 2nd molars on each side which are still tilted slightly downwards. My rotated lateral incisor has rotated back in to place nicely in the last 2 months and now only slightly overlaps the teeth on either side – this was the tooth that Dr H was planning to shave down, but the overlap is so small I’m not sure he’ll even bother. No sign of the dreaded elastics yet but with my teeth being more or less in place I’m sure they’re not far away.

I also asked about our original timeline for a December ‘ready’ date and he announced that he’d take moulds at our next appt in 6 weeks and would give me an answer once he’d looked at them. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for a Dec/Jan surgery date so will be keeping up the pressure to finish me off quickly. The thought of finally getting my teeth fixed was something that kept me going through the dark times in hospital, so it can’t come soon enough!

Discantus Redux!

I almost named this post ‘suck it up’, as after a reasonable amount of time moping, i’ve decided to give myself a good kick up the ar*e and get over it - there are so many people in a worse position than myself that I really shouldn’t be bleating on about how bad things are. It’ll only be a matter of months until my operation, after which I’ll be free to fix my work situation with a fabulous new smile to boot. Life is really too short to be miserable, so i’m back in the saddle and focusing on 6 more months of orthodontic fun and surgery anticipation to document in my trusty blog. My next appointment is in two weeks, when I suspect the dreaded elastics will be attached, bring it on!

Now that I’m way past the 6 month mark I’m tentatively starting to feel like a brace ‘veteran’! Newbie posts on Archwired.com make me come over all sentimental about my initial days in braces, and I’ve got the fine art of under-archwire floss threading down to a tee. So in the spirit of my newly developed wisdom I’ve decided to revisit my old assumptions about how life in braces would be, for the benefit of any of those reading this who are about to set off on their own journey. Here are the top 4 assumptions I made just before I was fitted up:

That I would always HATE my brace. – FALSE
OK, so it’s hardly my most flattering feature, but my feelings of loathing towards it dissipated surprisingly quickly once I was fitted up, and it wasn’t long before the hardware was blending into my features so seamlessly that I felt I’d had it on for years. I still sigh in disappointment over my increasing underbite and will bite through wood to get away from a camera pointed in my direction, but when I look in the mirror I no longer see myself plus hideously disfiguring metalware, I just see me.

That living with a brace would be a big deal – FALSE
Anticipation turned out to be far worse than reality. After so long fretting over other people’s stares, gossip, reactions etc it came as quite a surprise that most people really didn’t give a monkeys. I guess this proves that it’s easy to get emotionally tied up in what seems like such a huge change to us, but in reality other people are too concerned with their own day to day lives to care about our life-dramas. Had I known this before I wouldn’t have spent 6 months hesitating before taking the plunge…


The pain would be terrible – TRUE and FALSE
An inevitable part of the process really. Everyone has their own pain threshold and there have been a few low points along the way. But on balance I don’t think the painful periods I’ve gone through outweigh the achievement of getting halfway toward surgery. Would I be happy going through the same thing for another 6 months? Definitely - no pain no gain as they say!


That i’d get bored talking/reading about teeth and orthognathic surgery – definitely FALSE
Surely, I thought, after a couple of months I’d become bored of the entire subject – BUT NO! Even after all this time i’m endlessly fascinated by it, and like nothing more than to talk and read about peoples experiences who are going through the same thing. Can’t seem to remember what I did with all that time before my brace came along, hope I don’t miss it too much when it’s gone :)

Paying the price

6 months in, and had my 4th adjustment on Monday. It was a pretty good session, Dr H fitted a steel wire with 2 hooks resting by my canines, and announced I was well on track to be surgery ready by December – Yipeee! The hooks, unexpectedly, are not proving to be the demonic torture devices I was anticipating, though having flicked through the archives of archwired.com I expect it’ll be a different story once the elastics are attached. Dr H also announced he will ‘start work’ on the rotated tooth at the bottom next time. This could mean either slenderizing or removal, but I expect that it’s the former - surely he wouldn’t have spent all these months rotating it this way and that only to end up pulling it out!

So I should be out celebrating all the good things going on right now, but committing myself to this process is now having serious consequences on my life. The company I work for has been heavily hit by redundancies recently, and now I’ve had to choose between taking severance or accepting a demotion in order to carry on here. If things were otherwise I would probably accept the payout, but I really can’t afford my orthodontics and surgery without a regular paycheck coming in. Jobs are thin on the ground right now, and even if I do eventually come across a good one my surgery could possibly be a matter of weeks away by then. Can’t see how any firm would be willing to take on an employee who’s looking for a month’s paid sick leave so soon when there are dozens of candidates for the job, so I’ve reluctantly taken the decision to accept the demotion. I can’t begin to express what a blow this is. Plan to get out of this situation quick sharp once I’m through surgery, but the thought of those months stretching out ahead of me between now and then is really hard to bear. Still, I said at the start I’d do whatever it takes to get this done, and it seems fate plans to test my resolve to the limit. Rest assured though, the moment I come round from the anaesthetic I’ll be reaching for my CV and pen…

Getting impatient!

I am feeling distinctly left out right now! There are currently a glut of surgeries going on amongst my fellow ortho bloggers, and whilst being really happy to see them finally go through to the other side, I can’t help but feel a twinge of envy as I’m still stuck way back down the road. However my 6 month braceversary is just around the corner – which theoretically means I’m halfway towards the Big Day! I’ve been eagerly awaiting a time when I can get stuck into my preparations so will view this momentous occasion as the green light to start pondering over choices of the infamous Zip ‘n Squeeze bags, perusing various wedge pillows, and generally joining with all the fun that i’ve been impatiently watching from the sidelines all these months…

Regarding my weekend away , there’s no good news on the mother front sadly: she only brought up the subject of my braces twice, first to comment that they must be difficult to keep clean, and then to remark that my teeth looked ‘rather stained’. Hardly the words of someone coming round to an idea. I just can’t understand why she won’t get over her reservations about surgery and start supporting me properly now that everything is set in stone! What’s worse is that i’m now feeling reluctant to go back home to recover post op, even though it’s by far the best place to be. Ironically she’d hit the roof if I said I wasn’t staying with her afterwards, but being looked after by someone who can barely disguise their disapproval doesn’t sound like much fun to me. Ho hum, guess i’ll see how things unfold in the next few months.

The weekend also brought up other unwelcome developments, I was browsing the photos from the party we attended and noticed that my underbite now looks worse than ever! The downward-chin-tilt trick that used to shrink my chin now exposes acres of space between my top and bottom arches when I smile, and my jaw juts out alarmingly despite my efforts to pull it back for photos. This, combined with the braces themselves turning my teeth into sludgy grey looking stumps, makes close up shots truly hideous. I hate them! There’s only really one thing to do - BAN photos of myself taken closer that 3 feet away. This could prove tricky given all the summer events I’m planning to attend, particularly at Royal Ascot next month. I’ll just have to wear an enormous hat which I can tilt towards any prying cameras that get too close!

Next adjustment is on 8th June. Dr H. was making threatening noises about hooks last time, so i’d better get the pain killers ready…

Adjustment no. 3!

How long will it take to relax with this whole process?

This was the question going around in my mind whilst on the way to Dr H’s yesterday, as despite being 5 months and several visits into the journey i’m STILL feeling hugely anxious on adjustment day, and tend to spend the preceding 24 hours coping with butterflies and jelly legs! I really need to start getting a grip of these nerves or heaven knows how I’ll react once surgery appears on the horizon, but for the moment I’m still taking a deep breath at the practice door and pushing my hands deep into my pockets, so that when I walk in no-one notices them shaking.

Needless to say I had nothing to worry about. Dr H. and the team put a new ugly wire of a higher number on the top (with a great deal of pushing and shoving I might add-my brackets never open or close without a fight) and swapped out the spring thingy on the bottom for one that was stronger. I’ve not really noticed any tooth movement going on since last time, including around the spring, but apparently there has actually been progress. Now we’ve only got a few more gaps to open and are waiting for the upper arch to completely straighten before things can move on. I also had a much needed clean to remove staining and build up – which is still causing me a lot of grief between visits, but Dr H. wasn’t able to find a cause for the bleeding and sensitivity that I’ve experienced recently, and speculated that increased pressure on the lower molars may be the cause (they are really the only teeth that meet up with the upper set), I was relieved to hear it wasn’t something more serious.

For the next visit Dr H’s assistant told me that I’d be getting a steel wire on top, along with a set of hooks. Hooks? Ouch! As an ulcer-prone individual that word sends a chill down my spine! I asked the purpose of these new torture devices and was told they would “hold elastics and close gaps”. Hold on – havn’t we been working on opening gaps all this time? The purpose of all this is rather lost on me – I can only conclude that my ortho truly does work in mysterious ways!

Still, I have bigger things to worry about: in two weeks I’ll be accompanying my mother to a 60th birthday in a city some distance from London, which will mean the two of us making the long journey together. I’ve deliberately stayed out of her way since she gave me so much grief about having surgery, but I’m hoping a few hours alone in the car will help clear the air. Not planning to bring up the subject directly but am hoping it will crop up whilst chatting. Surely she can’t ignore it for much longer?

Divine relief

St. Appolonia - good with teeth!

I have been distracted from my favourite subject over the last few weeks by pesky exams, so it’s nice to come back and discover that four and a half months are now up on the clock. This could potentially mean i’m a third of the way through my journey to the big day! Really hope it’s the case as my brace continues to find new and devilish ways of tormenting me, and my underbite gradually worsens as the weeks go by.

The newest developments I have to report are extreme sensitivity whilst brushing around my molars and bleeding gums. Not sure what I’ve done to deserve this latest round of punishment as my dental regime is pretty good, but for some reason most brushing sessions in the past few weeks have led to varying amounts of blood on my toothbrush. I’ve managed to calm things down by re-introducing interdental brushes to my routine which seem to have done the trick, but it’s bumped my evening bathroom time back up to almost half an hour! Once i’ve got through the mouthwash, ordinary brush, pick-shaped brush, floss (the biggest time killer), interdental brushes, wax and mouth ulcer gel i’m lucky if I’m done in 20 minutes. What makes it worse is that A. gives his teeth a quick two minute scrub and is straight off to bed, and his teeth are as happy as Larry! It’ll be interesting to hear what Dr. H makes of it when I see him in two weeks. Does every other brace-wearer spend hours in the bathroom like this or am I setting some sort of new world record?

Happened to find out the other day that a certain St Appolonia is the Patron Saint of dentistry and tooth related problems. Wonder if she does braces and orthognathic surgery too? Might be a good time to offer up a few prayers as I could do with a bit of divine relief right now…