Thursday, May 22, 2008

Slenderizing and Aqualizing

I suck...I just can't seem to keep up with this blog.

A few quick updates:

I had my teeth "slenderized" at my last appointment 5 weeks ago. It sort of sucked. They said it wouldn't hurt... and it wan't excrutiating, however, with my super sensitive teeth I experienced a fair amount discomfort. They basically take this spinning disc-like wheel and run it in between your teeth to file a space for the teeth to move. Then, they take a double-sided, metal "Emery board" and run it between your teeth to buff the rough edges. After, you have to up your fluoride usage b/c any fluoride that has accumulated over the years is basically filed off.

The next day my bottom teeth were quite sore... NOT from the procedure, from the fact that they could move again and had obviously done so while I slept.

Then, last week, I woke up in the middle of the night to a sharp and loud cracking sound. I though I broke my tooth, but I had actually clenched my teeth together so tight while sleeping, that I broke the bracket off my bottom, left-middle tooth. The ortho couldn't see me for a few days... and it's amazing how much your teeth move in that time. It seemed like that tooth went back to where it started. Very scary...

It took all of 20 minutes to fix it. They did not take the wire off, but rather just loosened it, scraped the cement off my tooth (uncomfortable for me, b/c once again, my sensitive teeth didn't like it) and then glued a new bracket back on.

Everything would have been fine and good except, the bracket broke off again last weekend. I have no idea how... but I think it either happened at dinner (and I didn't notice) or I did it in my sleep again and it didn't wake me. In either case, I am going today to have it fixed yet again. And yet again, that tooth is back to it's crazy crookedness. I hope this doesn't become a problem...

The ortho "gave me" (for $50) this thing called an Aqualizer that I can wear to bed to prevent the teeth clenching. It's sort of weird, but I guess I need to start wearing it every night.

PS - I'll get some pictures posted soon... my teeth are looking good!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am 36 and I go June 18th for my slenderizing. I have Damon braces and this is my 13th month. The treatment time was scheduled to be 16-18 months. They didn't tell me why they were doing the slenderizing, I assumed it was to smooth out some of my teeth. But apparently it also creates space for more movement. My question to you is....did you have noticeable spaces after the procedure?

BFW (Tammy) said...

There are spaces... maybe about 1mm wide. I will try to take some pics at some point for you. None of my slenderizing was done in my front-most teeth, so it's not noticable at all. Mine are right beside my canines... on my lower teeth only.

Supposedly, the teeth will move into the spaces and you will not have any space left when the braces come off. It's really not that bad though (looks wise).

Anonymous said...

I am 20, and need braces for crowding. The only options are extractions or slenderizing.

How was your experience in the end? I am very afraid of doing either one, for one, I don't want any teeth removed. And I don't want any enamel removed for the fear of sensitivity, etc.

I am wondering if you have any trouble with it now?

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Serena Mcelyea said...

Congratulations! All you have to do now is to take care of them so that they will stay in their current fantastic shape. Good luck and visit your dentist regularly.