From Start to Finish

There's nothing really new to report.  Still wearing my retainers full time and will be doing so until July.  After that, I'll only have to wear them while I sleep.  Here are a couple groups of pictures I put together.  The one shows the progress from the front view and the other is the view of the roof of my mouth from start to finish.  Enjoy!


Front View - Top two pictures are from before surgery.  The next three pictures are during the expansion process and the final picture is from when my braces came off.

Roof View - The top two pictures are from before surgery.  Notice the expander in the middle two pictures getting wider.  The bottom left picture shows the full expansion and the last picture is after my braces came off.

Free at Last!

[ (January 25th, 2015) (1 year and 11 months post surgery, 1 year and 10 months post braces) ]

On January 9th, the braces came off!  In under 2 years, I went from a mouth full of problems to a perfect smile.  It's been a crazy ride of expanding my palate, a huge tooth gap, using wax as a fake tooth, and then bringing it all back together.

For the next 6 months, I have to wear a retainer all the time besides eating and brushing my teeth.  After that, I'll only have to wear the retainers when I sleep.  The orthodontist also put a permanent retainer on the backs of my bottom front six teeth.  This is pretty much the finish line to my story.  When I get some extra time, I'll put together some before and after pics.  Here's the finished product as of now.

Permanent retainer on the back of my bottom front teeth

With the retainers on

Early Christmas Present!!

[ (December 20th, 2014) (1 year and 10 months post surgery, 1 year and 9 months post braces) ]

Since the last time I posted 4 months ago, there have only been a few changes.  My teeth were pretty much straight, but there were some "black triangles" that they wanted to work on.  Since my gums have receded a bit, there were small triangle shaped spaces between some of my teeth.  Every 3 weeks, I would have an appointment and they would file in between my teeth at the bottoms so the spaces would disappear at the top.

Saw the orthodontist 2 days ago and received awesome news!  At my next appointment on January 9th, they are going to remove my braces a month short of the original 2 year projection.  The next post you'll see from me will be braces free!


Goodbye black triangles (top photo from August, bottom photo from today)

Something's Missing

[ (August 21st, 2014) (1 year and 6 months post surgery, 1 year and 5 months post braces) ]

It's been over a year and a half since the SARPE surgery took place and finally the roof of my mouth is free.  They took the device out a few months back and I couldn't be happier. The area was tender at first, but it was a whole lot better than having food constantly stuck up there.

The orthodontist was worried that I would need additional surgery to pull my lower jaw in.  Every six weeks the orthodontist gave me new bands to position differently on my teeth to try to pull my jaw into place and to everyone's surprise, it worked.  It looks like I won't need another surgery!  For the most part my teeth are aligned and there are only a few gaps which are very small.  Hopefully I can get these braces off soon!

This is the positioning of the bands now.  They are hooked to the 4th and 5th tooth on the top and bottom row on both sides.  I only have to wear them when I'm sleeping now instead of all day.

You can see that the top row of teeth are fitting over the bottom row nicely and that most gaps are closed or are minimal.

No more SARPE device, I'm free!

Over a Year in Now

[ (April 13th, 2014) (1 year and 2 months post surgery, 1 year and 1 month post braces) ]

It's been almost a half a year since my last post and nothing much has really changed since then.  I still see the orthodontist every six weeks.  They usually give me stronger wires every time I go in and they'll tie teeth together differently to close all the gaps.  The only difference is, now that my top row of teeth are becoming straighter, I'm starting to develop an underbite.  From the beginning of this process, they told me that an underbite would be a possibility and that I may need a second surgery to pull my bottom jaw back.  To try to avoid that surgery, they have me connecting bands from my top row of teeth to my bottom row of teeth.  Hopefully that works out so I don't have to go under the knife again.


Here you can kind of see the underbite, my top front two teeth are tucked behind the bottom teeth.  The little triangle gap between those teeth is slowly going away too.

Here's the view with the bands in.

Over 9 Months

[ (November 18th, 2013) (9 months post surgery, 8 months post braces) ]

It's been a few months since my last post but really nothing much has changed.  All the crazy gap pictures are in the past and now it's just the slow process of making all my teeth straight.  Every six weeks I go to the orthodontist and get stronger wires and new bands.  So really there's been nothing interesting going on at all.  Here's some pictures of how my teeth are progressing.

From Top to Bottom

[ (August 4th, 2013) (172 days post surgery, 132 days since full expansion, 150 days post braces) ]

I've been to two appointments over the past month.  The first appointment was routine maintenance.  The second appointment, which was six days ago, they added brackets to the fourth tooth on each side of my top row of teeth and on my bottom row of teeth.  I'm fully braced up, from top to bottom.  The orthodontist decided not to add rubber bands to the braces like they usually do.  He said he wants the teeth to straighten out more before they start to pull them together again.  All the gaps are disappearing so I don't mind waiting.  Even though they wanted me to wait four weeks to come back instead of the normal two weeks, I'm going back tomorrow because they forgot to put the stopper on the top wire.  Now, my one front tooth is starting to slide over too far on to the other side.


The front tooth is off center now!

It's Been a While

[ (July 3th, 2013) (140 days post surgery, 100 days since full expansion, 118 days post braces) ]


It's been a while.  I really shouldn't make excuses, but I've been really busy these past six weeks. 

Anyway, since the last update I've been to the orthodontist three times.  During the first appointment, they decided that they wanted to get rid of the old, bulky and always very annoying expander that was occupying the roof of my mouth for months now.  Mainly because it was anchored to the 4th and 6th tooth on each side of my top jaw and they want to start moving the 4th tooth into place.  They made a mold of the roof of my mouth so they could make a new device to keep my palate expanded that only hooked onto the 6th tooth on each side.

Obviously, the next appointment they took the expander out and put the new device in.  It is such an improvement.  I have so much more room in my mouth, all the surfaces are smooth and food isn't stuck all over the place every time I eat.  It's amazing!  They didn't put brackets on my newly freed 4th tooth on each side because they are not in line with my other teeth yet.  They would have to use a weaker wire to pull them into place and they wanted to keep the wire strong for the other teeth.  Eventually, those teeth will move closer into place and will get brackets.

Yesterday was the last appointment out of the three.  Besides the normal maintenance that they do every time, they put an even stronger wire in.  The stronger wire makes the teeth straighter and holds them in place better.  My teeth and gums have been ultra-sensitive since then.  They are also trying to close the smaller side gaps by pulling those teeth over with connected rubber bands.  Still no brackets on the 4th tooth on each side yet.  The main front gap has just about closed as the other gaps have continued to get bigger along the way.

Again, sorry for the delay but these promising pics should make up for it.

 

CHECK OUT THE NEW DEVICE!!!!!

 

 

Monkey See, Monkey Do

[ (May 26th, 2013) (102 days post surgery, 62 days since full expansion, 80 days post braces) ]

I'm still continuing to see the orthodontist every two weeks.  I was there this past Monday and I'm going back next Monday (eight days).  While there, they switched my bands and gave me a new stronger wire since my teeth have become straighter.  They put a stopper on the wire because my one front tooth is closer to being in place than the other.  They were able to put three chains between my front teeth instead of four.  Also, the stronger wire has helped to pull my other front tooth towards the center creating a new gap as seen below.

 

 The new gap!

Nothing New

[ (May 13th, 2013) (89 days post surgery, 49 days since full expansion, 67 days post braces) ]

There's really nothing new to update.  I went to the orthodontist last Tuesday and they gave me a fresh wire and bands.  Next appointment in two weeks, which is 8 days from today.  The center gap is getting slightly smaller as the side gap gets slightly bigger.  This is pretty much a pic update, check it.

Progress I Guess

[ (April 27th, 2013) (73 days post surgery, 33 days since full expansion, 51 days post braces) ]

After the previous visit to the orthodontist, the gap closed about a half a centimeter the first week and then didn't move the next three weeks.  Instead, a the new gap between my front left tooth and the tooth next to it got bigger (I don't know how that makes any sense). Also, it seemed like the braces were pulling my front tooth on my right side (left side looking at the picture) out of my gums to the point were it was loose.  I'm just over the whole gap thing already and want it to be closed.

I went to the orthodontist this past Tuesday (April 23rd).  I asked about my front tooth being pulled down out of my gums.  They said it was ok because none of the root was showing and teeth are going to feel loose as they are shifting into place.  The hooked me up with a new track and new rubber bands to help the gap close better.  They told me to come in every two weeks now instead of the four weeks that I initially did.  Since then, the tooth started to move back up and the front gap closed a little more while the side gap grew bigger.  I go back to the orthodontist in a week and a half.  Still, the thought of a perfect smile is getting me through this.

Here are some pictures from today.

Stalemate: Braces vs The Expander!

[ (April 14th, 2013)  (60 days post surgery, 20 days since full expansion, 34 days post braces) ]

I know I know, it has been over a month since I posted.  Life has been busy, I'm lazy, [enter more excuses here], blah blah blah, etc.

Anyway, I stopped turning the expander on March 25th (40 days post surgery, 35 days after starting to turn expander) after a whopping 58 turns!  Fifteen of the turns came after the braces were put on my top row of teeth. 

My last orthodontist appointment was on March 25th.  They said that I may have overexpanded my palate.  They told me not to worry because most of the time, the palate will retract a little bit.  They locked the expander in place and said it would have to stay in my mouth for about 6 months.  This will give the palate time to fuse back together.  They said it will take 2 - 3 months for the gap to close.  My next appointment is 8 days from now (April 22nd.)

March 25th was also the last check in with the oral surgeon.  He said everything was going great and I didn't need to see him again unless the orthodontist decided I needed lower jaw surgery after my braces come off. 

After the turning stopped, the gap has been s    l    o    w    l    y closing which I'm not too happy with.  I figured the braces would turn it up a notch but not so much.  Living with the gap is annoying as you can imagine but I keep telling myself it's going to be worth it in the end.  My teeth are becoming less sensitive to the point where crunchy stuff is tolerable.  The problem with that is, I'm not supposed to eat crunchy stuff because it could damage the braces (awesome timing!)  Here's some pics.



March 18th (Fifty-one turns, eight turns post braces era)

March 25th (Fifty-eight turns, fifteen post braces era, fully expanded!!!)

 

April 14th (Thirty-four days post braces, twenty days since full expansion)

You can see a little gap forming between my front tooth and the one next to it!

Here are some pics from before surgery and after full expansion.  There are some slight facial difference.

 



 

 

This is before expansion, thirty-three turns and fifty-eight turns.

 



 

 

I'll try not to be lazy and post sooner than a month away.