I'm writing this blog mostly for my own satisfaction and record, but also to document my journey for my fellow adult brace-faces on archwired.com.
I'm married to an amazing man, Brian. Here we are:
The story of my teeth seems somewhat simple. I have a genetic defect of sorts that has left me with one too few teeth on the top and one too many on the bottom.
These are the teeth that are affected:
So, what does this mean for me? It means that neither my top nor my bottom teeth line up in the center. This is more visible on my top teeth, which only has one "front tooth":
I also have an open bite, meaning only my back two teeth touch. When I bite down, none of the rest of my teeth touch. This isn't noticeable in pictures, as it appears generally that my teeth touch - but they don't.
Over time, this has gotten worse, most recently lending itself to a gap between my two front teeth that began quickly opening last September and by December was quite large. it's hard to tell from straight on, but I could have fit a nickel between the two teeth.
In December, I visited the dentist for the first time in over 10 years and had the teeth bonded together, the gap closed, 8 fillings, one almost-root canal, and a chip I've had since I was 8 closed.
Last week, due to pressure and pain coming from one of my wisdom teeth on the bottom (it's crowded down there! The ones on top, due to the extra space, came in with no problem), I had all of my wisdom teeth removed. I immediately began feeling shifting in my teeth.
After encouragement from my dentist and years of feeling unhappy smiling in pictures, I'm finally getting braces!
No comments:
Post a Comment