Appointment #1!!

Hey everyone!
So I’d had my initial consultation back in December, but today I had my first real orthodontic appointment. If you’re interested in reading about exactly how my first appointment went, keep reading!

I arrived about 10 minutes early and they took me right back! Prompt, quick, and friendly medical offices are THE BEST. I already love everyone at this office they are so nice. First thing I had to do was remove all of my earrings… I have my earlobes pierced and a double cartilage piercing. I had to take all 4 of them out because they had to get X-rays of my teeth and metal and X-rays don’t exactly mix… They took two different kinds of X-rays. Quick and easy. I then went into a different room with a chair next to a small sink, and some cabinets and countertops, that was about it. First I stood next to the white wall and took a few photos: one mug shot, one profile shot, and one straight on and smiling. The assistant then had me sit down so she could take close-up photos of the inside of my mouth using cheek retractors and a small mirror.

The next step she warmed up a thin square piece of waxy plastic under hot water and had me bite into it to get a bite impression. I then had to take regular impressions. The kind with the huge pile of bubblegum-like material that gags you while you sit there for a minute and half while it hardens feeling like you can’t swallow. She flavored mine strawberry (they had like 20 flavors) but it didn’t make it much more enjoyable. If you’ve never had this done you’re lucky. I’ve gotten somewhat used to it in my lifetime.

Anyways, after impressions were done I rinsed my mouth out and wiped off my face with a paper towel. It was now time to put in spacers!! Spacers are small rubber bands that are stretched out and put between your teeth to help make room for braces bands.

The tool they use to place spacers stretches them out to help push them between the teeth:

However, this did NOT WORK ON ME. My back teeth have super close contact with each other and those spacers did not want to go in. The girl working on me had to go get a different assistant to see if she could get them in. She decided to go the floss route:

They thread the floss in between your teeth first and then slide it over until the rubber band squeezes in between the teeth. This wasn’t easy for her to do either. Lets just say there was BLOOD EVERYWHERE! But I endured the pain of putting them in and then afterwards it wasn’t too bad. It just felt like there was food in my teeth. I had to have 4 spacers. Here’s what mine look like!

After the spacers were in I had another financial consultation and made my down payment. That was it! I was done in time to make it to class this morning.

Spacers were a bit annoying all day… but the longer they’ve been in there the more tender my jaw is becoming…making spaces between your teeth when there was virtually no space there to begin with kinda hurts! They gave me a chew toy to help relieve some of the pressure I feel:

It’s literally  just a piece of plastic to chew on. It sorta helps but I can’t even bite down on one side of my mouth because a spacer extends a little further down on that side and is extra sore… I had pasta for dinner and I’m eating ice cream as I write this. Any excuse to eat carbs right?

Well that’s all I have for today but my next appointment is in one week and I’ll be blogging all about it. Thanks for reading!