Bye bye braces!

So today is the Big Day. Maybe not as exciting as a big fancy wedding, but this actually comes pretty close. Sorta. Today is the day my metal mouth is no longer a metal mouth; excluding the metal bars in my jaw though– I’m talking about braces. After nearly two and a half years, I can say a more-than happy farewell to food-stuck-in-my-mouth, weird smiles because it’s hard to close my mouth, having the mouth of a 12 year old, and general brace mayhem in general. Fellow bracees, you know what I mean.

The actual process was relatively quick – a few clicks here and there, several seconds of severe but shortlived pain, extreme mouth-stretching, and voila. It took all of 5 minutes to remove the braces. I’d heard countless stories of that “slimy teeth sensation” but it’s actually not too bad. I look forward to chewing gum – can’t believe I’ve managed to abstain from gum for so many months! I’ve also bought a whole bunch of Pearl Drops toothpaste in an attempt to whiten my teeth a little bit. More importantly, this means the whole changing of my jaws/face/other has finally come to an end. And what a journey it’s been. I should probably add, it’s not totally over just yet; I still have that tricky dilemma of getting implants or bridges for the gaps in my teeth. As a short-term solution, I have teeth-lookalikes in my retainers to fill the gaps for now (colour-matched and everything), but I’ll be looking into a more permanent solution a bit later on.

Anyway, I don’t have to do anything for now, and I think I’d rather not for now. I’m off to bask in the glow of my naked teeth. I’m off to smile and grin at strangers simply because I can. And I’m off to chew gum.

See you next time! :D xo

Just a note to Mr Future Husband: Of course our wedding day will be much more special than brace-removal-day. Promise!

A clicky jaw and some VERY GOOD NEWS!

Let's start with this clicky jaw. Or actually, let's start with a very late apology - I am sorry for the complete lack of blog posts! Things have been pretty normal and often I forget that I've even had surgery (I know, I say this a lot but only to remind myself that I have!). Food-wise, I can eat pretty much everything I could before the surgery, but with improved bite and a much improved face! I'm completely not-numb, which apparently is quite fortunate as my brother who had the surgery about a month and a bit after me still has a certain amount of numbness. Before the surgery, one of the most common risks I was told about was that my lip could go numb, but that if it happened I wouldn't notice it anyway.

And now onto the clicky jaw... a couple of weeks ago I had this major problem that every time I yawned, my jaw would click out of place. It not only hurt massively, but the back of my mouth would be connected to my brain, resulting in an unbearable headache (slash brainache) for an unbearable split second. And the fact that I yawn many, many, many times each day didn't make things much better! One time it was out of place for about 5 whole seconds (a long time if you're in pain) in a very public place, so that I had to pull a very weird face whilst desperately attempting to readjust my jaw. Fortunately it's very hard for people of the public to laugh at Weird Girl Doing Weird Things With Her Face when her eyes are welling up!

Anyway, I had a bit of a freak-out, thinking "Oh my God, something obviously went wrong with my surgery and the metal plates in my jaw aren't working and I'm going to have to have another operation to correct it! How am I ever gonna relive that part again!?". *Cue internal panic*. So when I had a hospital appointment a few days later and shared my life-shattering news of devestation, my orthodontist simply nodded and went, "Hmm, yeah."

"Hmm, yeah!?" annoyed Weird Girl With Clicky Jaw thought. But then my orthodontist explained that clicky jaws can happen to anyone, regardless of jaw problems or surgery. I can't explain it in technical, scientific terms, but basically I was under stress (apparently?) and unknowingly the tensing of my jaw caused by biting down all the time was the cause. That was a few weeks ago, and I've been purposely relaxing my jaw everytime I feel myself tensing up, and the clicky jaw has gone hooray! And that's the good news, now for the VERY GOOD NEWS...

Saying goodbye to braces!!! :D After over two very long years of wearing braces, the appointment for them to be removed has finally been booked! I am pretty "old" to be wearing braces, since a majority of my friends had them and got rid of them many many years ago. Now I owe a lot to my braces, but I am very much looking forward to being able to chew gum, smile without feeling self-conscious, and meet people without them immediately prejudging me to be younger due to my metal mouth. Of course, because it is me we're talking about, it's not that straight forward. I have two rather large gaps in my mouth where the adult teeth just never existed. This means I have to get bridges or implants done (another operation!) at some point in my life, and another consultant has to have a look at the gaps just to say whether I can go ahead with the removal of braces. It's on Monday so I'll let you know how it goes...

See you soon! (I will, promise.)
xoxo