Q: Which of the seven dwarves are you? A: Grumpy!
So it has been about 4 days since the braces went on and they still hurt like hell. I’ve woken up at least two times every night since they went on with searing mouth pain as the ibuprofen wore off. Due to this pain I haven’t been able to eat solid food. I am on easy mac, mashed sweet potatos, oatmeal and an occasional egg diet right now. This kind of sucks a lot.
As for public opinion - it’s been mixed (and for personal opinion “absolutely awful” is in the lead, with a close second being “completely horrendous”). Some people haven’t noticed/said anything about them at all, some noticed right away, and some it took a few minutes. The biggest give away is the pained look i’ve had on my face the last few days indicating that I am not happy and in pain.
The main concessus (of lies) is that:
- They don’t look that bad &
- They are bearely noticable
Both of those things are only true if I do not open my mouth - then yes, they are not noticeable. The minute I open my mouth there they are, bright and shiny. My sister noticed them right away as did a couple of other people. So I thank all those trying to be considerate of my feelings but braces have not made me dumb and blind…i know what I look like.
Part of the problem with my perception of the braces is that I picture them to be along the lines of a looney tunes-esque metal contraption with spinning buzz saws and arms protruding from my face. (I know its not that bad but when there is chunky painful metal in your moth that is what it feels like).
I don’t think the pain is doing anything good in terms of my mood. I’ve been grumpy and on edge since Thursday and a little frenetic from lack of sleep and abundance of pain. Looking back to when I got my top braces on I wrote about the same type of pain but it seemed to be a lot more mild and the bulk of it went away within a week. I am drawing my own conclusion that the metal brackets hurt way more. I don’t know why but they do. In addition to the bottom brackets she also removed a handful of the top ones and repositioned them on the teeth, so instead of one set of teeth hurting it is my WHOLE mouth - ahh, maybe that is the difference, whole mouth vs. half mouth….interesting…awful….but interesting.
I do want to write a bit about the actualy appointment but I am still a bit scarred from it all and get a bit misty eyed when I talk about it…but here is the run down.
First off the apointment lasted TWO HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES. Why? I have NO IDEA! I cried the whole time, so much so that my ears were being water logged by my own tears and my hair was soaked along the edges. About an hour and 15mins through the appointment she asked if I wanted to take a break and I never hopped so fast out of a chair in my life (she made me leave my purse for collateral). The taking off of brackets/glue hurt, kinda more than I would have liked (which means that braces-off day will be both a happy one and one to be feared…but we have till 2011 to worry about that). She couldn’t get my mouth dry enough for the glue to work because all my crying was causing an increase in saliva production. This lead to an additional assistant to come in, one to help the ortho and one whose sole job was to use the spit sucker thing on my face. And while we are on the topic of assistants, Will is the new ortho assistant (replacing Van) and he is lovely, i still cry, but he is very nice - doesn’t seem to be as confident as one might think but that might also be because I scare the bejesus out of him. Finally when we were nearing the end the jerk ortho had the nerve to ask me what color bands I wanted to put on!? Has she not seen me?! I snapped a face like no other, i’m sure, and told her whatever was least visible. She put on silver bands which blend in so well that it looks as though there aren’t any bands at all! So, I guess she did a good job there.*
So that’s where I am…my teeth hurt, I can’t eat to comfort myself and I’m feeling a bit miserable about life in general. I’m considering buying myself a smoothie on the way home…
*If there is ever an appointment where the next appointment is less than 4 weeks away I am considering having colored bands put on….but I don’t know if I can do that. I already look as though I am twelve and the braces and neon bands wouldn’t help. I could try to embrace it all (haha, puns…) but I don’t think i’m quite ready.
