One month down - five to go!

I am still blown away at how you cannot really see my braces in photos. Three cheers for clear brackets and white wires!

Today I have my one month appointment, my first appointment since having these buggers put on. It's been quite a month. Getting them on was a breeze, and my jaw hasn't been particularly sore or anything. (According to my daughter, that comes later with the rubber bands.) And I LOVE that people can't see them from a distance or in most photos.

The tough part thus far - other than not being able to really kiss my fiance, sigh - has been the pesky hooks for those rubber bands. I guess I have a tender mouth because without wax, it feels like there's barbed wire fencing on my teeth. Good news is, I've worked out a system. I only eat soft foods for breakfast and for snacks, sometimes even for lunch. The less chewing the less irritation. I spend a lot of time putting in wax, taking out wax, and brushing my teeth. It's a pain but here's the good news...

I can already tell my teeth are moving! My bottom teeth were encroaching on one another and I was inching back to my childhood overbite. Eak. And now, I can already tell that in six months, I will have a brand new smile.

So every little catch of my cheeks is totally worth it. It'll all be done in six months!

I still love you, Fusion Orthodontics!

No more wax! Oh wait, yes, more wax. Many, many tiny boxes of wax.

At the Houston Rodeo and, yes, I have braces on. Perfect, clear braces.

So last night I went without wax for 5 mins and I thought I was going to tear the paint off the walls. I hate that feeling of the inside of my cheeks being clawed at.

And then this morning, I took out the wax, brushed my teeth, and didn't put any back in. Five hours later and still no wax. I don't know what happened. But life without wax sure will be a heck of a lot easier than life with it. Taking it out and brushing my teeth and putting it back in after morning and every night and after every time I ate was getting old and tedious fast. Hoping that needing wax, or at least that much wax, is behind me now.

End of day 9. The inside of my bottom lip is full of sores. Sigh. Back to wax.

I still love you Fusion Orthodontics. 

Do not run out of wax.

Do not run out of wax. I repeat do not run out of wax.  I hit an all time low today. I took off the wax and brushed my teeth this morning and then could not find my wax anywhere. I collapsed into tears before doing an incredibly disgusting thing - I took the wax out of the sink drain and put it in my mouth. Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my braces. Seriously.

I still love you Fusion Orthodontics. 

Oh how I love thee, wax. Let me count the ways.

Here's what you need to know. Wax is your friend and so are noodles. And sashimi. Sashimi is your friend too. But first to the wax.

Your mouth is used to smooth teeth. It is now used to a mouth full of jagged metal edges. Why they can put a man on the moon and not create braces that won't turn the inside of your cheeks into chipped liver I don't know. But that is the reality.

So use wax. Soon. And put it absolutely everywhere you like. Yes, it looks silly. Yes, even sillier than a 46 year old with braces. But I went through the entirety of Day 2 without it and by 11:00pm I would have given my first born to be put out of my inner cheek misery.

But then the wax. Oh the wax. I put it on every edge and bump and wire and know angels are singing the hallelujah chorus in my ear and I can finally imagine getting through the next six months. Yes. I know. I would not do well in war. Or in the wild. Or anywhere other than my current pampered circumstances. I admit it. And that counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and braces.

Now to the noodles. And the sushi. Eating is not a great deal of fun right now. It hurts. It's gross. And it makes you wish that you had Soylent Green and that you didn't know, "Soylent green is people!" But I digress. Now is the time for pho and ramen and for that I will rejoice. I haven't moved on to the other noodle food groups yet. But there is time, my friends. There is time.

Sashimi is also easy to bite in half lightly and chew on your molars. It's heaven in fact. And it's protein and it's delicious. And that is all that is important now that I am carrying more metal in my mouth than should be allowed for my height and weight.

Speaking of weight, I've been wanting to lose 15 pounds. Braces are a dramatic route, I know. But I'm all about two dead birds with one perfect stone. And I have been hungry since I got these little metal mangers. So there is that.

Until next time, wish me luck on healing my cheeks and finding more foods that don't require, well, teeth.

 I still love you, Fusion Orthodontics.

I am forty-six-years-old and today I got braces.

Yes, I am wearing braces in the photo with my BFF from high school. How apropros...

Today's the day, Dr. Hessam Rahimi at Fusion Orthodontics said, grinning at me. You would have thought I was getting a big fat check. But no, what he was about to deliver was a big fat set of braces in my 46 year old mouth.

Are you scared? He asked.

I guess not, I said

We admire courage he said

I already already had all the X-rays and photos done. Thank God they didn't have to do any molds like they did in the old days. That is the 70s. The last time I had braces. For five shitty years. Including head gear. And now my teeth are effed up again. Why oh why didn't I wear my retainer??? Not that I'm bitter or anything...

Don't hate me, he said as he tapped my arm and called his assistant Laura over to get to work. How could I? was all I could think. The doc is handsome and sweet and had done a beautiful job on my daughters teeth. Who, by the way, was WAY too excited about me getting braces. Way. Too. Excited.

Nothing's going to hurt right now, the doc promised as Laura leaned in. And the doc was right. It was super uncomfortable. What with the sand blasting my molars to create friction. The washing. The drying. And the cheek expanders. Oh how I loathe the cheek expanders. They look terrible. They feel terrible. And combined with the triangles that were laid against the inside of my cheeks and the suction tube that I was biting down on, even watching Finding  Nemo and then Frozen did not help. And they usually fix everything.

Laura was great. She explained every single bingle step and kept telling me what a great job I was doing. It was a lot. But it was very sweet and I get it. I'm a grown up at a kids dentist and orthodontist. Although, I have to tell you, I was one of three adults there today getting our late in life perfect smiles on.

And just over an hour later I was done. The crazy part is, you can't even really see them in photos or from a distance. They're clear with a white coated wire. Now up close you can see. I can't close my mouth completely and the letters B and M are out for the next six months. But it's a small price to pay.

By the time I went to bed, I was doing fine. I also had two pink drinks with vodka so I'm doubting that didn't hurt. And I managed to eat ramen and even some duck using my molars only. Again, with a little help from my friends - vodka one and vodka two.

So, so far so good. Stay tuned for more Jenny gets braces adventures. The good, the bad, and the drooling.





Disclaimer - Dr. Rahimi at Fusion Orthodontics offered to do my braces at cost in exchange for my sharing my adventure in braces. The deal is though, I get to tell the truth, even if it's not so pretty. So rest assured, nothing about this ride will be candy coated, especially not with anything sticky, for sure.