Ever since I have gotten my braces, I have had appointments to get my teeth cleaned every three months. The appointments rotate between my regular dentist , and my periodontist. I didn’t just decide to do this. I think it was a decision made by the periodontist in conjunction with the other people on my team of teeth care professionals. Before, the appointments were all paid for since I had dental insurance through my work, and also through my wife in her work.. But since my wife changed jobs, I only have the insurance through my work.. Now two of the appointments are paid for by insurance, and the other two are paid for out of pocket.
I had my periodontist appointment today. The dental hygienist places a couple drops of a florescent green liquid in my mouth, and had me swish water around my mouth. Then after I spit the water out, she looked into my mouth. This would show how much plaque I had. She said it looked really good and that I should keep up what I had been doing. Then she asked if I had been flossing. I told her some, but not as much as I should. I kind of lied. I hardly floss at all. Flossing with braces is a pain in the butt. I do use the Waterpik regularly as well as my electric toothbrush. I credit the Waterpik with keeping the plaque off my teeth. My teeth cleanings have gone so much better since I started using it.
When I got the braces on the upper teeth, I never really had any pain, just a slight discomfort. But I just got these braces on the bottom teeth a couple days ago. I still wouldn’t call it pain, but I would call it a strong discomfort. I am feeling them far more than I did when I first got the braces put on my upper teeth. The discomfort is especially strong when I eat more solid foods. I hope this goes away soon.
Up till now I have only had braces on my upper teeth. My upper teeth come down about even on my lower teeth, where they should come out over the lowers. And my orthodontist said if I got braces on the bottoms, it would start pulling them out forward. And if I have braces on my uppers and they are being pulled forward as well, the uppers will never come out over the lowers.
But I have a couple teeth on the left side of my uppers that are refusing to come out to the side over the bottoms. The teeth on the right side came out over the bottoms no problem. So he is going to put the braces on the bottoms. I’ll have amonth to get used to them.Then next month he will put some rubber bands to help pull those teeth out to the side.
So today I got braces on my bottom teeth. He used the ceramic brackets in the front, and the metal brackets on the sides like he did with the upper teeth.