Angie's Blog

As promised, here are my list of foods that (with the help of a good cleaning routine), I have managed to eat within the first couple of weeks or so. I have also included those which I have tried to avoid but have had a bit of and finally those which i stay well away from! So here goes:

The Good

• Bread (Wholemeal & white varieties) – Avoid thick bread with tough crusts
• Potatoes
• Tomatos (Cherry or fresh)
• Steak (cut into small pieces)
• Apples (cored and cut into chunks)
• Pineapple
• White Chocolate
• Ice Cream (thank god!) – Avoid ice cream cones though.. they’re a pain to eat
• Porridge
• Raisins
• Bananas
• Cereals (havn’t tried crunchy varieties yet)
• Yoghurt (Rachels are really good as they don’t have too many bits in)

The Bad (These are generally ok as long as you swill with water afterwards otherwise they could stain)

• Milk Chocolate
• Gravy/Sauces
• Branston Pickle
• Cheese (Melted)
• Alchohol (i’ve tried cider & martini/lemonade so far)
• Pineapple Juice

The Ugly

• Peanut Butter (i luv it but i’m not going to risk it!)
• Tomato based Sauces
• Diet/Normal Coke (or any coloured fizzy drinks)
• Red/Purple diluted or pure juice drinks
• Vegetable Juices (the green kind).. Shame cos these are really good for you
• Berries (strawberries are ok if they are chopped up)

Anyway.. i hope this helps. I will keep updating this list as my repertoire expands! :)

Hi there… Sorry it’s been a while. Just wanted to give you a quick update.

I’m now completely pain free (have been for about a week) which is great. Although i don’t think the brackets are doing too much because my back ones aren’t on, I can definitely see some movement cos I’ve seen gaps appearing where I definitely didn’t have them before!

I’m now in a routine when it comes to cleaning but I havn’t quite got to grips with flossing yet. I do do it (most days) but it’s an absolute pain so if anyone has any great tools or tricks, I would really appreciate you leaving a comment as this takes ages.

I think I’m doing a pretty good job of keeping my brackets stain free. My main trick has definitely been to swill my mouth with water (like you would with mouthwash).. Just a tip though…. Don’t use ice cold water if you have sensitive teeth (like me!).. It hurts like hell!!! If you have room temperature water you can usually dis-lodge any bits which are stuck in the brackets quite easily.

In a minute I’m also going to provide a list of foods which I’ve so far  had no problems with which will hopefully help.

Anyway, it’s only a week until my next appointment so I’ll give another update then.

TTFN…

Hey there.. This is just a quick update to let everyone know how my first week of braces has been..

Generally it’s been fine. My teeth were (and still are) a bit tender but nothing too bad. Today is the first day where the brackets started to rub on the inside of my cheek. Out came the wax to the rescue!

I’m starting to get a bit more brave with food now. I had steak, goats cheese and cherry tomatoes for breakfast (not bad considering the start of the week consisted of ice cream, banana & white bread!).

Brushing is quite a challenge (and very time consuming). My current routine consists of:

1) 2 minutes of electric tootbrush – Philips Sonicare (30 seconds on each quadrant) with Colgate Total

2) Use the thin end of a double ended brush (dipped into a little tooth paste) which my dentist gave me to get in between the wire and in and around the brackets

3) Mop up the tooth paste with the other end of the brush (looks like a normal tooth brush!)

4) Floss (bottom teeth only at the moment.. need to figure out an easy way of doing the top)

5) Mouth Wash

I do this morning and night plus if I get chance, I brush after lunch too (a mini bottle of mouth wash goes with me everywhere just in case!). I’m hoping it will get quicker as I become a pro!

Yesterday I had my first orthodontics visit (well when it comes to treatment anyway).

Because I was having ceramics on top and bottom (which apparently is quite unusual), they had to order in another set which meant I only had my top ones put on. I also can’t have traditional brackets on my back teeth so apparently I’ll have a metal ring put around them but that won’t go in until next time.

So basically he put on my top brackets (excluding my back teeth) and put a white wire through. The whole process was painless (with the exception of the impressions but I can cope with that!) and took about 30 minutes. I was told to avoid eating hard food without chopping it up into little pieces and to use mouth wash or water after meals if i couldn’t clean them. Other than that it was all over pretty quickly. I didn’t experience any pain afterwards although it obviously felt a bit weird but the brackets are not as sharp as I expected and so far I havn’t used any of the wax they have given me.

As I’m writing this blog, i have to say I am starting to get some pain (like a pushing sensation on my front teeth) but i don’t think that is helped by the fact that my front bridge is still connected. My teeth are also very tender today. It is quite painful to eat so I am sticking to soft foods for now (banana sandwiches all the way!).

So… this is the first post to my website. Today (Wednesday 8th September) is the day when I got my fixed braces fitted.

To give you a little bit of background, my teeth were pretty much perfect until I was about 9 years old when I fell over and cracked my front tooth on a concrete swimming pool (ouch!).

From this point on things went from bad to worse when it came to my teeth. I can’t quite remember what order everything happened in but basically I made numerous trips to Eastman’s Dental Hospital in London, had fixed braces, head gear (which I had to wear to school… that’s just mean!) and a false tooth to replace my front one which eventually went hollow and had to be taken out and then finally a bridge (which I still have in to this day – 14 years later.. not sure they are supposed to last that long but I’m not complaining!).

That was between the age of 10 and 18. Basically none of the orthodontic treatment really seemed to work when I was younger. Not really sure why.. It’s all a blur to be honest. All I remember is the dentist saying to me that I would need to get my jaw broken if I didn’t want  my teeth to stick out. I remember thinking.. “isn’t that a bit drastic??!”. Anyhow, as you can imagine at the age of 16 that wasn’t going to be on my top 10 things to do.. not even top 100!

So here I am 16 years later, still with teeth which I hate and finally deciding that I want to do something about it.

My dentist/orthodontist suggested that my best option in terms of fixing my bite and straightening my teeth, was to have orthodontics followed by jaw surgery therefore I was referred to the hospital in Watford to see a consultant. The consultant explained what would be involved and mentioned that my profile would change which scared me a bit (actually quite alot!). This option soon became a step too far…..

The consultant sent me home to ‘think about it’ and after a number of sleepless nights, I finally made the decision that metal braces and jaw surgery was too drastic and I really didn’t want to go 2 years with metal braces (I know I’m vain!!)

When I went back for my follow up appointment I told the consultant that I had made the decision not to have the treatment which they recommended and he was very understanding. I also asked him if there were any other options which he could suggest after which he examined me and wrote back to my dentist to recommend a partial solution.

That pretty much brings me up to date.. My treatment plan is basically fixed braces (ceramic) on top and bottom (because my overbite is so large there is low risk of the top teeth chipping from the ceramics on the bottom teeth). I have been told 12 to 18 months although he is hopeful for 12 months, during which I will need to have some teeth shaved down to make room for them to move back and I will have a temporary false tooth attached to replace my bridge whilst the treatment takes place.

Once the orthodontics has finished, I’ll be given a new shiny bridge, have my teeth whitened and have permanent retainers (because my jaw doesn’t sit properly meaning they will relapse). The total cost is £5k.

Here are a couple of photo’s of my before profile…

I’m planning on posting updated pictures after every adjustment (I think they are every 6 weeks) so you will hopefully be able to see the progress.

I’ll also post any problems, solutions etc that I find along the way. I have been referring to lots of blogs in the run up to getting my brace fitted so I hope to return the favour by giving as much useful info as possible. If you have any questions.. just let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Anyway.. I hope this insight to my dental history has not been too boring.. Watch this space for further updates!

TTFN….