I finally have my braces on! It's been 3 days, and I still cannot believe I actually did it.
The bonding process was a breeze. My dentist was chatting with me while he did the entire process, and I swear I didn't know it was done until he suddenly gave me a mirror to look at myself. There was no pain, however, the bonding agent tasted extremely funky and at the end of the process I had these gritty layer on my teeth and lips which went off after rinsing. When the bands (HOT PINK!) went on, I felt like each toot was squeezed for a moment, it felt slightly uncomfortable.
I was taught how to brush & floss my teeth, and my dentist sent me home with a "The pain will begin in 2 hours. GOOD LUCK!! HAHAHA." -.-
Lucky (or unlucky) for me, the pain only began 4 hours later, and my gosh, it was more itchy than pain. I felt like there was an hollow itch in every single tooth and there was no way I could cure it other than eating cold stuff or applying pressure on my gums. It was so annoying I had the extreme urge to pluck out my braces, but managed to control myself with the thought of the money that went into it. It became so unbearable I eventually went to bed early to sleep the discomfort away. To be honest, I would rather it be plain pain (read aloud) than feeling tingly and itchy. ARGHHH...
Here's my experience for the first 3 days of having braces..
Day 1: The entire day I felt like I had Lego bricks in my mouth because the brackets were so rough. I was able to eat dinner without problem because the discomfort only happened after dinner time. Food kept getting stuck in all the spaces in my mouth and my tongue is unable to reach some of the areas so I had to rinse like 10 times after finishing my meal. It was really troublesome and eventually I had to brush my teeth to get all the food out. Pain/itch kicked in after 4 hours and I had to keep myself occupied with other things so I can ignore the extreme discomfort. It got so unbearable I was tempted to eat panadol/pain killer but decided that if I cannot tolerate this then I won't be able to get through the other days. Eventually, I slept my misery away.
Day 2: Throughout the night, I was awaken everytime my upper row of teeth accidentally clank with my lower row of teeth, because it hurt sooooo badly, like a sudden electric shock or maybe the pain of eating icecream with sensitive teeth x 10 times worse. Woke up in the morning with extremely dry lips and I found it hard to open my mouth because my inner lips were stuck to the brackets. My teeth were sore but it was not as uncomfortable as the first day. The itch went away, but I was unable to eat any kind of solid food because my teeth refuse to chew. However, I was well enough to head out on a date with the boyfriend, but I had trouble speaking because I had a lisp. Even smiling felt extremely awkward to me because my lips cannot seem to smoothly come back into its default position and I have to do a pouty action to get the lips to close together. It was so annoying and I felt damn unsightly everytime I did that action. But I cannot help it! Need to ditch this bad habit before it becomes permanent. My braces made me talk a lot lesser than usual and most of the time the boyfriend was speaking while I just nod away. Had soupy rice for dinner and rinsing in the public is so troublesome especially when the public toilets are dirty. It makes me hesitate putting tap water into my mouth because the water doesn't feel clean. I secretly rinsed my mouth with some green tea (Ops!). By the end of the day I was eating ham and stuffing myself with seaweed. I think I've started to get used to having braces.
Day 3: I woke up forgetting I even had braces on! It takes me a lot lesser time to brush and floss my teeth as compared to Day 1. I noticed that I've gotten my first ever ulcer after getting braces, had my first attempt of using wax to cover the bracket that was affecting my ulcer. The wax smelled and tasted like strawberry bubblegum! Thank you, dentist! I no longer felt any itch or pain, unless I bite down really hard on my teeth which will result in some soreness. I still cannot speak properly and its annoying the hell out of me! Please tell me it'll go away in time.. Still on soft food diet, but I can chew a lot better now and it's become a habit to rinse after every meal. I am determined not to let my ceramic braces stain!
Day 4: I had a problem when I was eating my breakfast. Because my teeth have shifted, there were excess wires protruding at the back of my right cheek. The wire kept digging into my cheek everytime I tried to chew with my back teeth, and let me tell you, it hurts like MAD. It feels like I have injections over and over again at the back of my cheek. I decided to use wax to cover the excess wire but because it is located far to the back of my mouth it was really hard for me to see where to place the wax. In addition, the wax will not stick if the area is wet, and hence, I had to use a tissue to dry the area and place the wax. With all that saliva, it is honestly quite challenging. I no longer bother taking out the wax when I am eating, because it is too troublesome to put a new piece of wax back again. However, the thought of eating the wax scares me, so I kept checking to make sure that the wax on my bottom front teeth and back teeth are still intact. Besides the protruding wire, my front teeth have become less sensitive and sore, and I can gently chew on them now, which is good. This braces have restricted my diet and I was watching some cooking channel on Youtube when I felt like crying because I seriously crave marshmallows and popcorn. (Sniff sniff) Hopefully I can enjoy those two soon, after my teeth completely gets used to the shifting.
Comparison of my teeth before braces VS 1 week with braces under the cut!
WARNING! Unsightly pictures below..