Orthodontic treatment - 2nd & 3rd adjustments

Orthodontic Treatment - 2nd & 3rd adjustments

I have been a bit (well OK, very) slow in updating on my treatment despite regular nags of encouragement from my wife.  It is fair to say that progress is slow and there didn't seem to be much to write about.  I'm not known for wasting words so I've been silent for a while.

I have my 4th adjustment in a few weeks and so decided that a quick post was in order to bring everything up to date.

In April I moved up to a 18/25 Niti wire on the top and a 016 Stainless steel on the lower arch.  The idea is that the upper wire will open my arch more and level my right hand teeth.  The stainless steel wire is apparently more rigid than Niti and so will open up the lower arch to match the upper arch.  The round wire allows force to be applied to move the teeth both outwards (widening the arch) but also laterally (to continue to close the extraction gaps) without applying the force that effectively tips your teeth forward.  Because of the gaps I still have powerchain LL7-7.  The main drawback of this is a) it seems to attract food and so you get more food stuck in the brace b) it discolours which the pearl ligatures don't seem to.  Its not a big issue since you can rarely see my lower teeth.

  You can see where the top archwire dips from my UR canine onwards which is the cause of my continued inability to get my bite together.

The lower arch is progressing nicely, closing up the gaps, but its slow work.  All my teeth were a bit tender for a couple of days but nothing serious.


In May I was back again for my 3rd adjustment.  The company running my orthodontic practice was sold to a large corporate at the beginning of April and having completed the handover this was my first appointment as a genuine 100% patient (have I mentioned that I was the Finance Director for the group of practices I attend?).  It was an interesting perspective.  I'd never felt particularly stressed before when attending appointments but it was noticeably more relaxed being just a patient and not being involved in any of the general hustle and bustle that is a feature of a busy mixed NHS / private practice.

I was still having difficulty with my bite so I asked how long it would take for this to correct.  You quickly get used to having brackets and wires on and you hardly notice them but I'm getting really impatient for my bite to correct so that I can eat with confidence again.

The news was not what I wanted, 4-6 months!  I'm hoping it will fly by (at the time of writing one month has already passed).  I shouldn't be surprised really, what took a split second to disrupt in my accident took several years to settle down to a manageable state so properly correcting and repairing the damage isn't going to be quick.

Darren decided to keep the same wire on the bottom as it was still working well and changed to top to a 19/25 Niti.  Again, powerchain LL7-7.

Its odd that you don't feel the pressure the wire exerts day to day and when you go into the surgery you can't feel any pressure at all.  Then they take the wire out, to either change or replace with new ligs, and you can suddenly tell the difference and miss the control, all your teeth feel loose.  When the ligs go back on everything feels tightly held in place again.  By the next day you can't feel it again.

You can see the wire still dipping ,y upper right arch and the molars are clashing which is preventing my bite being functional. It changes day to day but this was a particularly bad day as you can see!

What I'm surprised by is the amount of staining on my teeth that has accumulated.  This definitely isn't from lack of cleaning - between inter dental brushed, long bristled brushes for the bracket side of my teeth and around the brackets and a standard brush for the tops and back cleaning is not a 2 minute job twice a day! I'm sure it will all polish out once I have the brackets off finally but that could be 12 months from now.

As I'm more used to having brackets and wire now I alternate between a standard sensitive / whitening toothpaste and the specialist Vitis Orthodontic toothpaste.

Lower arch just closing the gaps slowly.

Patience has never been my strong point but I'm getting more impatient with this now and want to see some improvement in my bite but I must persevere.  You can't rush these things (well you can but I've seen photos of the results - not pretty and require more serious dental intervention to repair).

If you missed the last instalment then you can find it here.  Orthodontic treatment - first adjustment

If you want to go back to the start then its here.   Orthodontic Treatment - the first step on a long journey

Those years at Aardman must have rubbed off!

Many years ago I was given something called a "Magic Tree".  The premise was that you stood the cardboard shape in a shallow tray and poured the sachet of clear liquid into the tray.  The liquid soaked up into the cardboard and then as it dried (over the space of several hours) it formed crystals and also absorbed colour from dye impregnated into the cardboard.  Very clever and interesting to a scientist but not magic.  ;-)

I'd not seen them for years until my Mother-in-law gave me one for Christmas.  I was going to send her a photo of it to say thank you but then I had a better idea.....how about a time lapse movie of it developing!

I was, at this time, working as the Financial Controller of Aardman Animations, the company behind animation classics such as Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run.  I obviously didn't get too involved in the creative side of the business but some of it must have rubbed off.

Christmas Tree
The model she gave me was a Christmas tree.  A fairly simple affair, bauble chain and star on the top.  My camera was a simple Casio digital compact.  I set it up on a table top tripod and had to manually expose each shot.  I started every 5 minutes but i t was developing quite fast so I increased it to every 3 minutes.  As it slowed down I changed this to every 4 minutes then back to 5.  In the end I took 217 frames.

I didnt' have any fancy video production software so I simply used Movie Maker.  The results were pretty good but were lacking something, a soundtrack.

I couldn't decide what sort of music to use so I created two.  I had to set the frame rate differently for each so that I could spread the shots across the whole piece of music.  I quickly realised that I didnt' have enough shots to make a smooth animation but my primary concern had been either the battery running out on the camera or running out of space on the SD card.  I could change neither without moving he camera and removing the tripod so it was a one shot deal.

Despite this I think the results weren't bad for a first attempt.

So impressed was the MIL that the next year she gave me something a little more ambitious, a mountain scene.  Again I had the same equipment and recording limitations but confidently set off at a frame every 6 minutes.  I soon reduced this to 5 minutes once the initial soak had passed.  As the trees developed , however, progress slowed again and I stretched it out to every 10 minutes.  I continued this until 10.30 pm. (I had started at 9.30am!)  I felt I had to go to bed so I left it overnight and took a final picture in the morning when everything had dried out.

There was such a difference between the penultimate and last shots that I had to find a way of making a feature out of it rather than trying to smooth it over.  I hope you like what I did.  ;-)  This animation is made up of 121 frames.

All was quiet for a couple of years and then I received another mountain scene.  I had by now upgraded to a Nikon D5000 and had a mains power supply.  This had the added benefit of having a facility to leave it running and it would automatically take a picture at a preset interval.  This was going to be a lot less labour intensive than previous projects where I had to sit and take a picture every few minutes myself.

I also tried to learn from my mistakes and turned the heating up so that it wouldn't take overnight for it to develop fully.

I set the timer to take a frame every 1 minute.  I had a massive memory card in and mains power so wasn't concerned about running out of either.  In the end I had 2055 frames and a different take on the musical accompaniment.  Enjoy!

Orthodontic treatment - second adjustment

Already I'm feeling an old hand at this brace malarkey.  I've had them for almost three months and apart from the wire pokeing out of the lower buccal tubes and a small amount of discomfort when eating I've had practically no trouble with them.  At Christmas the 15-18 month treatment estimate seemed like a lifetime but now its feeling more manageable.

Middle of March and its time for my second adjustment.  Its fairly routine.  Quick check on how its going, inspection and then a change of wires.  I've gone up to a 16/22 Niti on the top as its apparently time to start opening out the top arch and and 0.016 Niti on the bottom as they are pretty straight now.  Power chain LL7-7 to pull the lower teeth back and close the extraction gaps now that the lower canines are standing up.

Two things are noticable from the latest photos.  The first is that my upper arch seems a lot flatter on the right (left as you look at the picture).  I must check with Darren why this is but it might be as a result of me face-planting the Mendips as this is the side that took the brunt of my landing.

Secondly, the obvious gap between top and bottom arches.  You migth assume that this is jsut the way I'm smiling, slightly open mouthed, but actually this is currently as close as I can get my front teeth.  My rear molars are clamped tight together.  Darren tells me that the L7s on both sides (molar before your wisdon teeth) have tipped up slightly due to the previous power chain pulling on them to straighten the canines.  Its likely that next visit he will have to bond up my L8s (wisdom teeth) in order to straighten this out.

It makes biting anything very difficult and so eating in public somthing to be avoided unless I can use a knife and fork.

My molars were quite sore for a few days after the appointment but all back to normal now.

If you missed my last instalment you can read it here.  Orthodontic Treatment - first adjustment

Orthodontic treatment - first adjustment

Its taken a while to get around to writing about my 2nd appointment which was in January.  This is the first time I'd have had an adjustment so it was still relatively new ground.

Having abstained from anything that might stain the ligatures (you are given quite a list of food and drink to avoid) I decided that since they were gong to be changed anyway I would treat myself to a curry.  Horror stories abound as to how this will ruin the look of your braces but I knew I'd only have to live with them for a couple of days.

I'd not been avoiding tea and coffee (that would be a step too far for me!) and so a small amount  of staining was inevitable but curry was reported to be one of the biggest potential dangers.

I'm not a lover of searingly hot curies but I do like them to be tasty rather than creamy.  Hence my curry of choice for this experiment was a Chicken Jalfrezi.  This threatened to be doubly bad as cooked tomato is also on the list of serious stainers.

I was pleasantly surprised that the damage was minimal.

Apologies for the curry remnants still stuck in the brace (these went once I'd brushed) but you can see that apart from a small amount of yellowing I got away unscathed.  The worst affected was the power chain (both sides between lower 3 & 5) which went quite yellow.

Overall, it doesn't look too bad until you compare it with the new ligs lower down.

This was a shop purchased ready meal curry and, since I've another appointment this week to have my second adjustment, I've recently had a proper restaurant takeaway Chicken balti.  As well as being much nicer it also turned everything a day-glo yellow for 24 hours before subsiding to a similar residual stain.

Anyhow, my opinion is to not worry too much about the food stains, they aren't as bad or as noticeable as you fear when you contemplate a year without your favourite foods.

So, in late January I had my first adjustment.  "Adjustment" conjures up images of tightening and moving etc but in reality all they do is have a look at how its going and change the arch wire for a different size, or in the case of my lower arch, refit the same wire with new ligs and power chain.

I'd been in for a quick 5 minute "emergency appointment" to have the lower wire trimmed as it was sticking out of the back and the end was incredibly sharp and uncomfortable.  Literally a 2 minute procedure and instant relief.

The Vitis orthodontic products had continued to give relief and in stark comparison with my wife's experience I had suffered from no mouth ulcers at all even when teh wire was protruding and catching on my cheek.  I can't guarantee it was etirely down teo the Vitis products but I believe it certainly helped a lot.

My top arch went up to a 0.16 NiTi but, as I say, the lower arch was deemed to be still able to benefit from the original 0.14 NiTi so it was refitted.

It was a new experience as when the first arch wires were fitted I had been completely numb from the extractions 5 minutes before.  It didn't hurt as such but you can feel the orthodontist pulling on the lig to stretch it over the bracket.  Once its done all of your teeth feel tightly tied in, surprisingly even the ones where the wire wasn't changed.

Power chain was again attached LL3-7 to try to stand my canines up and move them back into the space left by the extraction.  I had hoped they'd be there by now but that is just my over optimistic impatience.  Darren wasn't expecting that and said they were on track.

Shiny new ligs and power chain and a new upper arch wire.  All set for another 6 weeks but the difference is showing already.

If you missed the previous blog you can read it here.  Three weeks in and I'm getting used to them

Liebster award

I was tagged to do this post (called the Liebster Award) by Rachel from Things that make me go aagghh!. It is apparently awarded to blogs with less than 200 followers to encourage them to stick with it.

The Rules

1. The nominees must link back to the blogger who awarded them 
2. If you are nominated, write "11 Random Facts" about yourself, then answer the 11 questions the awarder wrote for you 
3. Make up 11 new questions to be answered, then nominate 11 other bloggers to take part

I'm going to be a bit stuck here as I've only just started with this blogging lark, have no followers (although my wife says she reads it - bless her!) and I am only following one other blog so far and don't feel I can involve them although I suspect they have far more than 200 followers.

I'm going to have to post my questions to anyone who reads this and ask them to pick up the baton and keep the momentum going.  Do link back if you decide to do this, I can use all the help I can get and it would be good to find someone new to follow myself.  

11 Random Facts about me...

1. I took up mountain biking a few years back and almost gave it up after a nasty crash.  I'm glad I didn't as I still enjoy it but am a lot more cautious now!
2. I joined the Institute of Advanced Motorists after putting my mothers car into a ditch when 17.  I strongly recommend it to all drivers.
3. Since becoming a Finance Director I've learned more about computers and servers than anything else.
4. I grew up having a dog (cocker spaniel) as a pet and constantly nag my wife to let me have one again.  She says I can when I don't work such long hours.
5. My Great Grandfather held the patent for railway fog signalling lights and was knighted for his part in keeping the London Underground operational during WW II.
6. I'm a hereditary Freeman of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
7. I love curry.  Not too hot but not too mild and creamy.
8. I read Fantasy Fiction to escape reality.  Nothing like dragons and elves to leave the world of accountancy behind!
9. I got married on 18/08/08 - the 8th was already taken at our chosen venue.
10. I want to live in a lighthouse and spend my retirement reading books and walking my dogs.
11. I really dislike the general public.  Most, on the whole, are pretty unpleasant.  There should be some way of culling them so that only reasonable and pleasant people remain...

My questions from Rachel

1. If you were invisible for a day where would you go and what would you do?  I think I would go and find lions, or tigers or Bears and just live amongst them and observe them up close without scaring them or getting eaten.  As well as dogs I love big cats and bears of all varieties.
2. Have you ever Googled yourself and been surprised by what you found?  I don't recall every Googling myself.  Must do that when I've finished this blog.
3. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?  It would be a remote bit of coast, up on a cliff, miles from anywhere.
4. What is the best book you've read?   Hmm.  Tricky to narrow down to one as I tend to read series of books.  Most influential was probably the Dragonlance series as they were the first Fantasy Fiction I tried and was hooked thereafter.
5. What is your favourite film?  Again, tricky to narrow down but I can watch Star Wars over and over, but then its the same for Indiana Jones.
6. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?  That's easy, a Police Dog Handler.  Unfortunately my parents talked me out of it saying I was too short and too shortsighted (there were stricter requirements when I was a kid) and so I became an accountant.
7. What was the last song or album you bought or downloaded?  I rarely buy music so I can't remember what I bought last.  For Christmas I was given Kylie's Abbey Road Recordings and Eva Cassidy's album which are both great.
8. If you could only take three items to a desert island what would you choose? Probably a stack of books, a really comfy chair for my back and a cask of Lagavulin.
9. Do you have any goals you hope to achieve in 2013?  Not really, although I'd like to move house as the local University are doing my head in.
10. What is your most treasured possession?  I suspect that its my wedding ring, soft as that sounds!
11. What three words would you use to describe yourself?  Short, chubby and bald.  No seriously, loyal, taciturn and inquisitive.

Questions for anyone reading this who'd like to take part..

1. What do you think your best attribute is?
2. What would you most like your friends to say about you at your funeral?
3. If you could run your country for a day what would you do?
4. If you could be any animal which would it be and why?
5. If you only had one day to live what would you spend it doing?
6. Do you think its better to be popular or respected?
7. If you could afford not to work, would you still?
8. If you could make it so that everyone believed in the same religion but couldn't choose which one it was, would you?
9. If you had the opportunity to travel to distant planets would you take it?
10. Would you rather be able to fly like a bird or swim like a fish?
11. Do you think humans are really the most intelligent life form on this planet?

I'm hoping that someone is reading this and responds.  I'm waiting and listening....