Wednesday 23 August 2017

Nearly 2 years with braces...

Last week Becky had her braces removed....She had nearly two years with them....

In 2014 it was noticed that Becky had one of her teeth missing. The lateral incisor. It's never been there and because it has never been there the front teeth were moving to the left filling the space where the missing tooth should be....


As soon as all of her baby teeth had fallen out treatment started regarding her having braces and a tooth was removed on the right hand side of her mouth to make room for the teeth to move back over and moulds of her mouth and x-rays were taken....

On the 20th of September 2015 she had her braces put on....It was a painless procedure. I blogged about her first 5 Days with Braces....They were hard. There were a lot of tears from Becky. She found it hard to eat and was in pain....The pain only lasted a few days and she was back to eating normally within a week which was good.


After a month we had learned a lot....We had found out which foods were troublesome. Things like mince and anything bitty would get stuck in her braces and she would need extra time to clean her teeth....Becky also found out Popping Candy does get stuck on her braces and will continue to pop until you get every morsel of it off. lol

In November 2015 Becky had her braces tightened for the first time and they added elastic bands to her braces....The bands went from the bottom back tooth to one of the front one's. They are to help with the straightening of the teeth and just looked like tiny loom bands....

They had to be taken off when eating and brushing and the first time she had to take them off and put them back on was lets say challenging....Becky had a complete hissy fit about it and wanted me to do it for her. I said no....Not to be nasty but she had to do it herself or how would she manage when she has her lunch at school....There was shouting from her and tears I remained calm and turned to YouTube for help....She picked up some tricks and soon got the hang of it. By the time she had her braces removed she could put them off and on without even looking in the mirror....

Over the last nearly two years she had two unplanned trips to the dentist because of the braces breaking. One of the hooks which holds the bands came off and they glued it back on and it broke again a couple of weeks later....Since then it was fine!

The times she has had her braces tightened she has been in a little pain for a couple of days afterwards but paracetamol helped....

We have had many arguments about her forgetting to brush her teeth or forgetting to put her bands on. I think at the time she thought I was just being mean but now with her braces off she can see it was worth all those telling's off....

The school were fine with Becky going for her appointments even though she did miss a little school. Only half and hour here or half an hour there....We always tried to get an appointment as early as we could or at the end of the day....When she had her braces tightened she would go and tell her head of year who would make sure the kitchen staff knew she needed something soft to eat for a couple of days and kept her some pasta to one side....

I have just been looking back for photos showing her braces and I can't seem to find any....She always had her mouth shut when posing for photos.....I did get one photo of them before the braces were removed....

Her teeth aren't as yellow as they look. The metal was that colour....lol

So last Monday Becky had her braces removed....On Sunday evening we found ourselves on YouTube looking how braces are removed...lol It is just a case of snipping the wires and Becky said it was totally painless....There is swelling around her gums which will take time to go down but it is said to be quite normal.....


It took Becky a few days to get used to being without braces. She couldn't stop looking at her self in the mirror....She has learned to whistle again, eaten apples, chewing gum, corn on the cob, peanuts and popcorn which was all banned while she had the braces....

She says all the pain which wasn't that bad was worth it for straight teeth....I think it was too....She seems much more confident with her smile already.

On Monday she had one last visit to the orthodontist to get her retainer which she has to wear each night for the next few years to keep her straightened teeth in place....I know it is going to cause arguments because she isn't keen to wear it but she has been told she needs to. Eek! She is talking with a lisp and spitting everywhere with it at the moment....I shouldn't laugh but it's so funny!


2 comments :

  1. I remember my eldest 2 having braces and it is soon time for my youngest two to have them soon. I felt sorry for them at first, I bet it was so strange to eat with. #MMBC

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  2. I had braces to straighten my teeth and I have one piece of advice. My orthodontist glued a permanent metal retainer to the back of my lower teeth to keep them in place. I was offered the same on the top but declined as they said this could be more troublesome. I wish now I had had it done. I wore a removable top retainer for several years until it broke. Now decades later, my lower teeth (with the permanent retainer) are still perfect. My top teeth are still much better than they were originally pre-braces, but no longer perfect as they have moved back somewhat to their original position, not much but enough to be noticeable (to me at least). I would thoroughly recommend getting the permanent retainer glued on top & bottom to stop future movement, otherwise you feel that you endured all the pain of braces and do not have perfect teeth to show for it.

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