Braces: Days 1 and 2

Day 1: Wednesday June 24th, 2009
Oddly enough, my first full day as a metal mouth had not gone badly at all. After everything I'd read about your first day in braces being extremely painful, the only real pain I felt was pain I used to feel while having Invisalign; the pain of shifting teeth. Like my first night, I was able to eat all of my meals normally with little to no pain at all. For breakfast, I had Eggo Mini Muffin Tops (the chocolate, chocolate chip kind), for lunch Mom and I (she took the day off from work in case I had problems with adjusting to braces) went to Culver's and I was able to eat chicken fingers and fries with ranch dressing and for dinner I had hot wings and Crazy Bread from Little Caesar's. My day was pretty much like normal and I even swam in the pool for a few hours that day because it was extremely hot =]. Only real annoyances were cheek sores and my lips getting caught on the rubber band hooks (thanks metal) and trying to put the rubber bands on. I swear, it was like Invisalign all over again with trying to get a feel for taking things on and off (you haven't lived until you try to get a plastic mold off of your teeth lol). Thankfully, a process that took me two hours to do in the morning took me two minutes by night. I was pretty proud of myself =]. Not much noticeable movement yet but I knew something was taking place because of the soreness. Popped Advil three times that day (morning, before lunch and before bed) to stay on top of the pain.
Braces Countdown: 1 day down, 364 more days to go! =]

Day 2: Thursday June 25th, 2009 (aka the day that MJ and Farrah died, RIP to both of them even if I'm not a fan of either =[)
Day 2 (yesterday) was a lot more difficult pain-wise. Taking my "rubbers" (lol) off before breakfast that morning was excruciating and despite eating the mini muffin tops again for breakfast, my teeth were pretty tender. Being an Invisalign veteran, I'm very familiar with the pain of teeth moving, but that combined with the annoyance of the wires scraping my cheeks and lips was enough to bring me to tears. I ended up staying home from work (well my community service hours for my scholarship) because my hours were from 6:30 (am!) to 3:30 in the afternoon and I knew with it only being day 2 that I would not be able to stay there the whole day, even with Advil. Even though I knew this was the best decision I could have made for myself so that I could truly get adjusted to my braces, this was just the beginning of the emotional roller coaster I felt that day.

In addition to the teeth shifting pain and the wire getting caught on my lip any time I tried to laugh or smile, my cheeks were beginning to get sores from trying to adapt to the braces in my mouth. I would run my tongue across the insides of my cheeks and feel sores like I never felt before. It was like I'd shredded my cheeks to pieces =[. Also, as the braces were trying to conform to my teeth, my lips began to look droopy to the point where my mom told me that my usual happiness wasn't on my face; that she wasn't used to seeing me look pouty (like physically lol). Thankfully, after looking on the metal mouth forum on archwired.com, I realized that this was indeed normal but that made me sad (to match the look on my face). Dino had never said that I would experience outer face changes in addition to my teeth straightening and with smiling and laughing becoming an annoyance I began to really feel emotional and wonder if this was indeed a good route for me to go on. I knew this all had to do with me getting my period soon (it's almost the 4th of July lol) and my lack of Pamprin (I was still taking Advil before each meal) but I was actually beginning to feel like I was now no longer myself. It was this day that made me want to start this blog because writing things down usually made me feel better and it did, but hearing about the deaths of MJ and Farrah all at once after I was done writing my first entries sent me back into my world of sadness and confusion. Also on Thursday night, my mouth now decided that my braces were a food object (despite wearing plastic aligners for 4+ years, go figure) and began producing large amounts of saliva, making it harder to talk and making it feel like my whole mouth was swollen =[. Advil didn't even help before bed, except to make me go to sleep.

However, there were some good things that happened on day 2. I began to notice some amazing movement with my teeth. My two top teeth on the right (your left) side of my mouth, after my two front teeth that had been slightly "gappy" before halting Inivisalign for good on the 4/18/08 disaster were now almost meeting with my bottom teeth to make that side of my smile almost perfect! =] I also got my first food particles stuck in my wires (chicken pieces) and had to dig them out with my "dent-a-pick" (our family's proxy brush), which means that more movement is taking place because as the teeth shift, there's nowhere else for the food to go except in between the teeth. I was also becoming a pro at taking off my rubber bands and putting them on and on this day, I felt as if they were doing their job because they were on for the majority of the day except to eat and brush and the tightness I felt with them made me feel as if my bite was improving. I was also beginning to feel more comfortable with the rubber bands being in my mouth. Eating was also still not a major issue for me (I was actually told by Dino and Assistant Brittany that I wasn't "going to have to live on pudding" lol and that I could eat everything normally, except for really crunchy and chewy things like caramel and nuts, which I don't eat). For lunch I made chicken fries and curly fries and for dinner, my mom brought home Applebee's where I ate boneless buffalo wings with ranch and mashed potatoes with cheese, yum! =] I was also glad to still be drinking my Diet Mountain Dew, even with braces, because that stuff is like a drug for me, if I had to part from it during this experience I probably would've gone into detox lol.
Braces Countdown: Two days down, 363 more to go! =] Next entry... Day 3!