Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Christopher Columbus & Tooth Extraction Day!

It is October 12th, the "Hispanic Heritage Day" or in better words the 512th anniversary since Cristobal Colón had sight of this wonderful continent, the Americas.
LateralEncephalogram-Oct2010 Today I had my appt. at 11 A.M. and my “architect” orthodontist examined both the panoramic (all teeth) and the lateral encephalography to re-evaluate. Yes, sad news are as expected: I need extractions of both of my upper bicuspids :’(.
As you know I had decided earlier (variety of reasons) not to go through with orthognathic surgery. During that surgery they would have extracted both bicuspids and made the cut of my upper jaw just there, and move it back. If after that patch up the adjustment was not enough they would have proceeded with lower jaw surgery to advance it a little bit. Ugh, a lot to go through. The make a measurement more like the one shown on the Rx above, my front teeth are at an angle of 126º when the normal angle is 114º so a lot of correction is needed there.
DSC05253 Since there was quite some delay between the removal of bicuspid brackets and actual extractions (2+ months) I felt they had moved forward again (increased angle). Anyway, today the extractions were to be made. First I had anesthetics on both sides, while it took effect I had my cleanup (hygienist), just fine, less pain. Afterwards both bicuspids were extracted, I was very nervous but everything went alright and I suffered no pain. Never in my life had I two extractions in one day! I had some bleeding, especially by the time I got to the hotel I had quite some blood in my mouth but that was natural.
I used the very cold bottles from the hotel fridge (my water bottles) as an ice pack and kept them on both sides nearly the rest of the day. As a result I had no swelling!
After the extractions I still had three archwire sections on my upper jaw, two on the molars behind the bicuspid and one on the 4 front teeth and gaping holes where my bicuspids were “amputated” :( I was worried “oh my God, what have I done! now I have two teeth less!” but well, all in the name of a better (more functional) smile. I used pain killers as instructed by my orthodontist and suffered no pain discomfort.
I was given my two bicuspids :-) and told how to clean them with Oxigenated Water (H2O2). I was hoping to have them both buried with me when I died. Unfortunately that was not so… while cleaning them one of them fell on the sink and was lost forever :’( and I was very upset. Now I am leaving both my heart and a tooth in Medellin.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

when I got mine taken out it only took about 3 months to close the gap, my ortho used a super strong wire and i got my braces off in 1 year

Lord of Wings said...

Well in my case this shall be remembered as a bad day. If my gap was to be closed, the upper teeth will not be aligned with the bottom teeth (class 2 bite) which isn't good. If it was closed by orthognatic surgery then my upper lip would go kind of inwards because that part is already straight. So, I am screwed.