Treatment resumed... State of affairs

My treatment had no progress for 2 years (my fault) but I finally made the decision to continue it and finalize it. For that I have a new orthodontist (local) but I had to go also to get my upper brackets & powerchain removed.

I wanted it so because a couple of months ago I bit a piece of bacon that had a bone (I didn't know) and that stroke the wire. It caused the wire to misadjust and it was changing my bite. As a result I was getting some pains in my teeth and jaw.

So the orthodontist temporarily removed them, as it turned out I also had 2 loose brackets. The pain is now gone.

So, I had a new set of Panoramic and Cephalo-something XRays done ($40) to reassess my current situation. Also had my teeth cleaned ($30) which as usual was a bit painful but it is over with. For a week already I have been enjoying a partial sense of freedom, no brackets on my upper teeth!!! it feels wonderful! it feels so smooth! it is sooooo easy to clean and brush! it is just amazing!!!!

But that won't last long, as I mentioned it was only a temporary measure. I am resuming treatment this week ($900 downpayment) because:

• My upper teeth are not yet properly aligned with the bottom teeth (see photo)
• The space left by the premolar (2) extractions needs to be closed.
• My periodontist needs my lower teeth to also be pulled back a little bit so that I can have yet another gum implant to cover the root of one of my front lower teeth which is very much exposed (can see on the photo as well).

So, I think that in the next appointment they will probably be removing the lower brackets, clean up the left over glue and make a model of my mouth to play with. Then as part of the new treatment the orthodontist will do something I hoped would never happen: I will have two (2) micro screws installed between the two molars behind the premolars so that it serves as anchor to pull the front teeth back without moving the back molars forwards. The purpose is that I would end up with with Class 1 bite instead of a Class 2.

Micro screws? yes, horrible!!! a couple of years ago I saw videos of it on YouTube and considered myself lucky that was not part of my treatment. WRONG!!!! well, probably because I opted NOT to have orthognatic surgery. BTW this orthodontist says I don't need that, that I could have a good bite without the trauma of such surgery.

I will also get a whole new set of brackets installed, my old Damon system is going down the toilet because they don't use that here. So now I will have to deal with rubbers and the like. The treatment is going to cost me $3,000 (three thousand!!!) so there goes some of the things I wanted to have because now the orthodontic budget had to be expanded :-(

I haven't been the luckiest guy with orthodontics I must say....

• Several of the orthodontists I saw said I needed orthognatic surgery.
• According to Damon system information premolar extractions are almost never required. Well, wrong! I had to have two removed two years ago. I was not happy about that.
• I needed some surgery on my mouth to remove some gum that was separating my upper two front teeth. Very painful but at least now my teeth are together and kind of straight,
• I blew up some of my gum at the root of my lower front tooth, needing periodontic treatment ($400) and awaiting another to cover the exposed root.
• So far 5 loose brackets. 
• Now the micro screws!

As for the screws, for what I read they do that so that the pulling is done from within the mouth instead of using the external headgear. Yes, headgear looks ridiculous and annoying to wear in public but dental treatment is traumatic to me, quite frankly I would rather be ashamed of having to wear a headgear than have to go through the trauma, pain and extra care needed by having two micro screws perforating my gum and jaw.

Back to the chair of torment

The two year pause in my orthodontic treatment has come to an end. As I indicated in my previous post I have some periodontal issues aggravated by the orthodontic treatment that need to be addressed.

Also, being in a new relationship for about a year I became motivated again to give an end (a happy one we hope) to my orthodontic treatment. I am really tired of wearing braces. It has been nearly 2 years since my premolars where extracted without any movement on upper teeth (lower are aligned already) and gosh, I think about 6 years since I got the brackets installed (01 April 2006), way too long!!!

I finally got in the mood and courage to resume treatment and visited my orthodontist. As usual the news weren't good, well, I have no cavities which is good news :-)

Basically, I have to get all X-Rays done again to check the state of affairs, not good for my thyroid glands... They are going to remove all my brackets (Damon) because they don't use that system and don't like it much for rotations :-(

So I will get a whole new set of tiny brackets and together with the micro implants and the retention stuff it comes down to another $3,000 !!! gosh! why wasn't I born with a perfect smile? I wish I could spend all that money into something else!

The expense is not the only bad news either... In order to pull the upper teeth that are in front of the premolar gaps backwards to align with my lower teeth, they will install two micro implants on my upper jaw between the root of two molars. These micro implants (micro screws) on each side of my upper jaw will be used to pull the teeth back without moving the molars in the back to the front so that the premolar gap is closed entirely by the teeth in front of the extracted premolars. Hopefully I will not have a class-2 byte.

More bad news... the treatment will last another 21 months!!! I'm going to go crazy, more than 5 years on brackets, when will I get to brush my teeth like everybody does? I hope all of this expense and pain is worth it, I want to keep all the teeth I currently have and once and for all feel confident about my smile.

Periodontal treatment...

Sorry it has been a long time since my last update. It has been nearly two years since I had my upper premolars extracted in Colombia. I became very demotivated due to the change from single jaw to double jaw surgery. I didn't know whether to abort the whole treatment or what and complicated with the breakup with my then (Colombian) girlfriend.

After extraction I briefly explored surgery in Panama but I didn't like what I heard, double jaw surgery and not even that pain and torment would close up the space left by the extraction of my two premolars! I felt as if my sane premolars had been amputated. I simply stopped caring.

Now nearly two (2) years after I have decided to resume orthodontic treatment. I am simply tired of braces and apparently the only way is to go back to the chair of torment again. I simply want to have those gaps closed.

Unfortunately this past 8 months I had a problem with the root of my lower front tooth getting exposed. The gums where very thin there and a pizza crust caused an injury that was made worse by brushing. Then I am told that orthodontic treatment ALSO causes gum recession!

Back in June of this year (2012) I had a small (1+ hour) surgery to have a gum implant to prevent further recession of my gums below my lower front teeth. I didn't have pain during the surgery, not even anxiety (I was given a pill for that) but right after it the burning sensation & pain began. Thanks God there was strong pain killer for post-op. But the next few weeks were a bit of a torment.

A week later I had the stitches removed, then a follow up a month afterwards and all was well. Except the implant was not to cover the exposed the root but to prevent further recession.

A few weeks ago I had another visit to the dentist & periodontist to seek covering the exposed root. However, he told me that for that the lower front teeth need some repositioning for that treatment to be successful and was advised to resume orthodontic treatment so that they could coordinate between them to have treatment completed and also treat my periodontic complication.