Category: Bracie Gracie

I didn’t had the sleep I want because I had to wake up earlier today to get to work because I need to get off work early too…to get to the dentist.

I was really sleepy at work, words cannot describe and then I walked to the dentist once I got home. The one hour wait at the dentist didn’t help at all. I was losing my patience already. When I was finally called into the room, the dentist said very good when he saw the progress of my teeth.

I didn’t know exactly what he did except for he’s telling me he’s going to make the retainer and then the braces can be removed. In my head, I was still thinking, the braces will still be there until the retainer is ready…which definitely is not today because it takes time to make the retainer.

He sprayed something on my teeth then placed a short wire across the inner part of my lower front teeth…the nurse glued it or cemented it with a tool that emits light. It was followed by the top row of teeth. With this going on, I still wasn’t sure what the dentist was doing with my teeth.

After that, he removed the arch wire of my braces. Then, he scraped away the brackets with something. It just felt like a tool was crunching away the brackets. It felt a little like my teeth was going to be crunched away too.

Next, he placed two moulds on my teeth, one above, one below…to make a mould for the retainers. I was ready to go by then and still couldn’t believe my braces are gone for good. Then, I realised those wires he just installed for me are fixed retainers which I can’t remove until when it’s ready to be removed. They are not visible as they are hidden behind my teeth. In some way, it feels like I’m without braces but in someway, not entirely yet….but it doesn’t matter because having the braces removed is like 100 years old of burden  evaporating away.

I had to come back in a few days to collect my clear retainer which is to be wore only at night.

When I came home, I looked in the mirror and stared at my teeth. Smiled. Laughed. Grinned.

Truth be told, I’m not used to it.

I deliberately didn’t want to reveal or announce the removal of my braces at work because I wanted to see if anyone noticed it. But I guess I couldn’t help contain the excitement, the colleague sitting next to me asked me the golden question, “How was the visit to the dentist?” I had to answer. 🙂

Brushing is so much easier now, as well as flossing. And because I’ve been brushing after lunch at work for the past 3 years…the habit is stuck with me that even after now that I don’t have braces anymore, I’m still brushing my teeth after lunch. I think I’m going to do just that.

*say cheese, say kimchi!*

I went for another dental appointment today. I was expecting the dentist to fix the retainer for me but there’s still a little gap so this is the final visit before I get my retainers done. I can’t believe it has been 2 years and 11 months…so this braces journey is definitely going to take me 3 years. That’s double the duration my dentist had expected when I first wore braces.

It is so fixed to me that it has become part of my life. Really..if it has been with me for almost 3 years…I think I’m going to feel a bit not used to it without the braces. I was thinking I could show my beautiful set of teeth during the upcoming annual dinner….but it looks like I’m going to just bear with it for a little while more.

My next dental appointment is in 17 days..doctor said this is the last already. He said sorry for taking so long…but I’m so immuned to it, it doesn’t matter anymore. I’d rather wait a little longer than to have my teeth not ready.

It’s going to be a milestone…and I’ll tell you more about it…what it’s like to be brace-less after so long, when I’m there.

I went for my usual monthly visit to the dentist today with no feeling or expectation. The dentist told me to have a tooth extracted to end the misery of my braces episode. I’ve been enduring with the existence of this tooth for a very long time. It’s a very lengthy story and I don’t want to bore you with the details. In short, it currently disrupts the marginal alignment and with it taken out now, I can really see the difference in an instance.

As the dentist told me to have it extracted and he asked if I wanted it to do it today…I ask him if it would take long since it was a big tooth and I thought it wasn’t the normal extraction that would get this big tooth out. Mr.Dentist was so confident, he said it would only take a short while. I was given two shots and it started to get numb. While I was sitting on the chair, I was thinking if I’m not out of my mind. I have never agreed to extract a tooth immediately. Usually I would tell the dentist that I’ll get it extracted during my next visit or on another day because I’ll be thinking of all the horrible things, how to eat, what if I bleed non-stop and all imaginable things I can think of. And, I also needed time to collect courage.

But today, I think I’m drunk or I don’t know…suddenly brave? Hahahah. I agreed to have it taken out because it needs to be done sooner or later anyway and I don’t want to keep thinking about it for the coming days before my next appointment. I’m still biting on that cotton ball as I’m typing this. So far I don’t have any painful feeling yet. Extraction was painless, except you could feel the 2 tingling shots before that but it’s really nothing. Just someone pinching you very hard in a very small way.

Went to the dentist today. I was expecting a tooth extraction but HURRAY THERE WAS NONE TODAY!!

Dentist gave me a power chain. I know…sounds so canggih right? It’s just a super strong elastics to close the gap of my previous extraction. Suddenly I feel that my mouth is full of gadgets. And there’s going to be more added to the current collection next month.

Dentist suggested me to have a mini-screw. I don’t really like the sound of those 2 words. Mini-screw. Eww!

It’s going to be screw that would go through the gum. I have this very protruding molar which is giving me problems. I don’t want to lose it so I think I’m going with the mini-screw which would help to support that molar to move inwards then the dentist can extend my braces so that that molar will join the rest of the teeth. I don’t know if it hurts but I would want to think it hurts. Whether or not it hurts, I don’t really have a choice. So it’s just something I need to do next whether I like it or not.

Then, I might need a mini-implant. This one sounds scarier. Mini-screw will be taken off once the molar is corrected. Implant would mean  permanent because I’m planting a teeth. And thanks to my previous dentist who screwed up by removing my healthy molar…..now I have to do implant for my lower jaw…or else the mini-screw that supports the molar of the upper jaw will be knocking against my gum. I will be cursing my previous dentist until my braces treatment is over. It was supposed to be a much simpler process but because of that molar that was extracted when I was in secondary school, the story has changed.

Anyway, I’m seeing progress with the gap though. It’s still big but I know it’s moving inwards.

God bless Gracie and her teeth!

Finally, the day has come!

I was all prepared for it and actually couldn’t wait for the teeth to be extracted because I don’t see any progress due to the lack of room and space for the teeth to move.

I had 2 of them extracted at 10am today. It’s been 7 hours now and I still don’t feel any pain. A bit surprise about that..because I was expecting some pain. I hope it’s going to be painless even after this. The only painful part is the injection but I wouldn’t really call it painful because it’s like like an ant bite. Then I was asked to leave the room for the gum to get numb while the dentist worked on other patients. So I was nursing with the numbness outside and when I get back in, the dentist helped to do scaling, to clean away my plaques and then extracting my teeth. It was really really fast and I couldn’t believe my teeth is gone without feeling any pain. Wow!

This is how my teeth looks like now. There are 2 gaps at the upper right and upper left jaw in the picture. There’s also a rubber band that is hooked from the 2 teeth towards the back of my lower jaw, to tell the 6 front tooth of mine (grouped together with twisted wire) to move together inward. It may not seem obvious in this picture due to the angle of it but my upper jaw is more protruding than my lower jaw.

This is a close-up picture. Hope it’s not too gross for your liking. hahaha. I will be taking pictures of the gap from time to time to see how long it takes to narrow it.

About 3 weeks ago, a small stretch of the braces wire (in between two teeth) broke and it was lucky that I realised it before I actually swallow that sharp thing. I was chewing on the very tough and chewy suckling pork and after dinner, I was checking my teeth with my tongue and I felt the loosening of the wire and then felt the broken wire.

Macam macam.

I went to the dentist today for my monthly checkup. The dentist changed to a harder wire for me. It’s so hard, even the dentist was having a harder time fixing it on me, stretching and putting it in place with more force than he usually does. I could feel that it’s tighter than the other times, it felt like it’s as though I’m putting on braces for the first time.

After a few hours, I was really beginning to feel the soreness of it. I cannot bite because it hurts. Just picture my teeth as a set of cymbal (the tung tung qiang instrument), when the upper teeth meets the lower teeth, the pain echoes. Just like when you clash the cymbal, it makes a loud noise and then echoes a little and then the sound stops.

I had porridge for 3 meals in a period of 2 days. That also I spend at least half an hour to finish up one bowl of porridge. Brushing teeth is another pain, especially when it comes to brushing the front teeth, both upper and lower jaw.

Although it’s painful this time around as compared to the previous times, I’m happy also because when it’s painful, it means the teeth is moving. So the more painful it is, the faster it moves. I can see some difference now. A few teeth that is caved in, is caving out. Once shy but now braving itself to see the world. Haha.

The doctor told me to be prepared for extraction next month, depending on the progress of my teeth. Another scary process I need to go through but for the sake of my teeth, this is a must-do. Just hope it doesn’t hurt that much.

It has been half a year that I’ve braces. Another year to go. It shouldn’t be too difficult.