#no I just got dental surgery and put in my retainer at night and took it out and found out this evening theres dried blood

[surelyyourejesting]

I think my retainer is stained with blood

from straightened teeth tearing and ripping

through your flesh

from your sharpened canines gnashing into my

jugular

my jaw grinds at night

I think its because your tendons are

between my jaws

I think my retainer is stained with blood

straight yet crooked teeth

[schmergo]

PSA: Wear a retainer

I’ve posted before about getting my wisdom teeth out in January, but I haven’t talked much about my weird recovery period afterward. Now that I’m all better, I thought I’d share my experience.

The actual procedure went startlingly well, given that I was almost 27 years old (most dentists recommend patients get their wisdom teeth out under age 25 so the teeth aren’t as deeply rooted into the bone) and had four impacted wisdom teeth (one very severe) and a minor connective tissue disorder that could complicate things. Props to my amazing oral surgeon. The procedure was only 15 minutes total, they had me on laughing gas and local anaesthetic rather than completely putting me under and it was totally painless, I wasn’t even prescribed pain pills and had next to no pain in my incisions after the third day. I healed quickly, barely had any swelling, only took two days off work, didn’t suffer from any post-surgical complications like dry socket or infections. Everything was going perfectly and I was healing ahead of schedule— until I wasn’t.

The only minor problem I experienced was a common complication called “trismus” or lockjaw. I could barely open my mouth after the procedure. I could barely even eat a spoonful of yogurt. I have a very small mouth and dodgy joints, so it was no surprise. This usually goes away after about a week. Mine took several weeks to totally clear up, and after that, my jaw was super weak from being out of practice- which makes total sense. Eating chewy or crunchy food felt like eating concrete.

Then, I began experiencing a dull, pulsating feeling of pressure above my upper right teeth. Exactly where, I couldn’t say. It was worse when lying down. I chalked it up to post-surgical nerve weirdness or trying to eat food that was too hard to chew and tried to stick to soft, easy to eat food. It didn’t get better. Instead, the pressure turned onto a dull, throbbing ache. I stopped chewing on my right side altogether. My gums became tender and inflamed. I became so preoccupied by the constant pain that I kept obsessively sucking at and poking at my teeth with my tongue, trying to find the source of the pain. A crack? A broken filling? Poking at it made it worse, yet I couldn’t seem to stop.

I went back to my dentist three times in two months, fearing an abscesses tooth (I once had an abscesses baby tooth and this felt similar) but he couldn’t find anything wrong except my swollen gums. He prescribed me a prescription mouthwash. I went to a periodontist to see if I had a gum infection or something. He said my mouth looked healthy. I ran out of my dental insurance for 2019 when I got my wisdom teeth out, so I was paying for all of these visits out of pocket.

I began to lose sleep, and the pain spread to the whole right side of my face. I could no longer lie down on my right side, be kissed on the cheek, eat or drink anything hot or cold, even smile while a breeze was blowing. My face was insanely sensitive. I couldn’t sleep at all without slathering my teeth and gums in Oragel to dull the pain. I was taking two ibuprofen every 4 hours. It was worse than the immediate first few days after getting my wisdom teeth out. It was May, over three months after getting my wisdom teeth out, and it was getting worse, not better. I could still barely chew and not at all on my right side. I was getting despondent and crying all the time.

Finally, I went back to my oral surgeon to make sure I didn’t have a dislocated or fractured jaw or something. He said I looked healthy and my mouth had healed perfectly but noted that I showed signs of clenching my teeth at night, which my dentist had also seen. I knew I clenched my teeth because I’d worn holes into my old retainers but didn’t think it was a big deal.

I used to wear retainers at night religiously after getting braces off because I didn’t want my wisdom teeth to push my teeth out of line when they grew in. After the procedure to remove them, my mouth was too swollen and tender to wear them, and after it had begun to heal, my teeth had shifted too much to wear them comfortably. Plus, the holes I’d worn into it were pretty gross and I figured it was time to retire my retainer after almost ten years.

My oral surgeon went wide eyed and told me to NEVER stop wearing a retainer, not just for aesthetic purposes but for my bite. He told me that my tooth-clenching/grinding had been so bad because I’d stopped wearing my retainer and that my jaw was always feeling tired and weak because I was clenching it so much every night. He urged me to get a new retainer from my dentist ASAP and told me to come back in a month if I still wasn’t better.

I was skeptical, especially because the retainer was $500, but desperate, so I went for it. They even gave it to me half price for $250, only charging me for the top retainer but gave me both!

Within three days, my pain had significantly decreased. Within a month, it was gone. Now that it’s July, my mouth is 100% back to normal. I can eat nuts, apples, bagels, whatever- on both sides of my mouth, without pain.

I know I’ll feel kind of goofy wearing a retainer at night for the rest of my life but it’s a small price to pay. I feel a million percent better. If you’re thinking of ditching your childhood retainer, DON’T, especially after an oral surgery. It can really confuse your poor mouth!

[mylefteyetooth-blog]

Five Weeks to Go

I am a 27-year-old woman who should have had her teeth fixed years ago. The issues I have existed when I was a teenager, when treatment on the NHS would have been free, but I didn’t get them addressed then (in part because my Mum had a terrible experience with braces and she passed on her fear to me), and since growing out of the free NHS option I’ve never been stable or rich enough to get the problem resolved.

Here is the dental issue: with all of my canines, and a couple of my premolars on the top, the baby tooth did not come out naturally, and the adult tooth grew in the wrong place (known as having ‘ectopic eruption’). Over the years, I lost all but one of the baby teeth, with or without intervention, and generally the remaining adult teeth have shifted to be in more or less the right position; most recently, I had the baby premolar pulled out in December 2017, after the tooth started cracking and causing pain when brushing and chewing.

After fixing the immediate issue, my dentist began going over treatment options with me to fix the remaining canine; the adult canine on the left sits so far up in my mouth that it isn’t obvious to most people that it even exists, and it is basically impossible that it would move into the right place on its own. When (and dentists assure me it is when, not if) the baby tooth comes out on its own, I’d be left with a gap near the front of my smile.

This was the first dentist to discuss my options for braces kindly, to take my concerns about cost seriously, and to encourage me in such a way that it finally felt feasible. I had a few more appointments with the Invisalign expert at my normal dental surgery, who was similarly supportive. This took some time, as I had to wait until after Christmas and New Year for the first consultation. It was eventually decided that there would not be enough change possible with the Invisalign Lite available at my regular dentist’s to make that treatment worth the expense, time, and effort, so I was referred to a separate clinic that offers the full Invisalign treatment.

Invisalign, for the uninitiated, are sets of clear(ish) plastic aligners worn over the teeth. They are swapped regularly—usually weekly or fortnightly—and each new set brings the teeth closer to the position that they would occupy if only they’d grown in nice and straight. They may be supported with the use of elastics, in particularly difficult cases, to move the teeth a little further, and may also require the use ‘attachments’ on your teeth made of dental resin to make their grip more secure. The attachments will remain on your teeth while the aligners are out, but will be removed at the end of the treatment course. Treatment length varies (for me, it is predicted to be 12 months).

I finally got an appointment at the new clinic in early May, so around six months after the premolar extraction. The dentist showed me my Clin Checks (the predictions for how my teeth would change with the treatment) and discussed my options. He told me that traditional braces would cost as much as Invisalign, that the results would be little different, and that they would be more restrictive in terms of diet. With that information, it seemed a no-brainer that I would do the Invisalign. The Invisalign will also require fewer appointments, as unlike braces they don’t get adjusted: you just swap out for the next aligner. Given I have to fit in appointments around a full-time job, this was a nice bonus.

I made a down-payment of £390 after the free consultation—£350 for the initial moulding of my teeth etc., and another £40 for a scale and polish prior to starting with the aligners. I have a further £4,125 to pay for the full treatment plan, including the cost of the aligners and the necessary appointments along the way.

At the stage when I made the payment, I didn’t know nearly as much about Invisalign as I feel I should have. I started Googling when I got home, and I found out all sorts of things my dentist didn’t discuss with me before I agreed to the treatment. He didn’t tell me I’d need to wear the aligners for 22 hours a day, and take them out only to eat, with vigorous brushing in between. He didn’t tell me I’d only be able to drink water during this time, and that hot drinks will warp the aligners, so I’ll have to cut out tea. He didn’t tell me that people wearing Invisalign are at increased risk of cavities, as their saliva can’t wash their teeth clean while they are wearing the aligners, so harmful sugars need to be removed thoroughly before the aligners are replaced. He didn’t tell me that I will likely have ‘attachments’ of dental resin placed on several of my teeth to anchor the aligners, and that these can stain if I drink certain things like tea or red wine with the aligners out. He didn’t tell me I’d need retainers after the treatment is complete, which I’ll wear at night for the rest of my life.

He also didn’t tell me when I’ll have my last baby tooth—the left canine, also known as an eye tooth—pulled out, so I hope he has a plan for that.

My next appointment is this Friday, and that will include creating scans of my teeth and taking lots of photos of my current smile, so they can get the aligners made for me. I have done a decent bit of research about Invisalign between my last appointment and this one. I do wish I’d been better informed, but now I am armed with some questions (particularly I’d like to know what my dentist recommends to keep the aligners clean, because I’ve come across contradictory information online). Even knowing everything I know now, I am convinced this is the right choice for me.

I have had a lot of emotional reactions about getting the braces. I feel embarrassed that it took me so long to get the problem fixed. I also feel a sort of vague embarrassment attached to having bad teeth in general, despite the issue having nothing to do with hygiene or anything under my control. I feel frustrated that I didn’t address the issue when I was young enough to get the treatment for free, and that I’ve missed out on years of enjoying my smile. I am appalled with how much it will cost me now; I come from a working class background, and live in an expensive UK city. It has taken me years to build up my savings and I was planning on it all going towards a house deposit. To lose such a big chunk on something that feels cosmetic is galling. My husband is from the US and is more used to paying for medical care, and he has helped me adjust to spending so much. It is a health issue, as well as a cosmetic issue, and I’ve come to accept that. I have felt frightened of the social and professional repercussions of being an adult with braces. Reading how other people my age have dealt with Invisalign has really eased that worry for me, so finally I am at a stage where my main feeling is determination. I will get this taken care of now. I hope I have the willpower to be strict with myself, and that I take careful enough care of my teeth to avoid cavities (I’ve never had one before).

Right now, I am a little anxious about whether my final baby tooth will be extracted during this appointment or not. On Saturday, I am going on vacation to the US, which will include attending a friend’s wedding, and celebrating my own wedding belatedly with friends who live far away. I’d prefer to have my current smile for those events: the baby tooth sits in the normal smile line, so having it extracted will create a gap until the adult tooth is pulled into place. If the baby tooth is extracted this Friday, I’ll just have to put up with it. The dentist told me it will take two weeks to get everything ready for the first aligner to be made, which means that by the time my vacation is over, I should be able to get started on the Invisalign treatment, and my eagerness to get started overrides my worry about my appearance.

Many of the experiences I’ve read about online discuss how the aligners changed food habits, because snacking just isn’t worth it when you need to 1) take out and rinse your aligners; 2) enjoy your snack; 3) brush your teeth, floss your teeth, use mouthwash; 4) refit the aligners. Especially because this eats (ha!) into the two hours a day you are supposedly allowed to have the aligners out, many people cut out snacks entirely. I have already reduced my snacking a lot this year (due to a sudden health kick in January), but I’ve usually allowed myself to be a bit more freedom at the weekends, so I’m expecting some change there. I also normally have a cup of tea twice a day at work, which will obviously need to be eliminated and replaced with water. My normal drink is water, apart from that, so I’m glad I already made that change. Giving up tea, pop, and snacks, all at the same time would have been especially rough.

One other thing about my vacation, with the upcoming food restrictions in mind, is that it will be sort of my last hurrah. While I’m away, I’m going to eat all of my favourite American foods, as often as I like, and I’m going to drink root beer, and I’m going to snack snack snack. I won’t be keeping track on a calorie counter like I do most days; that can wait until I’m back. I’m seeing this trip as my last little burst of freedom, before a year of my teeth being locked up in plastic jail.

I know I’ll put on some weight during this trip, but I reckon that the ‘Invisalign diet’ I’ve read so much about will help me get things back under control. I’m planning to continue my use of a calorie counter during the Invisalign treatment to not only make sure I’m not eating too many calories (as I currently do), but also to help me figure out how many calories I need per meal to feel full until I next plan to eat.

One risk that is not discussed very much in my online reading, but which I am aware of, is the possibility that being strict with my Invisalign may cause me to relapse to my other unhealthy eating habits of skipping meals. I did this a lot as a teenager, and on and off in my early 20s. I have overcome my past issue with calorie counters, no longer obsessing over eating under 500 calories per day for short bursts then reverting to binging, in huge part because of the support of my husband. Hopefully I won’t now replace that with an obsession to keep the retainers in for as long as possible, leading me to skip meals more often. I was never a dangerously low weight as a result of skipping meals, and never kept the habit for longer than a few months at a time, but for those who have recovered from a serious eating disorder, I think Invisalign would be a potentially dangerous option (traditional braces also carry restrictions around food, so could possibly come with many of the same issues).

This is definitely something people need to consider before going ahead with treatment. I’m in a healthy place, both in my eating habits and mentally, so the treatment carries a small and acceptable risk for me. For others, the risk may be much greater and not worth it.

Because reading about other peoples’ experiences has been so valuable to me now, before I’ve had the Invisalign fitted, I have decided to keep a record of my experiences. I’ll also be taking photos of my progress (including some pics with the Invisalign in, because I found this hard to find online and was so curious to see how it would look!). I’ll take the photos regularly, and hopefully side-by-side comparisons will show the differences.

It is so hard to envisage the version of me who will exist at the end of the treatment. I’ve lived with my messed up teeth for so long. I hate some of my wedding photos because you can see that random extra tooth (which is so sad, because it only shows in the pictures where I’m really happy and smiling widely or laughing), and have hated photos of myself for this reason most of my adult life. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high in case the result is not as good as I imagine. I am picturing myself smiling unselfconsciously for the first time at my 29th birthday next July, but I don’t know if that will ever be my reality. One tooth—that’s all I desperately want to fix—and it’s costing me a third of my savings, my daily tea, and a year to do so. The money, the discomfort, the changes to my lifestyle—I hope it is worth it all to get that smile.