Like many others, I so vividly remember my first orthodontist visit. I remember my mom coming to get me out of school, sitting in the waiting room and flipping through the binders of before and after photos, then having X-rays taken and molds made. Next I remember being ushered into the doctor's office and hearing that I, indeed, would benefit from orthodontic treatment. The problem is, for some reason or another, my parents just never took the next step. Almost 18 years have passed since that day and I have hated my smile ever since. It's not a particularly bad smile, but I have a few teeth here and there that just aren't where they're supposed to be. It's enough to make me self concious in social settings and especially when friends and family start bringing out their cameras.
Now that I'm about to turn 30 *gasp*, I've decided to just put on my big girl undies and actually do something about my teeth. So at the ripe age of 29, I took the plunge and started down the path towards bracedom.
Back in December I did my homework and found a highly respected orthodontist just down the road from our house. I had my initial consultation and felt very welcomed by his staff and had a lot of faith in the treatment plan he described to me. He was ready to start then, but wanted me to have a cleaning and checkup from my dentist first. My dentist got me in the following day (Wednesday) and I called my orthodontist back and scheduled the braces to go on Thursday. It all seemed like it was happening so fast, but I was excited. That was until my dental appointment the following day when I was told I had a small cavity, a rather large cavity that would most likely need a root canal, and some gum issues that would set me back another 6 months. To say I was floored would be an understatement. I always thought I took pretty good care of my teeth and gums and I had JUST had another appointment a few months before and just could not believe so much could change in such little time.
After I was done sulking, I called my orthodontist's office to put the whole plan on hiatus for the time being. I explained the problems and was quite impressed when they decided to call up my dentist's office directly and put together a treatment plan with them. I now felt like I had a whole team of experts working together to get me a good smile.
I was put on a perio mouthwash for my gum issues and had another appointment to fill the smaller cavity and explore the larger one. I really lucked out and am very fortunate that the cavity, though large, had not made it to the root yet so I got away with just a filling. I then had another appointment in January to check on the progress with my gums and was very pleased to be given the all clear to start orthodontic treatment. I was excited to finally be getting my teeth straightened, but the really great news in all of this was that we weren't going to lose the money my husband had set aside for my braces in his 2009 flex spending account at work. I had been racking my brain trying to think of all the eligible items we could purchase to use up the rest of our balance, but I really just couldn't justify spending $1000 on first aid kits. How exciting to find out the money would actually be going toward my teeth as we had intended!
Fast forward a couple weeks to now. I have an appointment with my orthodontist in the morning and I don't know exactly what to expect. I'm a planner by nature so I always lik to know what I'm getting into. I think I'll be getting my braces on tomorrow, but there has been no mention of spacers yet so I'm not exactly sure. Just in case, though, since I plan on having clear brackets on top, I spent the weekend bidding ado to some of my favorite foods in which I will no longer be able to partake in. So far, I've said my goodbyes to BBQ, pizza, turtle sundaes, and red wine and I have a final soiree scheduled tonight with chicken tikka masal. I've heard the curry has quite the powerful staining ability on those clear ligatures so this will be our last dance for quite some time.
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