Brace yourself

Today, we take a look at the floss-ophy of orthodontics. 

Do you know what my favorite animal is? Make a guess…

If you guess the Molar-bear, then you’re correct. I am also an enamel rights activist.

I’m so sorry…I couldn’t stop myself from incorporating these teeth puns into this blog. Today we’re talking about braces, in particular, my recent experience with them.

My first dentist appointment was at the age of 12…and I really should have gotten braces back then itself, but the dentist in New Delhi told my parents that there really was no need for it…My second dentist appointment was at the age of 15. And one doesn’t need to be a dentist to tell you that that’s just too much of a gap…

Now, I’ll save you all the back and forth trips to go collect scans and x-rays and consulting the dentist. In short, my teeth weren’t touching and therefore chewing had become really hard for me, and I didn’t realize that because I simply thought that I chewed slowly out of habit. Second, two of my teeth were still milk teeth :) and because they hadn’t fallen in time, my permanent teeth went a different direction, “a road less travelled”. My lower left premolar decided to grow inwards into my mouth, at a 45 degree angle while my left upper canine, another legend, decided not to come down at all, instead being parallel to the roof of my mouth and being directly in front of my sinus. LIKE DUDE, THAT AIN’T WHERE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE GROWING!

It’s called an impacted canine, and as scary as it sounds, its actually not all that uncommon, its just that my case is more complicated than most. 

I’ll be honest here, I’m not very happy with the x-ray. It does’t do justice to my jaw line, it’s much sharper than that^

Oh well, this meant that I had to get braces and also, keep taking scans every year to see how my canine is growing and whether I’ll have to get it removed…

For braces, after going to 3 different clinics, we finally decided to go with Rex Medical Center as we trusted that dentist the most and also because we were satisfied with the facilities. The whole treatment came at around nine grand, with the braces being two grand and the rest being the cost of the follow ups.

We decided to go with normal metal braces instead of Invisalign…and after getting a tooth removed I got the braces.

I’ll be honest I felt genuinely betrayed that none of my friends had told me how much it would hurt. For one, you have to keep your mouth open for 2 hours while the dentist uses a light activated cement and fixes the metal bracket onto the teeth, then he fills two molars on the upper jaw with cement to prevent my teeth from touching each other. And as a cherry on top, there was a metal wire attached to all the braces with an elastic.

NOW LET ME TELL YOU WHAT THAT MEANS FOR THE FIRST WEEK. ONE, you can’t chew properly, its awful, you’re surviving off of milkshakes, ice-cream and baby food. This meant that khichdi and curd rice was the way to go…and since I can’t survive off that, my mom had to grind the roti with the subji and give me an almost chewed looking version of the same food which usually looks delicious.  That means, no normal chewing and a lot of pain for the while it takes you to adapt. 

But that may be manageable for lots of people, so lets move on to my greater pain. TWO, THE BRACES AND WIRE HURT! Two days into the treatment, my cheeks were all cut up with the wire and metal scratching on the inner surface, my tongue was cut and my lips were cut and had become bigger (to be fair, they looked bigger more because of them being pushed outwards by the braces, but they still hurt real bad). Oh, and because I have great friends and team-mates (mainly Saatvik), they made me speak a lot which is exactly what I was trying to avoid. That adds to the pain and wile you’re talking randomly your cheek will get caught on one of the braces and then you’ll feel your skin tear. 

This also changed the shape of my face, in an awkward way, making my lower jaw come a lot more forward than usual. I would also wake up and see my spit on my pillow because my lips weren’t properly shut due to the jaws being separated by the cement.

And brushing hurt too, and to add to that, I was (technically still am) supposed to brush 4 times daily (morning, after breakfast, after lunch and after dinner). I bled from my gums for the first time and I panicked. It wasn’t a good experience…

Now, to all my suffering and agony, the advice I was given was to push through the pain and deal with it (thanks Anoushcka for being especially sympathetic asking me to stop whining).

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Two weeks in: I have none of those problems. The insides of my cheeks have become tougher so I don’t even feel the braces, I can somewhat eat ok, in a different way though, and I’ve gotten used to the pain. And maybe….just maybe…I over exaggerated how bad it was. But still, If possible, go for Invisalign, there are lots of benefits for it, like being able to remove them while eating and being able to eat normally, and not having to worry about cuts and brushing issues. (Its just more expensive)

Well, thank you for reading my blog. May the Floss be with you.