The Metal Mouth Chronicles

My Brace Experience Diary

Start: August 10, 2013
Day 0: Had my braces at UDC AsiaWorld Dental Clinic. So far, no pain felt other than the sharp wire that was poking my cheeks. Bought Oral-B orthodontic toothbrush and special floss from Watson for 350+ pesos. Too pricey :(

~I will make a review/experience about the clinic perhaps after I got my retainers. I don't want to put my honest thought about them and get blacklisted from their clinic because of it :P

Day 1: Eat like a lola. Lugaw/goto/sopas all day. Can't chew, can't bite. I cant even bite on breads.  So painful T_T

Day 2: Look at all the foods you can't eat! Woody's face on the picture is similar to mine. It was painful to see mama's cooking knowing that you can't eat them. Lomi and goto kept me alive.

Day 3: My colleague is surprised that my braces doesn't get in the way on how I talk. I think that's a good sign. The downside is the pain is getting worse to the point of me seriously considering taking pain meds for the first time in my life. The extra wires on the last bracket of my braces are now slashing my cheeks.

I'm already developing bleeding gums despite brushing vigorously and for a longer time.

Day 4: Is it just me or do my teeth looked a wee bit better? I also got my newfound confidence to smile. Got some picture and posted it on FB. Also tried to use the special floss I bought from Watson, the one with  three different parts. I swear I tried. I even broke a sweat while doing it but it proved to be too difficult especially with the braces. I gave the flossing up.

Smile ka din. Konti lang :D

Day 5: I finally got back to the clinic and have the extra wires cut. Ahhh... The comfort of sipping without getting my cheeks slashed. The procedure only took some minutes so I had extra time to spare. I went to Makati since its only one ride away to see my boyfriend. When he saw my braces for the first time, he was surprised that my teeth looked straighter. Already?? Wow.

Day 6: Bought Colgate SlimSoft toothbrush, the one with the 0.01mm slim tip bristles. I bought one so I can use it when I'm at the office and it's also significantly cheaper than the Oral-B orthodontic toothbrush. What I did is I just cut the bristles to make it look like the real orthodontic brush. Yes, I'm cheap. But what surprised me is it stopped my bleeding gums and my mouth felt so much cleaner when I use it compared to the Oral-B orthodontic toothbrush. I decided that my next toothbrush purchase would be the Colgate SlimSoft. Oral-B is a rip-off..

Day 8: I have difficulty saying the letter "S" before, but now I can say it properly. I think because my tongue has more space now that my front teeth moved forward significantly. I'm really surprised how fast my teeth move. I hope I can have my braces off sooner too.

Day 10: My mama said I looked thinner now. I looked at the mirror and did noticed that my face looked thinner and longer. Maybe I failed to see it 'cause my waistline is still the same? LOL. I always joked that getting braces is an instant way of getting diet.

Day 17: I can now chew rice, thank God! But I still can't bite into food. I think I have an overbite now because of the movement of my front teeth. I now really look thin. My jeans were starting to get looser around my thighs. I don't like the way I look right now. The dentist also said that I will develop callous inside my cheeks and lips because of the braces. What I do is I purposely rub my braces inside my mouth so I would develop callous faster. That way, my braces won't cut inside my mouth anymore and I won't need to put on orthodontic wax. Is my logic right or not? Haha.

Day 20: Remember when I said I gave up flossing. Man, that's the worst decision I did to deal with my braces. I had pain on my lower right molar set of teeth, I don't know why. I tried brushing it more often but it only helped a little. When I tried flossing it, two days later, my molars are back to their normal self. I will now try flossing at least once a week.

Day 25: I cut my lip with my braces. I naturally have full lips and the inflammation I got from my lip canker sore made my lip all the more bigger. I looked like I had a botched lip job. Hahaha!... Haha... Ha. No, its not funny. I just put some medicine (really painful) on it so it would heal faster. 

Day 36: I had my 1st brace adjustment and thank heavens it doesn't hurt bad at all. The dentist said it should be. It only felt tight for 2 days and then it feels comfortable again. I like the dentist that attended me that day than the one that put my braces on. From now on, I will schedule my brace adjustment when that dentist is around. It's one of the advantages of a clinic with lots of dentists; I don't have to find another clinic to get another dentist work for me :P

Day 61: I had my 2nd brace adjustment and it went smoothly. The dentist only had to (chisel?) a lower front tooth so it would have space to move where she wants it to move. I also noticed that she didn't cleaned my teeth. She just scrape something on my teeth with her hook-like tool and went straight to removing the bands of my braces. Maybe because if she always clean it too often, my teeth will get thin? Or maybe I'm doing a good job at maintaining it clean? Anyway, on my 3rd or 4th adjustment, I may be doing some review for this clinic. Watch out for that :)

Day 68: I'm having the brace speech syndrome where your "S" becomes "T" or "CH". My friends annoy me when they were talking to me. They were like "Anong chinachabi mo ha?". Hmmm... Just wait till I get my braces off and get prettier with straight teeth >:(

Day 99: My original plan was to skip a month of adjustment so I will have budget for our family vacation. But after 2 weeks of the day that I should have had my adjustment, I noticed that my teeth were beginning to look crooked. My braces also doesn't feel that tight anymore. This made me worried.

Day 104:  I decided to go back to my dentist and have my 3rd brace adjustment for the month. This visit was almost 3 weeks late. I noticed that my overbite was almost fixed. The only brace they adjusted was the upper brace. 

Important part of my Metal Mouth Chronicles: 

Now, I have to inform you that I only have 3 front teeth. I had my 4th front tooth extracted as a kid to remedy my badly crowded teeth (bad idea). The dentist informed me that they plan to make my cuspid tooth (fang) to be my missing 4th front tooth (lateral incisor). They will move my cuspid tooth to the front and grind it to look like my other front teeth. I thought about it and asked wouldn't it look and feel weird? Why don't they just put veneer for my missing tooth? They told me they have to extract one tooth to be able to do so. I was disappointed by their answer. I don't want the idea of extracting a tooth nor grinding my precious fangs. I think I need a second opinion on this.

Day 146: I skipped a brace adjustment last December since it's too busy of a month. 42 days later after my 3rd brace adjustment, I went back to the clinic to get my 4th. Good news from the dentist: my crowding finally lessened. Bad news: I need to have 5 dental filling for my damaged teeth. Even more bad news: they're going to have a price hike for dental fillings next month. That means, I have to have all the 5 dental fillings that I need this month to save money. Hope my budget and my teeth can take it :(

* three weeks later, I had my 5 dental fillings for 300 pesos per tooth. Normal pricing is 400. Saved 500 pesos :)

~updated last January 28 2014. Stay tuned for more updates :)