The color wheels

Color Wheels

This is the color wheel from my orthodontist's office. Other orthodontists may have different color wheels they use, depending on the brand they use in their offices. As you can see there are two wheels. You can rotate them. This allows you to have two colors combination, many people like it. Here in Washington, a lot of people choose the color combination of yellow-purple, referring to the color palette of UW. I personally stick to one color only.

Before I had my braces on, I planned on having tried wearing all of the colors by the end of my 2 years of wearing braces. But then I realized that I'm not as brave as I thought of myself. Mainly it's because I work in a corporate world, I feel very self conscious when I wear bold colors. So far I have honestly only tried light blue, light pink, silver, bright pink, and pearl white (regularly). And when I wear those other colors than white, many people look distracted whenever I'm talking to them... they will watch my mouth moving /my braces instead of my face.

Progress II

For a quick comparison, here's my progress so far.

January update

Happy new year! (way, way, way late)

I went in for both my cleaning and braces adjustment today. My gum is still so sore from the 'vigorous' cleaning. When my dental hygienist was doing her own 'thang' with all the instruments, I glanced down and happened to see the bleeding pick/probe. I instantly felt dizzy at the sight of blood. But unlike usually, my eyes didn't get all teary from the pain. My hygienist said that my gum looked very good and healthy. But after the cleaning she did ask me to rinse with an antiseptic mouthwash.

I did go in for my braces adjustment last Jan 9th to replace my appointment that was postponed last December because it was the holidays and my orthodontist's office was close. He said that he would make an adjustment the next time I came in (today), at that time he only instructed me to switch wearing my rubber band to halftime only (12 hours). Today he asked how often I had been wearing it, I said 12 hours (honestly? maybe only 8-10 hours during my bedtime). Today he told me to keep wearing it halftime. I do feel the gap is closing, so I'm happy with the progress. The assistant told me that for today the adjustment made is for my front teeth only.

the gap - as of today

I chose light blue this time for the chain color :P Below is the photo taken today with flash. (Aw man, it's too bright!) If you want to see the picture with no flash, refer back to the picture above instead.

Coil Spring

Note: if there's a name of tooth that you're not familiar of, please refer to the picture at the bottom of this entry.

On my left side of the mouth, I don't have a third molar and first molar of my lower teeth anymore. The only tooth left is the second molar (from the molars family), I still have my premolar too. However the gap between the second molar and the premolar is so far apart that the second molar is tipped. During my visit for my tooth cleaning, my hygienist took an x-ray of my mouth because she needed the most recent x-ray she could use as a reference, and the result showed that my second molar had been uprighted significantly.. which came to me as a surprise because I wasn't aware that my orthodontist had been doing treatment on that area, because I had never felt any movement or pain in that area... — that is, until my last visit to my orthodontist.

He told the assistant to put a coil spring between my second molar and premolar. When I run my tongue over it, I can feel its texture is similar like of a body of a screw. It took about the first two weeks after the visit that my second molar ached really bad. Specially when I accidentally bit my teeth together and my upper molar would bump against the lower second molar, I instantly had to shut my eyes close while waiting until the pain subsided. Also on the second day, I couldn't bite on potato chips and a lot of stuff. I had to go back eating soft food that didn't require biting and chewing. It felt like I was back to the first few weeks of having braces on. :) I was also awaken during my sleep at night whenever I accidentally bit my teeth together. Other than that, after the first 2 weeks, everything is back to normal again. I can bite and chew again.

If this is the same spring coil that the orthodontist meant to put on me because I had a problem wearing rubber band 24/7, then the pain isn't worth the 'forgetting to wear it'. Although, probably the progress will be much faster wearing a coil spring than rubber band. The thing that confuses me is that when I look it up on the internet, people are referring coil spring as a tool device to create more gap instead of closing it. So after all, maybe this is not the same spring that the orthodontist referred as a substitute for the rubber band.

sorry the flash light was a bit too bright, but at least
it shows clearly how the coil spring looks

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picture courtesy of: navsaridental.

December Update

Note: for the rest of this entry, if there's a name of tooth that you're not familiar of, please refer to the picture at the bottom of this entry.

I'm still wearing the rubber band! Ta-Da!

I went in for an adjustment on Nov 30th. I had been wearing the rubber band almost 24/7 everyday, except when I'm brushing my teeth or when I'm having my meals. But even sometimes I will keep my rubber band on when I'm eating. On Thanksgiving, though, after I brushed my teeth in the morning, I forgot to put the rubber band on until pretty late at night (around 8pm). I was worried that I would get into trouble because of it. There was another day that I forgot to put the rubber band on, specially on Sundays.. So when I went in for the adjustment, I was very sure that they would tell me, "I'm sorry, we gave it a try but it's better for you to wear the spring instead." When I was waiting on the chair for my turn, there were 3 other people and they were also asked if they had been wearing their rubber band religiously. And I was glad to hear that I wasn't the only one who had disciplinary problem of putting the rubber band back on!

I couldn't feel the progress of the gap closing. I didn't feel that it was moving at all, to be honest. I would slide my tongue in between the two teeth just to check if the gap is getting smaller and hoping there would be one day soon that my tongue would not fit into the gap anymore. I honestly feel the gap is still the same like the last time I slid it there. :(

Hopefully my orthodontist didn't tell me that the rubber band was working only because when he asked me how the rubber band, and I told him I had been wearing it all the time. I hope it's been working! I put together one picture for comparison (September vs December). In deed, the gap has been closing pretty quickly. But I still feel the progress is very, very, very slow.

can you see that the gap is closing?

Last but not least, here's the picture of my whole mouth that I took today. As you can see in the other pictures, I chose the white pearl again for the chains instead of festive colors that corresponds with the holiday season. I just want to go low so my braces won't stand out in the holiday pictures. Haha.

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picture courtesy of: navsaridental.

White Mark (Scar?)

Note: if there's a name of tooth that you're not familiar of, please refer to the picture at the bottom of this entry.

So since a few months ago, I have been noticing on my teeth there are two white marks on both left and right lateral incisor on my upper teeth. My first thought when I saw this left mark was "Oh I got food stuck in my teeth!" But no matter how hard I tried to clean it, the white spots wouldn't budge. I brushed hard with regular toothbrush and the proximal, I flossed, I tried everything. The white stuff just wouldn't disappear.

When I came in for my adjustment, I asked the assistant what that was. And she said that it's some kind of scar. At first she told me I needed to take a better care of my teeth, but then I asked if those scars could be because before it they were tilted. Before I got braces both my lateral incisor were tilted below my central incisors because I had overcrowding. (Refer to picture below). She said that those scars are most probably because of that problem.

When I went in for my teeth cleaning, I also asked my dentist about it and he told me he would take care of this problem once I'm off my braces next year! I'm guessing it would probably be teeth bleaching. But we'll see if he has other solution for it.

Before: A picture showing that my lateral incisors are tilted below the central incisors

After: Braces corrected the tilting problem, but this picture shows that
the lateral incisor has a white mark caused by former tilted tooth problem.

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picture courtesy of: navsaridental.

my progress

Progress after 14 months (lower braces) - August 17, 2010
7 months (upper braces) - March 07, 2011