little screws in my jaw and other exciting things

So I've had tiny screws placed in my upper jaw and a wire change to stainless steel on the uppers as well. But first, questions I had answered at my last appointment (I just can't stop talking...)

• The loud popping noise was the sound of bone letting go of my tooth. Kind of like fingers snapping, and not entirely uncommon. I had a second incident of this when the second inscisor next to the loud canine moved to usurp that space that had been created.
• Question: Will you be extruding my molars or intruding my lower front section of teeth to level them off? Answer: Intrusion, which was what I was hoping to hear, but not until the lower teeth are in a better position. As the orthodontist said, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself to be concerned about that.
• Gum graft on the lower inscisor: Will be done shortly, once those teeth are in a bit better position. He said that it might be possible to just move some tissue over from a neighbor (sort of like butterflying meat, I guess), rather than taking the tissue from my palate. But that will be for my periodontist to decide.

Meet Tad


Tad on the right here has been placed closer to the gum line and, while less stable, is easier to photograph. Lefty is way up in there in the recesses of my mouth. They're both generally fine and didn't hurt to install, but my mouth hasn't been too happy about all of Tad's accessories. The hooks, especially the one one the left, have been the most annoying. My lip tends to get caught on the right hook when I smile, so I've developed a new-found appreciation for the box of 50 containers of wax I ordered a few months ago. And here I thought they'd go to waste!

In other news, a stainless steel wire was put on my upper arch. The lowers are still in the .016 niti wire, as the ortho is trying to take it slow with those ones to avoid as much damage to surrounding tissue as possible. Makes sense, given how tenuous the hold of my gums are on some of those teeth.

The worst part about my appointment on the 13th was the sudden shift of my upper arch to some new, exciting position. My teeth started meeting the molar build up on my right in a whole new way. Result: Lower jaw moving erractically when I closed my mouth and a sudden inability to chew until this was corrected. Two days and many mashed potatoes later, both build ups were rebuilt (damn!) and chewing is back to normal. Ugh, that was horrendous.

Next up... appointment in four weeks, probably to change the lower wire (who knows!), maybe a consultation with a periodontist, but I can probably sit on this for at least a month.

Oh, and in closing, look at my lowers!



I feel giddy like a young tweener at some concert for whatever male music act is hip nowadays.