Brushing your teeth with braces

Not too much new going on with my braces, I'm getting the surgical hooks put on on Monday.  I'm sure those are going to feel just great on my lips and cheeks :/

Now about the title of this post... We're adults and we generally think we know how to brush our teeth but when you have braces on your teeth, brushing is very different than without braces.  Braces automatically puts you in a high risk category for cavities because it is really difficult to keep your teeth clean.  Our teeth are naturally shaped so that food can get flushed away from the teeth.  With braces there are a million more areas for plaque to get trapped and bacteria to wreak havoc on our teeth and gums.

Below a very embarrassing photo of my teeth before I knew about proper brushing techniques.  The picture was taken right before I had a cleaning.  We put a dye on our patients teeth before their cleaning to show were plaque and calculus is built up.  On a person without braces, usually the plaque is built up along the gum line and in the areas between the teeth.  When we put the dye on my teeth, the plaque was built up directly beneath the wire.  That's when I realized just how important it is to use a proxabrush in addition to a regular toothbrush and floss.

you can see with this dye on my teeth that all of the plaque is built up right beneath where the wire normally is.

Adding the use of a proxabrush immensely helps with getting your teeth clean.  Also if there are spaces between any of your teeth you can use it not only around the brackets but also between the teeth to help get them clean.  The last thing you want after putting so much time and effort into having straight teeth is to end up with cavities or gum recession because you neglected your teeth while the braces were on.  This video explains how to use the proxabrush better than I can in words.

Here is another video about brushing with braces- because the technique is different than normal brushing.

and for flossing....  I've tried to use superfloss, but it takes SOOO long.  Now, I've been using "ortho flossers"  which are like floss picks but with a thin edge so they can fit under the wire.  The brand I absolutely LOVE are called platypus orthodontic flossers

They are seriously amazing.  I've found other brands that are similar at the drugstores and dental isle at the grocery.  They are soo much faster than using superfloss.  When I was just searching around on the web I found something called the flossFish.  It also looks really great and easy to use.  I'm definitely going to get some to try out!

good to go!

Its official!  My surgery date is still good, my insurance is cleared, and all my pre-op appointments are set.

All I need to do is get my surgery hooks and I'm all set. Hooray!

T- less than two months to go  :) :)

Happy Valentine's day to my teeth!

Hi Everyone,
Long time, no update!  That's really because there hasn't been much going on with my teeth lately, that is until my latest appointment!  So let's see, two appointments ago, My orthodontist finally got the last wire into my upper brackets.  It's a very large rectangular wire that is the biggest size that will fit into the brackets I have.  My orthodontist hasn't been moving any of my teeth, mostly keeping them where they are and just trying to expand my upper arch as much as possible.  If I needed any more expansion I would've had to have a SARPE (surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion), but luckily (probably because I had palatal expanders as a kid) my arch was just wide enough and they decided to make-up for the last few millimeters just by moving the teeth within the bone and not the bone itself.  Anyways,  when we got that last wire in I could feel when I flossed that most of my contacts of my upper teeth opened up probably because the teeth were moving that last little bit outwards.  yay!

Fast forward to my last appointment,  we had two appointments in one day, the first one to take the wires off and make some alginate impressions and the second one to put the wires back on after looking at the models.  I was so happy to have the wire off for a few hours!  I think I flossed 3 times, flossing is so much easier without those wires on!  Also,  my friend was able to give me a cleaning during the time off,  let me tell you it is so much easier to clean someones teeth who has braces once their wire is off.  Anyways, I returned to the ortho clinic with the cleanest teeth of anyone with braces and my models were good!  They basically told me that as far as they were concerned I am ready for surgery :D.  I'm going to drop by my surgeon's office tomorrow (its so convenient to have my dentist, orthodontist, surgeon, and the clinic I work in all in the same building)  to see if they need to see me before they have the pre-op appointment.  I also need to see if there are any updates about my insurance pre-approval coming in, and if my surgery date is still in the book.  Technically, when we originally picked the date for surgery last year the 2012 book didn't physically exist yet, so it was pencilled in at the end of 2011 lol.  So, unless their office majorly dropped the ball on that one,  I should be scheduled for surgery in exactly 2 months!

valentine's day colors!  

more updates to come...

good news!

My insurance and hospital decided to make nice so now I don't need to find a new oral surgeon! yay!  They signed a new 3 yr contract so I don't need to go anywhere new.  I love my oral surgeon, I couldn't imagine going to anyone else.  The other thing I love is that the medical center is connected to my school and literally it only takes me 5 minutes to get to from home, most of the time I'm already there anyways.

yayyyyyyy

pictures & update

Hi everyone,

Things are pretty much the same braces-wise.  The end of the year really snuck up on me!  Only two weeks left until school will be closed for 2 weeks, those two weeks are really jammed with patients though! I had an ortho appointment on monday and I'm in the .17 x .25 wire on the bottom still (which is the surgery wire).  That thing is really stiff!  He also tried to get me in to the .17x.25 on the top (right now i'm still in .16x.22's) but I wasn't ready yet.  He tried so hard to push that thing in! I thought my tooth was going to be extracted with how much pressure was on it.  But of course that would never happen I was just overly sensitive about the pressure.  So hopefully at our next appointment in the new year we'll be able to get into that wire so we're another step closer to being ready for surgery.  

Other than that my biggest worry lately is about a letter I got from my PCP (at the same medical center associated with my dental school and my OS).  The letter basically said that as of January 2012 the medical center is no longer going to be in-network for my medical insurance if the insurance company (BCBS) doesn't start paying them more money.  That throws a big wrench in my plans bc if the medical center isn't in-network anymore I'll have to go find a new oral surgeon at a hospital that accepts BCBS. bahhhhh.  There isn't anything I can do about it now until the date comes around and we see if they actually do drop it.  I really like my oral surgeon, she is the best and I feel comfortable around her.  Starting that whole relationship over with someone else would suck!

Here are some pictures from the whole process so far.  

So this is my bite "before"  My teeth really aren't out of line,  and the few that aren't in the correct position are the ones that we're still trying to correct now.  Notice the second molars on the bottom how they're turned in towards my tongue.  The third molars have since been extracted

This is my "before" pan.  You can see that I still have my lower 3rd molars that have since been extracted.  I really missed them at first!  they were in occlusion with my upper second molars and I would use them to chew, and once they were gone I was chewing onto the gum where they used to be. 

Here is my "before" lateral ceph.  This one really shows the severe discrepancy of my jaws to each other.  Its not just a problem with my teeth that cause my underbite, its a skeletal discrepancy between my upper and lower jaw.

This is where I was a month and a half ago.  My smile looks so awkward like this, I've never smiled biting down before!  Notice that heavy wire on the bottom.

And so it begins! (or began, I guess)

Hello everyone,
My name is Laura and I'm writing this blog like many others have because I'd like to write down my story as I go through braces, jaw surgery, and whatever else is on the other side of it all.  I've never written a blog before but because so many others' blogs are helpful to me,  I thought this may blog may be helpful to other people as well. As you can probably deduce from the title,  I am currently a dental student and I'm a little more than half way through dental school.

Here I am "brushing" my teeth with the candy toothbrush off our cake at a school party.  Yes, we have dental themed cakes.  be jealous. lol

A little more about my teeth:
I have a class III malocclusion with about 8 mm of negative overjet.  Also, I am in a posterior crossbite on all of my back teeth. (Basically, I'm in a crossbite everywhere).  I had palate expanders and braces a couple times as a kid and when I got them taken off at 13 1/2 years old I was technically in a Class I occlusion (where your top teeth fit over your bottom).  When you're 13 you are still growing and since your jaw bones grow at the same rate as your long bones, and since I was still growing taller, my jaw was still growing as well.  Over the next couple years I gradually went back to having a underbite.  Since the problem is a skeletal discrepancy, orthodontic therapy alone was unlikely to succeed.  The reason I had my braces off early was to take care of a traumatized central incisor that needed root canal therapy.  Since that was the reason I had them off I never considered jaw surgery that my orthodontist and dentist talked about since I thought that I couldn't have braces again.  (Also the thought of major surgery was way to scary!).

When I started dental school I realized I was wrong about not being able to have braces (you can have them even on non-vital teeth) and I started considering my options.  I have never been happy about my profile and since it is my job as a dental student to fix peoples teeth everyday, I constantly think about my own teeth.  It's like owning a car dealership and driving a broken down ford.  Sure, not all dentists have perfect teeth but I'd like to have pretty white teeth and a "normal" bite.

To make a very long story short, I have decided to correct my bite.  I currently have braces and am almost ready for surgery.  I had my lower 3rd molars removed (I used to use them to bite) because that is the area where my oral surgeon will split my jaw to move it back.  I had my upper third molars out in high school. I tentatively have a surgery date on April 12, 2012 and I cant wait!  My orthodontist is trying to expand my upper arch as much as possible before surgery so hopefully only a one piece Lefort will be needed instead of a two piece.  I do not need a SARPE(surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion).   I hope that having a correct bite will prevent me from having any periodontal and worse TMJ problems down the line.

Here are some of my pre-braces pictures  (I have nicer ones from the orthodontist, I just need to get them uploaded)

I've never smiled while biting down.  This is my fake-out smile, open the jaw so it doesn't look as protruded.

Another side profile opening so the prognathic jaw doesn't look so bad.

That's all for now I suppose, I need to go get ready for an exam and cleaning for my patient! Oh, the life of a dental student.

Laura :)