Week 12 - Wearing elastic/rubber bands

I switched to wearing the elastic bands again in the daytime. It was taking longer than usual to get to sleep with the bands in. To be honest, I've only been wearing them for 6 hours, instead of the average sleep time of 7-9 hours. But it's difficult to not snack as much as I'm used to and having to keep taking the bands out every time I want to eat.
My bite feels fine though, and the canine teeth look as though they fit perfectly with the bottom teeth.
Frustratingly, the teeth don't look as though they've moved a lot in the past few weeks, but looking at past weeks photos, the wire does look a tiny bit straighter than before.

Week 10

Technically, it's week 11 as I write this but end of week 10 so the title is not so far from the truth. No real change has been going on, the elastic bands have been getting much easier to wear, I can even wear them at night while I sleep now. It makes my day a little bit easier as I don't have to try and talk wearing them (s and th sounds were difficult to pronounce when I couldn't properly open my jaws) and I also don't have to plan my mealtimes around wearing them. There's not been much movement in the teeth, although I do feel the top ones are a little loose.

Week 8 - Elastic Rubber Bands, Part 2. Rabbit and Chipmunk

So then, I did not in fact 'power through' as I said I was going to do. On Tuesday morning I rang my dentist to ask if I could wear them during the day instead, and the nurse told me to try again and if it really wasn't working, come in again and they would see what they could do about it.

Tuesday night I wore them a few hours before going to bed, and then also took a sedative and two painkillers (NOT to be recommended, although it really didn't do anything to me). Two hours after turning off the light, I buckled and took them out. The next day I went back and said it was just impossible for me to sleep with them in, so they gave me some more which are slightly bigger and told me I could wear them during the day as well. Ominously, she also said something about the idea of wearing them at night was to 'get used to them'. I'm crossing my fingers that I won't have to wear them longer than six weeks.

I wore them today at work. As I sleep about 8 hours, I can just as well do the same in the day, so it's not that I have to wear them the entire time. The newer, larger ones are much more comfortable, although around the hour 7 mark, my cheeks were starting to ache.

I found this useful article all about elastic bands with braces, and why they're so important. In the article it says that movement only occurs after 6-8 hours and if you take the bands off for more than 30 minutes your teeth won't move. I don't think I wearing them to move my teeth, but in any case I made sure not to spend too long eating.

Types of Elastic Bands

Elastic Bands: The Chipmunk and the Rabbit. The actual bands are above each packet.

Before I got the braces on, I watched a few Youtube Vlogs (and still do, in fact). One of them, TheMatlachChannel is really informative, and in this one, he talks about the elastic bands there are - Quail, Parrot and Ram. I don't know if it's different here in Europe, but the ones I've been given are 'Chipmunk' and 'Rabbit'. The 'Quail' and 'Chipmunk' look quite similar, but in the video the 'Parrot' band looks much larger in comparison to the 'Quail' and as you can see, the 'Rabbit' is not that much larger than the 'Chipmunk'. So I really don't know if there are a whole other bunch of bands out there that I've not seen, or whether elastics companies decided to market them differently in Europe.

Week 8 continued - Elastic/Rubber Bands

Week 8 with power chains and elastic bands

So the first night with the elastic bands and... it wasn't so successful. In fact they were so uncomfortable I couldn't sleep with them in. I'm a really light sleeper and it takes me a long time to get to sleep, so if I'm even the slightest bit uncomfortable it's difficult for me.

The bands really lock my jaws together. I can still speak but I obviously can't move my mouth and lips as much as I want. I get really dry lips and I constantly have to put lip balm on them, so that means I'm used to rubbing my lips together to rub in the lip balm. I can't do that while they're there. And they hurt. They don't just hurt my teeth but my my jaws and cheeks feel like they're straining and sore. The relief I felt when I took them off the last night was massive. Having the braces in for the first time was not nearly so bad as this.
So I'm wearing them during the day while I'm writing this, to get my jaw used to the feel of having them on. I've read from other threads that the pain subsides once your jaws and face muscles get used to the feeling. This article from the actual Damon System website recommends you just 'power through' it, so that's what I'm doing!

The pain of having the new wire means I again can't eat so much. Even a Kinder Bueno bar, one of the softest sweets you can chew, is painful for my back teeth.

Since last week I've also been suffering from some mysterious stomach infection, so yogurt and milk, even soya, give me painful stomach aches. As do bananas (no smoothies). Toast I can't chew, and I think vegetable soup would also not be so great for my stomach (I'm vegetarian, so chicken soup is also out). So what's left is porridge (oatmeal). At least it's cheap and quick to cook.

Week 8 - Second wire change and new top wires

Update: Today I had my second check up since getting on the braces and they replaced the wires again. Now on the top teeth, the wire runs through all of the brackets. I'm not sure if it's actually thicker, but the wire seems to look stronger and thicker every time it's changed!

Week 8 with the new top wires (white, a bit difficult to see)

Also on the front six teeth I have another wire that is threaded around the brackets. It looks like a power chain, but whenever I’ve read about power chains, they all say that they’re used for closing gaps between teeth. When I asked what this would be for, I was told that this wire will prevent gaps from forming between the teeth while they’re being straightened. I was initially a bit surprised to see them on when they gave me the mirror, but they’re practically invisible from a short distance away (it's not such a great picture this time, but you can just about make them out).

My teeth weren't hurting when I left the dentist but during the day they've started to ache and chewing hard things is again becoming painful, so I will eat softer food for the next day or two.

Another thing now is that I have to wear elastic bands at night while I sleep. I was kind of bummed out by this news. I really thought that my bite seemed fine and that I’d be able to get away without wearing the bands, but just at night is ok I guess. I have to wear quite a lot (six in all) for the next six weeks until my next appointment. 

Oh god, just got the elastics on now, and jesus christ are they strong, another six weeks of this!! But hopefully if I follow all my advice correctly then I could be looking at a shorter treatment time, who knows.

I got a comment to my last post, but I've been trying to reply and can't, I don't know what I'm doing wrong (it also happened with the last post, sorry to Kiki, who by the way if you're reading this, I really appreciate you reading my blog!). So to the person who asked: I've been told they really look very subtle, not so noticeable at all. There is this loose feeling that comes with the braces, but that is totally normal, and not so painful that you have to take an aspirin or anything. As far as dating goes, I've been asked out and have been on dates since getting my braces on, so really don't worry about that aspect of your life. Good luck with your treatment, I'm sure you'll never regret it :-)

Day 3

Eating

Eating is getting slightly easier, although I’m sticking mainly to liquid based foods – yogurt, soup, protein shakes. Today however I did have a soup that had chickpeas and some other beans. They’re quite soft so not much chewing required, but I was able to chew, but quite gingerly).

I’m getting used to the feeling of having them in my mouth all the time, and I’m pleased to say they don’t interfere with my sleep at all. About a month ago, before I’d decided to get Damon Braces, I was given a mouthguard to protect my teeth because I grind them at night, and I couldn’t get through the night with them, they were so uncomfortable. But I haven’t had any problems with these so far. The only thing bothering me is the one bracket that is very sharp and digging into the flesh near my lower lip. I forgot my wax today at work so I had to just put up with it all day until I got home.

Thinking about going back to the dentist to ask if she could take off two hooks on the top row of ceramic brackets. When I stop smiling my top lip catches on them, it’s a bit annoying.