Well, I thought I would keep record of the coming two year process of fixing the countless issues with my smile, bite and overall poor dental condition. This has been a long and drawn out ordeal getting to this point and there are many more procedures to go. To go forward, I should go back for a few minutes and explain how it has come to pass, that at 42, I am now wear braces. Growing up it was obvious that there were issues with my teeth, as my childhood pearly whites gave way to crooked, crowded adult teeth. For those that know me, I don't smile that often and in pictures, it's more of a grin with no teeth exposed. As a child I smiled quite often, teeth all aglow. But as I grew and my dental condition worsened I worked hard to hide what I was quite ashamed to show. By the time I was 20, and all finished any further growth, I was left with the following; severe lower crowding and twisting in all 4 incisor teeth, the bottom canine teeth also out of place; the top four incisor teeth spread out, gaped and slightly twisted, my right top central incisor tooth chipped from a childhood accident that was never fixed, worse yet, both my upper canine never came in and grew up into the front roof of my mouth, finally a slight under bite from a very strong lower jaw (as my orthodontist likes to say). Now, I do remember in my teenage years being taken to a Orthodontist and my parents being given an estimate that included breaking my jaw and resetting it, but it never came to pass.
As the years went on, Elaine and I met and got married, I went on to university, went through a couple different carrier paths, was blessed with fatherhood and many ministry opportunities through our church. All during this time I just gave up on doing anything about my teeth and worked out a routine of life that hid as much as I could when I sung or talked. But over the last few years as the company I invested in and work at has spent more and more time in the public eye doing trade shows and sales visits, I had begun to become more and more self conscious of my smile and overall talking appearance. Add to this, I have three wonderful and beautiful women in my house, whose smile is always on display in our family pictures, while I stand and grin at best and scowl on others. About three years ago, I started looking into what could be done, but every time the quotes were exceptionally high and always involved jaw surgery. Then about 3 months ago, I made a comment to the girls orthodontist (who has been monitoring their growth to set the optimum time to start their own ortho work) that I was not looking for perfection, just something that would allow me to smile again and be less self conscious when I talked. This seemed to be the spark that was needed to come up with plan to fix 90% of my dental problems (In my case perfection could only come with jaw surgery),
And so here I sit, 3 days into my first week of wearing braces and I hope that this will all be worth it for the money the family is allowing me to spend. The plan, as best as I can explain, will remove the all my crowding, straighten out all my teeth, get ride of any gaps and create room for fixing my missing upper teeth. What has been interesting is that as I begun getting x-rays, dental moulds, 3-D CT scans and surgical consults for those pesky upper canines, is how worse things had gotten. I had 1 lower incisor tooth removed this week as part of the plan to do all this without jaw surgery (remember I have this very strong lower jaw). As it turns out, that tooth was cracking down the middle (front to back) and darkening i.e. rotting out due to all the overcrowding and twisting. In April I go in for an "in office" surgery to remove the two upper canine teeth that are actually damaging the roots of my two upper central incisors. As it turns out, the surgeon was glad that my braces will be in place as this will keep those two incisors from potentially falling out (when the now dead canine teeth are removed) while bone grows back and re-strengthens the roots of those teeth. Later this late summer/early fall I will get that much need chipped tooth fixed once things are settled into their correct places. This is possible because thankfully my Ortho is using speed braces that reduces the treatment time. Finally, when the braces are ready to come off, back into surgery I go to get implants for the two dead canine teeth that have left holes in my upper mouth.
Lots of fun! In case anyone is wondering (which I doubt), I am now living with metal speed braces on the bottom row of teeth (without those ugly coloured rubber bands!) and clear ceramic speed braces on the top row (as Dr. Chow states, "these will come in handy when I start smiling again in about 6 months, if not sooner"). Next updated will come after the canine removal surgery. Till then, I promise not to complain or make a big deal about this any further.
Michael
=8-)