MY BRACES JOURNEY [PART 1]

I have been thinking about putting on braces for quite sometime now~ 
My teeth aren't so crooked to begin with, but it's not quite aligned either. 
When I was younger my milk teeth were nice and straight, but as all my adult teeth came out, overcrowding happened and my teeth were growing and moving to fit themselves in :( 

In 2011 I had really bad skin and.. really discoloured teeth. 

Skin improved but my teeth is still, meh. 

One thing I'm really self-conscious about is that one bunny teeth at the front. And I have a slight overbite as well. 

Honestly I really like a nice smile, okay who doesn't. Being able to laugh out loud and showing my teeth and not think about how bad they look. Plus I was hoping braces can help me with my binge eating disorder, so that I can make a conscious effort of knowing what food I'm putting into my mouth and eating slower due to the braces. 

So after much thought, consideration and research, I decided to go ahead a book a consultation at Casa Dental at Clementi! I stay in the west therefore Clementi is quite convenient for me.

Wednesday, September 9th 2015

Consultation 

My first ever consultation for braces. My dentist did the basic checks on my teeth and explained my current teeth situation. Everyone's teeth are different so its really important to know what exactly is the situation of your teeth. Basically it's overcrowding and because my wisdom teeth are out, I will have to remove two wisdom teeth and four premolars to create space for when I put the braces on so that the teeth will be able to be pushed back. Did two x-ray scans after that, one from the front and the other from the side. I could really see my overbite from the side x-ray! Not a pretty side :/ 

The next step was taking the molds of my teeth! And then my dentist went through the pricing with me. 

I have the choice of traditional braces and invisalign, 

Traditional mental braces costing $3500 and invisalign $7000 (or was it $7500?).

This cost does not include things like tooth extraction, x-rays, cleaning etc. 

It is very expensive uh I won't lie, but it's a long term investment and I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end! Plus money can always earn back, but you only get to live once. #yololife HAHA okay nevermind... 

Installment for payment is possible therefore it's not so bad :) 

Wednesday, September 16th 2015

Wisdom Tooth Surgery

The goal for today is to remove two wisdom tooth from my lower jaw! My dentist injected something into my gums to numb the lower part of my face. It was a smooth injection and we had to wait 10 minutes or so for the numbness to be really effective. When the time was up, I couldn't feel my mouth and chin at all. Which is a good thing of course, so that when the surgery takes place I won't feel a thing. 

And seriously, I felt no pain at all. YAY! 

Though I could hear the sounds and happenings, no pain was felt which, is awesome! 

After the procedure I was given some medications and mouthwash to be taken for the next 5 days. 

The numbness in my lower jaw lasted about three hours after the surgery, and once it wore of.. it was quite painful I have to admit. I quickly ate some oats and took the medications (including a painkiller) and the the pain subsided soon enough~ 

My cheeks were swollen for the first 3 days and slowly subsided after. Though my left cheek went back to normal about 5 days later, my right cheek has this hard lump that feels like a mini golf ball in my cheek. 

Wednesday, September 23th 2015

Removal of Stitches, Scale and Clean, Putting on Separators 

So apparently the mini golf ball in my cheek is an infection. My dentist removed the stitches done from the Wisdom tooth surgery and got some pus out from the golf ball. It reduced quite a bit in size but I was given antibiotics and mouthwash to further reduce and heal the area. Photo below is after removing the pus and was biting onto gauzes to stop the bleeding.  

Did scaling and cleaning after and got the separators in! It actually doesn't feel painful, just as what my dentist said, feels like pieces of meat stuck in-between my teeth. 

Saturday, 26th September 2015

Extraction of premolars 

Today would be the extraction of four premolars. Basically premolars are the fourth teeth from the front. 

The procedure was really quick, was done in about.. 25 minutes? My entire mouth was numb, upper jaw and lower jaw. Which is good la so I wouldn't feel the pain from extraction! Good thing I ate a hearty lunch.. cause after the procedure the only thing I ate was oats. Watery oats. 

My dentist gave me a mask as my mouth area didn't look too nice HAHA

So the circled areas are my premolars. You know.. the feeling I had was like back when I was Primary 1, my front milk teeth drop out and that bo-gay ( I'm not sure if it's spelled this way) feeling. ALMOST EXACTLY THAT FEELING. 

The gaps are actually not obvious at all when smiling! Like from the front can't even tell unless I tell the person about them. 

*Photo below*

The next appointment will be the fixture of the braces!

Will be blogging about it in another post.

Thanks for reading! xx