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Hi Foobar,

I initially wanted a removable brace ( like I had in my youth) when I started out with my adult  orthodontic treatment, but it did not seem to be an option these days with any ortho. I eventually went with a fixed brace with clear Damon brackets and came to realise that it was probably a good option for me to have a fixed brace because I would have been constantly taking a removable one out and would not have had the willpower to wear it enough. Having a fixed brace meant I had to acknowledge it both with friends and in my work, and after I had broken the ice with it, it became less of a deal.

It will probably be best to try to wear your braces 24/7, in terms of both speed of speech improvement and efficiency of treatment. It would be ideal if you could have a couple of weeks holiday spent doing a lot of talking with someone you trust. Then you could present yourself to the world with your braces and make yourself understood and after first meeting with people, it will become no big deal for them.

FYI I wear a hawley retainer at night which I really like . I would be happy to have a blue one like your braces.

Your bottom appliance looks nice!

I don't need to wear them 24/7. I should have them in for a minimum of 12 hours a day, but should strive for 14-16 hours if possible. I'm definitely not self-confident enough to leave my house with my braces (yet?). As the top plate has a labial bow, which will be visible instantly, a discrete color doesn't really matter. So even though they did have a transparent option, I just went with blue for both jaws. And I definitely like how the color turned out!

Regarding speech I'm currently just taking them out whenever I have meetings, which doesn't really help with learning to talk in them. Home office and digital meetings are definitely a blessing and curse in that regard I'm not sure how long it'll take for me to get used to them enough that I'll just leave them in (at least when talking to friends).

I am surprised your ortho did not make your brace with clear or clear pink acrylic rather than blue. Or did you ask for it to be blue? Blue will be quite visible, which for me would be fine if it was just for night time retainer wear or just to wear for fun. However,  for proper orthodontic use you will have to wear your braces 24/7 and blue will be pretty obvious in everyday use. Perhaps you are more outgoing and self-confident than me. Is your top brace also blue or is it a different colour?

I agree the brace does look quite bulky and can understand that it might affect your speech. However, I am sure your speech will adapt quickly and it is perhaps a blessing in disguise that you will have to wait a week to get your top brace so as to have some time to adapt your speech to the bottom brace before having to adapt to the top brace as well.

Good luck with your treatment. Perhaps you will be able to post some pictures wearing your braces?

The top surface was polished originally, but I couldn't bite on it properly. Only a single tooth connected. Thus the ortho ground away material until it fit better.

retained said:

I always think that my bottom retainer has more effect on my speech than the top one.

Click to expand...

The top one looked quite bulky as well and was pretty thick in the front. It'll be interesting to see which one will affect my speech more. It won't be a fair comparison though, as I'll already have worn and practiced with the lower one for a week.

Great so far.
It does look quite bulky.
Its strange that the top surface is not very polished. Looks like it was shaped with grinder but not polished. Is there mor to do on it.?

I always think that my bottom retainer has more effect on my speech than the top one.

I got half of my braces today. Unfortunately, the model for the upper plate seems to have warped slightly. The appliance fit the model perfectly, but doesn't fit my jaw, which the ortho wasn't able to fix. Another set of impressions for the upper jaw was taken and the appliance will be remade. Thus I only got the lower appliance for now and will get the one for the upper jaw in one week.

Here are some pictures:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/530075173014077451/817415470420197386/1.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/530075173014077451/817415467693637712/2.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/530075173014077451/817415476749402132/3.jpg

The lower brace feels absolutely massive. Talking is pretty hard already and the tongue feels very restricted. And I only have 50% of the appliances so far Even if I learned to speak with the lower appliance alone, I'll need to relearn how to speak anyway once I get the plate for the upper jaw.
I didn't get a close look at the non-fitting upper appliance, but from what I could make out, it looked like it had a Y-screw and several springs, some of which were going back to the wisdom teeth. So maybe no buttons and elastics for me…

For now I'm just supposed to get used to them as nothing has been activated yet. Still, everything feels like a weird surreal dream, but I hope the dream will never end

I like hawley's better too!

The estimate is around 4000€. I guess that'll increase with all my special requests which hadn't been part of the treatment plan (like the buttons).

I'm really starting to dread the appointment tomorrow. On one hand side, it could be even better than what I am dreaming of for over a decade, on the other hand side I could be overhyped and get disappointed because the appliances are different from what I expected, or I could even realize that reality isn't as amazing as fiction. But hey, at least I'll know which one of the three it'll be in less than 24 hours

That's crazy man, you're so lucky! How much will the treatment cost (approx.)?

Today I had my final non-braces appointment, where yet again, another set of impressions were taken. I asked her about fixing my wisdom teeth, which was left out in the detailed treatment plan. She said, that it might be fixable with buttons but is not related to the removable plates. She'll take another look at that when I receive my appliances in two days. I was also able to convince her to make the upper plate fill my whole palate instead of being horseshoe-like. So if everything goes according to plan, I may get beyond the treatment of my dreams (removable plates filling a lot of space), possibly having buttons and elastics as well (what else would you need buttons for)!

The detailed treatment plan mainly contains what was already discussed beforehand. The diagnosis sounds like my whole mouth is a construction site Treatment plan is as expected, except that it doesn't mention anything regarding my wisdom teeth. Guess that'll be a question for tomorrow.

When I get my appliances on Thursday I'll absolutely post pictures of them!

@foobar That's exciting! Looking forward to seeing pictures of your appliance and progress

Them having the lab on-site makes me glad I chose their practice instead of others. The removable braces production step itself is just 2 days. However, with all the appointments beforehand, I'm nervous since pretty much the beginning and didn't have a good night's sleep since close to 4 weeks now. So I already had plenty of time to get and be nervous and still have several days left.

I never knew they made them onsite. 2 days to make them is crazy quick! Although waiting 3 weeks for my retainers was too long for the anxiety levels so quicker is probably better! Had too much time to get worried about it. By the time I got to the practice I was so nervous!

Two days ago I had another appointment where the ortho presented me with an overview of my treatment. She acknowledged all of the small things I'd like to get corrected, but also mentioned some other things that she found. There are the known slight crowding, rotation and tilting, mainly in the front. But she also explained that my front teeth are close to an edge-to-edge bite, only having a slight overbite and overjet, less than the normal expected ones. Regarding my edge-to-edge wisdom teeth, the impressions unfortunately had an air bubble where my wisdom teeth are. They took new impressions, making sure that my wisdom teeth were included this time, to see if she might be able to partially correct them.

As treatment she plans removable plates with posterior bite planes for bruxism. Maybe, depending on the new impressions, she can use buttons on the wisdom teeth to correct them. Primarily, she wants to pull back my lower and upper front teeth to increase my too small overbite and overjet while also fixing the crowding, rotations and tilting. In the upper jaw I have enough space for all of those corrections, but the lower jaw will require IPR. For retention I'll get fixed retainers as well as hawley-style retainers, each for both jaws. All in all, the treatment will take roughly 1 - 1½ years.

I should get the detailed treatment plan today, which I'll sign and hand to them on Tuesday. At that appointment yet another set of impressions will be taken for the lab to construct the appliances from. The lab is part of their practice, so the braces will be done by Thursday already, where I'll finally get them!!!

Danke für deine ausführlichen Berichte!
Demnächst werde ich auch mal was von meinen Erfahrungen schreiben...

@bracey_stacey Congrats on starting your journey. How is it so far? The quad helix must be a bit to get used to...

Hallo meine Lieben,

vor 2 Wochen hatte ich erneut einen Reparaturtermin, diesmal wars rechts unten der 5er, der locker geworden war. Mir war es schon fast nicht mehr einer Erwähnung wert. ;D

Und heute gabs den ersten richtigen Kontrolltermin - somit hab ich offiziell meine Spange seit 8 Wochen.
Der Termin dauerte ca. 40 Minuten. Es wurden die Drähte oben und unten getauscht auf 19er und 18er, soweit ich das verstanden habe. Weiters wurden die Aufbisse erneuert und der extrem verdrehte Zahn gesichert, was wohl am längsten gedauert hat. Hierfür wurde ein dünner Draht im Bracket verdreht, leider hab ich es nur am Rande mitbekommen, weil es keinen Spiegel gab. Diese Prozedur war relativ unangenehm, weil seit dem letzten Reparaturtermin noch alles etwas locker war.
Ansonsten fürchte ich, dass es ab morgen Schmerzen geben wird, aber ich lasse mich mal überraschen.

Alles Liebe derweilen!
Joe

i have 2 medium elastics in triangle configuration, looking forward to getting upgraded to heavy elastics ;D