Well, say 'bye' to my braces!

This whole metal journey since the end of June 2007 has been a very long and tormenting process. But I still miss my braces now. It all began when Shirley started to psycho me to join her in putting braces. Ended up the 3 of us, Shirley, Junrong and me, went to put at around the same time.

Since Secondary school, many dentists have been trying to urge me to put braces, but I simply refused to budge cos I was afraid of the pain. LOL... Then Shirley successfully managed to tempt me.

At first, the dentist was telling me that we can try to carry out the treatment without extracting any teeth first, and see how it goes. He estimated that it should be done by 1.5 years. I was very glad to hear that.

Then he took many many pictures, and took a mould of my teeth. The mould that he stuffed into my mouth at that time already gave me a phobia of it, cos it triggered my vomiting reflex.

After which, he put on the rubber rings in between my molar to create some space for the molar rings after a week. That 4 days was quite torturous. My teeth were all weak and it was hard to bite on anything properly. It feels like a baby who is growing new teeth. The gums are feeling a little 'itchy', such that I liked to bite on straws to ease it a little.

Soon after, I went back to fix on the metal stuff already. Was stuck in the dentist's room for an hour plus. The dentist had to fiddle around with the metal rings to see which size fit! So he put it on, took it off, before putting the glue and stuffing it back down. Seriously, that was horrible.

So on I put, the metals on my teeth. When I came out of the room, the first thing to do is obviously to go for the mirror. LOL... =x Well, it didn't look that bad. It kind of added some decoration to my face. At least I didn't get that bad a time as Shirley, cos the rest of them kept disturbing her about it. Tsk tsk...

I transfered from the Q&M at Bukit Batok back to the one here at Serangoon North. My whole family is too used to patronising the one at Bukit Batok, cos we've been going there since we lived there in the past. But having to go all the way back there once a month isn't an easy feat, so we decided it was easier to shift back here.

Obviously the rest of the subsequent months was just a whole period of adjusting.

First, having to adjust to the foreign objects in your mouth isn't an easy task. There are often sharp corners hidden somewhere inside, such that it will prick and cause ulcers with each movement of your mouth.

Though the dentist gave me this box of wax, which I'm supposed to use it to cover up places which are disturbing my cheeks or lips, but it was so troublesome I did away with it after a month. It's troublesome because you'd have to take it out whenever you eat, and in the morning when I wake up, I forget about it and went ahead to brush my teeth, only to end up brushing my teeth with wax.

Secondly, those things are metals. They caused quite a lot of damage to my lips for the first few months especially. Every morning when I wake up, I'd find myself with an imprint of the great wall of China on my upper and lower lips. The metals are so hard that they'd cause this whole imprinting thing along with the shape of the brackets and wire. The wire also causes slits on my lower lip after a night's sleep.

Thirdly, it robbed me of my sleeping time. Every night, I would spend a whole half an hour trying to wash up and brush my teeth. I'd have to brush each tooth individually with the small toothbrush to make sure that there aren't food particles hiding somewhere in between those metal. A really time consuming process, which I usually won't save on, cos I'd rather play safe and not risk the $4K.

So that's how I spent the subsequent 2 years each and every day.

My teeth actually moved rather quickly. Each time I went back there, the wire 'upgraded' in terms of thickness. Within just 2 months, my lower row of teeth are already in a nice continuous line, and within 4 months, my upper row of teeth were straightened out too.

Then he realised that with both sides straightened out, the upper teeth and lower teeth can't meet. The upper jaw was protruding out, such that it couldn't meet the lower jaw even when Itried to. It would affect the bite that I'd have. So he decided that it was time we should extract 2 of my upper premolars. =(

In order to be able to extract it, he had to remove the metal brackets on these 2 teeth. He came with the remover and pulled the damn metal out. Gosh, the first tooth took him a lot of time and effort, such that I couldn't control but used my tongue to feel for the tooth. He noticed that, and told me, "Don't worry, your tooth is still there." LOL, he could have saved me the extraction fees you know. =x

Well then, I ended up with 2 gaps on my upper jaw, since the extraction of the 2 premolars. Extracted them somewhere in November 2007 (so near my birthday!). 1 month... 2 months... 3 months... 4 months... 5 months... It was all the way till 6 months later before the gap was more or less half closed up, and it took my teeth a great deal of pulling and pushing to achieve that.

About 1 year after the extraction, in November 2008, that was when the 2 gaps were really closed already. In the process of doing that, my upper set of teeth slowly moved inwards, and the top and bottom can meet each other finally after so many years of being so close yet so far.

At that time, the dentist was telling me I should be able to take out in a few months' time. But this 'few months syndrome' dragged for another few more months. Even till half a year after, I still haven't taken it out.

There was still a lot of fine-tuning and minor adjustments. Had to wear those elastics to make the molars at the back more aligned, or to make the front centerline equal, and stuff like that.

If you think that the pain is lessened since there isn't much adjustments to do, that's where you are wrong. Each time the trip back to the dentist's is a source of pain. Tightening the wire, putting more power chains, and having to put on some weird elastics at the weirdest places.

After a series of false alarms, I finally went to remove my braces last friday. Really couldn't bear to do so... and the thought of having to go through all the plucking and the mould again just puts me off. I couldn't imagine how I'd look after removing it either.

Ah well, no choice, I have to remove it sooner or later. So on friday, dear came over to my house for lunch before my dad drove us to my dental clinic. Waited for a while for my turn to come, then we entered the room.

The dentist was saying finally able to remove already. So he took his tools, and said, "You'll feel some discomfort when I'm removing, but don't worry, I'll be holding on to your teeth." Oh wow.

So he went clipping off all the metal brackets from the teeth. One by one, they all came off. Though for some of them, the pressure felt was greater, but at least it was all for a short while only. Not as bad as I'd imagined.

Then here comes the worst part of all... Removing the metal rings at the 4 molars. It was totally oh-my-god. He was pulling and pulling and pulling! It's like pulling off my molar? Imagine the metal rings covering the molar for 2 years there, and he didn't spray anything to dissolve the glue or anything. Just plain pulling.

He was tackling the bottom 2 first. The left side wasn't as bad as the right side, which was the first one he attempted to pull. Gosh, it seems so difficult to pull out. He tried changing the direction of pull, and continued pulling and tugging. Think my right molar is so 可怜. It went through the most trauma through out these 2 years, yet now it is still not having a good time.

After he finally took the 2 bottom rings out, I still couldn't resist trying to feel for the molar with my tongue. This time, my tongue touched the right molar a bit, and I thought I tasted something like blood. But I dismissed it as probably the glue or something.

Then he went on to the 2 upper molars, which were really much better. He did something to the rings before trying to pull. I wonder if he tried to saw it off, cos it sounded like he did. LOL... =x

After removing all the metal, he was asking me, "Feels weird eh? But it's weird in a good way." But actually it doesn't feel any much different to me. Then he went on to use this thing with a long, red tip to remove all the cement from my teeth.

When all that is done, here comes the 2nd worst part of the day. The mould. =x Okay, so when he took the mould for the lower jaw, it was all smooth and rather well. So I began to suspect if I remembered wrongly, and that it really wasn't that bad after all.

Then came the mould for the upper jaw. The moment he put it in, I tried my best to psycho myself not to think about it. But I just can't! So there my throat was, threatening to vomit all those stuff invading my mouth.

The dentist, like the previous time, tried to raise the chair so I wouldn't choke on my own vomit (that is, if I really did puke). Then he told me to breathe in and out slowly. He told me to breathe through my nose. The problem is, each time I tried to breathe in through my nose, I have an even greater urge to puke. LOL...

So I just tried to breathe through my mouth instead, but he still continued to ask me to breathe through my nose! And I was there frantically trying to tell him to stop telling me to breathe through my nose cos it's making things worse. HAHA.

Finally he took the disgusting thing out of my mouth and told me to take a rinse. The mould changed from a pink/purple colour when he put it into my mouth to white when he took it out. Dear was quite fascinated by that. -_-lll

After rinsing, I took a glance back at the mould, and saw the one for the lower jaw. Oh freak, I saw that there was a lot of blood at the position where both my molars are. I'm glad he didn't ask me to take a rinse before this, if not I'd probably have fainted in front of him. Not that I'm scared of the sight of blood (how could I be?), but the thought of anything to do with my teeth just sends a chill down my back.

Then we took an X-ray of my teeth, and I'm out of the room. The assistant tried to give me a slot for the other dentist to do the cleaning of my teeth, but didn't succeed. She gave me an appointment the next day on Saturday instead. So I went around with my weird looking teeth for a day.

The moment I looked into the mirror, I really totally can't get used to what I see. And I don't really like how I look. LOL! It just feels like there's something missing. I think I look older and thinner. =(

When I reached home and went to take off my contact lens, I looked into the mirror, and it just slipped off my mind that I've already took off my braces. I got a shock and wondered for a split second who is that in the mirror. I really don't know how dear got used to it, considering the fact that he had to face me the whole day. =x

Anyway, I woke up one morning only to find my lower right gum swollen. It's still swollen now. I certainly hope that molar is doing fine. Pray hard, pray hard... =x

Argh, hope I'd get used to it soon...

Then I went around taking photos with my family like I was some big shot. LOL! =x

And I simply can't get used to this person I see on my camera...

And these are the things which cause so much disturbance to me!

I think I have some 5 of them somewhere in my gut... I hope it's out already by now though... =x

My braces has gone through a very important part of my life with me. It stuck with me through thick and thin. Now that it's no longer with me, I really kind of miss it. I love the colour it brings to my face.

Oh well...

P.S. Actually I did a collage showing the journey of how my teeth changed through the 2 years, but my sis said it's too disgusting! So I pressed 'delete'... =(

Bye then, the metal journey.