• Getting Braces Attached on My Teeth
• First Day
• First Week
• Summary

Getting Braces Attached on My Teeth

The office visit for getting braces took about two hours. First, dental assistants took some pictures of me – two X-rays, my face from front and side, both with smiles and without smiles. Then, they moved onto polishing my teeth. After that, finally, the process of attaching brackets started.

Attaching brackets and wires took two people, my dentist, and one dental assistant. First, the dental assistant put sunglasses on my face. The sunglasses protected my eyes from UV lights used to cure the adhesive. Before putting the first bracket, my dentist put something really sour in the back of my mouth near my bottom right molar. The disgusting liquid kept leaking onto my tongue, and I couldn’t wait for the dental assistant to remove it.

After the sour liquid (whatever it was), my doctor attached a bracket on my back right molar on the bottom. When she approved the positioning of the bracket, the dental assistant held UV light over the molar and secured it to the position. They repeated the same procedure starting from the molar on the other side until all my bottom teeth had brackets.

After that, the dental assistant randomly asked me what color I wanted. I wasn’t sure what he was asking. It turned out that he was asking me what color of rubber bands I want on my brackets. I wanted to be as discrete as possible so I picked clear. Then they moved onto adding a U-shaped wire on my brackets with the rubber bands. The doctor carefully measured the length and attached it by using special devices. Once the wire was in place, I felt some pressure all over on my gums and teeth, but there was no pain from the braces.

They repeated exactly the same procedure on my top teeth from attaching the brackets to adding a wire. I felt no difference between getting metal braces versus ceramic braces. It took about an hour total to attach the brackets and wires. Once the whole process was done, the dentist showed me how to apply orthodontic wax on my braces. Then she sent me home with a care packet (a take-home instruction sheet, a mouth mirror, orthodontic wax, dental floss samples, a toothbrush, and a small hourglass).

Pain?

Overall there wasn’t too much pain associated with braces getting attached to my teeth, just some uncomfortableness. During the whole process, my lips got badly chapped. While the pictures were taken and the braces were attached, the doctor and the dental assistant literally pulled my lips to every direction you can think of, and it felt like my lips were splitting in half… The doctor applied lip balms several times during the visit, but I should’ve asked to apply it more often.

Also, some dental tools poked my gums, and it caused some sharp pains. I flagged my dentist every time it happened to minimize the pains.

First Day

How did the braces look?

The moment of truth. Was paying extra for getting white brackets worth it?

Honestly, my heart sunk when I saw my teeth the first time. I didn’t expect to look cute with the braces, but the white brackets looked so huge on my top teeth (they felt huge, too). They were more visible than I hoped… The color blended well with my teeth but I didn’t know the size of the white brackets was larger than the metal ones. Another disappointment was that the metal brackets on the bottom teeth were more visible than I imagined. I thought they would never show but the shiny metal twinkled whenever I talked or smiled.

Braces Pain on the first day

When I first left my dentist’s office, I was totally fine. All I felt was a little pressure on my teeth. Unfortunately, it was just the beginning…

As time went by, I felt more and more pressure on my teeth. Three hours later, I felt sore in my entire mouth. If you ever experienced any pain from your wisdom teeth growing, imagine that pain is everywhere in your mouth.

Biting and chewing made the pain even worse. Every time I bit into anything, sharp pains shot through my teeth. I had planned to eat a small bowl of chicken salad, fried calamari, and chocolate pudding for the night. I should’ve planned softer food for the dinner, but I underestimated the amount of pain.

My front teeth were completely useless. To eat a piece of chicken, I used my front teeth just to hold it in place and used a fork to rip a small piece off. Biting off was not an option.

Back molars were a little less painful, but they were still too sore to chew hard. When I tried to eat a tiny piece of calamari, a wire in my back molar came off! The take-home instruction sheet from the dentist didn’t list calamari, and I thought the calamari was small and soft enough…

Thankfully, the instruction sheet mentioned “how to fix loose wire at home”, and I was able to put the loose wire back into the hole. After this incident, I was too paranoid to chew anything on the back molar. I only put tiny pieces of food in my mouth and just swallowed them whole. The only thing I was able to eat without problems was chocolate pudding. By the time I ate all my food for the night, almost two hours had passed.

First Week

Braces Pain on the First Week

The first week was definitely rough. The teeth pain I felt on the first day continued to bother me whenever I was awake.

On top of having the dull aches, the brackets agitated inside of my mouth. One of the brackets on my back molar had a hook. It was sharp enough to leave some cuts inside of my cheek. To relieve the pain, I put a small amount of orthodontic wax on the hook until the cuts healed.

I also put some orthodontic wax on my bottom brackets before I went to sleep. Without it, the brackets left painful indentations inside of my bottom lips during the night.

Eating was still the biggest challenge in my daily life. I got sharp pains all over in my mouth. I needed to make conscious choices about what to eat. Mac N’ cheese, soups, and oatmeals were all I could eat. I was frustrated with not being able to enjoy food like I used to. Naturally, the frequency of snacking decreased. In a matter of three days, I quickly dropped a few pounds off my body. 

The front teeth seemed slow to heal compared to the molars. When I wanted to chew anything, I moved the food to the back of my mouth. At least, the pain slowly faded as time went by. It took 10 days for me to feel somewhat normal.

Taking Care of Braces

I had to make habit of brushing my teeth every time I ate anything. Every time I ate, the food stuck everywhere I never imagined before the braces. I was embarrassed to smile or talk until brushing my teeth.

On top of brushing, I purchased a Waterpik and special floss for braces to deep clean my teeth at least once a day.

Summary

Overall, getting braces is relatively pain-free, but living with braces for the first week is whole another story. My very first week with braces was rougher than I imagined. I totally underestimated the uncomfortableness and the pains associated with the braces. I ate soft food for more than a week, and I’ve been deep cleaning my teeth every day after the braces.

If you are looking into getting braces yourself for the first time, I hope my experiences gave you some insight. Thank you for reading and good luck with your orthodontic journey! Please leave some comments below if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you:)

The post My Braces Experience – Do Braces Hurt? appeared first on Simply A Homebody.

• My Dental Condition
• Types of Braces – Going To Consultations
• Cost of Adult Braces – Traditional Braces without Insurance
• How I Chose My Doctor for My Adult Braces
• Summary

My Dental Condition

The cost and the treatment options vary depending on personal dental conditions. Here is my condition and the brief history before starting the treatment.

I’ve considered getting braces over the last seven years ever since my previous dentist told me that my teeth were crowded. I’ve avoided braces not because I was scared of the dental work but because the cost seemed too high for some minor crowding issue. At that point, my misalignment wasn’t severe so I ignored this matter for as long as I could.

Now, after seven years of procrastinating, my teeth alignment is kind of a mess… One of my bottom teeth fell forward. Another tooth fell inward. Some of my front teeth are overlapping each other. They became very difficult to brush.

After talking to some specialist, my case was classified as minor crowding on the top and moderate crowding on the bottom.

Types of Braces – Going To Consultations

I went to three different dental/orthodontic offices for consultations. All consultations were free.

I discussed four types of orthodontic treatment options during the consultations:

• Traditional metal braces
• White Ceramic Braces
• Lingual Braces
• Clear Aligner (Invisalign)

My first reaction was to consider Invisalign because I liked the idea of being discrete. But after talking to all three dental professionals, I became unsure of this option. They all told me that Invisalign is more expensive (about $1000 -$2000 more than the traditional metal/ceramic options), and takes longer to correct the alignment because it provides less control for the professionals to adjust the tooth movement.

Especially with my case, wearing rubber bands would be a must during the course of treatment. One of the orthodontist informed that it was possible to wear rubber bands with Invisalign but more difficult compared to the traditional options.

Next, I suggested another discrete option – lingual braces. Unfortunately, I was immediately shot down at my first consultation. The specialist told me that the space inside my mouth is already so small. If I got any braces back of my teeth, my tongue would have nowhere to go, and I would have terrible speech problems.

At that point, there are only two options – the metal braces and the white ceramic braces.

I wanted to avoid the metal braces option at all costs. I wouldn’t be able to pull off that look for even a second. (Katy Perry can, but not me – Remember “Last Friday Night” music video?)

Considering I wanted something discrete, the white ceramic braces became my best option. Even though people could see I have braces, the color blended much better with my natural teeth.

The cost of ceramic braces was a little pricier (about $1000 more) than the metal braces. The dental professionals recommended me to get ceramic braces on my top teeth and metal braces on the bottom so that I could reduce the cost. When I smiled, my bottom teeth didn’t show, so I decided to go with the half-and-half option in the end.

One thing good about the traditional braces was the shorter duration of treatment. I wanted to get this over FAST! Who wants some foreign objects in their mouth any longer than necessary? My treatment should last approximately 12 – 18 months. I’m hoping that’s accurate…

Cost of Adult Braces – traditional braces without insurance

After deciding to go with white ceramic option on top and metal braces on the bottom, I compared the cost of the adult braces with each dental/orthodontic offices:

• My primary dentist ($4200)
• Orthodontist A ($6500)
• Orthodontist B ($4500)

All prices are without insurance since I don’t have any orthodontic dental plan under my dental insurance. All offices had in-office payment plan and some provided more discounts if I paid all cost up front.

I also asked about dental discount plans at each office. Unfortunately, none of my selected offices accepted them.

How I Chose My Doctor for My Adult Braces

Now my treatment plan and all quotes were in, I had a decision to make. WHO DO I CHOOSE? Long story short, I decided to choose my primary dentist for my treatment. Some of them might question me “why didn’t you choose an orthodontist? they are the specialists!” I’ll be honest. I was hesitant to choose my dentist over the other orthodontists, who had extra educations and more experiences in treating mispositioned teeth and jaws. But I have my reasons, and here is why.

One of the Orthodontist (Orthodontist A) was great. In the office, I received complimentary X-rays, pictures, and exams, and the orthodontist A spent time going through treatment options in detail. I knew exactly which treatment options were better for me and what she was planning to do. Only concern with her was the cost. $6500 seemed pretty steep compared to other places…

The other orthodontist (Orthodontist B) presented much cheaper price, but I remembered how hard it was for me to communicate with him. During the consultation, he checked my mouth about 15 seconds and told me that he could give me braces cheaper than anywhere else in my neighborhood. I asked him if he would take X-rays to further examine my conditions. He responded that he would not take X-Rays unless I signed a contract (In their website, it stated the X-rays were included in the free consultation).

I was already discouraged at that point but kept asking different options of treatments that I was interested in. He kept mentioning the cost but wasn’t much of a help giving me any recommendations regarding which treatment options would benefit my alignment. I left office feeling somewhat disrespected. I felt he didn’t care about me as a patient but only cared about my money. Getting braces is a long term commitment. I couldn’t stand talking to him not even 30 minutes. I couldn’t imagine visiting his office every month for more than a year.

Unlike other orthodontists I visited, I had a long term relationship with my dentist. I have been visiting her office for past five years, and she’s always been easy to talk to. When I had my initial concerns with her orthodontic skills, I researched her past work online and saw she had some experiences in adult braces. I found some examples similar to mine and they looked great. That wasn’t the only reassuring fact. When I discussed braces with my dentist, her treatment plan was identical to Orthodontist A’s recommendation (the one with $6500 price tag). Then I thought to myself – why should I pay more for the same plan?

Summary

Overall, my hunt for the right orthodontic treatments went well. I visited multiple dental/orthodontic specialists and explored all options before deciding what was best for me. The cost of adult braces are not cheap without or even with insurance. Considering the cost is important but it is also important how comfortable I am with the specialist. Getting braces is a long term commitment after all. I need to be able to discuss any issues may come up during the course of treatment.

If you are looking to get braces as an adult like me, I hope sharing my experience can help your hunt for your orthodontic treatment. I will periodically post my treatment updates in the future if interested. Please feel free to leave comments if any questions for me!

The post My Adult Braces Experience – The Cost and The Options appeared first on Simply A Homebody.