Intro

I went to the dentist at the beginning of January 2012 for my normal cleaning.  This was a new dentist because I felt my old dentist didn't really listen to my concerns.  I got an excellent cleaning and finally the dentist came in.  "You need braces"...

That was the moment that changed my entire attitude.  Not invisalign..but the real metal mouth braces.  She referred me to an orthodontist who did a consult, molds, and x-rays.  I was born without the lateral incisor on my left side.  And by having that gap my entire life, it allowed my molars to slowly shift forward leaving my bite half a tooth off.  Sure would have been nice to get this fixed when I was a teenager! 

Over the next few weeks we ran through a few options.  Move my molars up and shape my K9 into a lateral incisor.  Remove wisdom teeth, move molars back, get an implant.  Remove second molar and expose the wisdom tooth so it will eventually take the place of the molar (for the record, that molar had a cavity). 

We went with option 3.  I made an appointment with the oral surgeon and went under IV sedation for the procedure.  That was the first time going under for me so I was scared and nervous and cried on my way there.  The experience was painless.  I was told it lasted only about 20 minutes.  I decided to go ahead and get my other widsom tooth out while I was there (full bony impact..luckily only born with the two teeth on the top!).  Recovery wasn't too bad.  The hardest part was trying to talk.  I had a pretty decent scar from the wisdom removal.  The biggest pain was getting all of the food that was trapped in the extraction site out.  I got the procedure done on a Wednesday and returned back to work on Monday.  I should have waited until Tuesday because no one could understand what I was saying so it was a wasted effort. 

With the third approach, it will be an 18-20 month treatment.  The biggest issue is having to move my K9 on my left side since it decided to move into the lateral incisors place.  Essentially that tooth needs to move 1.5 teeth and it has a super long root.  There is a whole list of things that are "wrong" with my mouth.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up with this blog as the weeks go on.