Pre AcceleDent and Days 1-5

I have been taking pictures of my teeth since day 2 of my treatment but am just now getting around to posting pics. I am hoping to post each week as life allows. I apologize ahead of time for the terrible iphone photos.

Here is what I looked like pre-braces.

Not too bad to the average eye I suppose but the bite is just terrible and was leading to TMJ.

Here I am when I first got my old braces on.

Boy it's crowded in there isn't it?

And here I is where the progress brought me just a couple of weeks before I had my old ones removed and the new ones put on.

 Notice that there is A LOT more space in that mouth. But they angle downward on the right, the top doesn't meet the bottom and they are inside the bottom teeth. The lower center teeth are overlapped and the tooth to the left of those center teeth leans outward, kind of like it wants to jump out of that messy mouth. Also, the upper two center teeth are not even. The right is lower than the left. And dont even ask about that white wire. Sheesh.

This is day 2 of new braces and AcceleDent. Can you see the difference cause I sure can!! The top two are much more even, the bottom two are no longer overlapped and the tooth to the left looks like he is deciding to stay a while. He has moved back into the mouth a bit more. There is also less space between the 3rd tooth on the top right and the teeth on the bottom. Does this make sense? Folks, I am seeing a good bit of movement after just TWO DAYS  with the device. This past week has me so hopeful. I may not be in braces for two years after all!!

Below you will see a collage of the above pics plus days 3-5. The movement is less noticeable but it is there. Believe me, I have stared at and compared these pics until I was seeing my mouth in my own dreams.  Not really but close I"m sure.

 Anyway, I will see you all again in a week. Hope you all are having a great Christmas season!!

How It All Began

So why would a 36 year old Mom of 5 want braces? Simple. I wanted to be proud of my smile but also be able to understand what my oldest is going to be going through in about a year. Having never had braces before, I wanted to be able to understand and help my daughter through her experience. Little did I know however that my need for braces would outweigh my simple desires.

My journey with this mouth full of metal and  sores began in May of 2014. After three ortho consults, I settled on an orthodontist whom I liked and (more importantly) could afford. I would come to later regret making my decision based on price though.

My braces were put on in May and other than being terribly sore for about a week, things were progressing rather normally. The first two months the only treatment I received was changing of the rubber bands. During my third month of treatment I found out that we would be making an unexpected move out of state. When I mentioned this to the orthodontist, treatment was abruptly stopped. I was told I would be notified when my records were ready to be picked up.

That was the last I heard from them for a month.

The day before we moved, I called to inquire about said records. I was told they were not ready but could be sent to my new orthodontist. I was suppose to be referred to one per my orthodontist's request but nothing was ever mentioned about that again.

Fast forward to November of 2014 and I still had no records. Both myself and an orthodontist office in my new state had, at this point, been trying for 5 weeks to get records with no success. I was beyond frustrated and very worried about the fact that I had been three months without any ortho care. Teeth move in that time-a lot.

Finally, after a very uncharacteristicly frank call from me, they finally agreed to mail the records to my home. With records in hand, I was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief and begin my search for a new orthodontist. (The one I was planning to go to didn't work out.)

So, for two weeks I searched for a new ortho. I scoured the Internet, read reviews and prayed my heart out. I wanted to find the right one and fast. Time was against me in my opinion.

I ended up going to 6, yes 6 different consultations. They all basically told me the same thing:

-my brackets weren't placed on correctly to begin with
-my teeth were worse than when I began treatment
-I have a cross-bite
-my teeth and face are asymmetrical

Something that I got differing opinions about was surgery. Because I am no longer a growing teen, the "only way" to fix a cross-bite is through surgery. Not happy. Actually, quite horrified. I had visions of my being in these poorly placed braces for the rest of my life.

But, then I met Dr. B. Since this isn't a review of his practice I won't go into great detail about him but I will say that he put all my fears at ease and made me feel better than I had felt in months about the direction of my treatment.

Under Dr. B's care, my treatment was to last two years - since I was already worse than when I began - he also didn't believe that surgery would be required. Yay!! Once I found out about AcceleDent I decided to add that devise to my treatment. I am already 36, kinda getting old and didn't want to be in braces until I was 38!!!! Yikes.

So What Is It?

AcceleDent Aura is a hands free device that uses SoftPulse technology to basically vibrate your teeth to move faster. Want a prettier sounding definition? Check out AcceleDent's website.

The purpose of this blog is to document my journey using this device along with Dr. B's ortho treatment. I am hoping that by documenting how this device works for me I may be able to help someone else make an informed decision about whether or not AcceleDent is worth spending more money on.

Speaking of which, since my Orthodontist had some devices in his office, I was able to get mine at a discounted price. That helped - a lot.

So, if you are at all curious as to how - or if - AcceleDent works, stay tuned. I hope we are all pleasantly surprised.