quickie

First 3 days of chewing were painful. Now chewing is not much of a problem except for the occasional squids.

But rice & nuts on the other hand are a pain to eat. they keep dropping into the cavities and getting stuck in between the teeth and wires!! :(

Pain wise... It's so funny because the ache shifts from one teeth to another each day. On the first day it was the molars, then it moved on to the front teeth. Now it's only the pre molar on the left side that's hurting just minimally. I'm not sure if it means my teeth have moved successfully?

 I've been religiously taking photos of my teeth everyday! 

I think they have shifted abit, I hope it's not an illusion!

First Consultation

 

After much googling and research, I finally decided on Alfred Cheng Orthodontic Clinic!! I dunno if I'm lucky or what, I got an appointment quite quickly - like I only had to wait a week or so (maybe cos I'm a potential customer? hahaha) Many of the orthodontists that my friends introduced, either they were all FULLY booked till april, or the doctors don't come to the clinic on Saturdays. -_-

 

Many bloggers and forumers introduced Dr Cheng, but when the lady at the other end of the line asked me which doctor I preferred, I said anything. In the end I was booked to meet Dr Wee instead.

 

So... fast forward to consultation day: It was relatively quick, now I understand when they said the doctors are chop chop no nonsense. I like it!

 

When I met Dr Wee for the first time, first thing he did was to take a look at my teeth, then explained that I have overcrowded teeth (which of course was quite obvious haha). He said my gums were pretty inflamed and my teeth were not in a good condition. I had to settle that first before the braces could be put on, in case my teeth are too weak to tahan the pressure...

 

So after that we explored the options of the braces - normal metal: $3.8k, and ceramics: $4.5k (all excluding gst hor but includes an xray and a mould).  Due to work, I decided to go for ceramics la, I'm already being called 小妹,  if I wear metal braces 别人不是不把我当一回事 ？

He asked me whether I needed some time to decide, but I was like, heck la, I'm gonna go for it. Let's just do it today. On the very same day, I did my xray and did my teeth mould on the spot.

 

The moulding was quite fast... Open mouth big big, then put some big blob of clay onto my teeth and press for awhile and take out. Do 2 times - one for the upper and another for the lower set of teeth.

 

Check out my teeth mould! Can see that it's terrible right?

 

front, right side, left side

 

 

Let's take a look at my xray!

 

Ok la actually I also 看不懂. From the xray I think they look pretty straight leh, but of cos I dunno how to understand an xray. I'm sure you can do better than me... My teeth are really crooked as you can see from the mould above. Ya ya ya I'm just trying to show off my xray lol. Oh ya now xrays are now all digital already, no more xray films like in the past!

So... I was due to extract 4 teeth. all pre-molars. relatively healthy teeth. -_-  I asked my dentist why they cannot extract the ones behind, need to extract the ones in the middle (by middle I mean between the front teeth and the molars)... So it was because it's simpler to leave a space in the centre and allow all teeth to space out, rather than leave a hole at the back and try to move all the teeth behind to space out. Sounds legit?

This first appointment was at the end of Jan. My next appointment was 9th March 2013 - a few weeks after CNY. I planned it nicely so that I could eat all the food during CNY, and do the cleaning and extractions after that. And I'd be ready to put on the braces!!! WOOT



first post!!

Hi everyone!!

I'm back to blogger after so many years, feels familiar yet strange...

Made a life-changing decision a few months back - straightening my teeth. I'm going to use this space to keep an archive of the little changes that have been made!!

My body has never been a straight one... Don't get me wrong, I'm straight (and I'm still supportive of the LGBT community!), & I love guys! haha it's just that many parts of my body are just... not straight, crooked I might say.

Ok, let's list down the main body parts of mine that are well, crooked.

1) Eyes.

Since young I was told that I had lazy eyes, but I recently googled the term and I think that's not the problem that I had. I think (without any doctor's consultation) that I have is Strabismus, also known as squint-eye and crossed-eye. It simply means that my eyes are not properly aligned with each other. If you still don't understand what that means, it means that when I look straight at you, my eyes seem to be looking at something behind/beside you. Basically it's like this la:

I should be the 2nd last case..

This problem kinda troubled me too, since young. It's more of a cosmetic problem than anything else actually. My mum was against surgery when I was a toddler, so I guess I gotta fix it in the future after this braces thing is done!

 2) Spine

You remember the body check up in pri/sec school where you have to strip for the nurses/doc? I'm sure everyone has fond memories of that period of time where we were so apprehensive about the event. Anyway, if you'd remember, we had that bending test where the doctor will place a ruler on your back and measure some thing? Ya I got diagnosed with SCOLIOSIS at that point of time. I just means my spine was crooked ,like this:

I was sec 3 back then, so the only way out was surgery cos I think my bend was quite serious at that time? seriously I can't remember much about it but the surgery was fixed at the end of the year during the school holidays. This was mostly a cosmetic problem too, my shoulders and hips were uneven at that time... So I stayed in the hospital for about a week for the operation. And as with any surgery to do with the spine, it was quite a major operation for me. I had screws fixed into my spine to straighten it. :) It was an agonising first few weeks after the operation I remember. I could not move my back and it was so painful to exert pressure to sit up/turn my body in bed. I couldn't breathe normally too, cos they had to insert some kind of tube into my lungs to suck out the water that was formed during the op? Something like that I guess, so I had to learn how to breathe in hard after the op too. And I had to wear this thick and white braces on my body to keep it straight and to prevent me from slouching. It was ugly, but I think I didn't keep it on for long, took it off after a few days cos it was unbearably warm inside!

After that it was 1 year off PE for me (much to my delight!). I managed to get off with no PE for my 2 years in JC, which I greatly regretted till now, but that's another story for another day.

3) Teeth
I've had unsightly teeth since young. Overcrowding at it's best. I was told that my jaws were too small to fit all my teeth, so they are all like overlapping each other -_- Not to mention I have these 虎牙on both sides too.

At a ripe old age of 24, I've made a decision to straighten them.

You know what? thinking back, it might be 一时冲动. hahaha. but too late to turn back now. it's already on me now~

let's take a look at the before...

Photo might be too small to see properly. But if you'd notice, there's a "hole" on my left side, which is caused by a tooth not being aligned with the rest of the teeth. I feel that my teeth is ok on photographs because it only shows the top row. Wait till you see the bottom row...

Yup, they are terribly misaligned/crooked/not straight. So, what was I gonna do about it? So many people are doing braces, I decided to go for it. 为了一生一次的结婚照。 ya damn vain right? But since people say... when you have braces on, you probably can't eat well. so why not? Killing 2 birds with 1 stone leh! Get a pretty smile + lose weight at the same time. What a good idea. I was sold. After much googling and reading blogs and forums about people's braces journey, I decided to embark on my own one.