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Neck swelling went down, throat is no longer sore and my cankers are healing pretty nicely. I’ve been mega-dosing on Ester-C, oregano oil and propolis extract (to fight off the infection and boost my immune system).

Pineapples, as much as I love them, are gone from my menu until I’m done with the braces. Too many painful memories *shudder*

I’m in so much pain!

Here’s a tip: don’t eat pineapples when you’re wearing braces, especially if they’re not ripe. Every time I eat a pineapple I end up with bleeding cheeks and gums. A few pieces might be okay, but I can never stop at just a few. The acid burns off the delicate skin and the brackets rub raw flesh. Why do I keep eating them? Sometimes I crave them, but this is too much even for me!

I had a pineapple a couple of days ago and I ran out of wax (keep forgetting to buy it). Now I have a gigantic sore “the size of Texas” on the lower right and I think it’s infected. My tongue is still lacerated and now burned, my throat hurts when I swallow and – get this – my neck is swollen on the right side. The gland in the neck is inflamed because of the infected sore! Just like some people get swollen neck from strep throats and other infections.

I can’t believe I was so reckless and lazy. If you think it must be not that painful, trust me – it’s very painful, very raw, constant pain. It’s just I’m pretty lazy in the winter and it’s been getting really cold outside. I work at home and prefer to not step out in cold weather unless I absolutely have to.

Of course, now I’m worrying myself sick, really hoping it’s not something more serious. I’m wearing a warm scarf, keep rinsing with salty warm water a lot and avoiding the sweets. I’m trying to talk less, but that’s not always possible. My clients must think I’m drunk half the time with my slurring, but a mean and serious kind of drunk, not fun and bubbly. Hard to be bubbly with this stuff in my mouth

Had my 7th adjustment on January 23rd, 2007. That’s seven adjustments in 10 months, I can’t complain about not getting enough attention, huh?

4 additional posts were screwed into my upper jaw in the back: 2 on the outside, 2 on the inside. The procedure was very similar to the previous two times, except the inner implants weren’t screwed in manually. The doc used a machine to drill them in. As unpleasant as that sounds, these were the ones I felt the least. It took very little time. He was done with both and I thought he didn’t even start the first one.

Another difference was that the outer screws used were a lot longer this time. One of the implants is sitting very far up in the bone, at an angle (upper left side – right side for you). An assistant told me they had 100% success rate with placements so deep in the hard bone. Basically, it’s right in my cheek now.

Since all 4 were placed in the back, the freezing shots were also done back there, way too close to my throat! At the highest frozen point I had a difficulty breathing, my throat muscles were immobilized. I was choking, but the strangled feeling subsided within half an hour. I just tried to not panic during the placements (as that would make me breath more often) and avoided looking into the mirror. This was the first time I had my eyes completely shut. I guess I was freaking out more than ever this time, because this is turning into a repetitive nightmare.

My mouth and cheeks are sore, I can’t really open my mouth wide. These are the only 2 shots I was able to take, can’t keep it open too long.

I have no fever or hot feeling in the cheeks this time. Overall it’s slightly less painful, but my tongue is completely shredded and swollen. My speech is really slurred, and I don’t think this is the case where it gets better the more you talk. I think I need to take a break, talk less and let the tongue heal. This must be similar to what lingual braces are like. I’m not liking it.

Pictures were taken 3 days after my 6th adjustment, but I don’t want to post gross-looking teeth anymore and not much movement happened in the 3 days anyway. I got my chompers cleaned and aren’t looking pretty?

At the adjustment:
- I got a very heavy inflexible wire
- blue bite turbos were removed
- all of my implants were un-tied
- they added a bracket to my left wisdom tooth but didn’t put the wire into it
- I got some bad news

I’m tired of getting upset over my teeth anymore. It seems every adjustment brings more crappy news, and delays, and complications. I’m resigning myself from worrying about the treatment. I’m just going to take whatever comes. I mean, eventually it’s bound to end well, right?

The bad news was that – like I noticed the last time – the teeth are in contact at the back, but not in contact at the front. My bite is messed up. This will probably add on at least 6 months of treatment, maybe more. So the doc said he’ll have to put in 4 (FOUR!) more microimplants at the next appointment. All of them will go into the upper arch, 2 on the outside and 2 on the inside.

Again, my teeth will get mucky with the stupid Peridex and more pain. I don’t know what bothers me the most.

Not much happened at the 5th adjustment, it was probably the shortest one ever! Elastics were changed, bends added to the wire and implant ties are still the same. And I still haven’t gotten my teeth cleaned, I just didn’t have the time.

This is my mouth maximally closed. I still have the “bite turbos” that don’t allow contact between the jaws, but it seems to me I no longer need them, the bite is open as it is. Check out the left side view:

My last (#8, wisdom) tooth is not braced. They added in a bend in the wire to even out the position of the #6 tooth – the one right after the extraction spot. You can see I really don’t need the blue bumps anymore, my teeth are not in contact anywhere, except at the very back. They bucked and are now in a weird arch. At least the spaces at the bottom seem to be closing if not quickly, but steadily.