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in which i am tired of my teeth.
I had the braces tightened (re-tied, I guess, is the technical term) on Tuesday. I'm now approximately 1/3 through with this process, and I'm not going to lie, the end cannot come too soon.
I mean. I'm old enough to know that a year is not forever. And nothing has been quite as excruciating as the couple of days after I had the things put on the first time, which was in turn nowhere near as excruciating as everything leading up to getting them in the first place. (When I'm unhappy now all I have to do is remind myself that a year ago September I didn't sleep for three weeks, and then a year ago February I had a headache that I couldn't shake for a month, which localized around the socket of my right eye and took me through a round of antibiotics and a CT scan before the ENT sent me to the dentist and my problems began to be solved, though admittedly not without a detour past a broken tooth and root canal.) And of course the first few days of tugging teeth to yet another new place are going to hurt more than the next five weeks of making sure they stay there before tugging them someplace else next time.
But this time, the achiest bit is the bottom right side, where the crown is. Most of the time I'm sure the ache over there is leftover trauma from everything that's happened to that tooth in the past year; I can't chew on it at the moment, because it feels like there's a bruise under it when I try, and that's pretty much what it's felt like in the other teeth when they've been achy and I've had to favor them. But some of the time I think, when it was broken and needed root canal it hurt, and what if the root canal didn't quite get everything it was trying to get? (On the other hand, if there were a tiny bit of root left, wouldn't it hurt more than this by now?) Or, the tooth next to it was also cracked and just has an onlay; what if I'm wrong about the exact location of the ache I'm feeling now, and that tooth needs root canal as well? (I'm almost certainly not wrong about the exact location of the ache I'm feeling now.) Or, could there be a cavity in there somewhere? (But again, wouldn't that hurt more than this?) Pressure hurts at the moment; cold does as well, but that's been true since the crown was put in - and cold doesn't hurt as much as (a) it did before the root canal, when it was excruciating, or (b) it did the time I did have a cavity under a filling and had to go get it taken care of extra-pronto. Also, the root is gone!, so I'm pretty sure the cold is twinging in the gums around the tooth. So I waffle between thinking Yeah, I'm going to need to tough this one out for a while, and thinking Ack, something is very wrong and there will be infections and I'll have to have surgery or else a quarter of my jaw will fall off and/or something will get in the bloodstream and into my brain and I will go mad or die.
On top of which, for this round the end of the wire in the back right corner has got what I believe the ortho called a "hammerhead" bend on it, which, whatever, they can call it what they want, but what it is is a hook, and it's cut hell out of the inside of my cheek. Every time they tighten things, a different bit is the sharpest and causes trouble against a previously-undisturbed area of soft skin. I've got calluses on the inside of my lower lip, and last time there were a couple of days of something roughing up the inside of my left cheek, but this time on the right it's worse than either of those, hurting quite a lot and getting kind of worryingly swollen, so I've given it some extra Listerine soaks in case there's any infection brewing and finally, very patiently, got the wax to stick on the very back where the pointiest bit is so it can't dig at me in my sleep. (This is the first time the sharpest bit has been so hard to reach, as well.)
I never had this much trouble with my teeth before a year ago. Then suddenly they were the bane of my existence. No fair, I say.
I mean. I'm old enough to know that a year is not forever. And nothing has been quite as excruciating as the couple of days after I had the things put on the first time, which was in turn nowhere near as excruciating as everything leading up to getting them in the first place. (When I'm unhappy now all I have to do is remind myself that a year ago September I didn't sleep for three weeks, and then a year ago February I had a headache that I couldn't shake for a month, which localized around the socket of my right eye and took me through a round of antibiotics and a CT scan before the ENT sent me to the dentist and my problems began to be solved, though admittedly not without a detour past a broken tooth and root canal.) And of course the first few days of tugging teeth to yet another new place are going to hurt more than the next five weeks of making sure they stay there before tugging them someplace else next time.
But this time, the achiest bit is the bottom right side, where the crown is. Most of the time I'm sure the ache over there is leftover trauma from everything that's happened to that tooth in the past year; I can't chew on it at the moment, because it feels like there's a bruise under it when I try, and that's pretty much what it's felt like in the other teeth when they've been achy and I've had to favor them. But some of the time I think, when it was broken and needed root canal it hurt, and what if the root canal didn't quite get everything it was trying to get? (On the other hand, if there were a tiny bit of root left, wouldn't it hurt more than this by now?) Or, the tooth next to it was also cracked and just has an onlay; what if I'm wrong about the exact location of the ache I'm feeling now, and that tooth needs root canal as well? (I'm almost certainly not wrong about the exact location of the ache I'm feeling now.) Or, could there be a cavity in there somewhere? (But again, wouldn't that hurt more than this?) Pressure hurts at the moment; cold does as well, but that's been true since the crown was put in - and cold doesn't hurt as much as (a) it did before the root canal, when it was excruciating, or (b) it did the time I did have a cavity under a filling and had to go get it taken care of extra-pronto. Also, the root is gone!, so I'm pretty sure the cold is twinging in the gums around the tooth. So I waffle between thinking Yeah, I'm going to need to tough this one out for a while, and thinking Ack, something is very wrong and there will be infections and I'll have to have surgery or else a quarter of my jaw will fall off and/or something will get in the bloodstream and into my brain and I will go mad or die.
On top of which, for this round the end of the wire in the back right corner has got what I believe the ortho called a "hammerhead" bend on it, which, whatever, they can call it what they want, but what it is is a hook, and it's cut hell out of the inside of my cheek. Every time they tighten things, a different bit is the sharpest and causes trouble against a previously-undisturbed area of soft skin. I've got calluses on the inside of my lower lip, and last time there were a couple of days of something roughing up the inside of my left cheek, but this time on the right it's worse than either of those, hurting quite a lot and getting kind of worryingly swollen, so I've given it some extra Listerine soaks in case there's any infection brewing and finally, very patiently, got the wax to stick on the very back where the pointiest bit is so it can't dig at me in my sleep. (This is the first time the sharpest bit has been so hard to reach, as well.)
I never had this much trouble with my teeth before a year ago. Then suddenly they were the bane of my existence. No fair, I say.