Adult Braces: My Origin Story

My mouth is jacked up.  Let's just put that out there from the start...  My bite is crooked and so are my teeth.  My upper arch was straightened when I was 15-16 years old.  The lower arch never had braces.  As a result, the problems with my bite were not corrected properly.  But, that's a story for another day. Today, however, I'm wearing braces in my late 30's.  I have a nightly routine of caring for my braces and then putting on anti-aging cream.  Hence, the "Wrinkle Cream & Dental Wax" title of this blog.

As I aged, my teeth moved drastically.  The molars started turning toward the inside of my mouth--as though my cheeks were pushing the teeth toward my tongue.  Basically, the chewing surface of my molars (the part that should have been straight up and down) were pointing toward the inside of my mouth.  The smooth sides of the teeth became my mashing surfaces, instead of the grooved divots of my molars.

Additionally, only my right molars actually made contact with each other.  For as long as I can remember, I could only chew on the right side of my mouth.  My left side teeth NEVER touched.  Needless to say, I'm a slow eater.  And, there are a lot of foods that I never could eat.  For example:

• corn on the cob
• apples
• ribs
• hamburgers with uncut lettuce, onions or pickles
• meat on the bone
• spring rolls
• and so many more things

And, don't even get me started on celery or other stringy fruits and vegetables.  Basically, anything that required your front incisors to cut the food, I couldn't eat it.  Well, I couldn't eat it like most people would.  I would have to bite it with the right side molars (not a pretty picture, btw) or cut it up and use a fork or other utensils and somehow get that food back to the molars on the right side of my mouth.

When I was married, I didn't realize how bad my bite was.  My husband and I were discussing the differences in our eating habits one night and I was shocked to learn that he could chew with BOTH sides of his mouth.  I really thought he was a superhero, or something--that's how ignorant I was about my bite!  At this point in our early marriage, my upper arch was still fairly straight.  

As the years went on, everything shifted out of place.  I decided that I would wait until my oldest was in braces to begin treatment for myself.  I had really hoped for a Buy One, Get One 1/2 Off deal, but that's not exactly how orthodontics work.  Nevertheless, I went with my oldest to the initial consultation.  We found out some really interesting things together.  Mostly, that she inherited my jaw (sorry, baby girl).  Apparently, we both have a condition where one side of our jaw is actually lower than the other, which causes the bite on that side to not close completely.  In the x-ray below, you can clearly see that there is a difference in height of each side of my jaw.  The red arrow is my right jaw, the blue arrow is the left.

Gross, right?  If this had been corrected when I was 15 and still growing (like my oldest is), the orthodontics would be much simpler.  In my late 30's, however, the correction is a bit more tricky.  Apparently, I'm old and set in my ways.  Well, at least my bones are. 

So, here we go.  The plan has been put into action.  Beginning in February 2018, I'm in braces for approximately 30 months.