Braces

 

Nope, not for any of the kids (yet...), for ME!

This Thursday I go in to get braces put on. For as long as I can remember I've had pain on my left side of my mouth. I assumed I had a cavity (or multiple cavities) but when I went to the dentist I did not. I haven't had a single cavity in almost 20 years. (I'm oddly and obnoxiously proud of this fact. LOL!) The pain is actually my jaw. Very very recently I found out I have TMJ, the pain got worse and I finally spoke up, and I learned my jaw is off, big time. If you look at a picture of me it'll look like I have a double chin on my left side as well. This happens now and it happened when I was 30 lbs lighter. I just thought it was just my face. Nope! My jaw is not aligned correctly. My back teeth don't sit correctly and it's caused a major overbite. My molars all sit in weird different ways, one almost sits sideways. The older I get, it gets worse and worse. Unfortunately the pain get worse and worse as time goes on too. I got two opinions and both agreed the best course of action...BRACES! Yippee for me! Yup, full on, 13 year old, metal braces. No ivisalign for this girl. 

This picture is a great example of what my jaw is doing.  This was taken a few months ago on Lexi's birthday. My left side (your right) is just bigger, it sticks out on the bottom creating a double chin almost. I could've posted 500 pictures of myself and they would all look this way. Until I asked about the pain and really looked at pictures of myself I didn't notice it as much. But now it's all I see. If I looked at you and clenched my jaw you would see drastically how much the left side of my face sticks out more than the right. My face just isn't even. I don't know that it'll ever be perfect, obviously, but I'm told this will help. Both the dentist and orthodontist I saw told me if I don't get this taken care of now, it'll just cause me more problems, more pain and my jaw alignment will just get worse. I've learned a lot about the mouth, teeth and jaw in these past few months. Taking care of your mouth and teeth is so damn important!!

They say I should have them on for about 12-15 months. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm not thrilled about having braces BUT I am excited to not be in pain anymore and I'm looking forward to getting my teeth straightened out. I've been self conscious about my smile for a long long time. The older I get the more crowded and crooked my teeth get, so I'm very thankful to be getting this taken care of. But most of all I am just relieved to avoid a major problem with my jaw. Straight teeth is just a bonus!

So if you see me sometime in the next year or so and I have a mouth full of metal...you know why!

Wish me luck!!