sovay | Take out your fucking retainer, put it in your purse

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Take out your fucking retainer, put it in your purse

I've had to get a year's worth of braces because the alternative was my teeth grinding into one another at angles that were causing them to splinter and would necessitate things like crowns and lots of composite if not realigned. The effects of this on my daily life are substantially nastier than I was led to believe and I don't know what the adjustment period is going to be like. Things inside my head are kind of terrible right now.

Hana Vojáčková's Milk & Sea. I think I love best the Icelandic mermaid with her trout-silver tail and the rill of turf-breaking rock that looks like a stream, but there is something about the German mermaid waiting for her bus, or maybe just watching the nighttime, commercial sea, that is a story all in one frame. I shouldn't write it before I write something with trees. Right now I am having trouble believing I will ever write anything, full stop.

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You made my day better by linking to that transcript of Pete Seger in the previous entry. It actually had an excellent answer to a situation I was helping with elsewhere, and gave some comfort to people who needed it.

I hope the dental work is nowhere near as dreadful as you fear. I have braces coping strategies for you if it is dreadful (did they give you dental wax? If not, poke me and I will tell you about it, and also about the merits of easily obtained numbing agents, like Orajel.)

I had three years of braces followed by extreme jaw surgery (both jaws broken and reset) followed by 5 years of maintenance, so I am something of an old hand at getting around the stupidity of braces and other dental appliances, and what one has to do to keep them from staining your teeth.

I love the bus waiting mermaid best, but that is perhaps because I spent so much of my youth waiting for buses.

It actually had an excellent answer to a situation I was helping with elsewhere, and gave some comfort to people who needed it.

I think that's wonderful. It is very fitting that he should be helping people with words spoken sixty years ago.

I have braces coping strategies for you if it is dreadful (did they give you dental wax? If not, poke me and I will tell you about it, and also about the merits of easily obtained numbing agents, like Orajel.)

They're Invisalign braces rather than wire-and-bracket (which I had for most of middle and high school), which is part of the problem. The number of composite attachments required to be bonded to my teeth in order to exert the necessary forces was far higher than I had been expecting, so that when I take the aligners out to eat, I have a very spiky mouthful of composite that my lips and tongue are doing their best to snag on at every opportunity, and the fact that I can only eat or drink with the aligners out and then need to floss and brush my teeth before replacing them and they need to be in my mouth a minimum of twenty-two hours a day is a huge issue, because I am not the sort of person who can eat one meal in the morning and one meal in the evening and not have my body try to crash on me. The one-meal plan is not a good idea. It's what happens when I am too stressed to feel hunger and have to force myself to treat dinner as a real thing; I associate it with very bad phases of my life. I carry clementines around in winter so that I can snack on them. I buy herbal chai from Porter Square Books because they're one of the few places in the Boston area that serves a chai latte that won't give me a migraine. This week I've been living on cough drops. All of these things are apparently no go for the next year. The dentist even tried to discourage me from drinking tea, telling me an anecdote about his brother who insisted on drinking coffee with his Invisalign in: "Did it affect the treatment?"—"Well, there was the staining . . ." I drink tea like I breathe. It's my major source of hydration in the winter because I am so damn cold all the time. Because my relationship with food is complicated at the best of times, I asked multiple times in advance whether this kind of orthodontics would affect what I could eat. It was perfectly accurate that I was told no, it wouldn't; I didn't realize it was the wrong axis of question. I am actively worried that I will simply stop eating because it's so much trouble. It took an effort to persuade myself to make dinner tonight and by that point I'd been hungry for hours.

And there's just the fact that it fucking hurts, but that I expected. The rest is taking me aback and it's very upsetting.

You win on the extreme jaw surgery front, though. I'm sorry.

I love the bus waiting mermaid best, but that is perhaps because I spent so much of my youth waiting for buses.

If she speaks to you, write her.

Edited 2014-01-31 01:56 (UTC)

I think that's wonderful. It is very fitting that he should be helping people with words spoken sixty years ago.

I think so too. I often go back and watch things that inspired me a long time ago, it's a touchpoint and a comfort and this is no exception.

And there's just the fact that it fucking hurts, but that I expected. The rest is taking me aback and it's very upsetting.

*offers hugs and a jaw rub if it would help*

I hear you on the eating thing. I'm borderline hypoglycemic and have had to keep fighting off well meaning people who keep telling me that I'm going to be too busy to eat at my wedding, so I shouldn't worry about having food there that I can eat. Since I know myself pretty well, I know this isn't true. If I don't eat, I fall over. If I don't keep hydrated, I get severe to crippling chest pains that can double me over or make me pull faces that shouldn't be seen outside a horror movie. So I grok the horror that is being told not to eat and drink regularly, and shame on your doctor for pulling a fast one on you with orthogonal thinking (no orthodontia pun intended).

I will fully believe that orthodontists expect you to completely rewire your life, your eating habits, your safety nets and your creature comforts so that they can reassure themselves that they are doing right by you. I condemn them for it.

I can't recommend anything for the pain, and you've been through standard braces, but you may want to get in the habit of carrying those tiny pinecone shaped swab brushes that you use to clean between wires and just swabbing around after small snacks. Make a ritual of finishing a cup of tea and then doing a quick rinse with mouthwash? There have got to be ways to eat, and drink tea like a person while having braces. If something brilliant occurs to me, I'll let you know, but I'd rather not see you eating with a food-loaded syringe so that nothing touches your teeth, the way I did after my jaw surgery.

Remind me to tell you about the cod shake.

If she speaks to you, write her.

Hm, I'll sleep on that and see who shows up to catch the bus.

*offers hugs and a jaw rub if it would help*

It's appreciated. *hugs*

If something brilliant occurs to me, I'll let you know, but I'd rather not see you eating with a food-loaded syringe so that nothing touches your teeth, the way I did after my jaw surgery.

Thank you! I wouldn't, either! Yikes.

Remind me to tell you about the cod shake.

My junior year of high school, I had my wisdom teeth out the day before Thanksgiving. I drank turkey through a straw.

My junior year of high school, I had my wisdom teeth out the day before Thanksgiving. I drank turkey through a straw.

Our experiences are very similar then. In my sophomore year of high school I came back from the hospital after jaw surgery which I had over spring break, (and included wisdom tooth removal) and it was a few days before Passover. My father decided it would be a great thing if I could eat what everyone else was eating. He put cod and potatoes into the blender and then added milk. Instant cod shake.

In my mind, I was doing the Bass o matic routine, but at the time I couldn't share, because my jaws were wired shut.

The fate of the cod shake was certain. I tried a bit, and then made the one emphatic noise that I could make with the wires and tooth splint in place and it went into the fridge, where it was shortly thereafter thrown out as part of passover cleaning. I hope your turkey shake was better.

In my mind, I was doing the Bass o matic routine, but at the time I couldn't share, because my jaws were wired shut.

I think that's the sanest possible reaction you could have had. Yeesh.

I hope your turkey shake was better.

I don't actually remember that it worked out very well, but I insisted on giving it a try. Cranberry sauce straight from the blender was a much better idea.

I think that's the sanest possible reaction you could have had. Yeesh.

It really did not help that we had the exact same blender that was used in Bass o matic, and watching my father feed it cod filet was just reminscent. I just showed Bass o matic to my sister and she said, without context, "wow, that looks like something dad would do."

I don't actually remember that it worked out very well, but I insisted on giving it a try. Cranberry sauce straight from the blender was a much better idea.

Cranberry sauce does sound like a better plan. Pecan pie might also work in that format (my favorite Thanksgiving food) but savory milkshakes -- with or without the milk -- are probably a thing that needs more experimentation, and probably less in the way of non-milk animal proteins.

You might want to get clarification on the staining. In my experience, dentists and dental professionals currently overstate staining as a problem because teeth whitening has been such a trend lately (and is something they try to upsell, because it's a big profit-driver for dentists).

(I have had dentists tell me I should never drink tea or coffee or wine or fruit juice or really anything but water, ever, even not in braces, because they can tell by looking at the back of my teeth. Which would maybe be something I would take seriously if I had mirrors in the back of my mouth most of the time? And didn't go to the dentist for a cleaning every 3 months? And cared more about having good looking teeth than functional teeth that I use to eat and drink things?)

If staining just means "your teeth will look kind of dingy for a couple of cleanings and/or you may later need to do a whitening treatment," might be worth saying hell with it and drinking the tea.

For that matter, he might mean the invisalign stained.

because teeth whitening has been such a trend lately (and is something they try to upsell, because it's a big profit-driver for dentists).

I was offered free whitening at the end of my treatment. I asked if it was going to be necessary: if the composite attachments were going to leave marks on the enamel, for example. No, the dentist said, most people just want it.

And cared more about having good looking teeth than functional teeth that I use to eat and drink things?

Well, yes, that. The whole rationale for beginning this process was functional teeth.

For that matter, he might mean the invisalign stained.

I need a lot more information than I was given when I left the dentist's office, despite asking. (As today: I called back to ask what to do about the fact that the spaces where my back teeth were filed apart to make room for tooth movement are viciously cold-sensitive, heat-sensitive, and cannot be flossed or brushed without pain flashing up the side of my face, not to mention bleeding, and was told that was normal. I repeated the temperature sensitivity, which I associate with exposed root, not tender gums. I was told to call back after the weekend if it persisted, with the clear implication that I was overreacting and it would go away. If so, it would have been nice to be given some advance warning that inhaling cold air and taking a shower would give me a headache. I am not impressed with their aftercare.)

Edited 2014-01-31 20:01 (UTC)

Ugh. I love dentists - I have extreme respect for the profession and think it has done an extraordinary amount for human wellbeing - but there can be a tendency to view the mouth as an impressive machine. Which it is - enamel is kind of incredible in terms of strength and resiliency. Not a lot can match it. To get harder, you almost have to go diamond. Yet the mouth is also the place where nerves are more pain-sensing than literally anywhere else in the body, unless I am mistaken.

So you have this machine that can handle almost anything, with an electrical system running through it that is hypersensitive to the slightest shift. And the machine is the part that's visible to the dentists; the pain isn't. As a result:

1. They assume everybody is overreacting when something is painful, because the nerves there really do send off false alarms. Only sometimes they're not false.

2. They tend not to prescribe painkillers or anaesthesia if they can avoid it, because these things are dangerous in ways that implicate the provider, whereas pain danger can be blamed on the body of the patient.

2. They tend not to prescribe painkillers or anaesthesia if they can avoid it, because these things are dangerous in ways that implicate the provider, whereas pain danger can be blamed on the body of the patient.

I took my own codeine in order to sleep (three hours) that night. The dentist didn't even ask if I wanted anything for the pain. I might have said no anyway, but I was so shell-shocked, I didn't even notice till later.

I too have been told not to drink tea or coffee, even without braces. Whatever. Tea stains don't actually damage the enamel, if one really cares about the aesthetics, modern whitening procedures are safe and effective, if not cheap, and I'd probably have died of dehydration by now if I couldn't have my hot caffeinated drinks.

Thank you for being willing to share this much information about it; I've forwarded a link to someone I know who's currently a) eating four to five small meals a day and b) considering Invisalign.

I'm really sorry you got such lousy care from the orthodontist, and that they didn't do anything sensible like ask what your current typical meal schedule is before signing you up. You're hardly the only person who snacks and eats small frequent meals! Many many sympathies.

Thank you for being willing to share this much information about it; I've forwarded a link to someone I know who's currently a) eating four to five small meals a day and b) considering Invisalign.

You're welcome; I hope it's useful to them. It is really a complication I wasn't expecting. I thought I had asked all the reasonable questions. The fact that no one volunteered any more information is leaving me feeling a little burned.

I don't know if I would have been better off pushing for traditional braces; those do restrict the diet and one of the reasons I was recommended Invisalign (see reply to

chomiji) was the treatment time, which I was told would be faster for this kind of work than bracket-and-wire. There may have been no good solution to this problem except avoid crippling chronic pain, which I refuse to feel was bad planning on my part. But I really would like to have had a better idea of the probable impact on my daily life before I found myself with twenty composite attachments on my teeth and a daunting problem keeping myself healthily fed.

Many many sympathies.

Thank you. It's a year; I'll have to get through it. It's just going to be a harder year in some ways than I was looking forward to.

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