Take out your fucking retainer, put it in your purse

[sovay]

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.

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry this is happening to you. I'm especially sorry it's happening when you didn't expect it.

I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but my experience of dentists has been that they cannot understand the concept of herbal teas and tisanes. It's like dental school knocks previous knowledge out of their heads and replaces it with the idea that "tea" is always a very hot, very dark brown, liquid containing lots of tannic acid. If a patient says they're talking about "not regular caffeinated tea, just something herbal like mint tea," that somehow translates to chemically-decaffeinated black tea flavored with mint. So I don't think you need to worry about herbal teas (even if the dentist was not exaggerating the problem, as others have suggested.)

It may be possible to drink with a straw with the aligners in. At the very least, you could take the aligners out, drink a cup of goats milk or tea with honey, rinse with a mouthful of water, and put the aligners back in. I think some of that very emphatic "floss immediately after eating" is based on the idea that you'll be eating pastrami and rye bread, or at least caramel corn. Clementines are very much easier on your teeth.

I had nightmarish problems with tooth sensitivity until one dentist told me that fluoride helped, and prescribed an expensive, foul-tasting, high-fluoride mouthwash. It doesn't help everyone, obviously, but my tooth sensitivity (especially cold sensitivity) gets significantly better when I use the fluoridated mouthwash designed for kids.

[sovay]

If a patient says they're talking about "not regular caffeinated tea, just something herbal like mint tea," that somehow translates to chemically-decaffeinated black tea flavored with mint.

I stressed that caffeine gives me migraines and I don't even drink decaf. I am planning to call back on Monday; I will ask at that time if there's something about the heat of the tea that's prohibitive or if they're just worrying about the nonexistent tannins.

At the very least, you could take the aligners out, drink a cup of goats milk or tea with honey, rinse with a mouthful of water, and put the aligners back in.

The problem is that at this point it is physically difficult and painful to remove and replace the aligners; it may become easier as my teeth shift into positions where less wrangling is required to get all of the attachment points lining up, but right now it's not a quick process. I am trying to find the balance between things that are healthy to retain in my routine and things that just cause me more pain. When I made derspatchel's lemon cake yesterday, I made a point of taking out the aligners and eating the leftover batter, because that is a pleasure of cake-making it seemed important not to give up. I take out the aligners to shower; brushing my teeth before bed is part of the winding-down ritual. I haven't drunk goat's milk before showering for the last three nights and I'm trying to figure out if I'll stick with that.

It doesn't help everyone, obviously, but my tooth sensitivity (especially cold sensitivity) gets significantly better when I use the fluoridated mouthwash designed for kids.

I'm already brushing with a toothpaste for sensitive teeth. I asked about a rinse when I called back on Friday; it was brushed off with everything else.