My Dental Backstory

I imagine most working professionals want a beautiful smile. If you are like me and were not fortunate enough to be born with perfect teeth and for didn't have braces during the traditional teen years, then you're probably thinking that there isn't much you can do. And even if there was who wants to where railroad gear on their teeth for 2+ years as professional.? I know I didn't.

 In my situation, I actually did have some orthodontics as a child to correct an extremely narrow and high upper arch (palate). If you have ever seen those old retainers with the screws, then you know what I was supposed to wear. Notice I said "supposed to". Like many kids who have removable dental devices, I lost mine multiple time, left it out anywhere that wasn't my mouth, or "forgot" to turn it on those days that I actually did have it in. After three years of regular trips to the dentist, my parents just gave up - and who can blame them.

My retainer as a kid and later as a young adult looked a lot like this one

 In my mid twenties, I went back to try again on my own dime. And I did wear the thing religiously and turned it as per instructions. But the correction to the upper palate was minimal at best. And eventually I broke the device that I was supposed to wear nightly to hold everything in position. I imagine that state of my arch now is about as it was when I was a kid. I have had multiple dentists comment about it being one of the highest they have ever seen in an adult if that gives you any indication of the severity.

On top of having an abnormally high palate, as you can imagine, my teeth are crowded in a small mouth (cross bite galore). From a distance my teeth don't appear too bad, but my molars are pretty tilted and a couple teeth in my lower arch are severely rotated. All this misalignment has produced some really nasty TMJ that not only hurts but doesn't allow my mouth to open more than about 20 mm or something ridiculously small without tremendous effort and discomfort. And it seems to get worse year after year.

I spent hours on line and talked to multiple dentists over the last 10 years or so about the possibility of correcting my bite and improving my smile. The best anyone could do is say that the MIGHT be able to help, but as an adult the corrections are often minor for all the time and discomfort the patient puts into it. And as far as correcting my high arch, the only thing that I can do is oral surgery where the surgeon splits the upper palate and inlays bone grafts then. *cringe* Not very encouraging.

About two years ago we moved to Placentia, CA and started and my kids started seeing a new dentist, Dr. Todd Auerbach. After my kids gave him a test drive I found my way to the office and yet again shared my dental woes. He was convinced that there was something that could be done for my case. Ya, right. This guy just wants my money, I scoffed. His plan seemed counter intuitive to everything I had been told about my teeth.

Needless to say, I remained skeptical for the next two years. Then last December I went in for cleanings and x-Rays and the hygienist could hardly get in to clean my teeth or or take images because my mouth had locked up so much more than the previous visit. I made the decision to do something before I locked up completely.

Here's what we ended up doing. After a painful series of digital images were taken (painful because i can't open my mouth wide enough for the probe), Dr. Auerbach decided to try a fixed device called a Nitanium Palatal Expander. It's based on the idea of using constant pressure from memory wire rather than the tried and true old-school screw method. I was told that this is a common device put in children and that they seem to adapt to it quickly and the results were supposed to be phenomenal, even on adults. Sounded pretty good to me - if it worked!

I wish I had an image of mine in my mouth, but this gives you the idea
Plus, it's not something that I really want to remember. I still have nightmares.

Because my teeth were so crowded I needed spacers put in place to make way for the bands that anchor the device in place. It took a couple of trips in to the office before enough space was created to put on the bands. Because my mouth is so small, the dentist ordered the smallest size device and even that was a tight fit.

As soon as the tech put the device in I knew I was in for a nightmare of a time. It wasn't so much the pressure, I but rather the way the device fit cut my tongue to shreds. Plus it rides so low in the mouth for my already over crowded tongue, that it bruised my tongue (I am told this is normal). I couldn't eat, talk, or swallow without being in extreme discomfort.

Certain that this was my only hope of dental reconstruction other than surgery, I agonized over what to do. I couldn't go on like this, but neither could I not. I lasted less than 3 days before calling the dentist to figure something else out. They thankfully removed the medieval torture device out of my head and we went back to the drawing board. (I found out from later from the staff that my reaction is normal for adults. Very few adults tolerate the device well.)

My dentist insisted that I should not despair. His plan from the beginning was to put me into Invisalign. He wanted to use the torture device to speed things up. So instead of being in Invisaling for 2ish years, I would be in it for 6ish months. Okay, so I decided that I'll take the slow road and see how it goes.

Example of Invisalign Trays (not mine)
I will post pictures of mine and my smile as the journey goes

I noticed a surprising lack of information on the internet about how people actually experienced their journey. So, here it is my intent to chronically my experience with images along the way so you know what you are in for before you make the leap yourself. If this works out, I hope to be able to eat Subway again and smile while doing it!