Skip to main content

Day 3

I have the flu.

I felt the snuffle and sore throat coming on the night before, but now it well and truly has me in it's gooey grip.

My aching teeth are now joined by aching sinuses, blowing my nose makes my teeth feel like they're going to fly out everywhere.

I want to eat, but I can't. I overcook a lasagne and hope it's soft enough to awkwardly suck down, it is, just. I wonder if I should get a medicalarm.

All plans to leave the house are off. Kiwi friends are in town playing a punk rock show, I desperately want to go, but there's just no way. I think about going to the shop for the usual sick swag of painkillers, strepsils and vitamin C, but am not up to it.

My wedding date harangues a friend of ours to bring over some supplies and I am so grateful. What a hero. I want to get him knighted in the new years honours list.

She also instructs him to bring orthodontic wax, something no-one had told me about. You roll it up into little balls and put it over the part of your braces that are cutting your face up, genius! It works like a charm and despite any assertions it is mint flavoured (which are utter, utter lies), it works brilliantly.

Why did no-one mention this before?!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 24

The last week has seen a return to pain, primarily in my bottom front teeth as they move forward. However things seem to now be slowing as my incisors struggle to get past my bottom canines, which like my top canines, ever so slightly face forward on an angle. I suspect this is because when they came in during puberty I was well and truly a midget, there was no room for them and they did what they could to reach towards the light. Now I believe there is room, they're just on the wrong angle. However I imagine this will be one of the tougher hurdles to overcome and expect to have rubber bands strapped on the next time I see the dentist. Then again, if the incisor on the right hand side of my face and wriggle past its pesky canine companion, there may not be a need for that. It's certainly the tooth I'm keeping the closest eye on at the moment and arguably the tooth that's so far moved the furthest. As for my top teeth, the resulting movement of my two front te...

Day 7

It's been a week and the pain is finally starting to subside. My mouth feels more uncomfortable now than painful, though any time I accidentally knock a tooth, I am immediately reminded by the shooting pain through my gums. I've been finding ways to eat, but have almost become vegetarian overnight as I can no longer chew anything, including meat. If it's not minced, liquefied or mashed, I can't eat it and that includes most meat. While I feel better for the planet in that sense, I am otherwise bereft with plastic guilt. Every bloody thing I can eat at the supermarket comes wrapped in plastic and it's dire. I feel absolutely terrible about buying these products and supporting the status quo when it comes to plastic, we are just using far, FAR too much. As for my teeth, I haven't noticed any real movement yet, but I'm taking a photo a day and will eventually turn that into a little video. https://www.instagram.com/the_tooth_is_out_there/

Day 9

And the stabbing begins! I'm actually quite surprised by how much I don't know about the braces process given I have them in my mouth. What seems so obvious now, is that as your teeth move, the wire connecting your braces moves too. This means there is additional wire that begins to protrude at the back of your mouth. For one thing, this is great news, it means your braces are working and your teeth are moving, but it also means being repeatedly stabbed by the sharp wire now poking at your cheeks and gums. Honestly, if no-one had told me about orthodontic wax I would be in such a state right now. That stuff is an absolute godsend. Thank you little bees for making it for me. Another thing I'm having to adjust to is cotton mouth. I can't recall the last time my mouth was so consistently dry. I've gone to speak and split or cut my lip a few times already, unpleasant. I am a veritable desert when I wake up in the morning, I may as well be sucking a cactus. ...