Baby Update

After my brother posted a pic of my baby on the blog he shares with his wife (http://jaalen-dunn.blogspot.com), I thought I should update my own blog with baby info.

We're 99% sure we're going to call her Ruby Christine Davis. At the last scheduled ultrasound, which was at 29 weeks 1 day, she weighed 2 lbs 15 oz. She's right on track size wise. Not too big, not too small.

I also recently found out I have gestational diabetes. I was a little concerned over the weekend. The dietician from the diabetes center at Piedmont Hospital seemed bothered by my 1 hour blood glucose levels. She insisted I set up an appointment with my perinatal doctor for his evaluation. The doctor informed me dieticians tend to overreact and that he is only concerned with my 2 hour numbers. I should be able to manange my blood sugars with diet, and if I cannot in the coming weeks, I may have to take a pill. I should escape insulin injections though, thank goodness.

While I was at the perinatal office to talk about the diabetes on Monday, I had a quick ultrasound just so the doctor could check on the baby to make sure everything still seemed on track. The technician also gave me a chance to see a 3-D image of little Ruby. I think she felt sorry for me because I was stressed out about the diabetes. It was a nice surprise -- I didn't know they had the technology at the perinatal office and didn't know I would have a chance to see a "real" photo of my little one before she was born.

I would like to introduce Ruby Christine Davis:


Pretty cute, eh?

Braces Update

Had an ortho appointment yesterday. 9 weeks to go with the pregnancy, assuming Ruby is on time, and Dr. Stewart swears I'll be done with the braces before then.

I wore elastics to finish moving the midline on the bottom. I did not have to go back to the forsus spring. Had a class II on the left side and a class III on the right side with 3 elastics in a triangular configuration. Wish I'd taken a photo, but oh well.....

The midline had moved into place, so now I'm just waiting on final tweaks to tooth placement. The elastics had caused the top left incisor to turn a little so it wasn't perfect. At the appointment yesterday, Dr. Stewart took out the top SureSmile wire and replaced it with a 20 guage square wire. The brackets were removed on two teeth and the wire skips the very back bracket. I'll take a photo to better explain. Hopefully, over the next 4 weeks, this will guide the top teeth into their final position.

I'm not sure if I'll be done for good in 4 weeks, or if Dr. Stewart will want to make some final tweaks to the bottom teeth. I'm really, really close to done though!

Other news

I'm pregnant!! Just over 16 weeks along as of today. Due date is September 24, which is my step-mom's birthday. Everything appears to be going well. We've had some testing done to predict Down syndrome and other retardation problems (nucal translucency) and statistically, we're in the clear. We have some additional testing planned for spina bifida and other neural tube defects.

To see the little one at 13 weeks was pretty crazy. It was so small, but looked just like a baby. It's amazing how that mass of cells becomes human looking so fast. The fetus was super active during the ultrasound -- it was funny to see.

Here is an image from the scan. It's a bit weird looking -- more spooky looking than the original we have, but it's the best job I could do with the scanner.



We have another detailed ultrasound scheduled for May 8. Hopefully, we'll be able to find out the sex of the baby at that time. At the 13 week scan, the technician said forced to make a guess, it's a girl. But it was still a bit early to know for sure so we have to be patient.

As far as how this might affect my braces treatment -- it shouldn't much. However, dental hygiene is more important than ever. Pregnant women have more blood flowing in their bodies making gums swell and gum disease more likely. I haven't noticed a huge difference in my gums recently, but they do bleed occaisionally. Dr. Stewart also said my teeth may move faster. I definitely haven't noticed that happening! But maybe there's a difference.

I guess it also means if I need any dental x-rays I'm out of luck. There is a chance I'm starting to develop a few small cavities based on an evaluation at my last dental hygiene appointment in January. But the dentist won't really do anything about it until the braces are off. Hopefully, I'll be done with the braces by summer and will be able to address my overall oral health issues then.

I will say though, that after living with braces for more than 2.5 years, my teeth still appear to be in good shape. It was always my worst nightmare that I would have really straight, but really rotten teeth! Doesn't look like that will be the case.

In other good family news, my step-sister Maggie just reported today that she's also expecting. Her baby is due December 16. It's nice that we will have kids so close in age.

I want to be finished with the braces so badly

I would love to be done with the braces already -- but having paid quite a lot of money, and also being paid up quite some time ago, I'm not willing to settle for an okay job. I want the job to be as perfect as it can be. I'm not asking for perfection -- I doubt it's possible for my teeth to be perfect afterall. But I would like it to be great, not so-so.

So as frustrated as I am at times that I still have braces and am nearing my 33rd birthday, I keep reminding myself that it WILL be worth it in the end and it's in my best interests to stick it out!!! I will be done eventually :-)

So, the SureSmile scan was last year and I've been...

So, the SureSmile scan was last year and I've been terrible about keeping up with this blog again....

But I wanted to describe the process for anyone who maybe interested to know more about it.

The scan itself is completely painless and relatively simple. If I remember correctly, before we got started, Holly -- the SureSmile tech -- took a 360° x-ray.

Then she painted sections of my teeth at a time and scanned my teeth bit by bit using the SureSmile scanner. The paint is opaque making the tooth non-reflective and helps the scanner "read" each tooth. The paste did have a bitter taste, but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with. And the process was over relatively quickly. Holly scanned each tooth with my mouth open. She then scanned a section on one side with my bite closed. From the small section that was scanned with a closed bite, the computer then generated the complete closed bite image from the rest of the data that was collected. That was pretty cool. Technology is a neat thing.

After the scan, it took about 3 weeks to get the custom-made SureSmile wires.

I had the wires alone until just before Thanksgiving.

Then I was treated to the wonderful Forsus Spring.

At first, I couldn't believe I was going to have that thing in my mouth. Someone mentioned that this was probably in lieu of headgear. Not sure if this is true or not, but I suppose headgear wouldn't be much fun. However, the Forsus spring is a 24/7 fixture in my mouth. Can't take it out for any reason.

In the beginning, my mouth was a little sore from the spring resting and rubbing on the inside of my cheek. But I would say any discomfort was actually less painful than issues I've had with the brackets rubbing on my cheek. Sleeping was a bit difficult to get used to at first. If I slept on that side and rested my face on the pillow, in the morning, my cheek had molded itself around the spring -- not very comfortable.

Strangely, as time wore on, I did get used to it. It wasn't super comfortable all the time, but most of the time I didn't really notice it.

The spring was used to try and move the center line on the bottom. I am missing a tooth on the right side so the teeth are a little lopsided. And over the years, my teeth had spread out in the space they had resulting in a center line that was off.

When the spring was first in place, the center line moved a good amount. But then progress seemed to slow. Dr. Stewart then added a "stop" to increase the force applied by the spring. This helped a little bit, but the center line was still not moving as much as I'd hoped as quickly as I'd hoped.

Then, yesterday, April 10, the spring felt a bit weird like the hook on the bottom was catching on something. When I investigated, turns out the arch wire itself had broken. I guess it was fatigued from the forsus spring constantly pushing on it and it popped. I couldn't believe it!! But since it was busted, I took the liberty of taking the Forsus spring out. How nice to sleep last night without the spring in!

I had an "emergency" visit to Dr. Stewart this morning. Since the arch wire was a SureSmile custom wire, he did not want to replace the broken wire with a standard arch wire. The bottom power chain was removed and the assistant tried to bend the broken ends of the wire inwards a little bit so they won't cause me any pain. And now I have to wait another 3 weeks while a new SureSmile wire is made.

Good news is -- for the next 3 weeks, I won't have to wear the Forsus spring. And Dr. Stewart said once everything "levels" out and the new wire comes in, he'll reevaluate and see if he can't finish the job without going back to the spring.

So Much For Keeping Up With The Blog

Wow. So much time has passed since I last posted anything on this blog. My teeth have changed dramatically, I got married and we bought a house! I wish I'd kept up better with the teeth photos, although since the last post with photos, the teeth have probably not changed as much as they did when I first got braces.

I had the braces taken off for the wedding. The top ones came off just before Thanksgiving 2006. The top teeth were ready for the SureSmile scan and the current wire wasn't really moving the teeth any more, so I had a few months of relief with no top braces. The bottom braces came off just a few weeks before the wedding. Since the bottom braces were added so much later and still had work to do, Dr. Stewart left them on to keep working.

I got the braces back on.....4 weeks after the wedding, which was the first appointment I could get. Now we're into June, almost July and I finally was ready this week for the SureSmile scan. I'll add a separate post about that experience. I also will try to take some photos this evening to upload.

The Ring

It's officially official

Andy and I are engaged!

He popped the question Saturday, the 19th. Pretended he was going to play tennis, but snuck back in and surprised me! It was nice to be surprised.

The ring is amazing. I need to find a way to take a good photo of it for the blog, but my digital camera won't do the job. The camera has a macro setting, so it should be able to take a nice closeup shot -- but it won't focus at all. Not to sound ridiculous, but I think it's because the diamond is really sparkly so it's throwing off the camera's ability to focus. We went with an ideal (or excellent) cut, which makes the diamond ridiculously brilliant (and thus disguises the "flaws" in the SI2 clarity and the I color -- still colorless, but the lowest grade on the colorless scale). It's gorgeous, but I can't get a good photo of it :-(

It appears I need to borrow my brother's camera. Jaime took really nice pictures of her ring using their new camera.

51 Weeks In: New Pics

At my appointment yesterday (51 weeks since the first brackets were installed), Dr. Stewart changed my bottom archwire to a counter force (or reverse curve wire). This is the same type of wire I currently have on the top. I also asked them to change the power chain because the poor baby pink polymer was all discolored and yukky looking. Too much red wine I'm afraid.

Six weeks or so ago, Dr. Stewart said the top arch was basically set. The teeth still need fine tuning with the custom-made Sure Smile wires, but the basic arch is set.

The following pictures illustrate how nice and straight the top is versus the bottom, which eventually will be straight too. Right now, the bottom teeth curve upwards and are much higher up in the front than in the back. The reverse curve wire will help to diminish this difference -- bringing the front teeth down some and the back teeth up a little to straighten the arch.

I was amazed when I drew the straight line under the top arch in photoshop to see just how straight the top arch is. Not bad. The bottom will get there!







And as a comparison, here are two older images. One before the treatment began and a second 16 weeks in. You can see from the straight line below the top arch that the teeth were far from straight.

Teeth Update

I need to take a few pictures of the teeth because it's been a while.

I have an appointment next week, August 1, which is very, very close to my 1 year anniversary in braces. I got the spacers Aug 2 last year and the top braces on August 9. So I guess my August 1 appointment next week will be 51 weeks in braces?? I lost count a while back. I need to recount to be sure.

I'm trying to decide if I should take pics before the appointment or afterwards. I guess I can do both. The time difference is so short the teeth won't have changed at all, but I can get a pic with the first square wire on the bottom before I go in next week. Then, if Dr. Stewart changes the wire or anything, I also can photograph the new wire.