Dental Part 9
I never imagined bartering with God over dental floss but here we are. The stitches are still in and until the gums are healed, there will be no flossing or proxabrush. Over the years my teeth have all crowded at the front to see what is going on in the world leaving the introverted back teeth roomy and comfortable. 
To prevent meals from moving in between my back teeth, flossing is essential. The only solution during recovery is rinsing vigorously (still love this word). Plus I wonder if I need to stand a few feet away from people???
Stitches come out somewhere between 2 and 5 wks. At 3 weeks hopefully the stitches will be removed. Not sure how to describe my relationship to the stitches. Mostly I was unaware of them except the ones in the lower front which will not let up on the inside of my lip. But even that has not been too much of a problem. Warm saltwater rinses are a staple of my new life.
Maybe I wasn’t so great after all. Worse, she crouched down just before impact. I yelled don’t bend down but it was too late, she came in fast and low. I was propelled into the air, landed flat out leaving my skis exactly where they were. What a great photo that would have been.
So I am attempting to force the tray on my lower teeth and my finger slips and digs into my tender, Frankenstein gums. Yes, the F bomb came out of my mouth, vigorously you might say. It was not my finest moment. Of course I stood in the no longer serene room and apologized to all the young moms.
Soooo, let’s get to the question you have been dying to ask. How do you look after surgery? Not bad at first but the swelling kicked in on Wednesday and peaked Friday. 
Fair warning, these photos do not grasp the extent of the swelling but perhaps this story will paint an accurate picture. Earl was away for the weekend and when he returned on Sunday the swelling was almost gone. 
He duly noted that and then told me that I had looked like an old lady who lost her teeth. Hot.
Peak blackness was Sunday but those babies lingered through the following weekend. Come up with a good story. People either stare or ask. I like the “askers”. What I needed was some black lipstick to complete the look but alas my black lipstick was in Key West where such things are needed.
braces/invisalign by more than half. The first selfie above was the day after surgery, the second was 3 days after and the selfie with the zombie base makeup was at 6 days. And for comparison, the nonselfie photo was taken just before all this started. My vanity demanded inclusion of a normal photo.
Advance planning on the food front is essential especially for those who clock in multiple hours a day snacking and dining. The periodontist will recommend soft food. Pull the long ignored vitamix out of the closet unless you find days of yogurt and protein shakes satisfying. I started with foods like soups; blended vegetables with almond milk and protein powder; yogurt with hemp, peanut butter, fruit and walnuts. 
But before long I got really hungry. Drastic measures were called for and I did something that just feels wrong. I added meat to the blender. Cook a sweet potato, sauté shiitake mushrooms with a bit of ginger and put all this in the blender with flavored bone broth, a good source of protein. Add chicken, hit blend and do not look at the mess that is created.
By the fifth day, I was ready to sauté veges with eggs, lots of eggs. It was wonderful. And yes, there was also ice cream.
I soon discovered that my teeth had been weaponized. The attachments on the lower front teeth ate holes in the inside of my lip while I was engaged in some much needed retail therapy. As soon as I got home, I rushed to put the trays in but the damage had been done and now the edge of the tray was having its way in the same area. I should have called the orthodontist for suggestions but instead made the first of many trips to the dental and first aid aisle trying one thing after the other to alleviate the pain. I ended up tearing off a bit of napkin and shoving it in there at dinner and it was blessed relief. I didn’t even care that I looked like I had a chew in. 
It would be a lie to say the first few days were easy. They were unpleasant at best but everything turned around by day 4 and I struck an uneasy alliance with the trays. By the day before surgery, the inside of my lip was healed and the trays were easy to put in and out. Good thing too because no dental wax was allowed after surgery…
To begin, the orthodontist completed a 3D scan of my teeth. Invisalign uses this scan to produce clear plastic aligners or trays which when worn sequentially will shift the teeth into the proper position. For me, 41 trays were produced. Consider this process a real life flipbook. 
s of food get stuck in them. Really attractive. And let’s not forget cavities.
Earl calls it “the press”. It is a relentless cascade of questions designed to skillfully penetrate or as the case may be, ruthlessly jackhammer through the chaff to uncover the truth or essence of a thing. Once found, the big picture and the way forward magically appear. Like all magic however, it can be used for ill-advised purposes such as searching for the answer I want. After initial research on the pros and cons of orthodontics at my age, I figured my dentist was an idiot. Hmmm.
A friend from the gym is the root canal guy of Annapolis and when I suggested I needed a new dentist, he recommended another local with a great reputation. The sign on the door said she was a Prosthodontist. I had absolutely no idea what that meant but visions of excruciating pain and suffering bubbled up.
And guess what, it is impossible to have a good bite with snaggle teeth. I don’t care how many times the dentist has me smash that blue paper between my teeth and he grinds away some offensive spot, the bite is wrong. For me, the term is subclinical periodontal disease. Everything looks fine on the surface but when you open the closet door, things start tumbling out.
Happily the path forward has been revealed. I am taking it. Invisalign and Wilkodonics may not have been the answer I wanted but they are the comprehensive solution I needed. The money has been paid, appointments confirmed and frankly, anxiety sky high. Next step is kicking off the Invisalign process…
The tooth fairy was clearly in a bad mood when visiting me. This along with my parents’ decision to forgo braces has led to adult snaggle teeth. A dentist would refer to this as significant overcrowding. My teeth are not straight when viewed from any plane. They jog up and down and back and forth with a bit of caving in to make it really interesting. And when my permanent teeth arrived, the dentist decided to grind down the extra long canines to avoid that unpleasant vampire look. I am not making this up. Plus my teeth were very cavity prone. Not sure it had anything to do the bandaid box of sweetarts I brought to school everyday but lots of cavities meant lots of dreaded dental visits often without novocain. To make it worse our family doctor supplemented our diets with constant antibiotics. That does amazing things to the color of your teeth.
Fast forward to 58 years old. I figured by keeping my teeth tidy and gums healthy, the really scary dental work magnified by an active imagination could be avoided. To this end I had my teeth cleaned 4 times a year, flossed, proxabrushed and replaced amalgam fillings with composite. But the snaggle teeth would not be ignored and I started to experience pain. My dentist said I needed braces. Whoaaa, I am 58, is that even possible? He said to see an orthodontist. This was the beginning of a learning curve that culminated in a decision to fix my teeth with Invisalign and Accelerated Osteogenic Orthodontics (AOO) also known as Wilkodonics. Unfortunately there is an incredible lack of awareness about Wilkodonics, even among the dental community. So in an effort to change that, I will chronicle the process from beginning to end. Hopefully it helps someone else out there.