Another Adjustment 6/9/08

Okay, so I'm a week and a half late posting this. Life got in the way.

But last Monday, the 9th, I was in my ortho's office for yet another "emergency" adjustment. This time it was because my left central incisor was biting down on the bracket below it:



(Yeah, *major* leveling to be done on the bottom there...)

Truth be told, I was only slightly worried about the contact. But it seemed like a valid excuse for me to get them to address my bigger concern: the turbo.

I've gotten used to the turbo, but my lower arch is still offset to the right and I was becoming increasingly convinced that it was the downward/outward pressure of the turbo in that area that was keeping it pushed out a bit.

Of course, there's no turbo on the side that was now in contact, so I figured they'd at least add another one on the left side (yay, symmetry!) if not remove the previous and put one on the left instead.

Sure enough, the tech told me the new protocol was to place *2* turbos - one on each side. (Wish they'd thought of that a month ago!) I saw yet another ortho in the office - this time Dr. T - who recommended they place another buildup of BluGloo on my left upper canine instead of a turbo:




I'm actually okay with this. I did raise my concerns about the asymmetry in my lower arch and the turbo's contribution. Dr. T assured me this would correct very quickly as soon as the turbo was removed. "When will that be?" ... "When your back molars touch without your top teeth hitting the lower brackets."

Hmmm. At this rate, not looking to get the props off by my next adjustment (July 17th - also cleaning day). Bummer.

In a twist of good timing, a commenter (*waves to commenter*) asked me how I felt about turbos vs. the buildups. Here's my take:

If given a choice, I'd choose the buildups. They don't prop my bite open quite as far (so fewer chewing issues), they're smoother and generally less intrusive. The downside: more stress and sensitivity on those teeth, kinda like wearing high heeled shoes - all that force concentrated on a small area. But that goes away after a while.

HOWEVER, I'm really okay with the turbo now. It did take a bit of getting used to, mainly because scraping my bottom teeth on it felt like fingernails on a chalkboard (in my mouth) but once my body got used to it being there it effectively "went away". I haven't had any problems with tongue irritation or lisps, though I did lick it compulsively for the first few days. My biggest beef is the deformation it's causing in my arches, but Dr. T seemed confident that was merely transient.

Hope this helps. It's kinda cool to know actual people are out there reading this, even if most of my hits are still for the Aquafresh White Trays review.

Until next month...