Category: Braces

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100 !

At the risk of having my yoga mates throw their mats at me…(just kidding yoga mates! I know you practice ahimsa — nonviolence)

Despite the possibility of teasing from family and friends who are on the opposite side of this battle…..

I daresay this…

Finally, after what seemed like a futile effort, I have managed to bring my weight to 100 pounds.

And for those who didn’t know, I was not battling to lose weight.  Rather, I had been trying for months to GAIN weight.

Yes, believe it or not, I was having just as hard a time keeping pounds on as my women friends were attempting to lose them. I was DESPERATE!

At my worst condition, my usual 105 pounds dropped to 95. I saw bones sticking out of my shoulders, my face (unfortunately, in women it is the face that collapses first though I wish that happened first to my thighs!) became gaunt at one time. People I had not seen for a while expressed surprise at my weight loss.

It started with my having adult braces. It was difficult to eat well for many, many months. Mouth sores were almost daily fare. Aside from that, my regular yoga practice sped up my metabolism and most likely brought it back to the metabolism rate of my youth because no matter what I ate, the calories were all burned up immediately. Last year, I also got hit by an attack of kidney stones which landed me in hospital twice in the span of 2 months.

But now, I am almost at the end (I hope!) of my brace-ful life. If my teeth cooperate as the lower set is being pushed back to correct my bite, I may be off these metal contraptions within the year! Woohoo!

I still have a-ways to go before reaching my normal weight of 105 but crossing 100 is a milestone I wish to relish for now.

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Freedom from Braces — Not Yet!

Yesterday, I got the news from my ortho which I did not want to hear but expected. The long-awaited freedom from braces before the end of this year won’t happen.

Yes, these metal contraptions will still see the New Year!

In a previous post, I said I was so looking forward to having these come off by December since my inlaws were going to celebrate their Diamond Wedding Anniversary and I wanted to have all our pictorials with me….BRACE-FREE!

I mean, how many couples in this whole wide world get the chance to reach 60 years of marriage??? And those pics will be permanently displayed in all our family walls! And me still with braces! 🙁

I guess this is one of those “setbacks” in life I need to deal with.

Looks like gaining a little bit of weight to put some flesh back into moi will have to wait a little longer….

sigh….now to practice smiling with NO teeth showing….

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The Brace-ful Lifestyle

Last week, someone in our office had her braces removed. She is now on retainers and wears a closeup smile. Sigh! All I could do was look at her with a tinge of envy, wishing my braces were coming off soon too.

For those who have never gone through braces, and do not have to, count yourselves lucky. Much as finding out you had a health condition that limits the kind of food you can take in, getting braces likewise entails some lifestyle changes.

Ms. Jaws – Keep your self-esteem intact because all your photos for the next couple of years will have you sporting the metallic look. Find time to practice your smile before a mirror, taking note of the best angle and side that does not reveal too much teeth wire. And if you cannot truly stand your new look, be ready to plunk down some money for a crash course in Adobe Photoshop so you can be a techie and make those metals vanish in a flash.

Kikay Kit – And who says only teens and yuppies have kikay kits? I carry my dental kikay kit around with me all the time! While my daughters have their mascara, nail polish, comb, blusher and lip gloss inside, the contents of my kikay kit are as follows: wax (an absolute must), interdental brush (for those nasty food particles that choose to embed themselves in the most obvious of places between your teeth), a handy toothbrush and a tiny tube of toothpaste.

Continue reading “The Brace-ful Lifestyle”

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A Rant About Braces

I can’t wait for my adult braces to come off!

Summer last year, I went to an ortho friend just to have her check (for vanity more than anything else) if I could have my teeth aligned. She made me go for a panoramic X-ray which showed that I had no choice but to wear braces because I had TMJ Syndrome (TMJ stands for Temporo-Mandibular Joint). My jaws were not aligned (which was why I often experienced the clicking of my jaws when I open my mouth) and it was just a matter of time before I would start experiencing pain if I did not get the braces. So there…

But after a year of wearing them, it does get tiring and inconvenient. I’ve experienced the following so far:

🙁 smiling and looking like the female version of “Jaws”

🙁 wishing I was good enough with Adobe Photoshop to “photoshop” away the braces from all my photos

🙁 feeling like a barbecue with loose wire piercing my cheeks

🙁 running back to ortho every now and then just to have extra wire cut after teeth moved

🙁 having to check the mirror after every meal to find out if food particles are stuck in between the tooth brackets (yuk…gross!!!) — can you imagine trying to find a decent and clean ladies room whenever you’re out of the house?

🙁 not leaving home without my dental kit (wax, mini interdental brushes, toothbrush, toothpaste) — tell me, how do you stick all these into a teeny-weeny formal bag at a wedding?

🙁 doing without food that stick to teeth, too hard to chew, too crunchy (no more chicharon, nuts, etc.)

🙁 having a crown break on me, causing trauma to gums, going on soft diet while infection is being treated with antibiotics (this is me now!)

Sigh! I know that patience will pay off in the end. And my ortho friend is so very patient with me and is really great at her job. But while I am still in this situation, there are just days when I feel like ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

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The P500 Kasoy

Last month, I arrived at the yoga center without having had the chance to take my afternoon merienda.  So when I saw I was early, and my yoga friend Chona was there, I asked her to accompany me downstairs to buy some fries from McDo.

Chona dissuaded me, claiming we still had to do our warm-ups and we could be late for classes. Besides, she said, the center had a plateful of cashew nuts we could munch on.

I should have listened to my intuition. I got a cashew, took one bite and heard an awful crack. A crown at the upper right of my mouth had split in 2.  So, a few days later, I had to go back to my ortho to have the crown replaced.  The cost? P500 buckaroos!!!

That was the most expensive kasoy in my entire life! From now on, I will swear off kasoy and all things nutty until these braces come off….

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My Great Ortho News of the Day!

Yippee!!!!!

Just went to see my good ortho friend Lizette who gave me the fantastic news that IF my teeth continue to cooperate and move as she plans them to, I could be off my braces by end of this year!!!!

So….cross my fingers…..I am hoping that by the next big anniversary celebration of my in-laws in the province this December, I could eat properly without all these metal contraptions in the way. And smile for all those photo ops without wondering if I should have the photographer Photoshop my braces away or not (hehe).

And, finally gain some decent weight!