The Important Questions

If you're new here, check out my first post: Twas the Night Before Braces...


Dear Journal (and Journal Readers)

Well some of you be wondering,  

"how in the world did that girl punch herself in the mouth?!"

Here's the story.....

One day earlier in the week, we were going somewhere and I had to get my little brother's shoes. I was running to the porch and then

wham!

I punched myself right in the mouth!  That huuurrrt.

But I put on the strong face and grabbed Clay's shoes and walked (not ran.. walked) to the car and said "Mama, I just punched my mouth!"

And what did she say?  "It's gonna be fine, get in!" She always says everything is going to be fine. So that's the end of my story..... well, folks if you wanted to know it, there it is. They keep saying they should have named me Grace. Whatever that means...

More questions: 

Do I write this myself? 

Yes.  My final draft looks like this one, but my first draft is full of misspelled words and not as much punctuation. I'm a 10 year old 5th grader. I'm not in middle school, yet!  

So, I turn it in to my teacher (MOM!) and she helps me fix it.  She leaves my ideas and sometimes she says she thinks I should tell more about something or to think of a different way to say something. Then, we go over how to spell everything I spelled wrong and she even tells me how to use special texts like italics!  Then, she copies and pastes my journal entry onto my blog! 

Am I eating?

Yeah! I'm sure not starving! I do miss all of the things I cannot have.  It's weird how much I think about those things... even when I never used to eat them!  Ice has made me the saddest.  I never crunched ice before, but now... I NEED TO CRUNCH THE ICE!  But...I'm not.  I'm not doing it. 

So, what's up with my metal mouth?

Day 4 and I don't have much pain.  I've used some wax once and it definitely worked! 

The little ball of wax covered up the bracket on the side and kept it from irritating my cheek.  I only had to do that once!  Other than that one time, I haven't had to use wax (and haven't punched myself in the face)!

It's a little work keeping my teeth and braces clean, but I sure don't want polka dotted teeth! 

Ms. LaKosha said that if you don't keep them clean, where the glue is will be shiny and white and everywhere else... WON'T BE!  I like dots, just not on my teeth!

If you have any more questions, please contact me!  Thank you for checking out my blog!  Stay tuned for more posts about this metal mouth! 


Check out my new post: Snacks for Later

I'm Alive!!!

New Here? Check out my first journal entry: Twas the Night Before Braces...

Dear Journal,

Well I'm alive. I made it through the night. I didn't die. (I'm glad.)  It's day 2 (or 1.5) of metal mouth! My mouth hurts a little less and I haven't had any medicine for pain. I feel like I can't eat anything. I can't eat nuts or ice or whole apples or giant carrots or thin crust pizza. I didn't really like any of that before, but now, it's all I can think about.

My mouth hurts. It doesn't really hurt when I'm just sitting here, but I was running and I punched myself in the mouth!  That hurt.  And if I bite something not on the no-no list, my front teeth hurt. I have a little brother and sister and I'm not sure if they have always hit my mouth or if I just notice it more now. Either way, playing with a sore mouth can really hurt!

I can't stop moving my lips and running my tongue over them.  My mouth definitely feels different!

On the bright side, look what Mom just showed me!

 My friend was checking on me!  How awesome is that?  She's soooooooooooo swwweeet and she's funny, too. It made me feel good that she remembered me and was checking on me!

So last night, I brushed, flossed, and fluorided my teeth. First, I flossed.  I used this green plastic thing that kind of looks like a big floppy needle with a big eye for the thread and the thread is floss!

So, you use the needle thing to stick it behind your wire and then use the floss to floss like you would normally--and don't forget to do every tooth! After that, I brushed with my regular toothbrush and toothpaste! I took the bristles and kind of flattened them to go behind the wires and really close to the brackets.  Then, I brushed like normal. After that, I put a little bit of fluoride on my teeth and let it sit for one minute.  It's supposed to help me not get cavities! Then, I spit it out and rinsed! Flossing was definitely the hardest part!

Today felt better than yesterday and I'm looking forward to it hurting a little less tomorrow!

My Next Journal Entry:
The Important Questions!

Ready or Not!

New Here?  Check out my first journal entry: Twas the night before braces...

Dear Journal,

Well I just got my braces on.

It was really scary at first, but they said “Don’t worry will get you in then out and no pain!” After getting a look around, we went in the office and they took some x-ray pictures. The machine was very large! Buuuuuut it was painless and it took pictures of my bones and teeth! It did not have a camera... how in the world? 

Big white camera-less machine that can see through me.

Then we looked at my pictures! That’s what nightmares are made of! They looked very scary.

Nightmares right here!

When we got done with that, we went to another office where they took MORE pictures… with a real camera this time.

**Spoiler Alert!  This was the most painful thing of the day**

They stretched out my mouth with a menacing plastic doohickey sort of thing. It huurrt my tiny little mouth! She got a ton of shots (camera shots, not needle shots!)—it wasn’t worth trying to smile, my mouth was stretch out and I had no choice!

After pictures, Mom had to fill out papers, papers, papers--I even got to sign one of them! During all of this, mama went picture crazy.

Picture here! Picture there! Picture everywhere!

See?  I look like I'm smiling, but I'M NOT!!!

A mirror in my mouth?

Well, this is weird.

Then the orthodontist came in and looked at my teeth.  

Dr. Guess was super sweet! I really like her!

After calling out lots of weird teeth words like “something over 3, something plus 2, cross bite, overbite normal”, she sat down and all I remember her saying was, “well are you comfortable waiting six months?”

Then mom looked at me and said, “Are you okay with that?  Either way is fine with me." 

SHOCK.

HORROR! 

For some reason my mouth said, "mmmhmm.  That's fine. We can wait." 

BUT on the inside, I was SCREAMING! NooooooooooooooOOOOooooo!!!  Do you know how much I stressed this day?  I couldn’t sleep or eat!  Six months of no sleep or FOOD? I was ready NOW. I was prepared to be ready this day.
 TO. DAY.  
But she didn't hear any of that.

All I remember after that was standing outside of the door. OUTSIDE. Outside of the place that I had dreaded coming to but convinced myself to come to anyway! Mom stopped me.  She said, "Ruby, are you SURE you're fine with this? We can still go back in there and ask if you can go ahead with it since you are ready." I thought about it for a moment and decided to play it cool and barely whispered, "well, sure I guess we can go back in there."  So up the stairs we went!

Mom spoke with someone-I’m not sure who or what she said, but the next thing I knew, she was signing more papers. Then, we went to the front and waited for my name to be called. During that time, I got a talkin to. I always get a talkin to. She says she is supposed to be training me.  Well, this training session was on speaking up for me.  I learned a new word-advocate.  I am my own advocate. If I’m not comfortable or my insides are screaming about something happening, I need to speak up. You got that?  I do.

After about what seemed like forever, but was really only about 5 minutes according to mom, we got called back and I'm not sure if my mom knew what was about to happen or if she really didn't know.

BUT, cow bell! 
A cow bell was rung to get everyone's attention that today was my first day! I could feel my face getting hotter! Before I burst into flames, everyone smiled and clapped and welcomed me! My chair was all the way in the back. I didn't have much time to be embarrassed, but I sure was glad my chair was away from the front!

Then, my new friend started cleaning my teeth. It was almost like being at a dentist. I was not expecting that. I wasn’t expecting to get my teeth shined, but it made sense when she explained that the glue really needed to stick! Then, she put some kind of tooth conditioner on and it tasted like very sour lemon candy…Ew.

Did I get transported to the dentist???

After that, they started sticking brackets on and the orthodontist came over and made sure they were perfect! 

More lip stretching, but Lakosha was awesome!

Then, there was this cool blue light that dried the glue. 

My future is so bright... 

Once the glue was dried, they started to put the wire through the brackets.

Wires and springs?  

 That was fast. Here I am, not dead from pain. I made it! 

Metal Mouth

After she put my metal mouth together—she answered all of my questions and then some!

My new best friend, Lakosha!  She answered all of my questions!

Even about rust and magnets!

Demonstration time!

Don’t eat anything hard or sticky. They will not rust. Nothing will happen if I get too close to a magnet. No special tooth brush. If a baby tooth comes out, it’s okay. Chewing gum, not bubble gum!

All done!

Lakosha. AKA THE BEST!!!

Before and After

Then we left and ate lunch. Mom must have known what was coming, because…

Then.

The.

Pain.

Started.

I was scared of the wrong thing. Sore, stretchy, all the time pressure on my front teeth! I’m taking some medicine and waiting on that to go away. I have figured out that it is very hard to whistle or use a straw. I hope mom makes it to the store to buy me some soft food before I starve.

When I get this pain situated, I’ll let you know how I’m doing. 

See my next post here: I'm Alive!!!

Twas the Night Before Braces...

Dear Journal,

I feel very nervous and excited. Tomorrow will be my first appointment at the orthodontist.  I remember when it all started... I was getting my teeth cleaned and the dentist popped up and said, "Look who needs to see the orthodontist!" At that moment, I thought, "Boy, that was quick--he just looked in my mouth!"  The dentist office set up an appointment for me.  1 week.  Not too bad. All was good when I thought it was just a "hey, how ya doing? kind of appointment with the orthodontist, but then, my mom said, "Oh no! If all goes well, they will be putting braces on when you go!"  WHAT? I'm. Not. Ready.

I mean, I AM ready, but not ready ready.  Like--what? Braces? Now?  I'm only ready for pretending to be ready.  Not being ready ready. Metal in my mouth. Rusty metal in my mouth. Ew. I can't even think about it.

Anyways, no matter how many times I've told mom that I was scared and nervous, she just smiles and says, "It'll be okay, sugar plum." She's crazy. She thinks everything will be okay.  Everything.  She's not the one with metal going on her teeth. 

It appears it's going to happen. But, I'm going in prepared.  I've thought of a bunch of questions.  Maybe I'll stump them and they will send me away with my tiny mouth full of large teeth and no metal.

Question 1: What foods can't I eat?

Question 2: What happens if I get too close to a magnet?

Question 3: Can I chew gum?

Question 4: What will happen if I lose a tooth with braces?

Question 5: Will I need a special tooth brush?

Question 6: Will they rust?

Well,  as I write this my stomach keeps twisting and turning and I keep moving and shaking all around.  It probably will hurt when I get them.  I may die from the pain.  If not, all is good and I will update you tomorrow.

See my next post here: Ready or Not!!