Sounds pretty trivial, right? I mean, come on, chewing is not such a big deal, there are people dealing with far worse things than not being able to chew. Get over it.
WRONG. Chewing is now the number one item on my list of things that are important to be able to do. I am going insane. Like, I feel a bit crazy. This is the 11th day of my liquid/blended diet. It's not even a "soft food" diet. I can't even manage that. I even have to blend vegetable soup to a liquid.
Example of my bite with braces
Right, so this image attempts to show you the sheer impossibility of my teeth touching. It doesn't look anywhere near as bad as it is, it's definitely one of those things that need to be experienced to be fully understood. The gap that begins at the tooth to the left of my left top tooth (the right in this photo) extends to the far depths of my mouth. NO teeth actually touch each other. The closest that they get to touching is along the bottom row; as you can (hopefully) see - it was really hard to take this shot - my bottom front teeth overlap my top teeth as usual, but hit the two brackets on my top teeth that are unintentionally acting as a barrier. That gap, although only appearing to be a couple of millimetres, is the problem. Well, my underbite in general is the problem.
The kicker? COMPLETE LIQUID/BLENDED DIET FOR BETWEEN 6 - 12 MONTHS.
A year of this. How will I cope? I am literally hungry all of the time. I am falling behind with uni because my brain cannot concentrate and can only think of how hungry my body it is and constantly falls into daydreams about food.
So I hope that this photo and description clears a few things up. Moral of the story: The reason I cannot chew has nothing to do with any sort of pain. I am actually in almost zero pain apart from a very slight dull ache that does not warrant any pain relief. I have actually taken zero pain relief since having my braces put on - spacers were far worse.
No, the reason I cannot chew comes from the brackets preventing my usual bite/chewing motion from taking place.
My orthodontist doesn't seem to be concerned about this! He keeps talking about sacrifice and how we have to give a little to get a lot. And he's partly right, of course, and I would take this discomfort and actual starvation now in order to have a perfect smile in the future 100 times over if I had to.
BUT THAT'S THE THING, I am actually wasting away and I'm worried that I'll end up on a drip in hospital due to malnourishment/extreme weight loss.
Parting note: My wisdom tooth is now coming out two weeks today (Friday October 10, 2014). I work on Fridays and took today off work in preparation that it would be taken out yesterday, so there goes any sort of income. But the alternative was getting it out on October 28, and I have a uni exam on that day. So the 10th it is.
<3
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