BRACES 2: Eight months later...

Eighth-month braces update...

I had my fourth tooth extracted today. Usually for people doing braces, their teeth would be extracted all at one go, but for me my first three was extracted in my second orthordotic visit, and at the same time my braces (brackets and wires) were put in, and the dentist said to wait for the teeth to shift to a certain position before the fourth tooth could be extracted.

By right, the tooth was ready to be extracted in August, but I happened to be running/or just recovered from a mild fever, so the dentist decided not to go ahead with the extraction, just in case, because my body has to be healthy to be ready to fight any infection in the case that one occurred after the tooth was extracted.

Come October (appointments were 1 month - 6 weeks apart), my exams were nearing so dentist and I decided to postpone the extraction because the post-extraction process would be quite unpleasant and I would be unable to focus on studying.

It's been awhile since I updated on my braces progress (eight months actually).

During this time,

• I had my braces tightened regularly, 
• changed rubber band colours (but stayed within light blue, dark blue, purple, grey [ didn't dare experiment with other funkier colours] ), 
• learnt to eat harder foods like apple (still has to be sliced, but the slices in the beginning were tiny as compared to normal slices I eat today), 
• abandoned and lost my small single-bristle brush (while moving house), 
• became more and more confident of my smile and smiled more,
• continued to eat normal foods (candy, chocolate)

The extraction procedure itself was surprisingly fast. Having experienced the anesthetic procedure before, I had mentally prepared myself for the needle and the pulling out tooth process, but it was not that bad. Afterwards,  the dentist told me she saw the look on my face like I was preparing myself for the anaesthesia needle as well as the extraction part, so she got it over and done with quickly.

Also, my dentist upgraded her rubber band colour collection - I found light teal which I didn't recall seeing during my previous visits (or else I would have picked that colour) which I was quite happy about.

The worse part about extraction is actually not extraction itself, but the post effects. First hour was okay, I just bit on the gauze as instructed (the pressure reduces bleeding) and did some doodling at home. The second hour onwards it just hit me... it was not pain, but rather this fidgety feeling with irritation and annoyance and simply plain misery. Plus I was super hungry, and seeing my friend's snapchatting their dinners made it worse (I couldn't eat for the first hour and only cold foods for the next 24 hours). Moaning and groaning relieved that misery by a little bit, and I tried to distract myself by watching TV shows on my laptop.

I kept hydrating myself, and four hours later my stomach really could not stand it any longer, so I made myself oats with Milo (chocolate malt powder) and popped it in the freezer for awhile to cool it.

And now I'm typing this blog post with no gauze in my mouth, six hours after extraction. The misery has disappeared (finally)!