Orthodontist 2

Today I continue on the subject of the orthodontist. Like I mentioned, yesterday they got my braces out, which actually took me 2 appointments. Did it hurt that much? Well, yes. But that’s not the (only) reason it had to happen in 2 appointments.

A lot of people say taking braces out isn’t even that painful. Well, it is to me. I cried and had to take a break with every bracket that came off. But like I said, that wasn’t the biggest problem. After the brackets were taken off, she had to drill/grind the glue off. This didn’t hurt that much, but it made a loud shrieking noise and it vibrated a lot. This sensation, so close to my brain and ears, affected my whole system. I would say the noise ‘hurt’, but it didn’t hurt somewhere specifically. It’s hard to describe. Maybe it’s like when someone keeps on running nails over a chalk board? But I’d even take that over this drill…

And there was just 1 other option to this drill (which also only applied to big parts), which is chipping it off with a long kind of hook. This did take the terrible sensation away, but replaced it with a big physical hurt. I didn’t always quite know which I thought to be worse.

I got to say though, unlike the orthodontist, this assistant who was taking out my braces, was much nicer. She DID take notice to my sensitivity. (seriously, the one time I get the right person is when I decide to take it out…) She told me she had to do this, but I could take a break any time I wanted. I just had to hold up my hand and she would stop right away. My mum was beside me the whole time to support me too.

The first time it took me one and a half hour just to get the bars in that would hold my teeth straight, and to get my lower brackets out. (I was told the WHOLE procedure normally takes about an hour)

I simply couldn’t take the grinding noise and vibrations anymore. It seriously got me SO overloaded, I felt like I just walked into a disco with maximum volume and lots of flashing lights and I was right next to the music box and that for one and a half hour.

I couldn’t take it anymore and told them, in tears and breathing heavily like I just ran a marathon, that I would like to make another appointment. They understood and nodded.

For yesterday, my jobcoach had the idea that I could put in my mp3-player to ease the overload. This worked like a charm. I still HATE the drill and even today was a complete torture, but the music did make it a bit easier. It made it so I could at least complete the procedure without being in a complete panic. Of course, still with lots of breaks.

In conclusion, today’s blogpost is more about overload than about pain. In this case overload by noise and vibrations. This kind of overload can take over and cause my body to just want to run away. Everything inside me cramps up, even hurts a bit, and just wants to run away from whatever is causing the overload. It’s a terrible feeling and leaves me exhausted for the rest of the day.