Feeling like crap

The video project continues at a slow, steady pace. If being busy with that wasn't enough to make me asocial, the orthodontic work certainly guarantees it. In a previous post I complained about getting lingual arches. After a month with just half the system in place I can say with confidence that it cripples my speech and mood. One of its adjustment loops intrudes into my lower tongue, stabbing and painfully plucking at it when I attempt "L" sounds. On top of that, there are riggings sticking off metal collars on my rear upper teeth which scratch at my tongue. I cover these with wax which sloughs off during meals when my tongue is most active. It is so distressing that true relief only comes with a few shots of whiskey, which isn't good for me. Now there's more...

You know how Frankenstein's monster has bolts sticking out of his neck? Well, now I know why he appears so miserable. I had similar nasties inserted into my hard palate and lower jaw gum area yesterday. Four of them. Upper and lower. One for each quadrant. In the back.

It was scary. If the oral surgeon missed and hit a tooth root, either I would get a root canal or lose the tooth. And, it was very upsetting to hear and feel my bones being drilled. He said everything was safely installed. Then, the minuscule necks with round heads protruding into my mouth were fitted with tiny collars to widen the surface contact with my tongue and cheeks. Supposedly, these would keep them from scratching my tongue on the hardware. After the procedure, I was hopeful that the worst was over. I got home and took a long nap.

When I woke up, the anesthetic had worn off and I was able to drink a little food. I then began to realize what I was in for. Two pins protrude from my hard palate into my inner mouth. They feel like bull's horns scraping at my tongue when I try to swallow. Any attempt to clear the roof of my mouth is rewarded with painful scratching. When I try to yawn, the pins on the cheek side of my lower jaw hurt the mobile tissues there. Ouch, ouch, ouch! When I woke up this morning, I had a pounding headache and swollen painful cheeks around the lower pins. Speech is now even more hampered. I'm the sort of person who goes inward when I don't feel well, and I haven't felt well for a month. I lose curiosity about others and isolate myself when things aren't working. The new orthodontic work clinched the deal: I crawled under a rock last month, and now unless something improves, I'm hiding here for a year! I must, however, somehow get it together enough to do final voiceover in the next few months. I don't know how, but it must be done!

All of this torture is for a good cause, of course. The pins allow my back teeth to be hoisted into my jaws, not just laterally, which is the only possible direction with standard braces. The teeth attached to the lingual arches will be connected to and pulled toward the evil pins which are embedded in my jaw bones. Since all of the my teeth are connected via the archwire which goes through each bracket on every tooth, any movement of the teeth being hoisted by the evil pins will be carried to adjacent teeth. I'd show you a picture, but all of the examples I found were disgusting -- I didn't want to put you through that. The examples all showed extreme situations where there is a missing or severely rotated tooth to deal with. My situation involves a problem where all of my rear teeth need to move into my jaws, so my front teeth can touch and even overlap a bit.

Next week, I receive the final lingual arch which will run across the roof of my mouth, as well as more gear to attach the arch systems to the evil pins. Blah.
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