Hello friends!
I know it's been quite a while since I've updated the blog. I've been doing some traveling, started a new position at work, and life just generally got quite hectic. Many of you have reached out to me for an update or follow up, so I finally made some time to catch up :) I'm still a bit behind on my videos so for the sake of chronology, I'm going to continue going in order of my treatment (even though in reality I'm far past this.) In the next month or two I hope to catch up so I'm finally posting in real-time. Here's a video update after my TADs were installed on my upper arch.
In this video, I've just had my new TADs installed in the buccal side of my upper arch. Buccal means it's the side of the gums that's closer to the cheek. Lingual means it's on the side closer to the tongue. They installed one TAD on either side of my arch. They did the usual preparation by first applying a numbing gel, then giving me stronger numbing via injections. As usual it's not super painful, just feels like a lot of pressure. You get used to it after a while.
Almost immediately after they gave me elastics to connect from the TAD to a hook on the bracket of my lower canine. The intention here is to help my entire lower arch move back to correct the slight underbite I have. The reason they connect the elastic to this TAD instead of a hook on my upper molar, is because the latter would 'extrude' my molar, meaning bring it out of the bone. Since I already have an open bite, this would only make it worse. Connecting it to the TAD would enable us to move the arch without worsening my open bite. They also connected my four lower front teeth with a power chain, so that when they get pulled back they won't separate and form a gap in the middle. Something to note here is that bone density and strength varies GREATLY from person to person. It's mostly due to genetics and physiological inclinations based on our ethnicity. I'm Indian by ethnicity and apparently we tend to have weaker bone (not always the case). This is both a good and bad thing. In the case of my skeletal expansion with MARPE, it's great news because my maxillary suture split more easily. In the case of these TADs, it ended up meaning that they take longer to heal and "osseointegrate". Osseointegrate means how the implant locks and secures itself into the bone so that it's stable enough to bear a load. In my case, they immediately placed a load on the TAD after installing it. The elastics were pretty loose and not the most aggressive ones they have, likely because they didn't want to shock the TADs too much. It's all experimentation and seeing what works for your system. If you enjoy these posts and videos and find them useful, please leave me a comment or like so I know what you all like! I will continue to make content and share my experience as often as I can. Cheers, Divya
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