Tuesday, November 11, 2008

acupuncture and adjustment


Acupuncture was this past Friday. I had needles. In my FACE (and neck, shoulders, hands, and feet). It was a bit scary. The acupuncturist was very good - he made me feel very relaxed, asked me a lot of questions, told me he thought acupuncture would help (and he can also fix my I'm-suddenly-getting-old-or-something weird stuff going on like my hip being weird). The needles stung a little bit going in on my face, but nothing more than a pinch and a sting and it was over. He left Nick and I in a nice warm room to hang out for maybe 20-25 minutes with the needles in (good picture time). I didn't feel any immediate relief, which was a bummer because I was coming off of a doozy of a migraine, but the next day I woke up to no pain. Not even a little. In fact, I didn't really notice anything was different until I went to yawn and I winced and grabbed for my jaw joints like I usually do and realized it didn't hurt. It didn't last long, maybe an hour, but I now have confidence that it can work. He says that the relief will be more immediate and more long lasting as treatment progresses.

Then the next day I got the worst migraine I've had in a long time. Hopefully not connected... I still have it now and I'm contemplating missing school tomorrow it hurts so bad.

Adjustment was today. They x-rayed my teeth and took off a maybe 7-8 brackets on my lowers and 1 on my uppers for replacement. She put the same wire back in and I was originally disappointed (no pain no gain!) but immediately I felt the results.... and 8 hours later my teeth are singing Wagner. Whoo-eee! I was sad, he made a comment on my teeth getting a little discolored. I drink coffee. I LOVE coffee. I'm not sure how I'm going to give coffee up, but he's right. My teeth aren't as lovely as they once were. Any ideas?

Oh, and progress pictures. The gums keep swelling (the splints make it worse, I think), the overbite keeps growing, and the gaps keep closing. On and on.



6 comments:

Dragon (Karen) said...

Sorry to read about how miserable you've been feeling due to your jaw pain and migranes. Hope you can get these sorted soon. Maybe some more acupuncture will help! Good luck with that.

I'm a heavy tea drinker and keep most of the staining away by brushing with a toothpaste that has both baking soda and peroxide in it. It doesn't whiten teeth, as there's no bleach, but it does remove the most recent staining. Also when I see my hygienist every six months, she gives my teeth a 'removing the tea and curry stains' treatment.

Your alignment is looking great! Here's to things going well for your surgery date.

Take care!

Katherine (Kate) said...

How is your migraine now? Did you end up skipping school? Never ending for you. Have you booked another acupuncture session to see how things go?

Sheesh, I sure can't help you with the coffee staining as I'm in the same boat. If YOU figure something out please let me know!! Your teeth are looking so good now; such nice round arches. Still singing for you? :) haha

Rainne said...

Freaky cool!

Rae said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rae said...

Aww..I'm so sorry you have to go through this. Luckily my jaw is only out of whack to the point that, although surgery would permanently correct it, braces will be enough to fix it to a point where it shouldn't bother me. I've never had migraines or the jaw problem or anything (luckily) but I do notice that my jaw pops a little bit more (esp. when I yawn) now that I've gotten braces. And that's uncomfortable, so I can only IMAGINE what you go through. :( :( :( I'm sorry!! I hope all of this is one day in the past, though. SO far in the past that you say "wow! I don't even remember what that felt like" :) Wouldn't that be cool?

Also, as for your staining, I read somewhere that someone drinks their coffee through a straw and therefore it doesn't touch their teeth? (Or, maybe it was to keep their ligs from staining, but I think it'd still help your teeth, right?)

Anyway, good luck with that and I am PRAYING the accupuncture treatments help you more and more and more!! :) Sounds like it did do SOMETHING for you, even if only short-lived. May I ask a question? How often can you get it done? Is there a limit or something? Maybe you could go more frequently, at least in the beginning?

Sorry for such a long comment *blush*

Niamh said...

Hi,

Thanks for your blog post. I'm considering having double jaw surgery and was wondering has accupunture or anything helped with the numb feeling? Have you got all the feeling back in your lips? And if not how has it affected your life like kissing etc. thanks! :)