Saturday, July 3, 2010

20 turns of the key! Hiding the gap 2.0











I've turned the key 20 times now and if all goes well on Tuesday, I'm in the home stretch of expanding (4 more to go!). Yay! As you can see, the gap has gotten much bigger over the past week.

As the gap got bigger, I found that hiding the gap with clear wax was less effective. It looked liked I was wearing some sort of clear retainer. So to solve the problem, I started looking online to see if there was tooth colored wax I could use, but couldn't find any that I could purchase. So I decided to get a little creative and make my own tooth colored wax. I mixed some make-up into the wax to make it blend better with my teeth. It seems that a combo of white eyeshadow and physician's formula yellow concealer does the trick.

Some new food tricks - heated brie with jam works well for a soft food diet. Also, pasta in the blender with ground beef and tomato sauce provides extra protein. I've been told that I've lost weight, but since I don't have a scale, I'm not really sure how much. It is important to keep eating / consuming calories though. I find I'm a lot less grumpy when I'm full.

Attached are some pics of the gap and the pics with the gap hidden. I'm also attaching the pics of my tricks of the trade for hiding the gap.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tip on the wax mixture. I will be neededing that after the braces and to expand the palate. My son is getting married about the time I will have the big gap. I got the Physicin's formula stick so I am hopeful it will work as well for me as it did for you.

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  2. No problem Robin! Bring some extra wax with you to the wedding because when you eat it'll start to break down. Have you had your SARPE yet?

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  4. Hi,
    First off all, great blog. My first comment was the same as this one.
    I know that this post is already five years old but I have a question. What kind of wax do you use?

    I hope you will still see this!

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  5. I'm sorry, did you use of course.

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    1. Hi Renee! It was just dental wax. It's the same stuff you get from your orthodontist. I just ordered a bunch off of Amazon.

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  6. Hi heather..your blog has been great for me to know what to expect. I am 10 days post Sarpe and expect to go back to work in another week..so trying to figure out how to hide the dreaded gap...I got the wax but cannot really figure out how to make it stick and first right..did you stretch it all the way across the back of your teeth to the device brackets and then shape the tooth? Yours looked so good. I am only just trying the first time and I am sure it will take a few attempts but any advice you can give would be great.

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  7. Hi Wendy! Congrats on taking such a brave journey. :) I didn't have to stretch it all the way back. Basically, I would just take a few strips of wax and then push it behind and in between my two front teeth. Press the wax firmly to your back teeth using your thumb and forefinger. There should be enough so that it will ooze out between your front teeth so you can form a fake tooth. If were to pop it out would be a think layer of wax with a bump.

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