Pulling the jaws by elastic bands

So the crowding on my lower left jaw seems to have corrected quite nicely over the Eid holidays. While the permanent tooth on my upper jaw was now held by wires and plate to facilitate its eruption progress over time.

On this follow up visit, my dentist mentioned that my jaw lines are "misaligned" and they need to be corrected while the procedures continue. Meaning my jaws were mis-aligned as something like this:

original picture taken from: http://www.discover-how-to-draw.com/how-to-draw-a-skull-in-front-view.html

Weird, eh? So how can this be corrected? Well, what is better than bringing some teeth back to alignment with a pair elastic bands?

Yup. This is practically how the teeth are being brought back into alignment. I had to wear two elastic bands actually.

Wanna see how big is the elastic band when kept on its own?

The relaxed elastic band in comparison to the plates that i have to wear
on my upper and lower jaws

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This much elastic band is spanned over the length of the jaw. You can understand how much tension it puts on the jaws. It used to hurt when i used to take it off or put it on because there is a sudden HIGH PRESSURE snap of the elastic on the hooks which jerk your teeth like super crazy.

Pure mechanical stuff!

A fair progress over the Eid holidays

The crowding seemed to have lined up pretty nicely over the Eid holidays AlHamduLillah. So it definitely deserves a before - after shot on this post. Notice the correction of alignment of the tooth on my lower-left side of the mouth (your lower-right side)

AFTER:

Picture taken: 13th August 2012

BEFORE:

Picture taken: 26th June 2012

That is definitely a fair improvement over a period of about one and half months, isn't it?



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Replaced the wires before Eid

Finally Eid-Ul-Fitr was knocking on the door. So naturally there will be a vacation. Before the vacation started, I visited my dentist to ensure that progress continued over the time. It turns out, my current installation of the wires had almost worn out of their force and it was time for me get a new set of wires - this time, stronger and tighter. Well, worth the visit.

Congratulations!!! No disgusting pictures on this post; other than the pair of removable plates that were to be placed in my upper and lower jaws continuously. I got to take them off only before eating.

The dirt of our wealth

As a muslim, when I make a post about wealth in the holy month of ramadan, most of you might think it's about zakah (zakah is the obligatory payment made annually under Islamic law on certain kinds of property and used for charitable and religious purposes). Well, you are right then. Zakah is one of the 5 pillars of Islam and alh'amdulillah (all praise be to Allah) for allowing me to share some insight about this important pillar of Islam.

[Please note that zakah has no relation with the month of ramadan. Zakah is a due amount which is to be given out on a yearly basis. But most people consider the month ramadan to be the end (or start) of annual cycle. You CAN plan for zakah on any other month.]

It is obligatory on EVERY believer to know about the obligation of zakah. Specifically, upon every believer who has wealth BEYOND a minimum level. Notice the keywords in bold letters.

A condition of obligatory zakah, is to have complete ownership of the wealth on which the zakah is being calculated. This is the part which my post is about - complete ownership. Unfortunately, because of the tremendously flawed financial systems which are dominating the economies we sometimes fail to recognize what is our OWN wealth. [p.s. No offense to the people involved in financial industries, but the interest based financial systems must definitely be classified as a flawed financial system. Islamic shariah proposes financial systems which are NOT interest based and can provide better benefits for socio-economic impacts in the long run. Sadly, even many islamic banks don't always follow that entirely]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:National_Bank_Oamaru.jpg

Got my bite plate for the upper jaw

I described in my previous post about my permanent tooth being erupted out with the help of archwires tied with the other teeth beside it.

I also described in an earlier post about getting bite plates on my lower jaw in order to prevent bad alignment from forming due to the tension of the wires. A similar precaution needed to be taken so that the eruption of my tooth was not affected.

As the permanent tooth was being pulled down by the wires tied with the surrounding teeth, there was every possibility that the surrounding teeth could be pulled close together by the permanent tooth, instead of the permanent tooth being pulled down by the surrounding teeth. So it was necessary to hold the other teeth in their respective positions while providing sufficient room for the permanent tooth to come down freely.

Hence, a plate was needed for the upper jaw so that it could clamp on to the other teeth and keep them in their respective positions while providing space to the hidden tooth.

upper plate was designed in such a way so that it holds the surrounding teeth in place and prevents the surrounding teeth being pulled in by the archwire. Meanwhile, provide space for the erupting tooth to come down freely without having to battle for space.

and the bite plate for my lower jaw as shared earlier in a previous post.

Here is a recap of the condition of my erupting tooth from an earlier post.

Am not sure if you can see the permanent tooth there, but it's right there - being pulled down by the archwire.

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