spugbrap’s blog

As many people already know, I had braces for a second time, and just got them off about 8 months ago. Because I’ve had braces twice, and especially since one of those times was as an adult, I’ve got plenty of advice that I’m more than happy to share. A friend of mine got braces last year, and we’ve had numerous discussions about tooth/mouth pain, problems, effective care and cleaning methods, good/bad habits, etc.

I’ve posted a couple of our instant messaging conversations, before, and it seems like at least a few people have benefited from this information, so I’ve been meaning to post some more. These transcripts have been edited to keep my friend’s identity anonymous, but other than that, they contain real questions and concerns from someone else who had to get braces as an adult.

These questions/concerns are not unique–nearly everyone worries about many of these things when they get braces, which is why I think other people can benefit from reading these discussions. Do YOU have any questions, comments, or tips regarding braces? If so, please post it in the “Leave a Reply” section, below .

Now, for part 3 of this series of tips for people with braces (also check out part 1 and part 2, if you haven’t read them yet!):

• Session Start ([spugbrap]:[friend]): Wed Jan 24 08:53:07 2007
• [spugbrap]: so, used to the braces yet?
• [friend]: Hi Dave. It’s a little better but I still can’t chew anything. The general discomfort has gone away but when I chew and put pressure on teeth it is uncomfortable and it feels like other other teeth get so much pressure. This Thursday will have been a week and I am hoping after that things start to normalize a little.
• [spugbrap]: ah yes that reminds me of some times when pressure was in uncomfortable places. like my top right canine tooth would touch a bracket on the front of one of my bottom teeth, making it so i could not completely close my teeth together without feeling like i was a) putting to much pressure on the bracket, and b) going to chip that canine tooth
• [spugbrap]: that got better within a few days. or i at least adapted my eating style around it somehow.
• [spugbrap]: i also remember when i first got the braces this time, i felt like all my teeth were so loose that any time i felt too much pressure on them (especially when THEY were applying pressure at followup appointments) i felt like my teeth were just going to fall out/break/etc.
• [spugbrap]: but nothing bad has happened. i was truly afraid though.
• [friend]: Eeek. That is almost how I feel when I chew, like I am loosening them or something. But it must just feel that way and these ortho. people know what they are doing. I can’t believe how much my teeth have moved already. I always thought that the tooth movement would be so slow that I wouldn’t even notice. So far I only have them on the top because she wanted to try to get my bite aligned first before putting them on the bottom. Now, I am glad about that because that will be even worse.
• [spugbrap]: ahh yeah they do move amazingly fast at first. the phase i’m in now is kind of a perfecting/finishing touch kind of thing, so it’s been several months now of waiting for a few stubborn teeth on one side to move ever so slightly, using rubber bands (which reminds me, gotta put one on!).
• [friend]: Are you suppose to wear them all day?
• [spugbrap]: at this point, yes
• [spugbrap]: for one or two months i only had to wear them at night.. i think because i was being so “compliant” and wearing them most of the time, the teeth moved more than she’d anticipated, so she had me change the rubber band configuration and just do it at night. now i’m back to all day again. it amazes me how they know just what type of rubber band type and configuration to use, and which types of wire-holder-on-ers to use (little rubber bands on each bracket, or a “power chain”), etc.
• [spugbrap]: for a while i had to use 2 different types of rubber bands, in different shapes on each side. that was fun.
• [friend]: Oh wow, that sounds like another hassle. I know it is wild how they have this down to a science.
• [spugbrap]: like i’d have to use a thicker/heavier one on the right side and connect the hook on the back of my back top tooth to the hook on the front of my bottom 3rd tooth, then use a lighter-duty rubber band in a trapezoid formation on the front on the left side. hehe. crazy stuff. but it worked. and it only took a couple tries to get the hang of putting them on.
• [friend]: Oh wow, that is interesting. I’m assuming that it is hard/strange to talk with the rubber bands in too? The other thing I thought of is having to wear a retainer afterwards. But I heard you can get those is clear without the wire. Did you have to wear that 24×7 when you were little or I mean when you had these on the first time?
• [spugbrap]: it’s not hard to talk with rubber bands in. i mean i guess at first it was a little weird because it was pulling my mouth shut. but you get used to it, and rubber bands stretch a little bit over time (i think), so the longer you have one in, the less annoying it is..
• [spugbrap]: as far as retainers.. i will wear it/them religiously this time. i did not wear mine when i was younger. i couldn’t breathe with it in, but either they didn’t care/understand that, or i didn’t speak up enough about it.. and eventually i stopped going back for followup appointments so they couldn’t even nag me about it.
• [spugbrap]: i don’t remember how much i was supposed to wear them before (i think there were two) but i’ve always had breathing issues and one of them was just too much in the way of breathing through my mouth, somehow
• [spugbrap]: but not wearing my retainer back then is probably the #1 reason why i had to end up getting them again. and i’ll give up and go for dentures or something before i’ll get braces AGAIN. hehe
• [spugbrap]: besides, i won’t be able to afford braces a third time, either.. i’ve got 3 kids, and chances are they will all need braces at some point (particularly because both of their parents did), and that will be a lot of money right there!
• [friend]: Yeah braces are expensive and it strikes me funny how the Ortho. insurance isn’t very high because the insurance companies know that now a days that most kids will get braces. Well hopefully thought after you finish treatment and get your retainer, you will be in good shape.
• [spugbrap]: yeah it was ridiculous how they only covered like what $2k or something!? and i think i still have to pay over $5k out of pocket.. at least the ortho does monthly payment plans with no interest or anything!
• [friend]: We must have different insurance because mine paid only $1K. I paid 30% down and then monthly payment plan for the rest totaling out to $7k. It is expensive, but then again Ortho’s usually only get a patient once a lifetime, not like the dentist where you go the rest of your life, I guess they need to make their money somehow. Well good to hear more info. about your experience. Thanks for sharing. I’ll let you get back to work, but on another day I am really curious to find out from you what I should expect at my first adjustment appointment. It is not until March 1st, though. I can’t believe that 6 weeks is March already.:)
• [spugbrap]: you’re right, only $1k. i forgot.. it’s been a year and a half since i looked at that stuff, after all. :)

When opening a new container of deodorant, it used to annoy me that the first one or two times I used it, it was not easy to dispense the proper amount. I like the “soft solid” type of deodorant, which pushes the white goop through tiny little holes in the top, when you twist the bottom of the container. Each time you twist it, it makes a clicking sound, and–in theory–it dispenses a consistent amount of deodorant.

However, when you first open it, it takes quite a few clicks before the deodorant actually starts coming out of the holes. When it finally starts coming out, it only comes out of the edges; nothing comes out of the center for quite a few *more* clicks. In the mean time, it’s hard to gauge how much you need, when it’s only coming out of the edges.

One day, I decided to try something new. I left the plastic seal on the top of the container, and started twisting the bottom (clicking it).

The plastic seal helped to contain the deodorant, as it tried to come out the holes on the edges. I kept on clicking it until the goop looked ready to come out the holes in the center, too. It got more and more difficult to twist, the more I clicked it, because the seal was holding it back.

By the time the deodorant was coming out of all of the holes–but still being held back by the plastic seal–the goop from the edges was starting to come out.

When I finally removed the seal, it just took a couple clicks, and I was able to easily get the amount of deodorant that I wanted.

We received an ad in the mail, recently, which immediately disturbed Lacey and I. It’s a service that lets you create real, usable postage stamps with a picture of your choice. Sounds kinda cool, right? But take a look at the ad, and see if you can find what’s wrong with this picture:

---

It seems like a cool concept, at first, to put whatever picture you want (as long as it’s yours/legal/etc) on stamps. But this ad is proudly showing a picture of a cute little kid, on a stamp. That would be cool if you’re just sending mail to your friends and family, and nobody was going to handle that mail in between.

But the reality is that several people are going to handle each piece of mail, and you’re probably going to send some to billers/rebate warehouses/misc. companies as well, and multiple people will probably handle the mail within those companies. If any of those people happens to like little kids, in a NAMBLA sort of way, then you’ve just given them your cute kid’s home address via the return address on the other corner of the envelope.

In other words, you’re announcing, “Hey, pedophiles! Here’s a picture of my cute kid, and here’s where to come get him/her!”

I remember Lacey talking about some online moms’ group forums where there was some controversy, a while back, when people posted their addresses (for swaps/co-ops/etc) publicly and had cute pics of their kids in their signature blocks. These stamps aren’t quite as bad, I think, because at least their exposure is limited to a few people handling snail mail, whereas the online message boards are googleable.

But, still, stamps.com might want to consider this before enabling proud, naïve parents to advertise their children this way. Art would be fine. Maybe even the family pet. But not children.

Tissues work very well for erasing dry-erase marker!

Specifically, I’ve tried it with Kleenex regular unscented ones, but I assume others probably work, too.

I used to get frustrated, sometimes, trying to erase dry-erase marker off a kids’ workbook that had laminated pages. The first method I used was using a dry paper towel. It worked fine, for a long time (but sometimes it didn’t). So, I tried a wet paper towel, and that would usually do the trick (but sometimes it wouldn’t). So, I tried a wet dishwashing sponge, which usually did pretty well (but not always). The last resort was a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (awesome product!), which always worked. But that seemed overkill, and I hated to waste it on something that should be easier to clean, so it wasn’t an everyday solution.

Lacey saw me struggling with this, one day, and told me about the tissue thing. I’m not sure where she learned about it, or if she figured it out, on her own. But I always use a tissue to erase it, now, and that works like a charm.

I also tried this on my whiteboard, at work, and it works on that, too. Much cleaner than using the whiteboard eraser, which just pushes the dust around and leaves a line of it wherever you stop erasing.

If you need to clean up cork floors, don’t use Lysol disinfectant spray. I learned this the hard way, and have yet to actually adequately recover from it.

Early one morning, a couple months ago, one of the cats pooped at the top of our stairs, on the cork floor. Since they are not my cats (they are mainly Lacey’s and Matthew’s), I’m not usually the one to clean up such a mess. But everyone was still asleep (I go to work way early), and I didn’t want the mess to get worse by having someone (cat or human) step in it and track it around the house, so I dealt with it myself.

I thought I remembered Lacey telling me that the way she cleaned that stuff up was to pick up the poop with paper towels and dispose of it, then spray the area with Lysol and wipe it off. Well, it turns out, the floors didn’t like that. It turned the sprayed area a light color, and took off the shine. It looked bad.

So, I sprayed some Pledge wood polish on it, and wiped that on, and tried to wipe off the excess. The spot looked better (not perfect, but at least it was shiny again), but now the whole area was very slippery! I wiped and wiped, with paper towels and then with rags, but all it did was make the slippery area bigger. Wood floors are slippery enough, already, and the top of the stairs is a really bad place for floors to be extra slippery!

I needed to get to work, but I didn’t want the kids (or Lacey even!) to slip and fall down the stairs, so I grabbed a bathroom rug (the kind with nonslip rubber on the bottom, that you step on when you get out of the tub/shower), and covered the entire slippery area.

Lacey told me that this is *not* the way she cleans up cat poop, and she proceeded to tell me how she actually does it. But that was a couple months ago, and I’ve already forgotten. Luckily, the cats don’t tend to poop in the wrong place anymore, although their long hair does make the occasional cling-on get dropped here or there, sometimes. Eww.

The rug is still there, today, because I don’t really know what to do about the slippery floor problem, without risking damaging the floor worse than I did originally. I actually kind of like having a soft, non-slip surface up there. It does help me know where the top of the stairs are, when going up/down in the dark. I guess it’s probably kinda tacky, though, but I tend to care more about utility/safety than aesthetics.

The cats like it too. They sleep on it every night!

(Nermel sleeping on it earlier this evening)