Thursday, February 09, 2006

Sleep Update

Yesterday I had a follow-up visit with the orthodontist who fitted me with the dental appliance in December. I had had some problems with it when I first started using it, which is normal, but I did have to stop using it for a little while.

There were however, a few abnormalities with the appliance itself (not me!):
1) One of the wires in the appliance was not put in correctly and needed to be fixed.
2) There was some corrosion in one area and that needed to be dealt with.

Upon speaking with the dentist I found out that some of the pain I had when I was using the appliance every night may have been due to the incorrect position of the wire. Hopefully this will be sorted out once I get it back.

When I do get the appliance back I will start using it for two nights in a row and then take one night off. If my mouth feels good and there is no pain or problems closing my jaw, the following week I will move up to three nights on, one night off, and so on until I'm up to 5 nights a week.

At that point I will go back in for another follow-up visit. It won't just be in 5 weeks though. It's entirely possible that it takes 2 or 3 weeks at each level for me to become accustomed to extra night.

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