How To: Deal with Braces

For some people, braces are inevitable. Some need them really bad. I have heard stories of others who literally get them just because they look cute. I wonder if that is just going to become something that was a 'trend back in the day' as I get older. But, I had to go through the whole process and I have plenty I can share. 

1. Find the right facility. 

My family and I checked out about three different places we would consider going to and compared prices and plans. For example, how long did they think the braces would take to be fixed. What problems did they notice in my mouth? For example, I knew I had an overbite but one place took x-rays of my teeth and you can't tell overbites that much just from x-rays. What steps would need to be taken? Again, from personal experience two of the three places told me they could fix my overbite first by using what they called "appliances" and THEN I would get braces. The third location told me that if I wore bands often enough, and I took good care of my teeth that he could fix my overbite with just that. 

2. Come Prepared 

Some say that it hurts more to get the braces on than off or the years/months in between. I would not know because my mom had braces when she was a child so she prepped my sister and me by giving us an over-the-counter pain medication a few hours before we had our braces put on, and then for the rest of the day once the time was right (for example, if the medication said every four hours than she would give it to us every four hours). 

3. Choose Your Food Wisely

For the first few days sometimes the patient is not ready to eat a bunch of solid foods so applesauce, puddings, soup, shakes, mashed potatoes, and lots of drinks is a good place to start. Then, the patient needs to remember not to eat certain foods for the whole time that the braces are on. I will admit I had popcorn occasionally (I made it my job to avoid kernels) or had a hard candy (though I did not chew) but that does not make it okay. I never had gum or too many gummies and my conscience bothered me when I had any of the 'not-with-braces' foods listed above. Yet, one day I was eating a granola bar and I broke a bracket. My sister, who ate way more of the not okay foods than I, never lost a bracket. It affects everyone differently, but I vote that you not risk it. This can cost a lot of money if you lose too many brackets at a time.

4. I was informed that it is normal for brackets to break in the first half (or less) of the time that you have braces on, so if it continues after that it is not good.

5. Be Patient 

It will be worth it when you get them off. Though time might seem to take forever, it does get better and you get used to them. Sometimes you forget they are there! 

6. DON'T FORGET RETAINERS 

I personally think the retainers were only slightly better than the braces, I was able to eat more food, but they were so hard to clean. 

7. Personal Hygiene 

If you did not take care of your teeth well enough before braces, start now! You need to brush after anything you eat, but especially after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I carried around a travel toothbrush and toothpaste so I could brush my teeth if we ate at a restaurant or were on the road. These habits need to continue even with retainers because they need to be cleaned and they get DISGUSTING if you don't clean them enough. 

If you want to know more or are confused by something on this topic, drop me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can. 

How To: Start the College Process

Looking into colleges but don't know where to start? Here is a good place, speaking from the experience I have gained and the knowledge from others: 

1. Chose a Major

    a. Chose what you enjoy doing and find your top two talents. Where they meet is what you would enjoy doing as a job, and something you are good at. This means you get paid to do something that you may have been willing to do for free. 

    b. Once you have that taken care of, you might want to learn what the major is called if you were to go to college to learn how to perform the job best. 

2. Search colleges that offer this Major

    a. Some people already know what college they want to go to, so they can skip this step 

    b. On the other hand, some do not. If you are open to whatever college- private, public, in-state, or out of state, then I would recommend Google Searching it. If you have more specific qualifications to your dream college or one you would like to go to, that needs to be specified in the search. 

3. Apply to the College

This should be assumed. Once you have come up with a college that you are happy with, you should tell them that you are interested in attending that college. You will have to fill out a form with a lot of personal information, and oftentimes you have to write an essay or something to give them something to 'grade' to see if they want to accept you. Apparently, if a college can't accept a good amount of you, showing genuine interest in the college will make them want to accept you because they want a better turnover- they want the most amount of those accepted to actually chose to come. So, that is important to understand: you don't have to go to the college you applied to and you can apply to as many colleges as you want to. 

4. Scholarships 

Some people will dive into this before they even apply to colleges and this is fine. I did not do so and I think I will still be okay. You should first look at an application to the scholarships that the college offers but always look at other sites. Scholarships.com, or now College Board or so many other sites help you apply to many scholarships easily. 

5. Wait 

This will probably take time. You need to be patient. If it seems to take too long, you could probably email or call the college about it, which show s that you were interested. Don't panic if it takes time. 

Once you are accepted, there will be people there who can tell you what your next steps are. This varies too much between colleges, so I will not go into detail about what my college is telling me to do here now. 

How To: Take Care of Yourself

Let's be honest: it is sad if you need an article to tell you how to take good care of yourself. This should be common knowledge or gained from healthy habits you have learned throughout your life. Yet, I am creating an article on this. This is mostly some things to help you go the extra mile- to care for yourself more than just the basics. Oh, and an FYI these are mostly tips for females (as I am one) but I think a good amount of these can still slightly be applied to guys as well.

Face:

I don't do much to my face daily unless I was wearing makeup. You need to remove makeup before you go to bed every day because if you don't it can actually cause acne. I normally wash my face without thinking about it when I shower every morning. I will often get out of the shower and use a facial cleanser, but I don't do that every day. I will also use a face mask about twice a week. If I am dealing with more breakouts than I normally do, I will use microdermabrasion on the affected area. Depending on if I want to give myself an extra treatment on an at-home spa day or if I just wanted to go the extra mile, I will fill up my sink with hot water and I will steam my face over that for a few minutes with a clean towel over my head to trap the heat in the mini spa I made. I have found all of those things that I mentioned above to be really effective for me. 

Body:
Similar to what I was mentioning before, I will shower every morning. I chose this time for a few reasons- I am a morning person, a shower helps wake me up if I am not feeling ready to get up, and I don't feel like I can do anything well until I have showered. I have also found that my hair does better when I shower in the morning. I take a nice 'long' shower about 15 minutes long. Other than that I do not do much for my body as a whole. Every few days I will shave in the shower, or I will sit on the edge of the tub wearing shorts and use the water that comes from the tub to get my legs wet. I use conditioner or shower gel to get my legs soapy before I shave because this helps me get fewer cuts. Yet, I understand this step is not needed. 

Hair:
I will be talking about my specific case of what I deal with in my hair, but if you have other concerns with your hair type, I can try to add that here later. I have thick blonde hair that has never been colored or bleached. I have oily hair and a low to moderate amount of dandruff. I have been using Neutrogena's T-Gel to help with my dandruff and I have found that it helps my oily hair as well. I will rotate between using that, simply rinsing my hair instead of using shampoo or conditioner, and using the 'normal' 2-in-1 shampoo that my family keeps in the house when I shower every morning. It is crazy that it took me so long in my life, but I have recently seen the importance with really scrubbing in the shampoo before rinsing it out, and I have learned that if I can avoid it, I need to not use conditioner on my scalp or the roots of my hair, but only at the bottom. This was a challenge because conditioner used to be the only thing that would detangle my hair, but now that I scrub the shampoo I have found that my hair does not tangle at all anymore. 

Clothes:
Care about what you wear. Sad truth: I used to not. I would wake up every day and literally grab the first shirt and pants I could find. Now, I am a cleaner so it was never the first "clean enough" clothes I could find, but they rarely matched and they just looked disgusting on me. About the time I was learning all these other things, I learned how to care about what I wear. This is not for everyone, but a lot of my wardrobe has changed to more fancy or pretty outfits- especially my shirts. I care about how I look and I make sure that my fashion expert sister and mother think it looks okay together as well.

How To: Pass High School

This might seem like a crazy blog article. I mean, what more is there to passing four years with a bunch of tests, halls, and other teens that are nothing like you? But, there is so much more, and so much information that I have gained over the past four years that can help you do more than just pass, but to pass well- with good grades and hopefully some lifelong friends.

Of course, if you are one of those kids that want to take the classes just to get it done and over with, I am not sure this post can be much help. I am talking to those who really care about their grades and would probably like to see an A on the report card than a bunch of B's. Of course, I think that is the first step that needs to be established: Do Your Best. If you get lower grades, that is okay. My parents always told me that if it is your best, it is okay. I am so blessed to have supportive parents. I would like to think I am a pretty smart student. There was not much that just did not make sense to me and most of the school came easily. Yet, I can think of many cases where I failed math or Spanish tests and I would come out of my room in tears because I was so mad at myself and I was concerned about how my family would react. Yet, while they were not always super happy they always told me that I would be okay and that if I did my best, that was all they could expect. And I somehow made it through all the four years of school with no C's or lower, and only a few B's. 

This brings me to point #2: one failed test does not mean the class is failed. I have actually gotten many (not a ton, but a few) D's or lower on Unit Tests and yet still passed the class with a B or higher. Extra Credit is your Best Friend. You'd be surprised how much it can do. And yes, I was one of those students who would take Extra Credit even if I had an A or B in the class. Every little bit will help, especially in the beginning. Start early. Don't wait until mid-semester to decide to strive to do better or go for the extra credit. And while you totally can and would probably still help, it is so much better if you begin that early. 

I will admit I was one of those students who would procrastinate, but I always knew my level. For example, if I had an essay due in English class I would always give myself about three days before the due date. I would spend one hour three days before the due date to complete the research (this is for like a 1k paper), the second day to write my rough draft literally using the quotes I gathered from day one and adding my notes and opinions (but wording it the right way) and edit it, and the third day to spare or in case the project actually took longer than I thought it would. Yet, it depends on how well you know yourself. Some people struggle with writing but actually do better spending one day studying before a test instead of working a little each day the week before. Know your studying habits, and strive to meet those levels. I could write a whole different article about different ways to study and what works for me. I would also mention some other techniques I know that does not work for me but should work for others. 

Don't be afraid. If you feel like you cannot do something you end up telling yourself that to the point that you believe it then you really can't do it. This is just an endless cycle that you need to get yourself out. There is so much that our bodies have the ability to do, but our brain stops us from doing them. Don't freak out but take a deep breath and go! Make a new friend with a new student. Present that speech in front of your class. You got this! 

How To: Survive in the Real World

I am in no way an expert on this topic, especially considering I have not really had much experience with the real world.

Jobs: I have recently discovered that the skills I have learned from the jobs I have taken in high school are: how to care for people, plants, dogs, and houses. Pretty much, that qualifies me for a list of jobs I can get. Most jobs involve people and any job that doesn't may include one of the other things I mentioned. How did I get that experience in my small community before I left the house or got even one 'real' job? Well, simple. I took almost every small job I could. I babysat, which helped me learn how to care for people. I cleaned people's houses, which got me house experience. And, I got to dog-sit at the person's house (because my family was not dog people) to learn how to care for plants and dogs. It helped to live in a community where everyone was friends with everyone and we were all trustworthy. I know this is not available for all of those, but if there are even a few friends or families that are trustworthy and trust you, make yourself available! This opened up doors for me to get some jobs that are closer to real jobs, and this is all great to put on a resume.

Budgeting: This is one skill that it seems most adults seem to be lacking, but something that I care a lot about. Even from a pretty young age, when I gained cash from a gift or a job I was not eager to spend it because then I did not have it. Now, as a teen who does not have to worry about food costs or anything of the sort, I feel like any purchase that is over $20, and sometimes even $10 I have to put real thought into getting it. Will this get good use? Do I really need this? Is there a cheaper option that gets the job done at a good enough quality? Is this a worthwhile investment? Many of these questions are what are circling through my head when I am choosing whether it is a worthwhile investment or not. Funny to think about it this way, but two items come to my attention when I used this method. About three years ago, towards the beginning of my high school, both of my younger siblings chose to use their spending money to buy a bead bag chair. I was all for it because I loved that they could spend their money (this is a different note I will cover later). Yet, a few weeks later I was looking at them and I noticed the story finally had a few of the chairs that were in my color. It was about $20 and I totally had the money to spend with nothing else in mind, but I just did not want to do it. I finally agreed with persuasion from my sister, and somehow she helped me pay for it because I did something for her ( I don't remember all the details). The second instance was a facial roller (All guys- back off! If you don't know what I mean, deal with it.) After asking those questions I chose not to get it (it was about $12) because I did not really need it. Yet, I will admit I have made so many bad purchases- of things that I did not need- when I forgot to use this method.
On the other note I mentioned above, I guess it helped that my siblings and I had this competition going. Whenever we earned money from Christmas or at one of our birthdays we would compete for the next months (I guess it never really ever ended) about who could have the MOST amount of money. So, the goal was to not spend your money. This all started because I was the saver and both of my siblings were spenders. My sister tried to change her ways, but her method was awful. Then, this somehow hit it off one January. We would always talk about who spent how much and do the math to see who was winning the competition. This has probably helped me make less crazy purchases, and really helps my sister. This works for my youngest sibling who is my only brother for like two months, and then all of his money is gone. He cannot hold back the urge.
So, how to budget money, though? What percentage, what amount? I do not think there is too much of a secret "this works for everyone" amount. I was told via my father who is wise at spending money that as a young adult by yourself, $70 a week for food is reasonable. Of course, he probably got that from when he was single, about 16 years ago but after checking the math I KNOW I could live well on $70 dollars of food a week if I buy a few items that can last me more than one day- like a breakfast bar package. I'm not going to bother giving percentages on all of those other things that adults need to buy, but I will throw out a list of things you should consider adding to your budget that you may forget about sometimes. Oh, and my family used YNAB, which is an app that helps you manage your budget if you program in the numbers. It is not too time-consuming, and it is so worth it. Some things to add to your budget include food, clothes, vacation/ special occasions/dates (you can make these separate if you want, but don't put too high of a percentage here), savings (for retirement, emergency fund, or simply savings [or all three, separate]), giving, utilities, rent/housing, transportation (gas, or bus money), taxes, gifts, education (for you or your kids, or your kids to come maybe!), retirement/insurance, debts.

I know there is so many other categories to add. Again, make a comment letting me know what I need to add as I can always come back later and edit this.

How To: Deal with Wisdom Teeth Removal Surgery

Hi, y'all! I am currently in the recovery process of that very surgery! As I think I have mentioned before, I prefer to write about something that I have personal experience overcoming, though this is not always the case. So, I am going to explain how the surgery and recovery went down for me, and in the process explain how you can prepare. I also want to add a disclaimer here: everyone's experience will look a little different. No place gives the same results to every patient (no matter how hard they try) nor is every clinic the same in operation style, medication choice, or atmosphere.

To get a good idea of how this went down, let's start at the beginning. I had a consultation appointment set up sometime in March. I was taken into another room where they looked at the x-rays of my teeth I was required to provide, but they also took new e-rays with a machine that spun around my face (aka, the least painful x-ray machine ever!!!). Then, the dentist/doctor brought me into an operating room to talk to me about the procedure if I chose to go forth with it. For me, I had already been feeling pain from the teeth trying to come in, but I had just gotten my braces off so there was no room in my mouth for them to come in. Dr. Lew also talked about how it was good I was getting it taken care of when I did because I was still young (I was 17 for the consultation).

Once I was done talking with him, my parents and I talked to the secretary to get a date set up for the removal surgery. The office was great because we were able to set one up just one or two weeks down the road. We were told how much it was going to cost, and a few of the rules I should expect to deal with at this point. I walked out of that office knowing a date for surgery to take place, understanding that straws are a no-no for a good duration of time after the surgery, and understanding that for me to get 100% back to normal it should take about two weeks but the pain would really die down by the fourth day.

This is where my story will probably differ from yours. This is during the Carona Virus crisis of 2020. The office shut it's doors to everyone except emergency cases about a week before I was going to go in. The office explained via a phone call that we should not call them, but they would call us back when they were ready to take in more patients.

We waited and they left a voicemail on my phone so we were able to set up a new appointment about 6 weeks later. By that time I was eighteen, so I would have to do much of the paperwork myself. When my mom and I showed up at the clinic on the 4th, we were given the paperwork to fill out (most of which my mom had taken care of when we went for the consultation) and my mom had to sign a form saying she would drive me home because I would not be in a good mindset to drive myself home.

Then, about thirty minutes later, they were ready to take me in. They sat me down in a dentist's chair and immediately leaned my back. They had to stick a rubber thing between my top and bottom teeth so I did not bit down too far during the procedure. They got me all set up with an IV to my right arm that would give me the anesthesia so I was asleep throughout the whole procedure. I was concerned it would not work on me, but Dr. Lew told me "This should kick in in about ten seconds" and I almost decided to start counting, but I could already feel it starting to kick in so I chose not to count and just closed my eyes. And I was out.

The next few things I am about to mention- almost all of this paragraph or the dialogue- I cannot promise actually happened. I remember starting to wake up and I could feel that Dr. Lew and his two helpers were still messing with my mouth. I was afraid that the medicine had worn off too early. So, I spoke up saying "I'm awake!" letting them know that they may need to give me more anesthesia. But, they responded with "I know" and kept on working. Now I had chosen not to talk during some of that until I feel the pain was so bad that I wanted them to give me more medicine, so I was not too surprised that they knew I was awake because I felt like I had been awake for a few minutes already (though it was probably just seconds). My mom thinks, when I told her this story, that I was already in the recovery process- that I was feeling them putting the gauze in my mouth. This makes the most amount of sense. Yet, that is not all I remember about waking up. Once I felt I was more awake and aware of what was going on, I think I remember Dr. Lew asking me what kind of music I liked- and then I thought he looked it up on his computer and played one of my favorite songs! This,  I am pretty sure, totally did not happen. I was sore and I had gauze in my mouth so there was no way I would be able to give him a clear answer to what my favorite artists or songs were. And, from what I do remember seeing on his computer, he was entering data and dealing with medical things- I never saw the google search, YouTube, or Spotify pop up.

Other than those adventures that were personal to me, I remember one of the helpers come in the room with a wheelchair and then leave real quick. I knew she was getting ready to put me in it and I felt fine enough to pick myself up, but I also have a history of lightheadedness from getting up too fast, so I decided it was probably safer to wait for someone to help me into the wheelchair. I felt the same way when she wheeled me outside to the car.

The one hour ride home was pretty uneventful. Supposedly there are three reactions that people have with anesthesia especially after this surgery. They are either loopy and talkative, emotional (where they cry about everything for no reason), or are simply sleepy. If I was any of them, it would be sleepy because I was a little tired. Yet, for the whole ride home I was aware of everything I said and none of it was anything I would not have said if I was not in the right frame of mine. One thing I would like to mentioned to prepare you is that for that ride home, I could taste all the blood in my mouth, yet it was hard to swallow. Every once and a while I would take a Kleenex to wipe my mouth (though I could barely feel my puffy lips because I think they numbed my mouth once I was put under) and when I got home I had dried blood on my lips. I know it is disgusting to hear about, but it was how I looked.

When we got home and I could finally change my gauze, I took them out and simply left them in the sink because I wanted to take the water from the sink and rinse out my mouth a little. My mom had me squeeze out most of the blood from the gauze before throwing it away, and I felt amazing once I got the new gauze in my mouth without any trouble. Just half an hour later was lunch, where my mom made a smoothie for me. I took the gauze out to eat, and I never put any more back in. When I was climbing into the car, the nurse/assistant told my mom that I should only have the gauze in my mouth if I was bleeding bad- not even if I was bleeding a little.

For reference on how I was feeling, I went to someone's house and played card and board games with them almost all afternoon. Yet, I fell right asleep at night because I was so tired. My mom did not want to buy the strong medicine for me because often it is expensive, yet my pain was growing so dad ended up going to pick it up from the pharmacy. Again, this might be different for others, but the medicine that I was given cost about $60 for it all- but about $40 of that was all from the 9 pills I got that help patients not get sick (ondansetron). So, if you do not easily get sick then don't ask for this medication. I normally do easily get sick so this was a special request. I have not needed to use it yet, and I don't think I will have to use any of the 9 for this surgery. Then, I got a container of just really strong Ibuprofen which has been amazing and seems to work within just a few minutes. The final medication I was given is called Hydrocod/acetam or something like that. This medication has codeine and is what the ondansetron is for. It does affect me (I feel motion sickness and I cannot stare at a screen for too long), but it is not too bad and it really does help with the pain. They also gave me a wash (that works like mouthwash) to help make sure my mouth does not get infected.

The foods I have been able to eat are limited, but as of today (four days after the surgery) I am able to eat more solid foods. Before today it was mostly pudding, applesauce, shakes, eggs, bread, gravy, soup, and not much else.

Update: This is about a month after the surgery. I have recently gone to the dentist for my 6-month checkup and they could tell that my wisdom teeth were gone. I was informed that the healing technically does not completely heal up until about a year after the surgery, yet I feel as normal as ever since the week after the surgery. I just want to warn you that it is not completely healed up so something could still possibly go wrong, yet it is very unlikely. 

Even though this is a crazy long article, I am sure there is much information I forgot to write down here. If you have more questions, comment down below and I will answer the best I can with the information and experience I gained from this.