Nickel and Braces

Several years ago, not long after starting a new job, I decided it was time for me to get braces.  My dentists had been telling me for years that I needed them, and I had always been a little self-conscious of my crooked teeth, but honestly, I had never had the time or money.  With a fresh new job (and new dental insurance), I could finally take my dentist's advice. 

For the first round, metal spacers were installed on the roof of my mouth to help spread the teeth out.  After a few months, the spacers were removed, and metal braces were put on.   I would wear the braces for two years.

Now, what does all this have to do with a blog about hating nickel, you ask? 

Unknown to me at the time, the wires and some fixtures used in metal braces can be a 50/50 nickel-titanium alloy.  Also unknown to me at the time, is that I was allergic to nickel.

Three weeks after having the metal spacers put in my mouth, I woke at one a.m. violently ill.  I was nauseous, vomiting, and had severe abdominal cramps.  After three hours of this, I was curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor, crying from the pain, and it finally occurred to me that if I thought sleeping on the bathroom floor was a good idea, there was probably something really wrong with me.  I woke my husband, and he rushed me to the emergency room.  He had to carry me to the car.  The pain was so severe that I couldn’t walk.  The ER was less than two miles from our house, but we had to stop once on the way so I could be sick. 

In the ER, they immediately gave me anti-nausea meds and pain killers.  After a broad series of tests (several of which were NOT pleasant), the doctors were unable to determine the cause of my pain.  It wasn’t food poisoning, it wasn’t “female trouble” (as my mom would say), and my intestines looked fine... appendicitis seemed to be the most likely culprit, but nothing came up on the CT Scans and there were no signs of an infection.  By late morning, they were fresh out of tests, and I was feeling better, so they sent us home.

This was the first of several identical trips to the ER for me.  The abdominal pain subsided, but never completely went away.  Flare ups would send us to the ER, and rounds of doctor visits, prescriptions, and days of missed work ensued.

We searched high and low for over two years for anything that could be the culprit, never realizing it was as simple as having my braces taken out.  I was allergic to nickel, and I had little pieces of nickel grinding together in my mouth on a daily basis - I was slowly poisoning myself.