New Bands & Progress

A few weeks ago I went to brush my teeth and as I began, I automatically realized that yet ANOTHER one of my back bands were loose! As I took a closer look I realized that it wasn't just loose, it was completely knocked off my tooth! The only thing keeping it somewhat in place was a power chain. Since it was the THIRD time that this had happened (separate teeth) I knew that I should cut the power chain to release the broken band and thats just what I did. I admit that I was pretty frustrated since this was the 3rd of 4 bands to break off. I emailed my orthodontist right away b/c I had this long ass piece of wire poking the back of my mouth and I didn't want to wait weeks again as I had to do the previous time that my band broke off my tooth. I was very polite in my email, but I couldn't hide the tone of my frustration. My ortho has two locations and told me he wouldn't be in the office that I go to until the next week, but he made a special trip just to cut my wires 2 days after the band broke off. I really appreciated that, but at the same time I have to note that this is totally different than what I had been told upon selecting him as my orthodontist. I had narrowed my choices down between 2 orthodontists and I went with my current guy b/c he told me he offered Saturday, lunchtime and late evening appointments - not to mention he was significantly less expensive. But in the 5 months that I have been going to him I have only been able to get one Saturday appointment and usually get appointments just before or after lunchtime. Either way I was still happy he made a special trip for me. I was the only patient in the whole office and his staff who usually wears matching polos were dressed in their normal clothes so I could tell he made them come in too. Eek! I felt kind of bad about that.
He ended up replacing the band that had broken off (no spacers required this time) and removed and replaced the final band (the only one that hadn't broken off yet) to prevent it from doing the same thing all the rest did (break). Then he tightened my braces etc. And so far so good!

My progress is really becoming apparent now! I know I've got a long way to go b/c I still have huge gaps and I have a slight overbite that needs to be corrected, but my upper teeth are pretty straight and my lower ones are really getting there!

(IDK why my cell phone cam always makes my rubber bands look dingy, swear they don't look stained in person!)

 (lower teeth, see that straggler really coming up and blending with the rest? :) )

Braces are ON!

I really meant to blog last night, my last night of a metal free mouth, but it was Valentine's day and my attention belonged to my lover! So, instead I am blogging to you today as newly loaded metal mouth!

I was told to block off a good 2 hours to take care of everything at my appointment, but I was pleasantly surprised when we wrapped everything up and I was on my way out in just a little over an hour! The procedure itself was painless and damn close to discomfort-less (I know, not a real word) too! The first thing they did was remove those pesky spacers that I've had in my mouth since last week. Even though I was getting used to them, they were still very annoying and kept my teeth consistently sore. It felt so good to have them removed! Next they placed a band on one of my back teeth.

 

Dr. S then decided that I didn't need traditional bands and instead used a new model of smaller bands that are glued to the sides of my back teeth. So after days of being sore from the spacers, turns out i didn't need them anyway since traditional bands were not used. Ha! Fine by me though, I was tired of having things stuck between my teeth. Next the assistant applied "conditioner" to my teeth and let it dry. Finally it was time for Dr. S to apply my brackets!

 I ended up with all metal brackets, except for my 4 upper front teeth. Dr. S being the great ortho that he is, provides clear (I guess ceramic?) braces on the front teeth for his adult patients (shh: free of charge). After all my brackets were in place, the assistant took over, inserting the archwire in my brackets. The appointment came to an end with a brief lesson on how to care for my braces (i.e - brushing techniques, how to floss with wire in the way etc.).

Now I'm a real life brace face! and I couldn't be happier about it! 

So without further ado, I present to you my new tin grin!

Day #1

of life with braces