Braces are OFF!!!

What a magical, fantastical, amaze-balls feeling it is to run your tongue across your naked teeth!

I got to my appointment and they took me back around 1:05pm. My orthodontist wanted to look at my teeth one last time to make sure they looked okay, which they did, and I was good to go. My assistant was amazing and she was so concerned with making sure I was comfortable and that my teeth look great.

My bottom brackets came off first while the wire was still in. Each one popped off EASY and FAST! She had me bite down on a small piece of sponge to help alleviate some of the sensitivity/pain with the pressure of taking off brackets. Since my upper teeth were ceramic they were a bit more difficult. She took off the power chain and wire and had to pop each bracket individually. I had to wear goggles for protection because ceramic brackets can shatter and fly everywhere when removed. Most of them came off relatively easy, but the one on my left central incisor was stuck like crazy!! She had to break that bracket in small pieces but she couldn't get all of it off so she had to file it down switching between a softer "glue" file and a harsher one to get off the bracket. The process of removing all of my brackets and glue probably took 30-45 minutes. Wasn't that bad or painful overall.

Afterwards I took molds (yuck!), x-rays and pictures. After pictures, as I was sitting in my chair, the song "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang came on, and it was LOUD!! Next thing I know, I turn around and 6 people came out with balloons (with Corn Nuts attached - lol!) clapping their hands to the song, dancing and singing! It was awesome!!! My name was also on the "Congratulations" wall (my name is on the bottom!).

My awesome assistant was on the right!

There was a "Wheel of Prizes" that I spun and won a $25 gift card to a restaurant! They were all out of my favorite restaurant, Cheesecake Factory, so I'll have to pick that up next week. But they didn't want me to leave empty handed, so they gave me a Teeth Whitening & Lip Gloss Plumper Pen! Then they had some feather boas and fun hats for me to wear so I can take pictures with them. Too much fun!

As for my retainers, my ortho said I can pick between the Essix and Hawley. The Essix (clear retainer) lasts maybe 2 years and the Hawley lasts about 5-10. I told them I'll start with the clear retainer and come back and get the Hawley when I need to replace it. It's only $150 to buy a new retainer so that's not too bad.

I'm SO happy with the outcome! My teeth feel slimy and new lol. I can't believe what my teeth used to look like! You couldn't even SEE my bottom teeth when I bit down!

Before

After!

Insane!!! I don't know why I was so worried about staining, my teeth are so WHITE and CLEAN! I am so thankful for my orthodontist team and all the work they put in to make my smile amazing.

If you are debating whether or not to get braces, I FULLY recommend it! It is a long process but it's so worth it in the end! I'm so happy!

Tomorrow's the BIG day!

I GET MY BRACES OFF TOMORROW!!

FINALLY!

I'm excited (read: extremely, absolutely, 100% freaking ecstatic!) and nervous at the same time. I have heard stories of people will braces having white marks on their teeth after they get their braces off. I think I did a good job of cleaning my teeth while in braces, but a part of me is nervous about the stains!

My teeth, IMO, look great. They are very straight, my upper teeth aren't slanted anymore, and my bite feels amazing.
 

12/3/2012 - Last day of braces!

There has always been one thing that has bothered me though, my crooked smile. When I smile, my upper left lip goes higher than my upper right, which exposes my upper left gumline. UGH! In the picture above I'm actually forcing my lip to not do that, but you can see in previous pictures how it looks. That's just a quirky little trait I have that I just can't fix without plastic surgery or botox, so that will just have to stay I guess :(

Hmmm, I wonder what kind of retainers I will get. I hope it's the Essix (clear) Invisalign-type retainers and not the Hawley's or bonded retainers. We'll see!

Ahhhh! 25 hours and counting!

MY DE-BAND DATE!!!!

FINALLY!!!!

I have my de-banding date!!! 4 weeks from now on December 4, 2012 at approximately 2pm I will be brace free!! Is this really happening?? I don't believe it. SOMEBODY PINCH ME! Though I was pretty confident going into my adjustment this afternoon that he would schedule my de-banding. My teeth look even and my bite feels really good. My orthodontist looked at my teeth and said "I like it!" I like it too! But he's a freaking PERFECTIONIST so he's just going to try and close my open bite on my right side a little bit more. He said that the change is really minimal but it should help out my bite just a bit more. And I'm totally okay with that!

I'm still in the same elastic configuration with a triangle on my right side. I have an upper and lower power chain this time and I decided to get a light blue for my upper! Why not? Let's go with my favorite color (blue) for my last 4 weeks :) And I got a dark silver power chain on the bottom. I am freaking EXCITED!!! No words can explain! I hope these next 4 weeks better go by super fast! AHHHHHHH!!!

2 week progress photos! (Week 103)

So since the next 1-2 months will determine when my braces will come off I've been extremely obsessed with my teeth. It's been 2 weeks since my last adjustment so I figure I'd look to see if there was any progress. And I'm happy to report that there IS some progress!! *fist pump*

Let's compare my teeth today with my teeth 2 weeks ago shall we?

Week 101

Week 103

MY TEETH ARE LEVEL!!! Look at my lateral incisors! They actually almost line up with one another. This issue has been bugging me for God knows how long and they are actually even now! You guys probably think I'm totally weird for noticing something so small, but this is a big deal for me! I've had slanted teeth forever!

Week 101

Week 103

Okay so now here is a side view of my teeth. Gaps are slowly closing and my bite is SO much better now! The gap is actually almost closed between my upper and lower lateral incisors. Not bad for 2 weeks huh?!

My teeth aren't going to be perfect. Actually, if I got my braces off today I'd totally be happy with my bite and the way my teeth look.

My next adjustment is in 2 weeks. Cross your fingers that I come back with good news!

Oh the agony!!

Okay so the title of this post might be a little bit dramatic. I'm not in AGONY per se, but my teeth do hurt! Boy are they sore and I knew they would be once the ortho and assistants put my wires back in my mouth. Eating toast? Forgetaboutit!

My ortho wants to move both my lower and upper right teeth upwards by using wires so he made a few tweaks and bends to them. When the assistant tried to close my brackets she couldn't because the wires are SO thick and the bends in the wires made closing the brackets mighty difficult. She had to use pliers to PUSH the wire into my bracket while trying to close the door! Lots of pressure!! Her exact words were "I don't want to hurt you so let me know if it's too much!" Ahhhhh!

After looking at it for a second she was afraid that the bracket doors will not stay shut on a couple teeth so she put what looks to be ligs around a couple of my lower brackets (see picture) to keep them closed.

Wow, almost 2 years in and I STILL have to go through pain and soreness of teeth. Hopefully this is the last step before debanding.

*On a side note* Can you see my pink powerchain now? The previous pics I took made them look white. I'm loving the color!!! 

Adjustment #15! Week 101

Wow I have officially been in braces for over 100 weeks! Time just flies and I hope it flies even more quickly!

So today I had my 15th adjustment and we are now in the final tweaking stages. My ortho is now trying to make sure my teeth are evened out. I asked him how much longer I have in my braces and he said, "Well after we get your teeth evened out that should be it." Kind of a general answer and he didn't give me a time frame, but it's definitely going to put me past the 2 year mark (11/5/12). LAME! I was hoping for Halloween, but at this point I'm just hoping I get them off by Christmas. Maybe Thanksgiving??! That would be great!

I finally tried a pink power chain guys! It looks white in this picture, but it's definitely a light pink.

My bite on the left side is good. And I don't have to wear elastics on this side anymore! Woohoo!

My ortho is trying to bring my lower teeth up with elastics.

Here's a diagram of what he's trying to do. He wants to bring my lower right teeth up more, and my upper left later incisor up as well.

After 1 1/2 years in Thailand elastics I am now in India elastics!! I used to be in 4mm (3/16") Super Heavy 6oz, but now I'm in 3mm (1/8") Heavy 4oz! They're so freaking TINY!!

My next adjustment is in 4 weeks. Crossing my fingers that will be the LAST adjustment and I can finally get my braces off!

Week 98 - Adjustment #14

I'M BUMMED!!!

Okay, so remember at my last adjustment my ortho told me "Next adjustment will be your final adjustment then you'll have debanding after that." And remember when I said that I'm trying not to keep my hopes up? Good thing I didn't. Well I kind of did, which is why I'm SO disappointed! Anyways, my ortho's reaction when he saw my teeth was "OH! SOOOO CLOSE!" Frick on a stick!

So here are my teeth now! They look good right? Notice anything? No? Well I'll show you.

My orthodontist brought something to my attention. If you look at the picture above, the pink arrow shows how my upper and lower teeth are really close together and my ortho said because of my jaw shape, there's no way for him to bring my lower teeth down and still have my teeth touch. The green arrow shows that my upper lateral incisor is much higher. My ortho is going to try and fix it a little bit, but he asked me "Is the unevenness something you can live with?" *ULTRA MEGA HEAVY SIGH* "Yeah..." If you look at my upper and lower wires, you can see that on the right side of the picture the wires are close together, while on the left side they're far apart! Damn anatomy and bone structure.

I'm totally bummed about this, but if this is how it has to be, then it's what it has to be.

Here is my bite on the right side. Still open! I'm still in the same elastics configuration and my next adjustment is in 3 weeks. I hope these next 3 weeks go well for me.