Week 50 - FINISHING WIRES!!!

Guess who has two thumbs and is in finishing wires?? THIS GIRL!! After about 5-6 different sets of wires I'm FINALLY in my finishing wires! It feels great to achieve this milestone!

My ortho still has me in Class II elastics and I honestly feel like I will be in them forever! I had high hopes he would tell me I can stop using them, then he flushed those hopes down the toilet. *shakes angry fist*

I got a power chain on my upper teeth and the assistant asked if I wanted clear, but I hate how clear stains so easily so I asked her for a color that doesn't stain a much as clear does. So she put Pearl in my mouth. Pearl is WHITE. I mean, WHITE white. You can totally see it in my mouth when I smile/talk and just reminds me how non-white my teeth actually are. Maybe I just have to get used to them.

The assistant also put a tiny square block between my bottom central incisors. It looks weird!! I guess it is to keep from my wire from moving, but geez, but it in front where everyone can see it why don't you!

I always forget after every adjustment just how much my mouth will hurt. Oh. Em. Gee. I feel like ripping my teeth out!!!

The picture I took of my mouth doesn't look like my teeth. Wow, what an improvement! *happy dance*

Week 48

I am coming close to 1 year in braces! Wow, where did the time go?? Time for some updates!

Here is my current alignment. Do my teeth look slanted to you? That's because they are. *grumble grumble* One side is definitely higher than the other, so I hope this is fixed soon. Other than that I'm pretty happy with my teeth. My "fang" is G-O-N-E and my lower teeth have moved down quite a bit, so I'm not biting on my bottom brackets anymore.

Recently, the gum behind my bottom left molar has been swollen and painful :( I've been rinsing my mouth out with salt water the past 24 hours which seemed to help. My guess is that there was food that got stuck in between my molar and gums which caused irritation. I'm hoping it's not anything more serious than that. If it's still like this after a week I may have to take a trip to the dentist :(

There is one thing I have noticed that I wasn't even paying attention to before... my midline!!! It seems my upper teeth have shifted more towards the center (thanks to my elastics!) and my midline isn't SO off anymore! It's funny how I didn't even pay attention to this until now. Also look how much wider my smile is :)

Week 48 midline

Day 1 midline

My next adjustment is in 2 weeks. I'll keep you posted!!