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.

Adjustment #13 (Week 92)

I had my 13th adjustment this morning. My ortho says that my teeth are looking good and I'm so close to being done. He just wants to work on closing up my bite on my right side. I will still be in my triangle elastic configuration on my left side, but my right side will be a little different. It's kind of like a Class II configuration and triangle configuration combined into one (shown below):

(Left side) Triangle configuration

(Right side) Class II/Triangle configuration

I can already start seeing a difference in my bite on my right side! And I can definitely feel the pressure. I am sure in the next couple weeks my teeth are really going to come together. I also heard my ortho talk about doing some IPR on my lower teeth at my next adjustment.

So here is some GREAT news!! My orthodontist said that next my next adjustment will be my FINAL adjustment and he's hoping to schedule my debanding date after that!! WOOHOO!!!!! Are you serious?? Don't play with my emotions! So it looks like October will be the month I will have naked teeth. I just have to make sure that I'm diligent with my elastics wear the next 6 weeks. OMG I'm so stoked right now. I'm trying not to keep my hopes up but how can you not when they tell you things like that?!

6 weeks until my next adjustment! I can't wait!

Do you see any movement?

So It's been about 3 1/2 weeks since my last adjustment and I think I see a little bit of movement. My ortho is trying to rotate my teeth so that my lower teeth match up with the grooves of my upper teeth (like gears in a clock).

Here are comparison pictures between Week 88 and Week 91:

Obviously no BIG changes but you can see slight differences. My next adjustment is next week. I hope my ortho sees progress! I've been diligently wearing my elastics everyday. I'm getting impatient lol

Week 88 - Adjustment #12!

I had my adjustment this morning, and apparently I was supposed to wear my Class II elastics at night for the past 12 weeks! DOH! I seriously don't remember them telling me that... So now I'm back to elastics full time, but my configuration is a little bit different. I'm still in a Class II configuration on my right side (where my open bite is) but now I'm in a triangle configuration on my left side. WHAT? Wait, shouldn't my triangle configuration be on my RIGHT side, where my teeth need to come together? I'm SO confused. I even asked the assistant if my orthodontist wrote that down right, and apparently he did. I could have sworn triangle configurations are meant for bringing teeth together... I'm really tempted to call my orthodontist office to confirm my elastics configuration again.  [edit 11:55am] I called and he tried to explain why my elastics are this way. All I know is that he was trying to compare it to like gears in a clock, and how my teeth need to come together.. yada yada yada. I didn't understand any of it, but at least he knows what he is doing lol

Open bite with Class II elastics.

Triangle elastics on left side

Week 88 - Front view

I also asked my orthodontist how much longer he expects me to be in braces. He said that it all depends on how strict I wear my elastics. <Okay kids, time to do a little math!> My overbite is currently at 3mm, and he wants it to be at about 1mm, and teeth move 1mm a month. So since it needs to move 2mm, that will take about 2 months. Then he said I will probably do final tweaks for another month, so I should be done in about 3 months. This again all depends on me and how well I wear my elastics.

HOLY MOLY. 3 more months!!! That means I should be done by October! Yeah baby! Please believe that I will be wearing these babies 24/7.

Of course I still feel like my elastics configuration is backwards, but I guess I will just have to trust that my ortho knows what he is doing. *shrug*

Week 87 - Open Bite

Well I am at the point where progress is going SOOOOO SLOOOOWWWWWWW. I miss the days where I would see changes every other week! *sigh* Anyways, here are the latest pics of my teeth.

My bite is STILL open on my right side. I mean it's seriously taking forever for my bite to close. I'm surprised they haven't given me elastics to help bring my teeth together. My next adjustment is in a week and I'm ready to see results!!

Yeah I know I sound super whiny and impatient, but I'm ready for these braces to come OFF lol. I'm pretty close! They estimated my de-banding date to be November, and I'm hoping I get them off before then.

Week 82 - Adjustment #11!

I went to my 11th adjustment today and my ortho was happy about my gaps being closed! Now he is going to work on closing my open bite on the right side. He put a thicker wire on top (yay....) and made some kinks in my upper and lower wire to try and bring my teeth together. My upper teeth should come down a little and my lower teeth need to come up a little. I hope these wires work their magic fast!

Open bite on the right.

I was HOPING I was done with power chains since I had 3 power chains in my mouth the last 6 weeks. It looks like I only need 1 on my upper teeth this time. Thank goodness! The assistant asked me what color I wanted and I asked if they had a really LIGHT pink, but I think she misunderstood me because she came back with a really BRIGHT pink! No way I was putting a bright pink power chain in my mouth! So I just asked for clear. I'll have to really stay away from staining foods this time.

Nice clear power chain!

Here are some pictures of my upper and lower teeth. I haven't taken pictures at these angles in a while!

The blue molar build up has ground down so much it doesn't even affect my bite anymore!

Upper teeth. Nice and straight!

I hope my teeth move quickly! I'll keep you guys posted =) Thanks for reading!

Week 76 - Adjustment #10

Went to my adjustment today (15 minutes late and I literally RAN out my door lol) and my teeth are "almost there" according to my orthodontist. Good news... I guess? Here's what you've been waiting for... pictures!

Double power chain! Yikes!

They added a double power chain to my top 6 teeth. You can kind of see it in the picture. One chain is underneath my wire on my top 6 teeth and other one is above my wire spanning my entire top teeth. They really want my gaps to close! I do too. Bring on the pain!

Bite still open on right side.

My bite is still open on the right side. My ortho made some kinks in my lower wire to try and fix this issue so we'll see if it works.

Silver power chain on bottom!

In addition to my double power chain on my top teeth, I have my first power chain on my lower teeth! It's in silver. Ugh... I feel like my mouth is full of so many appliances! I'm not sure why I have a power chain on my lower teeth though. Maybe they are trying to prevent gaps from forming from the kinks he made on my wire? Who knows.

Week 76 - Perfect midline!

Day 1 - Original midline

Good news! My midline is basically perfect! I have a green line showing you that my midline matches up finally! When I first had my consultation before I had braces they told me that they wouldn't be able to get my midline perfect without extractions. Looks like they could! This has bothered me for YEARS. And now it's fixed! When compared to how my midline was on Day 1, this is absolutely amazing.

I have also only been confined to wearing my Class II elastics only at night! Yay! I'm so excited about that. I would have preferred I be done with them all together (been over a year in those elastics) but this is better than nothing :) My next adjustment is in 6 weeks!

Week 70 - Elastics Again...

I had a full day of appointments yesterday! My Orthodontist and Dentist are 10 miles away from each other so you can just imagine how much driving I had to do:

Appointment 1: Orthodontist - Get power chain and wires removed.
Appointment 2: Dentist - X-Rays, Stain removal, cleaning, fluoride treatment
Appointment 3: Orthodontist - Get power chain replaced and wires put back in

No wires! I could kind of feel my teeth again with my tongue :)

With all 3 appointments back to back, I literally had my mouth open for 3 hours ("Things that porn stars say for $300 Alex...")! My dentist appointment was good. No cavities! Last time I was at the dentist was 2 years ago to get my wisdom teeth removed. Bad, I know. My dentist did find a lot of stains on my bottom teeth though, which she removed, and now they look pearly white again! She told me I need to use my interdental brush more often on my lower teeth, especially after I eat. Will do! I hated seeing those stains.

New pearl power chain and elastics again... yay.

My adjustment went good. Apparently my debanding "deadline" is 8 months. So what is that... about 4-5 more appointments? I hope I'm done sooner than that though. My ortho made some kinks in my lower wire to help my teeth move in the right direction and I got my power chain replaced back to a Pearl color, to reduce staining. I WAS going to do a pink color but I chickened out again.

Remember 6 weeks ago I had the most exciting news that I didn't have to wear Class II elastics anymore? Guess what? I have to wear them again. *facepalm* Ugh... WHY did you have me stop wearing them? My ortho is such a tease!

My bite is still open on the right side.

My next adjustment is in 6 weeks. I'm kind of starting to get impatient... I want these braces OFF!

Week 66 - Bite update!

It's only been 2 weeks and I can see and feel a difference in my bite. Teeth are now touching that weren't touching before! I was wondering what my ortho had planned when he was tweaking my wire. Awesome! Even though my bite is INFINITELY better than before I had braces, he still wants to bring my lower teeth down more, which may require a wire change. I might not be in my last wires now. Here are some pics!

Week 64 - Lots of open space on the right!

Week 66 - Spaces are closing!

Yeah, my power chain turned yellow :( I'm to the point where I don't really care anymore and I'm too lazy to go to make an appointment and go the ortho to get it changed. I go back in 4 weeks anyways! *shrug*

Week 64 - No more rubberbands!

That's right folks, my ortho FINALLY told me I can stop wearing rubber bands!! Well technically his words were "You can stop wearing rubber bands for now," but I'll take it! He wants to try and close up my gaps and overbite. He even tweaked my wire to straighten my upper teeth. He wants me to come in more often, about every 6 weeks, to get my power chain replaced so my gaps can close. I have a crap ton of gaps in my upper teeth. I mean literally, half of my upper teeth have gaps in between them! You can't really see them, but trust me when I say they are there. Man, I am just so excited I will be rubber band FREE for at least the next 6 weeks!! Okay, enough gabbing, time for some pics.

Ahhhhh new clear power chains!!

My bite is still open on the right side.
That is where my molar build up is too.

I also made an appointment in 6 weeks to get regular dental cleaning. I haven't gotten my teeth cleaned in quite a while. You don't even want to know how long. I know... shame on me! I need to make it a habit of getting it done every 6 months. That means, trip to ortho to take out wires, trip to dentist for regular exam and dental cleaning, then BACK to ortho to put wires back in and change powerchain. Sheesh! I just hope they don't find cavities... :(