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.