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... :(

Week 62!

Happy New Year folks!

Nothing big happening to my teeth, only that my midline is moving closer and closer together! I have been wearing my rubber bands like my life depended on it and hopefully I get some good debanding news at my next adjustment in 2 weeks. Here are some updated pictures:

Week 62 - Looks pretty good to me!

Week 62 - Almost there!!

Week 50 - Look at my midline compared to Week 50!!
TONS of improvement don't you agree?!!

Week 58!

Well one year and a week has gone by and my 7th adjustment done. My ortho says my teeth are straight, my bite looks good, and my debanding date will depend on how strict I wear my Class 2 rubberbands! He said I am way ahead of schedule (my original debanding date was Nov 1, 2012). So basically the more I wear my rubberbands, the sooner my braces come off! Woohoo! I think he is just trying to fix my midline. Just a guess, I didn't ask. My next adjustment is in 6 weeks (I think they said 12, but they accidentally booked me for 6 :p)!

Remember my broken molar buildup and bracket? They said I didn't need that bracket since that tooth is straight and they didn't add any more molar build up! Everything is just staying the same (whew!).

Here are comparison pictures of my midline from Week 55 to Week 58. You can see that my lower midline has moved over to the left a little bit in the past 3 weeks! I'm going to make darn sure I wear my rubberbands 24/7! I want these braces OFF before my birthday in June!

Week 55. You can see my upper central incisor is
inline with my lower bracket.

Week 58 - My lower midline has moved over!
It's getting closer!

Everything is breaking!!

So on Thanksgiving day I was eating some AMAZING Sweet Potato pie, one of the softest pies in the world... Then I heard a crack. I thought it was something in the pie, but soon realized that my lower right molar bracket broke off. WHAT?? From eating PIE??

Then on Sunday I was at the Raider vs Bears game eating some Cotton Candy, then next thing I know I'm chewing on something really hard. I take it out of my mouth and I see something blue. I thought it was just a hard part of the Cotton Candy but I realized that I was eating pink Cotton Candy and not blue! DOH! One of my molar buildups came off!!

Really though? My bracket and bite block came off within 3 days of each other while eating pie and cotton candy? Unfortunately I couldn't schedule an appointment to fix them before my adjustment next Tuesday, so I will have to live with it for another week. My bite actually feels fine without the left molar buildup so I am hoping that they will just remove the right one next Tuesday. I'll keep you posted!