Thursday 11 July 2013

Nine months of braces

I was back at my orthodontist's this week for my latest adjustment. When he asked how things were going, I was honest and said it had probably been the worst six weeks. Three out of my four wire ends had been cutting into my cheek pretty much throughout, and my molar was aching more or less constantly as it tried to level off after initially being tipped up. He then asked how things were apart from that! The wires sticking out at least show that my gaps are closing and the tooth needs to level out, so although it's felt like a long six weeks, it's all going in the right direction.

I warned him that with my molar being sore he may want to hold it in place when working on it, to stop me jumping out of the seat. He then prodded it a few times, with the traditional, "does this hurt?", "how about this?" When I jumped, he seemed satisfied that my tooth does indeed hurt. I'd even taken painkillers before leaving home as a safeguard!

The wires came out relatively easily. The good news was that he's happy enough with my bite that I can now bid farewell to powerchains. Hurrah, a sign of progress! I'm now on the thickest wires on both arches. As my molar was sore, he used a burr to reduce the size of the wire on that end, so it would go in more easily. It was still a bit of a battle, but with a bit of grease, he managed to wiggle it into place in the end. The next good news was that he seemed to indicate that it would be another two or three appointments before I'm done. Not wanting to count my chickens, but it would be nice to be brace free before Christmas, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

He's bent the wire again next to my top incisor which is still set a little back. The only other issue with my top arch is that it bows, with my teeth being lower at my wisdoms and incisors and higher in the middle. The thicker wire should even that out. On my lower arch, my troublesome molar still needs to sink a little further, and the powerchain has made all my teeth tilt inwards, so the thicker wire and lack of powerchain should now mean that they start to tilt the other way.

As is now traditional, I've included a progress photo below. You can see that there's a bit of a gap between my top and bottom teeth by my premolars, caused by my tipped molar, and my lower teeth are tipped in, but generally I feel like I'm on the home straight.
Progress after nine months of braces

2 comments:

  1. Oh wow well done you! I realllly want braces! I had a removable one when I was 11 or so but was never given a retainer & my teeth have gradually got worse over the years. Went to see an Invisalign dentist - he said he could only get my teeth to look 80-90% perfect as it's quite a tricky job so I didn't want to pay all that money for it not to be 100% right!

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  2. I've still got a little way to go, and I've had bad days, but I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end! I couldn't have Invisalign due to my cross-bite, so you could always try fixed wires, if you an face the idea!

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