Week 10

We're at week 10 already! And my first follow up appointment is slated for next Wednesday. 10 weeks....it's incredible how two months have gone by already. I look at pictures from when I started to now, and I see the changes. It's really amazing how some brackets and a metal wire can work together to move teeth.

A new thing I have noticed lately is that the bite turbos aren't really working anymore. The one on my left side has filed down a lot (since I tend to chew on that side), and the one on the right doesn't seem to be doing much as my right upper canine is preventing it from doing its job. Before my right canine started coming out of the crossbite, the right bite turbo did prevent my teeth from touching, but as my right canine is slowly being moved....my canine got in the way. It rests on my lower teeth, and it serves as a bite block of sorts, although I wouldn't imagine that it is a particularly good bite block. But I do imagine that when I go see the orthodontist on Wednesday, something will be done to rectify that situation.

I'm really hoping that I'll be getting a new wire, and maybe get my back molars into the wire as well. The assistant told me that the initial wire can not be hooked up to the back molars because it wasn't strong enough, and that a stronger wire will be used to connect the back molars to the rest of my teeth...but the caveat is that they cannot start on a strong wire. Something about too much pressure. So I'm hoping that I'll be getting a new (stronger) wire when I go in on Wednesday. Considering how straight my current wire is, I'd say it did its job wonderfully (I'm not expert or anything, but I don't think the wire can provide any more teeth movement than it already did. Plus it straightened itself out nicely, moving my teeth with it). I shall definitely update after my appointment...though I have been warned that it will be painful for the first little bit. But then again, braces is literally one of those things where the saying "No pain, no gain" is true.

This is what we started with.

And this is what we're working with currently.

...Comparing the two, it appears that my midline is off, and my top arch is "tilted" (as it is essentially being propped up by my right canine). But I do know that sometimes, for braces, things get worse before they get better, so I'm not going to fixate too much on the fact my teeth is all weird right now. I trust that my orthodontist knows what he's doing, and that braces is really a journey in patience.Plus, there's improvements and movements already, so it's all very encouraging.