Week 49, 50, and a trip to the orthodontist!

Okay. So I totally am living the whole "be careful of what you wish for" saying right now. See, I was complaining/whining that basically nothing was really happening for the past little while, and then I went to my orthodontist appointment today, and...let's just say, I am now the living proof of being very careful what I wish for in the future. I mean, Jesus Christ, had I known what I'd be expected to do after today's appointment, I would never have dared to whine that things were sooooo boring in the past little while. Fuck, I'd take boring to what I have to do now.

So I haven't given the updates for Weeks 49 and 50, mostly because nothing was happening. Nothing exciting happened (in hindsight, that is actually good. Preferable even). I did feel my bite changing subtly, but it wasn't anything to write home about. Ergo, I've been real lazy about posting my week by week updates remotely on time, because there just wasn't anything to update on. It sure got tiring really fast writing about the same things over and over again, about how there's no visible teeth movement, and that the gap between my lower right central and lateral incisors was still there. So I've been lazy. But here are the pictures from the past two weeks.

Week 49

Week 50

If you can spot the difference between the two, then good for you. Because I sure as heck can't.

Onto the orthodontist appointment!

As far as appointments go, today's wasn't bad. It was a pretty typical appointment where the tech took off what needed to be taken off (in my case today, the powerchains. For some reason, the wires didn't go out today), the orthodontist looked, prodded and had me open and close my mouth a bunch of times, told me the treatments he wanted done today, and the tech carries out the instructions left by the orthodontist. So in that regards, today's appointment was fairly typical, and seriously nothing to write home about.

The treatments that the orthodontist wanted done today however....

...let's just say it started off pretty typical too. He wanted three brackets repositioned--on my upper central incisors, and on my upper left lateral incisor respectively. He wanted those repositioned as the four front teeth of my upper arch aren't all leveled with each other, and he wanted to change that. Fair enough. Whatever. I've had brackets repositioned before, so this wasn't anything new. And the tech I had today did an excellent job in prying off the brackets. Nothing broke, and it wasn't painful at all. I hadn't realized she had the brackets off until she told me she was going to start polishing the glue off my teeth! The brackets were then repositioned, double checked by the orthodontist, and cured into place. The wire was then re-inserted. Didn't get any new wires because I'm on my finishing wires now, and I was told by the tech last time that it meant that were was no heavier wire to step up to. So I don't expect wire changes from now on. Just small tweaks and changes here and there.

The orthodontist also wanted me to be on a different elastics configuration this time around. And he wanted a box configuration on my molars on both sides...because my molars weren't quite touching, and he wanted them to close. Otherwise though, he said my bite is looking pretty good. I suppose with this tweaking of my molars, my bite will be pretty damn good at the end of it. But boy...box elastics on the molars are not fun.

I mean, elastics in general aren't fun, but I think I've done a fantastic job so far in terms of being diligent in wearing them. Sure I've complained about wearing them in general, but I don't think I've ever disliked an elastic configuration as much as I do my current one. And it's been barely....three hours since I got put on them. That's how much I don't like them already.

See, with the other elastic configurations, I can see what I'm doing, and that really helps with putting them on my teeth. And with most other elastic configurations, they were fairly straight forward and simple to apply. But this one? Let's just say I seriously struggled with putting it on at the orthodontist office (and that's with only doing one side. The tech did the other side for me). The hooks on the molars are insanely hard to get to even with the elastics tool, and there's some legit finger gymnastics involved in latching the elastics onto all four molars on either side of the mouth to make a box. The tech did sympathize with me, and asked the orthodontist if there was another configuration I can do to achieve the same result, but the orthodontist was adamant on this stupid box thing.

I think I figured out a way to put it on now, but I seriously can't say this is easy. For two seconds on the drive home, I was considering on not following the full time wear thing for this configuration, and just do what I can with it...because it's THAT annoying. I was convincing myself that I didn't need a perfect bite to be functional, but that thought didn't last long. In the end, I figured that since I'm paying the office a nice sum of money, I would be doing myself a huge disservice if I veered off course now. I mean, I'm sure all this annoyance will be worth it in the end. And the end is definitely a lot closer in reach when I follow the instructions perfectly.

But it still doesn't make the fact that box elastics on the molars are just a plain big fucking pain in the ass. I'll stick with it, because I have to. But I'm really hoping that this is a 6 week deal, and that I won't have to have them anymore when I go back to the office in 6 weeks.

My "after" picture from today's appointment. Those four front teeth are going to be getting leveled!

Box elastics on the left side of my mouth.

Box elastics on the right side of my mouth