Week 12

Tomorrow is Canada Day...so it will be interesting for me, being the first Canada Day that I will spend in braces. And I do plan on eating out (gotta take advantages of food trucks when it is available. And what good is celebrating the country's 150th birthday without some food?) Yes, I'm a proud Canadian, through and through.

So another week in braces have gone by, and things have improved for me. I am no longer restricted to just soft foods, but I wouldn't exactly say that I'm completely back to normal food either. My incisors are still a bit...not exactly sore, but...I'll say uncomfortable when I use them to bite down on things. Using them to tear food apart is probably not something I should be doing right now, and so I haven't. For a few days after I had my adjustment done, I couldn't even bite down on a ripen banana. So from that to being able to bite down on soft food is a rather good improvement. (I've been subsiding mostly on soft noodles and congee. I'm totally ready to venture into some "normal" food that leans on the soft side).

I'm not sure if the new wires have done anything yet, because I don't see any visible teeth movement. But that doesn't mean that it isn't doing anything. Just because I don't see any visible changes, doesn't mean the wires aren't working. I mean, I feel them working--there's a constant low pressure on my teeth. And my elastics? My current ones are so much easier to deal with than my previous ones. Having two elastics really open up your mouth (I have eaten with them in. You're not supposed to, but I was pressed for time...that and I was too lazy to deal with the whole putting elastics back in after meals at work those few times). That and having elastics that are meant to stretch further helps to open up the mouth. I have gotten better at putting them on now. My right canine is still a bit awkward, and it hurts whenever I accidentally close my mouth too quickly and it bangs against my tooth on the bottom. Oh well. It is what it is. I expect this will happen with my teeth as time goes on--my teeth are shifting and my bite is changing and there will be times where my teeth are just super awkward in relation to each other. But that's part of the price I pay for wanting straight teeth!

Where we started. God, that felt so long ago.

Week 11. Just after my adjustment last week.

Week 12. The wire on my upper right canine and upper right lateral incisor seem to have straighten out some. My midline doesn't look so off centered when compared to last week.