Week 42

....it's officially 10 weeks until one year of braces for me, and honestly I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it. On the one hand, it doesn't feel like almost one year's passed since I took the plunge and decided to get braces, but on the other, the teeth that I currently have now tells a whole different story. Still, it's a bit incredulous to know that in just over two months, it'd be my one year anniversary in braces. Time flies when you're having fun with braces, I guess!

Moral of the story: Get braces if you have the inclination to do so, and don't sit on the decision unless you have an iron clad reason to do so. Misaligned bite and teeth do not improve on their own. Shocking, I know.

Anyway! I've read online that the finishing wire phase of the braces journey is the most boring phase as detailing the teeth and working on the bite are the main goals of the phase, and I think I'm inclined to go with that. With other wire changes, I was able to spot teeth movements and changes relatively soon (most within  a week), but with these finishing wires, there's not really a whole lot of movement to be had. The only thing that I noticed, and it's not exactly a positive thing, is the space in between my lower right central and lateral incisor have gotten worse, and that the lateral incisor seemed to be rotated now. I mean, I'm sure my orthodontist is aware of what he's doing, and I'm 100% sure this is one of those it gets worse before it gets better things, but all the while, it's not exactly an improvement.

Being back on elastics is....interesting. I think I've gotten so used to the freedom of being without that I had some minor difficulty in adjusting back to life with elastics. It's back to always bringing my elastics when I go out, making sure that I have enough elastics, and sweeping up elastics from the floor. I forgot to bring my bag of elastics to my night shift at the hospital the other day, and while I did survive eating and snacking with the elastics intact, it wasn't exactly pleasant not being able to change out the elastics after I eat. So I just have to build up a routine with elastics again, just like before.

The elastics this time around doesn't hurt, but then again, the elastics that I'm aren't exactly the heavy duty ones that I had when I was in the class III and box configuration. The elastics that I have right now are "Mexico" (my orthodontist office buys elastics that uses country names to differentiate between different elastics, while some uses animal names. Go figure)., and it's 4mm in diameter, and it's a medium strength elastic of 2.7 oz. Not that any of those numbers mean a lot to me, but that's the stats of the elastics that I'm in currently. I definitely feel the pressure when they're on, but it's a very slight pressure, and definitely not painful. Just you know, a big pain in the ass to have to deal with elastics again, but as always, I will be compliant with whatever the orthodontist prescribes because it's my money that's on the line. And braces aren't exactly cheap!

Week 42. Being back on elastics suck balls.

You can't really see the gap between my lower right central and lateral incisor here, but it's bigger now. But you can definitely see that the right lateral incisor is rotated a bit, when compared to the one on the left.

Week 41...and new wires!

I meant to post the week by week update over the weekend, but the internet at my place didn't want to co-operate with that plan of mine. Let me tell you, it wasn't fun living without internet, even if it's only for two and half days. Kinda makes me wonder just how we all survived without the internet to eternally entertain us. Well, correction, I am a 90's kid, and I am part of the generation that saw the integration of the internet into our daily lives, so I knew how life worked without the internet...but at the same time, all it took was a weekend without internet for me to realize just how dependent we all are on the internet nowadays. It's both a good and bad thing, I suppose.

Nothing really much happened in Week 41, so it's not like I would've had a long, well thought out blog post for it. The small gap between my lower right central and lateral was still not closed, my top left canine was still a bit tipped inwards, and I remained elastics free. Bite was still fine the way it was, and overall, the main thing I was waiting for was my orthodontist appointment. But before we get to my orthodontist appointment today, per tradition, I shall grace you with a picture of my teeth for the "week by week" segment of this post.

Week 41

And now, onto my appointment.

This appointment actually went rather smoothly, and it was probably the fastest appointment I've had thus far. I was in and out of the office in 25 minutes. I didn't have to wait in the waiting room, and I didn't have to wait too long for the orthodontist to see me once the tech removed the power chains (weirdly enough, she didn't remove the wires before the orthodontist came to do his assessment. Usually the wires are out by the time the orthodontist is looking at my teeth). The orthodontist did his usual thing of asking me to open and close my mouth several times while he examined my teeth, and then it was off to to the tech to carry out the orthodontist's orders.

There's good news and bad news that I received from this current appointment. And because I'm a cup half full type of person, I will start with the good news first.

My wires got changed! It's been awhile, and I had a feeling that I would be getting the wires changed today, just because I've had the previous wires on for over four months already, and they really weren't doing a whole lot in terms of teeth movement (I'm sure they were doing something, it's just not something that I could visibly observe). So this was something that I was looking forward to, so I'm glad that my old wires were final-fucking-ly changed.

That's not the good news though, though it was definitely a plus. The actual good news is that I'm now on "finishing wires". Judging by the name and the very shallow and limited Google search that I ran, these are the wires used to tweak, fix details and finalize things before braces are off. It means that all the heavy duty work has been, for the most part, completed. So it means that I'm at least in the home stretch of my braces journey...however long the home stretch is!

Being the finishing wires, the tech told me that these wires would be the strongest wires I would have. As in, there won't be any wires that are stronger than the finishing wires. And being the strongest wires, these suckers do hurt going in. More so on the bottom arch than the top. In fact, I hardly felt the top wires going in, but boy, there sure was a lot of pressure when she slid the gates down to secure the wires on the bottom. I would say that the pressure was almost as painful as the initial wires used when I first got braces. Almost. The tech also told me that the orthodontist had put a "step" (which is a bend in the wire) in the bottom arch wire, located in the canines, to help position the incisors better. Well, that's what I understood anyway, as I went to this appointment on about four hours of sleep after a night shift at the hospital, so the finer details are a bit blurry to me. I couldn't really see the bends in the wire due to the power chain, but I sure felt them.

Now for the bad news...I'm being put back on elastics, full time. These elastics aren't as bad, but they're still elastics, and they're still a pain and annoyance, and I really, really, really was hoping that I'd be done with elastics for good, but I guess my orthodontist had a different idea on that. The elastics are worn on my top canine, top premolar, and bottom premolar, forming an upside down triangle. And I have to wear this configuration on both sides of my mouth, at least until the next appointment. The tech said the elastics is just to improve my bite, and they'll assess how things are doing in ten weeks.

I'm not too impressed with this development, because I really, really, really enjoyed my elastics-free days while it lasted, but at the same time, I'll always comply with whatever the orthodontist wants me to do, because my desire to have braces come off sooner rather than later greatly overrides my dislike of elastics.

So that was a rather eventful appointment, all packaged and tied neatly with a bow in 25 minutes. Excited about the fact that I've entered the home stretch of my journey, but bummed out about the elastics. But it is what it is, and I look forward to the changes that these finishing wires and elastics will bring.

Onto the finishing wires now....and it's back to elastics we go.

Week 40

Week 40...that means that in exactly 12 weeks, it would be one year since I got these suckers on my teeth. That's pretty damn amazing when you think about it. It really just feels like it was yesterday that I got braces placed on. I'm ever glad that I made the decision to straighten my teeth...even though at times I wonder what the hell I signed myself up for.

But anyway...there's not much in terms of update this time around. My lower right pre molar hurts, but I've long made peace with the fact that random teeth will just randomly hurt when I'm in braces, so it didn't really phase me at all when the pre molar felt a bit sensitive when I brushed my teeth just now. Pain and braces go hand in hand, and I've long embraced that bit about having braces.

I'll make this entry short and sweet, because a) there's not much to report on and b) I'm tired as heck from a shitshow of a shift at the hospital and c) I really don't have anything more to say at this time. So instead of boring you with random chit chat, I'll just cut this entry short.

Week 40

Week 39, Month 9

Happy New Year! And so another year starts...hopefully this year will bring with it lot's of joy and love for everyone!

So this marks another month in my braces journey, and sometimes, I still can't believe that it's been such a long time since I went to get the braces placed on. April 2017 doesn't seem like that far behind, but yet it is. I mean, in another three months, I'd have been in these things for one year. And I'm not sure how to feel about that fact. On one hand, it's pretty amazing the progress that I'm seeing with braces. On the other hand, I can't believe that so much time have gone by already. I actually think I am going to miss having braces when they do come off. Weird huh.

(Seriously people, if you want to get braces, get on it like yesterday. Don't sit on that thought. Your teeth aren't going to magically get better on their own. I really should've gotten this done in my early 20's. But I sat on it, for reasons beyond me.)

I don't think there's been much teeth movement lately, but I kind of expected that. I think my midline is a tiiiiny bit off center, but it's nothing that really bugs me. I mean, I only really notice it if I scrutinize my teeth in the mirror, and I do a lot of scrutinizing of my teeth in the mirror, and I know most other sane people don't, so it's not something I'm super picky about. The gap between my lower right lateral and central incisor is still there, so I foresee another powerchain in my future. My top left canine is still tipped inwards, so I foresee either a new wire change, or more bracket repositioning. I also foresee a potential bracket repositioning for my upper left pre molar, just because of the way the teeth is a bit "higher" in the arch line than the rest of the teeth.

I do have a dentist appointment for cleaning tomorrow, and then it's off to the orthodontist on the 22nd, where I hopefully will get upgraded to a new wire. I've had these wires since August, and I think it's high time for a change!

Before braces. See all my teeth in their original state. Crossbite, front teeth gap, edge to edge bite, and non rotated upper lateral incisors.

Month 8

Week 39. It's a bit more pronounced here, but you can see how my midline is a bit off center. Again it's not anything that really bugs me.

Month 9. See how much nicer everything is now? No more crossbite. Front teeth are aligned. Upper lateral incisors are along a curve.