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.