Eager for progress, trying to be patient while Dr Good works her magic. My second appointment inserted rubber spacers between the back molars, after two weeks the lower rear brackets were placed and I was fully braced. Then a longer wait til the next appointment. I asked to go to a heavier wire, to no avail. You can see in the close up the lower front teeth are so crowded the wire isn't even engaged on two of the brackets. My top incisor was angled in during pre-teen braces to compensate for the over-jut. That makes the wire look super crooked, due to the closeness a white rubber cushion was placed on the bracket below to keep it from hitting.
4 Months:
Getting in a groove, appointment were generally evenly spaced 5 weeks apart. I always asked for 4 to accelerate, to no avail. Worse still on a few occasions she did say 4 weeks, but the office would be closed or no times were available and it would end up 5 weeks after all. Sometimes visible progress was made by the time I got home from the appointment! My top teeth had started straightening out, evening of the wire. The biggest challenge was the lower incisors. To address the crowding Dr Good added coils, one on either side of my center lower tooth. They were very painful and in contrast to the ceramic brackets very metallic and obvious. I had to use wax constantly to reduce sores. It didn't stick well to the coils, complicated cleaning and adding further bulk to my mouth. Knowing that my over-jut correction involved undoing some of the work from my pre-teen braces I was prepared for my bite to get worse leading up to surgery. I was not prepared for the horror the coils created. Since the flanking two teeth were unattached, they got pretty crazy while the coil did its job pushing the outside teeth away. By cruel twist of fate this occurred over the holiday season with parties, family gatherings and a prominent project opening with most of my network and VIPs. Sigh... there is definitely a personal growth aspect to having braces. Starting out highly self conscious, going through braces and very messed up teeth has built significant self acceptance and thickened my skin to the extent that not much about my appearance and others opinion about it could throw me now. Appearance can help, but is secondary in any interaction. That is a valuable lesson to internalize.
6 Months:
Miracle occurred and the coil was removed! The adjacent teeth moved quickly back into place and in the following appointment clicked into the wire. To further adjust alignment Dr Good added a power chain, which I feared was yet another coil fiasco. Instead it was more or less a rubber band chain that hooked around each bracket. Since it was white it actually made the brackets less visible and it was comfortable, so I was happy. For my upper teeth the treatment plan includes veneers to increase the size of my "peg laterals", so we are creating space on either side. That involved more coils, only this time she used a smaller size that was hardly noticeable visually or on my lips (not shown in the pics below). The third photo shows my true jaw alignment with tongue crowded behind the teeth.
8 Months:
This is when I started to get anxious since my treatment plan indicated surgery 8-10 months in and I hadn't even had a followup appointment. It was stressful to juggle work and attempt to minimize impact without having any idea how schedule would work out. Dr Good finally gave me the go ahead at my 27 week appointment and I immediately called to set up my surgical appointment. Finally it is happening! Meanwhile, minor adjustments top and bottom continued. I was up to the heavy gauge surgical wires, which meant any misalignment was painful. Both the lower front teeth and back molars took a lot of pushing and prodding before clicking in. The assistant tried to warn me and be gentle, but I still whimpered as my tooth felt like it was being pulled out at one point. That was the most painful appointment (nothing a few Advil and a good night's sleep couldn't fix), but I knew it meant final adjustments were in progress. I noticed that my upper midline has shifted slightly off, that will be corrected after surgery. I also want to bring the uppers in as they are still slanting out slightly. You can see the lower power chain in the second photo. In the last photo I set my jaw forward, anticipating what it will be like. Teeth are getting very close to final alignment!
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