Tuesday, January 22, 2008

braces (halfway)

I have my bottom braces on! The past week, I've had nightmares about missing my appointment somehow, and then on Monday morning Nick woke up at 10am... my alarm hadn't gone off! And my appointment was a half hour away at.... 10am. I've never once been late to an appointment of any kind - not kidding. I'm a get-there-twenty-minutes-early-just-in-case kind of gal, not a shoot from the hip get there whenever kind of gal.


But, everything worked out fine - my bottom teeth are going to take 6-7 months longer than my uppers (half of the time!), and he said there isn't really a reason to have my uppers on yet, in fact, that I could wait a considerable amount of time before getting them on. (However, I want them on NOW so convinced him to let me get them on at my next appointment, March 31st).


Other than being more disappointed in myself than you can BELIEVE, I'm doing great! The teeth are tender, but my lip is holding up well (all those years of clarinet playing, I'm sure). Eating isn't a problem, as I'm STILL crazy sick and can't hold anything down, so I don't really eat. (No worries, I'm back to the doctor this afternoon).

I can't wait to watch all the progress. He said that with this archwire, they're trying to shrink the gap, un-rotate my teeth, and eliminate some of the crowding up front. Sheesh!

On a final note, does anyone out there gave the Damon Braces system? And if so, is it weird that my orthodontist is allowing me to cut my own archwire when it starts to poke out the back? It sounds weird to me, but I'm not complaining.

3 comments:

Ananda Devika said...

Ha! I'm not laughing because you were late ('cause I know how much that sucks), but because i had those same nightmares...and on the trip to my appt, I kept thinking that just maybe I'd written the time down wrong...

Congrats on making yet another step in your progress.

I have Damon Braces, but can't help you with that question - no one mentioned anything about cutting the wire to me... ?

Shontelly said...

hmm.. interesting about cutting the wire yourself..

I had those nightmares too. It happens!! Don't be so hard on yourself. :D YAY that you got em on though!! ..well half on.

laura said...

Congrats! I hate being late too, but I'm late a lot. When I'm on time I start freaking out about maybe having written down the wrong time because I can't believe I'm not late.

I read about wire cutting online. When you have self-litigating brackets like Damons, there's usually a long time between appointments, because the wire can slide easily in the brackets so your teeth keep moving for longer. But this means the wire can slide out the back bracket quite quickly and start poking you. So some people just cut off the pokey bit themselves.