Kid Robot

I am very excited to post that as of 9/22/11, I officially no longer wear braces!! It was two days before my birthday, so it was the ultimate birthday present. I had them for six days shy of two full years, and it's amazing to see and feel them so straight and smooth. When I went in for the appointment, I wasn't sure if they were coming off that day because a space had opened up, but my orthodontist took one look at my retainer mold, saw no space on that, said the retainer would take care of it ...

I went in for a pretty normal adjustment today, and my orthodontist told me he anticipates only three or four more adjustments before I get to have these puppies off! That's like...a pretty low and concrete number! I'm still in it for the long haul and it's definitely not over yet, but it's definitely encouraging!

I haven't posted much in a while, but I've been ridin' out the journey. A few months back I had a pretty random loose bracket that I honestly couldn't remember popping, ...

I had my last adjustment two days ago, and I beleive I'm now in the "finishing wire" in both the top and bottom, so hooray! Still rockin' the rubberbands too, and I'm pretty used to them. I had a little tenderness after the adjustment, but only lasted about a day, day and a half, and it's pretty much gone now.

Slightly unrelated to braces...I've been back and forth to the optometrist because when I went for my annual checkup, he gave me a few different pairs of contacts ...

Pretty routine adjustment today...I moved into the last wire on the top today, hurrah! I think they call it a "finishing wire," although they caution it's not quite over yet, but it makes me happy that I hit a braces milestone: the refinement process. They're working to close the gap on top, and rigged an elastic across the front six teeth. Which means it feels like someone punched me in the mouth, and heaven forbid I click my top front teeth while talking. But at least I know it means ...

Well, it's finally spring, and just like the ortho office told me, that's when I get into rubberbands. I've been wearing them for six days now, and I can't quite say I love them. I was actually getting used to my bracketed look, but now my smile's only gotten more interesting. The good thing is that I've made enough progress that they've moved on to the next phase: bite correction. Can anyone in rubberbands tell me it's not going to be that bad? I'm slowwwwly getting used to them, but I'm not a ...

My company's annual sales meeting is going on, and tomorrow I'm supposed to see a ton of out-of-town co-workers that I haven't seen since I got braces. My instinct whenever I see someone I haven't seen in a while is to basically say, "Hi I got braces!" so I can be the first to mention it, but after doing that a few times already, I have a feeling that since it's obvious, I shouldn't bother unless they bring it up. Can anyone tell me how they handle stuff like this? In my head it's like ...

First, thanks to everyone on here who responded to my last post. Every time something on these puppies malfunctions, I freak out a little because I feel like it's beyond my control and then I have to rearrange work and everything because of it.

Tonight I was eating a leftover Christmas cookie, got a little daring on a hard part, bit down on my molar and felt a bracket come loose. A cookie! And now I need to rearrange everything, hope my boss understands, and we're already expecting ...

Can anyone tell me what to do in the meantime...my wire came out of the last bracket on the bottom and I don't know what to do. I don't know if I can open the "gate" on the bracket and just put it back in myself, or if I should make an emergency trip in to the orthodontist tomorrow. It's not really poking me or anything, but it's loose and I don't want it to hurt anything. Help!

Ok, so it's only been about three and a half weeks, and today I noticed one of my bottom teeth that was pretty out of whack isn't where is used to be! To anyone else, it might not look any different (and I had to compare to my "before" pictures), but it's definitely in line with another tooth! Maybe that's why it hurt like crazy the other day. I'm really looking forward to seeing progress. Trying not to think of the pain (or worry about it), but definitely looking forward to seeing more ...

Has anyone else ever speared their cheek on the bracket hooks? I did this morning while washing my face...drove my cheek onto the pike on accident. Noooot fun.

Other than that, I'm not using wax so much any more, and I had my first sandwich since getting them on. Just waiting for the insides of my cheeks to turn to leather and pray that the worst is over.

If this all works out, I'm going to seriously consider auditioning for a toothpaste commercial or something so ...