Kmcampbe

So, it's official, I'm all braced up.

I've had my braces on for just under 12 hours and already it's been an adventure.

The application wasn't too bad. They cleaned my teeth really well before putting the brackets on. It took about 1.5 hours to put all the brackets on and place the arch wires. The brackets were super uncomfortable at first and I got very worried, but it was less annoying once the wires were put in. When I looked in the mirror for the first time I mostly just felt relieved. At least now I knew what it looked like. Then I sent a few people pictures and got really positive responses, so that made me feel even better. When I went to work (I went in right after having my braces put on), I had 2 meetings and a conference call. At the end of the day, my boss (who was in both meetings) said "hey, did you get your braces?" I'm not sure whether he was just being nice or if he really didn't notice, but that made me feel good too.

I was all excited and getting comfortable with the braces and then... I ate lunch. I had come prepared with all sorts of soft foods that wouldn't hurt my teeth with the braces. I didn't really feel like soup, so I decided to have penne pasta. It was terrible! I think just as much got stuck in my teeth as what I was actually swallowing. So I just got soup for dinner. So much easier. I think it's going to be a lot of soup from here on out.

The pain has varied throughout the day. After the application, there was no pain, my lips were just really dry and sore from my mouth being pulled around so much. After eating, there were some places that were sore from the new way I'm biting down (what's that about?). By the time I got to the gym (around 7), there was serious discomfort. Nothing outrageous, I'd say on a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 3 or a 4, but still it's much more than I've felt all day. I took some ibuprofen and that helped a little, but the pain is still there. I'm hoping that it won't get worse tonight. I'm a side sleeper, so that worries me a little.

I just finished my night time brushing routine. Whew! Glad that's over. It's definitely going to be a major adjustment to do that every night. I rinsed, brushed around the brackets, rinsed again, flossed (with dentek braces flossers for kids), rinsed again, brushed for 2 minutes, and then swished with ACT mouthwash for 1 minute. It took so much longer than I was expecting! But, my teeth do feel super clean. Anyway, that's my first day in braces. My goal is to take pictures and blog at least once a month, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments! I love this site!

Pics of me and just my braces.
braceface day 1.jpg
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