Adjustments

( +100 points if you get the Futurama reference in the subject of this post)

I had an adjustment appointment, and got the shock of my life when my ortho said that I probably only have one or two months left! I could be out of these bad boys by the new year! I hadn't been asking about my time line at my latest appointments ... I honestly didn't want to know, and just wanted him to take his time, so I had no idea how close to the end I was!

Right now, we are waiting to ...

One month from yesterday will be one year since I got my braces on! It's crazy how fast a whole year can go by. My teeth have come a long way, and I'm still in shock sometimes at how different I look. If I'm lucky, I'll be out of them by the end of this year. It would be a great Christmas present.

So anyway, here is my 11 month progress photo:

We had to re-level ...

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So I'm on my 11th month in braces (closing in on a year! crazy!) and a lot has happened since my last post.

Mainly - I had another bracket pop off. This time, the culprit was a crunchy piece of broccoli. I usually ask for my (Chinese food) broccoli overcooked, but I was at my parent's house, and didn't do the ordering. I bit into a piece, and felt something shift in my wire. I checked everything out, and all looked normal, but I could feel pressure on my right front tooth. Since everything ...

Thankfully I only had to wear those crazy wires for one week. My ortho ordered the new torquing wires, and I went in last Thursday to have them swapped out. Right now I'm rocking: A new rectangular wire, an extra thinner wire (that you can see twisted around my brackets) and the two torquing springs on my front teeth. That's a lot of metal!

These torquing springs are so much more comfortable, and less "pokey" than my old setup. Much less discomfort in the long run.
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So this post is a week late, but my post from this week won't make any sense without it. Sorry about that!

Anyway ... I am super happy to announce that I am officially into Phase 3 of my treatment! This is the last phase, and involves torquing. Basically, the positioning of my teeth is pretty much done, but we now need to move the roots to match.

I went in last week for a long appointment to get the extra torquing wires etc on, but my ortho had some bad news - he was ...

My last adjustment got pushed back a couple of times due to horrible weather and bad timing, but it finally happened on Monday! I was getting pretty antsy about it. I really needed my ligatures swapped out, they were getting pretty dingy!

I didn't think we'd be changing anything, but my extraction gaps had made good enough progress so my ortho decided to tackle my upper mid-line. We left the same wires on, but added a spring on one side to try and push all of my teeth over as well ...

I had my fourth adjustment on Tuesday. Good progress throughout. My ortho actually said that it looks like we are ahead of schedule (he wants to take some pictures next time to make sure that my teeth aren't moving TOO fast) and I might actually be out of them by this time next year. For those keeping track, that puts me TWO MONTHS ahead of schedule. We'll have to wait and see if it lasts, but for now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

My top and bottom teeth were also finally deemed ...

I had my third adjustment appointment this past Monday.

It went well, and my ortho was very pleased with my progress (I think he actually said that my case might be the fastest movement he's ever seen) My bite has been getting better and better, thanks to these little pink rubber bands, and I'm *almost* edge to edge! I'm still wearing the bands, but under strict instruction to stop wearing them if my top teeth move inward too much.

I also got my last four brackets put ...

So I'm still in rubber bands. Progress was good at my last adjustment, but my bite is still not edge-to-edge, so we're keeping them on for another month.

I got my bottom wire changed (you'll notice those funky little loops in it - they are to keep those two teeth from moving) but the top one stayed the same. I've got some gaps forming between my bottom teeth (we're pulling them forward) which I'm not too thrilled about. Hopefully they will be addressed at my next adjustment.
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I had my first adjustment appointment yesterday. My orthodontist was super excited about how much my teeth had moved! He said I looked "radically different" haha He's an interesting guy

His assistant hadn't seen me since I got my braces on, and she asked me if I had done something different to my hair or if I had changed my glasses. It wasn't until my ortho pulled out my pre-braces dental molds (and I was instantly horrified) that she realized that the difference was ...