Progress

It's been a while! Honestly, I've had nothing of interest to post in the last few months. I feel like I'm stuck in a holding pattern.

December - We put an e-link (similar to a powerchain) on top to squish everything together and hold it in place. We also tweaked the bottom wire.

January - We took the e-link off, and also everything else that was causing movement. The plan was to wait a month, and if nothing shifted significantly, we could take the braces off.
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I've never been one to smile with teeth. Never ever. My teeth were always crowded, and it just wasn't pretty (lol) so I didn't do it. Now that my teeth have straightened out, it's been/will be a huge adjustment.

While on vacation (to San Francisco!!) in December, we snapped quite a few pictures. I was surprised to catch myself smiling with teeth way more than usual (anything more than zero is more than usual) so I figured I would post and share my smile with you!

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It's been a while since my last post! November was boring, and nothing changed much (just some minor tweaks by my perfectionist ortho), but this month has been more eventful. I had my first December appointment on 12/15, where my ortho decided that one of my bottom teeth needed to be turned slightly. He couldn't get the spring on it the normal way, so we had to MacGyver it a little. We also discovered that another one of my bottom brackets was busted. Of course, the one next to my original busted ...

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I think it's finally hit me that I'm really in the final-final-final stages of braces, and I'm starting to freak out a little about getting them off. I know I'm going to be all about my retainer, so I really have nothing to worry about ... but my braces have been a HUGE part of my life for the past 14 months! It's weird to think that within a few months, there will be nothing holding my teeth in place!

In progress news, my last remaining gap is closing up nicely! It's only been a ...

( +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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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 ...

Today is my six month anniversary in braces! (queue celebratory music)

I can't believe it's already been six months. This means that one third of my treatment is done!

I took some pictures on Friday, so I could compare my midline progress, but I think I must have forgotten to turn on the macro setting on my camera, because all the pictures were much blurrier than usual. Either way, lets compare:

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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 ...

Today is 5 months and 5 days since I got my braces put on. February 19th will make 6 months! (I know this because the day I got them on, I went into my calendar and marked off 6 months, 12 months and 18 months) I feel like I should do something to celebrate, but I can't really think of what would be appropriate.

I'm still in the same getup as my last post, only my ligatures are a lot more dingy since my last entry. ha. For some reason, I've been consuming more "stain-y" ...

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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So I've been wearing these rubber bands for a month (my next adjustment appointment is next Thursday) and I really hope I don't have to continue wearing them. This is totally wishful thinking on my part, as I'm pretty sure I have a lot of rubber banding in my future :(

Other than the rubber bands being a pain in my butt, (and the possibility that I'm allergic to the latex they're made out of) this month has gone by fast, and without incident. No major pain to report (I don't think ...

I've been in braces for two weeks (and a little more) and I can already see movement! My orthodontist said that he saw some definite movement at my one week followup, and the progress has continued through my second week.

My bottom teeth are opening up slightly (I can tell when I floss) and my "fangs" (not sure what the name of the tooth is) aren't as stacked as they used to be. I think it's most noticeable when I smile (!!) My front teeth have also shifted a little, and ...