It’s been almost a week since I got my fourth adjustment, but I made sure to take photos the day of:
So, the progress so far: The elastics I’ve been wearing have successfully started to pull my eyeteeth back into the gap left by the extractions, and my lateral incisors have started pulling back, as well. The chains and the coil made more than enough room for my bottom central incisor to finish coming up into line with the other teeth.
The most exciting part of this visit was getting a bracket put on that last tooth! That tooth was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to get braces, and seeing it in line with the others and wearing a bracket is well worth the price of admission.
Dr. N. pointed out that the tooth is still slightly out of alignment. His game plan for this seven-week stretch is to let that tooth slowly rotate into position, and leave me without chains or elastics. That also leaves me with gaps in my smile for this round — I don’t mind, though. The gaps really aren’t that noticeable, and my mouth is enjoying the respite from the constant discomfort of the rubber bands pulling on my eyeteeth.
As far as archwires go, we increased the top wire to an 18 and decreased (I think) the bottom wire to a 14. I know I haven’t really been keeping track of the gauge of archwires over the past adjustments, but it seems like the kind of minutia I might find interesting to read back over later — especially when we get to higher gauges later in the treatment.
I’ve been enjoying picking out different colors of o-rings for my brackets at each adjustment. Last time, I was looking through the rainbow of fruit flavors and found one labeled “toothcolor.” It looked this yellowish beige color, and I commented to the assistant that I was a little skeezed that teeth were really that color. She affirmed that, yes, teeth really are that color, and it’s surprising to see the toothcolor ligatures against teeth, because it really does match.
So, this time I decided to go with toothcolor ligatures. I like it! Disgustingly enough, they’re actually whiter than my real tooth color, but they’re not so bright white that it makes my teeth look stained. They also don’t look like they’re going to stain with coffee or curry like white or clear ones would. I think they even make the brackets look smaller and a little less noticeable.
Just over six months into treatment, and I feel better and better about my smile every time I go back. I’m so glad I’ve been photographing my mouth at every adjustment — I’ve come so far in such a short time.