Week 45

I really didn't mean to leave it this long to update, but I really wanted to publish with pictures and I didn't have access to a decent camera until now.

First of all, as I don't seem unable to post comments on my own Blog (!), shout out to Laura Daly - thanks for commenting, hope you're enjoying the Blog, and that your spring coils are not giving you too much grief. I really do appreciate all readers of this Blog, hope it's helpful and if I can answer any questions, please just ask!

All the stuff that happened last check up: They changed the wires, top and bottom. I also have a white wire threaded around 8 brackets on the lower set of teeth. No power chains this time. Even though I'm not using those metal loops that serve as hooks for elastic bands right now, they didn't remove them. Maybe next time they'll tell me to wear elastics around them again. I also have 'button' hooks on the other (tongue) side of some teeth. This is because some lower teeth are slightly 'tipped' over, not standing up straight. And I've been given a new elastic formation to wear to correct this. They felt horrible at first and were constantly scraping my tongue, but now it's a lot better. I still hope they take them out next time though, if not everything.


Excitingly, they also made impressions for a retainer. Before the appointment, I was doing some research on retainers. The main types are an Essix retainer, a Hawley retainer and a bonded retainer. An Essix is like an invisalign tray, a Hawley is like those traditional braces you get with a piece of plastic that fits in the roof of your mouth and wires, and a bonded retainer is a metal wire stuck to the back of your front teeth that stops them moving away from each other.

My personal preference was for an Essix retainer, but I was told that I would be given a bonded retainer. My initial thought was that it would be very bad for the tip of your tongue, always hitting something that wasn't your teeth. But I'm coming around to the idea, because it looks very fine and thin. The girl doing my impressions for the retainer had them and she said she noticed no discomfort. If they're really a problem I can get them removed, so I'm not too worried.

When I left the orthodontist after the check up, I have to admit I was pretty dismayed. I didn't think it was possible for them to put more stuff in my mouth, and yet here I was with more hooks! And they ached quite a bit at first, I was pretty miserable that evening coming back home. I also swing between being sympathetic towards my orthodontist (it's not like they can 'magic' the teeth into place) and annoyed at them (they gave me a time frame which I took in good faith - they're the experts after all). But they are looking good, and I know my orthodontist just wants it as perfect as possible.

Week 39

I didn't get the most reassuring news during my last visit: I still don't exactly know when the braces are going to come off. On the one hand I'm not too surprised; on the other, it's not so convenient for me to fly back to Germany every month and my orthodontist realises this. They tightened the wire and then said to me that next time they would have to reposition two brackets on my front lower teeth. After I enquired when exactly I'd be finished, she then remembered that I have to fly from England for each appointment and said she'd reposition the brackets there and then.
The lower teeth are still not without gaps. There's a little one that can be seen in the picture. I hope this will close on it's own.
I have have to wear the elastic/rubber bands on my back teeth again. Apparently my bite doesn't quite line up. I couldn't actually really notice it, because one of my front teeth was hitting a bracket below when I tried to close my mouth fully, so it was hard to see. So she also smoothed down the front two teeth slightly and now I can bring both sets of teeth together.

Week 37

All is going well, but still very small, very slow changes. I'm getting a bit worried that the braces were really going to take longer than the end of February (as the orthodontist had suggested in October/November), but looking at the pictures, they look better than I thought. I'm really happy with them, but looking forward to getting them off more and more!

There is a slight gap between two teeth on the lower jaw, so I'm expecting that next time the power chain will be moved to close this. Unfortunately, as the orthodontist remarked, one of the central teeth on the bottom row is slightly smaller than the others in the row, and it seems it may not always look so 'perfect'. I've heard they can file the teeth down to make them all even, but I'm not sure I want that done. So long as they're all straight, that's fine by me. I don't really want big, white Hollywood teeth!

From the front, the upper teeth look pretty much finished, but when you see the picture showing them from below, it still needs to move just a few more millimetres. If you look closely, you can see the kinks in the wire are still not straightened out - which I'm a bit surprised about, I thought maybe they would move a little by now. Next appointment - 29th January, I'm looking forward to seeing what they will do.

Week 36 - Progress Picture

Week 36

Week 33

Week 33

My latest check up was Monday and everything seems to be going well, although they weren't ready for removal yet. This time they took off the top wire, and replaced it with a slightly thinner wire. I can't actually quite tell if it is round or square though. Two kinks have been put into the wire. One is between the brackets on my two front teeth, the other is between the right front tooth and the one next to it. This wire should straighten out and also move that tooth by the two front teeth back just a little bit more and into its final position.

The two 'kinks' in the top wire

Before the appointment, I also had a small gap between two teeth on the bottom front row. They have put new power chains on to close this gap, and a white wire running around three of the brackets to prevent any more big gaps opening up. I still have one stubborn tooth in the bottom row that moves into its right position with the rubber bands, but moves back again when I take them off. So until my next appointment in February, I've been told to wear them as much as I possibly can.

Week 30

I realise it's been so long since I updated this, apologies if I have any regular readers! I lost my camera phone so I haven't been able to take regular progress pictures, but my parents were visiting me last weekend and luckily brought their camera.

Well the teeth are moving very, very slowly. It's so frustrating right now. I have had two check ups since my last update, and both times they didn't change the wire. The October check up, they simply cleaned away some tartar (hardened plaque, gross I know) from my bottom front teeth. The last check up was last week and they tightened the wire, and also added new power chains to one side on the bottom teeth, and on the opposite side on the top row of teeth. There's also a small power chain on my two front teeth. Although I can't eat so well for a few days when I have that done, it also feels like something is being done, and I could feel the teeth were a little loose.

I also had the news that they would probably be finished in February, which I was a little disappointed at. I thought possibly Christmas they could come off. But I can see and feel that they're not quite perfect yet. The upper tooth, to the right of the front teeth in the picture, is still not quite in line with the others, although it has moved a lot since treatment started. And of the bottom front four teeth, one is still stubbornly refusing to be guided to the right place. I still wear the elastic bands around these new hooks at night and I noticed this morning that the stubborn bottom tooth looks better after the bands have been on all night.

Next check up in three weeks time!

Week 23 - before and after pictures

Week 23 with the elastic bands

I didn't mean to leave it nearly two weeks before doing an update, but lately I've had a lot of stuff on my plate, sorry about that.
So I was expecting a lot more pain with this square wire, but actually, it really only hurts the first few days - exactly like the other wire changes really.
The teeth are moving very, very slowly at this point. I'm still wearing the elastics - although this week I have not been very disciplined about wearing them all the time, but I do wear them every night.

Apologies for the, again, rubbish photo quality. The past few weeks, I had access to a proper camera, and now I am back to taking pictures with my smartphone again, and the image quality of the pictures has really declined over the past 5 months.

So my top row of teeth are near perfect. Only one thing, the tooth to the right of my front teeth (in the photo) just needs to move a few more millimetres. But it is moving. I can now floss and see a bit of space, so it really just needs to edge in a little more to be perfectly in line with the others.

Damon Braces Before & After: Start of treatment to almost 6 months later.

On the bottom row of teeth, you might be able to make out in the picture there is a small gap just to the left of the centre teeth. It's not really too big of a gap, and from reading other Blogs this is quite normal. I expect next time I'm at the orthodontist they'll do something to close this.

To the right is a before and after picture from the first week to this week, so almost 6 months treatment time. Looking back at the time before I had braces, my teeth really were quite jumbled. They're looking so lovely now, I'm glad I had them done!