Frizz

My teeth are now bonded… I have a metal wire along the back of my front upper and lower teeth.  I’m getting used to it, although the process is a lot more primitive than I expected.  I thought wire - glue on the back with maybe a smooth coating on the front to stop it feeling like metal.  Instead it’s more like random globs of glue all over the back of my teeth…. however it’s a welcome relief (more than I expected) not to have to wear the retainers all the time.  Only nights now.

I know I’ve not written about the braces for ages, so you might have thought they were off, but no, they were very much still on - it’s been a long stint. I couldn’t write during my head thing, and then I went through a strange phase where they looked wonky, well my whole mouth looked wonky and the Ortho said they were fine and I just wanted to ignore the whole thing. So yesterday was the big day… off they snapped… it was very quick and pretty painless. And now I have very big teeth, in fact I think I have someone else’s teeth. I can’t decide whether they look good or not, I think I have to give it a few days.  I was kinda of expecting this reaction, hearing from others who have been through the same experience, but a part of me is disappointed that they didn’t come off and I didn’t instantly think that they looked amazing.

A lovely party at C’s on Saturday evening, although if I’d have been in New York, I could have been watching a film on a rooftop - thanks to the other C, not that I was going to be in NY - she was just saying.

These flowers were lovely, but they were falling down and C went and sat on them - sort of - so J found a prop.

L and I discussed teeth and Ortho’s - she’s the only other person in London I know with braces and we are going to the same Ortho - completely by chance.

Well the one really has nothing to do with the other except I saw the rose on the way to the Orthos and took the photo on the way home. I actually forgot I had the appointment or at least I thought it was for next week. So I was there on Monday picking up a new packet of elastics, only to be called yesterday and reminded that I’d be seeing them all again today.

Changes are I only have to wear the elastics at night, so I went home sans elastic and my jaw felt all over the place without the support. Off came the elastic from my front teeth to be replaced by a white wire that’s twisted around my six front upper teeth. He said it was passive, but something’s making them sore.

The elastic on the two bottom front teeth had run out of force, so I still had a pretty big gap, he replaced it and by the time I wake up tomorrow the gap will have closed - it’s almost there now.

The gestimate for how much longer the braces are on for is four to six months, I can see there’s quite a lot more to sort out so that makes sense.  [Update: on second thoughts he might have meant six to eight months - yikes].

So that’s another adjustment and not too painful.

Still on the Flickr theme, the picture of my packet of elastic bands has been viewed over 550 times, making it my most popular photo…

The elastics come in different sizes and each one has a different animal on the front of the packet - the Ortho showed me - I guess so they are easier for kids to remember. So mine are fairly strong. It’s like the Ram is pulling my teeth into place - looks like she’s he’s working hard.

Had my 7th Ortho appointment yesterday. And as I have virtually no bite, I ended up getting elastics either side (see the pic!). The hooky thing is cute. I can take them out for eating, which is just as well cos that would be tricky, otherwise I’m supposed to wear them all the time. If I relax my bottom jaw the elastics support it, which feels very strange and a bit painful and I kept half waking up during the night and not understanding why I couldn’t open my month, it felt like it had been welded shut and I sort of remember giving up the battle each time and going back to sleep.

The elastic on the lower front teeth is still there - the gap between the two front teeth has come back. And a new one on the front upper teeth to close a gap at the side.

Just call me metalestastic.

Apart from that I have the same wires, but with more wonky bends in them.

I’d sort of got used to adjustments being relatively painless, but yesterday I had to mash up a banana - a first. So I went and bought some delicious soup for dinner and lots of fruit to make smoothies.

Oh and the bite turbos are still in place…

So the visit to the Ortho was fine. The broken bracket was really really easy to get off - it just popped off. Still have the bite turbos, although since the appointment my teeth have moved so that I’m now almost always biting down on my back teeth… so different from where I was at the start, when my bite came down on my front teeth and it feels so different - much better/more relaxed. The elastic band at the front is still there too, except now it’s over five teeth. I also have to think about whether I want him to shave my teeth at the front to get rid of the small gap between them, that came out of the blue, but I’ve done some checking and it seems pretty normal and found some pictures and the results can look quite good (no vanity here).

Hard to believe, but another two months have passed and come 4.30 tomorrow I’ll be sitting in the Ortho’s chair again. At this stage it’s tricky to see exactly what’s happening, but a couple of things are more obvious; my bottom teeth have moved over, so instead of a gap in the middle, I now have a gap on the right hand side - it’s a little like they are doing a slow motion dance, moving from one side to the other every couple of months. Another gap opened up next to my left top front tooth allowing it to straighten out some.

I’m expecting to be tut tutted, because it seems impossible for me to keep the bottom teeth, where the elastic band is, plaque free - so that the plaque is stopping the teeth from completely coming together. Thinking about that I guess it’s also time for another horrendously expensive visit to the hygienist.

I was just trying to do a test to see whether I might have the bite turbos removed, but that’s hard to tell as well, at certain times my teeth do seem to meet and at other times they don’t, so I’ll expect to keep them, even though I’m hoping there’ll go.

I’ve just remembered the broken bracket – that’s going to be interesting, I think it has to be replaced – I’m imagining a pair of pliers…

Yesterday, this part, which is made of some kind of composite plastic came off a bracket on one of my top front teeth. It was a bit wobbly at first and I couldn’t resist seeing just how wobbly, until it broke off. It’s just about the most visible place it could have happened and it doesn’t look too good as now there’s nothing hiding the metal top. I can’t see how it could be mended so the only option would be to replace the whole bracket… which is a bit worrying. OK and I might have had a toffee recently… but really it can’t just have been that.