sick!

blah, called off work today, and i'm feeling terrible!

i decided to post some pics of my bite without elastics; in all my other posted pics they're still on. i feel like my teeth fit together differently every day, yet i'm not sure if the elastics are doing what they're supposed to do. let's hope they are; i'm so tired of them!

my next appointment is this monday, woo hoo! i plan on bringing up my surgery, since it's been six months that i've had the braces and dr. arango hasn't mentioned surgery at all. i hope he hasn't forgotten, ha ha hoo. i'd like to know where i stand. i've been obsessed with surgery websites these past few weeks; at this point i can't even imagine having a surgery date!






oh yeah... we got a tv too! :) it's lovely.

Gaps, Gaps, Gaps

So now I have two gaps, and my bite seems to be way off-kilter. Yikes! My teeth are getting a little discolored, too.. I swear I brush a lot! :) Happy late St. Patricks Day, everyone!

braces, what braces?

i have a gap between my front bottom teeth now, it's so cool! and i have one or two different teeth hurt every day.

not much to report besides that... my birthday is in two months from today, though!



happy leap day!

this is my "braces, what braces?" smile. :)

Blah!

I. Hate. Rubberbands.


Thank you.

the third visit

today i had my third visit at the orthodontist's office. i wasn't sure what would be happening today, and i was hoping it would just be time for new wires.

alas, i was wrong.

dr. arango said that my crossbite looked pretty bad and that he wanted to put in some rubberbands. Boo! so they were installed, and i have four bands on the right side of my mouth and two on the left. plus new wires. ow!

dr. arango mentioned that there is also a surgery to correct the bite that would run around $10,000, but that he thought rubberbands do a fine job too and are obviously cheaper.

it's a little weird not being able to open my mouth very wide, but i'm already used to how they feel. the only thing is eating... i have to take them out to do that, which is hard to do at work (i'm usually just grabbing something here and there and popping it into my mouth).

also, the assistant asked if i wanted colored or clear rubberbands, and i chose clear. i think i'd feel super dorky with colored ones!! :)

pics:

my tongue looks like a slimy weird creature, but you can see the rubberbands!


look how open my bite is now!!

3 Months!

Here is my bite, three months in:

Happy 2008!

Today I realized that my braces have been on for almost three months! Part of me feels like they've been on forever--I guess that means I've officially gotten used to them. I had a lovely holiday and this weekend I'm going skiing and staying the night in a swanky hotel(okay, that's not true, it's a Hampton Inn) with my boyfriend. The more days I take off, the less I want to work! School starts next Tuesday...already!

All of my back teeth are touching now, and my bite is more even and closed. I can't believe this is happening so fast! I'll dig out my camera later and post some pics to prove it.

One thing I almost forgot...the other day I was playing around with the wire on my back tooth with my tongue and it came out!! I felt all my teeth shift a little at being let loose, but I was able to stick the wire back into the bracket. Should I go to the orthodontist? Did I loosen everything up? It doesn't really feel different. At this point I'm planning on waiting until my next appointment, February 7, to go in.

britton recently asked when my surgery is... and I wish I had an answer to that! My ortho said that we'd worry about it more when the time was closer.. however, I do want to have a little more information than that, so I plan to ask him some more questions at my next appointment.

Thanks again to everyone for comments and support! I appreciate it! I'd write more, but braces have just become a part of my life now, and that part of my life is pretty boring. :) I still daydream about when it's all done, though...

:)