Jason from Oregon

Yeah, so I’m 37 and need braces. Can you sense my excitement? I have a 100% overbite and this is causing “occlusions” and basically chipping away my front teeth – top & bottom! I’d heard I needed braces 10 years ago (well, actually when I was little, but I didn’t have the money then!) So, after putting this off, and chipping both front teeth, here I sit in day 2 of braces!

Putting them on was really a piece of cake (mmmm….cake……ugh…nevermind, it’ll take me 20 minutes to pick it out). The worst part was the cold water on the back teeth. The technician who put mine on held the water there a little too long (dork) as she was rinsing them and it was like holding ice cream against the side of your tooth. Regardless, the whole thing was uneventful. They had a mold that had the brackets on it. Stuck the mold over my teeth for 5 minutes – pulled it off and there they were! One didn’t stick so they had to stick it on again, but otherwise, it was surprisingly effortless. I only had those lip stretchers on for the beginning portion, but after that – simple! Oh, and the office was pretty much 50% adults / 50% kids. I’d heard (oh cool – I just found a piece of chicken from last night on my tongue! I thought I got it all, but guess not!) – anyway, I’d heard 20% adults, but in the metro area in Portland, OR. it’s almost 50%!

It’s day 2, I have zero pain and I’m still waiting. I didn’t take anything to anticipate the pain, I wanted to see if I would actually have any. I’ve read everything from discomfort to getting hit in the face w/ a baseball (which my othro. laughs at and says is not realistic). [Editor's note: that really is how it felt for ME when I first got them on!]  My biggest concern now is not staining them w/ coffee (have clear on top – bottoms go on in 4 mos. when there’s room – maybe that’s why I don’t feel the pain – only have top so far). I bought the Sonicare toothbrush to aid in cleaning, and now am in the market for a murse (man-purse) so I can tote around my handy kit of tools, washes, pastes, waxes, brushes, flosses, threaders, cleaners and the like.