So I have a bit of a dilemma.
I’ve been wearing my braces since end of November, 2011… so it’s been about 9 months. (I’m in the 6 month smile braces, and my ortho estimated my case to be about 8-10 months).
The first few months, I saw some MAJOR changes, and they happened pretty fast! But the last 2 months or so I’d say, nothing’s really changed, that I can see. I’m sure my ortho can, cuz he’s an expert lol. (and I’ve been having regular adjustments every 4 weeks)
Yesterday I had an ortho appnt… and my ortho told me they’re basically ready to come off, “whenever I’m ready”.
He said he’ll keep them on for as much longer as I want, because he’ll never “stop seeing things to tweak” but he says they’re basically finished.
He asked me if there’s any “target date” I’d like to aim to have them off by, and I said end of October - as I have a photo shoot coming up at the end of Ocotber.
So he said, ok, let’s aim for end of September then. Everything should be good to go by then.
So here’s the thing – I have been DREAMING about the day I get my braces off… believe me!
BUT – I’m a little hesitant. I mean they look great, but not perfect. I don’t think my teeth could ever look ‘perfect’ because I just don’t have the right SHAPE teeth for them to. I have pointy canines, and my two front teeth are larger than the rest. I mean they’re straight now, but there’s not much you can do about the size of your teeth I guess, lol.
See pic (this was at 7 months… so they do look a little different now, but it looks like this is as good as they’re going to get)::

I'll post a more up-to-date pic later, as I'm 2 extra months further than this pic... I'm just at work right now so I can't!
SO… basically our idea is that we’re going to take them off end of September, but how will I know if they’re ready?
How do I know if I’m making the right decision? What if I get them off, and then decide oh I could’ve lasted another month, maybe this tooth should have been rotated a little more, etc etc…
Has anyone else had their ortho tell them they can come off when you're ready?
Help!!
