Minus a Spring, Plus Hope

[SummerPhoto]

I'm going to go ahead and express my excitement here since I'm pretty sure no one else in my life actually quite gets how momentous this is for me.

My teeth have always been relatively straight minus my social six. My front teeth are off my midline, which no one really notices, but they do realize that the teeth that sit between my front 2 and canines are completely pushed back. One to the point that it can be seen between the gap, and the second that there is hardly a gap at all. It's made my smile amazingly awkward and it's unavoidable. People notice it. It's clear they notice it. And unfortunately, a lot of people aren't nice about it making comments that I'd be more attractive if I had a good smile or comments that I was obviously poor and couldn't afford to fix it. The truth is I've had braces before but my ortho was a quack and I was medically advised to get them off because I was incapable of eating and was dropping too much weight.

Fast forward a decade and I'm now fully braced and couldn't be happier.

But, for the part that really makes me happy, we've braced one of those back teeth. That one that could be seen through the gap (#10) is now bracketed and beginning its migration. I've been in my appliances for a little over two months and the original estimate for bracketing this tooth was around 4-6 months. But the springs have been doing their job and the left side of my mouth is reacting pretty great. I've been looking in the mirror, and talking to my dentist (who also happens to be my boss) and we both thought it might be possible to bracket with the second wire but the gap created by the first one made just enough space to actually bracket now. So the tooth is currently engaged and will start its migration. Time has yet to tell if it'll actually be able to fully come to the front by my next adjustment but my ortho seems confident that it has space and whatever was left to be made will be done by the time the tooth actually makes it into place. Really, any progress is great. For me it's going from large obvious gaps to seeing a tooth and that's a remarkable change for me. Especially since of the major things I care about is being addressed so quickly.

Seeing this amount of change in the gaps, and knowing that it all leads to those teeth being pulled forward is just such a boost in my treatment. Up until this point it's felt like pain with the potential of progress but now it's just starting to feel like progress.

[WanderingWallflower]

Congratulations on the first step towards your new smile! Looking forward to hearing about your progress.