Ortho treatment at 36

[susnrob]

Hello,
I'm new here. I'm 36 and and 4 months into orthodontic treatment. I have some bite issues and my teeth are slightly crowded. My treatment started with separators and a week later my pendulum appliance was installed. A month later my bottom braces were put on. My orthodontist always uses metal brackets on the bottom teeth so that's what I have. I found the pendulum very difficult to get used to. My tongue was very unhappy for several weeks. I used a lot of wax. The tension of the springs of my pendulum were adjusted the month following installation, but that was the only adjustment required. At my last appointment in October I finally got the good news that my molars has been moved back far enough! Yay! My pendulum will be removed in just over a week from now. I am so excited! Of course they'll be doing another set of impressions so they can make a nance appliance to hold my molars in their new positions. That will be installed a week later along with full upper braces. I really am hoping that I will find the nance appliance easier to adjust to than the pendulum was. Hopefully with a smaller acrylic piece and less metal in the roof of my mouth it will be a bit more comfortable. I'm actually looking forward to getting my upper braces as it means I'm one step closer to closing the spaces the pendulum created and fixing my bite. After much research and debate I've decided to go with metal braces on my upper teeth.

So, who's had a pendulum followed by a nance? Was the nance easier to adjust to? It's my understanding that the nance will be removed once my front teeth have been moved back to my molars, closing up those spaces. How long did you wear your nance? I'm really hoping it'll only take a few months since it only took a few months to move my molars back in the first place. I think that having braces only should feel so much better than having an appliance in my mouth. I'm so tired of food getting stuck in it. Thank goodness for my waterpik. I don't know how people survive fixed appliances without a water flosser.

Alright, that's all I've got for now. Here's to hoping this next week goes by fast. I'm excited to feel the roof of my mouth again....even if it's only for a week while I wait for my nance to be installed.