Nita's story

[nita]

Ok, I was finally able to take a picture of my new braces.
This pic is about two weeks after the wire was put in. My front teeth are still a little sensitive, but it's not stopping me from eating! The only movement that I can notice is that the bracket on my right lateral is no longer sitting up against the next tooth. There is now enough space there to floss!



My first adjustment is in two and a half weeks. I can't wait to get the lowers in on the action. Four brackets have fallen off so far (three of which fell off while they were bracketing the lowers and they just said they'd get them back on at my next appointment since they were only doing sectional wires at the last one). I'm looking forward to seeing what movement comes next!

[Flora2006]

I love the color of your ligs!! They look great.

Good luck in 2 weeks. You must be excited to get a wire that goes through all your teeth.

[nita]

I had the first adjustment yesterday. It went well, they reattached all the brackets that fell off and I finally got my full wires!

I'm happy because I saw a lot of improvement on the uppers in the final week before my adjustment. Here are some progress pics... (Sorry if I gross anyone out with those extraction gaps!)

The blue lig pics are week 2, and the magenta/pinkish ones are now, week 5.







Thanks for looking!

[nita]

I had my second adjustment two days ago, and came back with some new installations! I got a powerchain on the teeth surrounding my extractions on the lowers, as well as wire ties around my lower canines (I'm hoping that will rotate those little guys). The ortho also put some bends in my new .20 (?) archwire. She also said I was coming along nicely.
I thought I heard her say it was a "reverse curve" she was doing, but I researched it and found that this technique is usually used to open the bite - which is definitely not something I need! I looked further and found that it can also be used to close the bite, so I'm thinking that's what is happening in my case. Anyone know about this?

Here are some comparison pics, I went green this time, and I'm not sure I like it, although that may just be because the last ligs I had were darker and I'll have to get used to the brightness of these.

Whole "smile":

And just the bottom arch this time:


I'm very happy with my progress, although I'm in a lot of pain after this adjustment
I'm doing well with the soft foods though, and trying to chew a little to get the blood flow going. I've found that gentle chewing on sugarfree gum really helps the soreness.

The next adjustment is in four weeks, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!

[nita]

Thanks KK! I really appreciate your support ...

The teeth are still sore this morning, so I have a feeling it will be another day of oatmeal and soup. Pasta actually works pretty well, so maybe I'll be digging into the pasta again tonight.