Great appointment today and all of my faith in my ortho has been completely restored (after that slight waiver last appt). Here's the rundown:
Getting the lowers on was a piece of cake since I knew exactly what to expect. Doing great so far, no pain, just "itchiness" and the feeling of foreign metal in my mouth. It's so weird that I'm so used to my uppers now that they feel almost normal in my mouth whereas my lowers feel quite bulky at the moment. Looking forward to the day when my lowers feel a part of my mouth too. I'm also happy that my lower lip doesn't bulge out as much as I was thinking it might.
All of my issues that I listed in my last post were thoroughly looked at:
1) Tooth sensitivity to cold in one area - x-rays were taken of the 2 teeth in question to make sure the roots look ok and that there are no cavities. All good on both of those fronts. Did the little tap-tap & grind-grind test on that blue paper to see if those teeth were hitting something in an odd way and nope, they don't even make contact due to the bite turbos. We determined in the end that the sensitivity was caused by tying the cross bite canines to that adjacent bracket, thus creating some force on that tooth. This time when they retied the canine they tied to right to the wire.
2) Looked at my overlapping front teeth and agreed that that needs to be corrected. Removed the power chain and added figure 8 wire ties (not super tight) to rotate the front tooth that's slipping behind and to make sure the gaps that were closed up front stay closed.
3) My uppers are all retied and even the ortho commented that he notices that my canines really seem like they are on the move - YAY!
On the day that I got my uppers on I was so down and depressed - and honestly I'm kinda glad that I didn't get uppers and lowers on all at once - this is quite the metal mouth LOL! No worries though, it's all for a good cause in the end. I don't lisp either, I was concerned about that in the first few days because I have a really important job interview tomorrow.
I also kinda laughed to myself because after my appointment I went to a bookstore to do some prepping for my interview, had a coffee and some cheesecake. Then I did a little shopping after that - it was so nice to just pick up and carry on with my life rather than rushing straight home and crying as I did when I got my uppers on!
The funny thing is that I switched jobs, been at this new one for 1 month now - and it's in the dental school of a university (I do research). I've seen so many other adults with braces, and everyone there just loves teeth, so I feel right at home!! One of the first people I met on my first day also has braces (and he's roughly my age). I would have felt so embarrassed to work there with my old, crooked teeth, but now I don't feel any hesitation smiling wide while at work!