I am scooting thru this orthodontic process MUCH faster than I had anticipated!!!
I went in yesterday morning because my expander had suddenly started to sit on my tongue 24/7 and had caused 2 deep cuts where the wires were sitting directly on my tongue and there was a very hard lump between the 2 cuts. They were just going to check it and give me antibiodic rinse to use.
The nurse takes a peek in my mouth and goes "WOW! I have never seen that happen before!" I couldn't really answer her because she had her hands in my mouth but I was thinking "man, I am hearing that a lot with my treatment." She goes and get's Dr. Lahrman who proceeds to tell me "Well, let's just yank this one out." I didn't know he meant LITERALLY yank it out, but he did and that's what he proceeded to do. On my left side, it was insanely painful. The expander they were removing in addition to my grinding had caused my left molar to tip out which in turn pulled the expander tighter and made it cut my tongue. I was trying so hard not to cry while they yanked and tugged at it.
Finally the freakin thing popped off and when I shut my mouth I was in shock. I no longer had this wad of metal on the roof of my mouth making me talk funny. Then he tells me that we need to fit new bands for the new expander. Say what?!?! 5 fittings later she finds ones that fit and I am dying. Dr. Lahrman fits my new Quad Helix expander in the bands and proceeds to fit it 3 times before declaring it just right and then cementing it to my teeth. Having those put on my teeth and pulled off that many times had made my teeth feel like they were all falling out and I couldn't shut my mouth because the pressure of my teeth touching was so painful!
If that weren't enough, he then tells me that I need to come back ASAP to have brackets put on my remaining upper teeth that hadn't yet been bracketed. I asked if they had time to do it today since I had already missed more work than I anticipated. I figured I could run to the store, pop some pain meds and come back. HA. Not. "How about we do them now?" Sure, ok, why not. Another OWW you %$!#@ moment.
In go the lovely lip spreaders, in goes the tampon like spit absorbers, there goes the blow drying of my teeth and the spit sucker. Then the polishing and priming of my already tender teeth. UNCLE!!! I give! I give! After 5 mins, they are done. Now in goes a new, stronger wire and new ligs. I opted for pale pink just for something not so flashy and I seriously like it a LOT better. This was just as painful as anything else since my teeth were already tender. I finally get the heck out of there. Or so I thought.
I went to work to take care of some files I HAD to get done then I left because I needed a nap. As I sat in the car, I checked to see how the pink looked in daylight. Hmmm, why does that one bracket look a lil funny? BECAUSE MY WIRE IS UNDER IT NOT THRU IT!!!!! ARG!!!!!
Call the ortho up, come back in ASAP. Get there and sit down. At my ortho's office there are 3 chairs in a row, basically like a production line. My ortho is at the first chair putting someone's braces on. I sit in the third chair. He turns around to see who came in and he looks at the assistant and goes "what the heck is it now?" She blushes and sheepishly tells him she forgot to put the wire in right. He looks at me and shakes his head like "good grief." Off go the ties, out goes the wire. In goes the wire, on goe the ties. I stand up and leave nice grip marks in the arm of the chair.
But here are some updated pics!!!
This is the dayI got them and the day before I went in:
My new ligs and full brackets:
My new Quad Helix:
You must be soooo happy! Congrats on the movement:)
Beautiful...I really liked those pale pink ligs. Very nice...and the black is cool for what you said, interviews. 
But man, you have such pretty teeth now, imagine what they're gonna look like when it's done. Like the others, color me jealous. 
