Hannibal eat you heart out (no pun intended!)

I am on proper count down now, I have been lead to believe that I will have the braces off in 2 months, providing that the next stage goes to plan, which in the past it all has, but touch wood anyway!

My last visit to the orthodontist went smoothly, although I didn’t understand what was happening till he had finished.

Last time I went he was saying things for his assistant to note down, teeth numbers and technical stuff I didn’t understand. But this time it all became clear. Firstly he asked for some technical thing, which basically means a piece of metal wire that he twists round the bracket to form a hook above the top teeth and below the bottom ones. Obviously because it is in my mouth, they feel like they are 10 feet tall and visible from space. But in reality, they are a little noticeable, but not to the point that it is going to stop me from smiling and laughing, you can see them on the picture below.

Anyhow.....after he fixed these, 4 to the top and 4 to the bottom, he then put on some new arch wires and told me that I am going to hate him....interesting.....which for the last few days I have!

Every night I have to truss my gob together with 4 elastic bands, fixing the top jaw to the bottom jaw so that it pulls my teeth in line and closes the gap so I can bite burger lettuce again. Once these bands are on it is impossible to open my mouth, which is the strangest, and one of the most horrible, experience I have gone through in this treatment. Imagine dreaming that you are having your mouth held shut and you are fighting it, scary. Also you can't lick your lips, cue endless amounts of lipbalm before bed. If you want a drink of water in the night, think again, not even a straw is getting through there!

The first night I managed to keep them on for 5 hours, after waking myself up every 2 hours by trying to open my mouth, feeling like I was ripping my front teeth out at the roots, the pain just got too much so I relented and took them off and got 3 hours quality sleep. The following night I managed 6 hours, with much of the same process. Last night I managed 8 hours, only really suffering the tooth ripping jaw snap once...how very brave of me! I am now hoping that the worst is over and I can put them on every night without too much sleep deprivation.

However I can see the difference already. Also I am highly motivated to go through that pain so I don’t prolong the treatment. This is the only part of it that has been my responsibility, I don’t want it to fail because on my pain threshold and wimpyness of a lack of sleep.

So as you can see from the below picture, every night I go through a ridicule of turning into Hannibal Lecter and answer with "and I ate his liver with a bottle of nice Chianti"!!!!!

So providing that this part of the treatment has the results that are required, next visit I will have the impressions for the removable brace taken and following that, fingers crossed, I will be permanently brace free!!!

Getting closer.....

Well here I am another appointment closer to the end, getting a little excited!

This time he actually said another 2 months, so I really am hoping that he means this and doesn't keep extending it.

My appointment was pretty straight forward, he ground some off my front teeth to even them up after years of them being uneven and wearing at an angle, and he put a linked elastic on the bottom to pull them straight, but otherwise nothing much happened.

Last time I said I was getting some bands to sleep in. He changed his mind and said I didn't need them, but on the next appointment he would sort out the remaining gap at the front. Where I had previously had the bendy wires to pull them together, it has opened up again, so I have lost some of my bite, back to removing lettuce from my burger before eating again, otherwise it ends up down my chin. So I wonder what he has in store for me when I go back again.

I am very excited about it all coming to an end, but I also don't tell people, because I still don't believe that in 2 months he will take them off, fingers crossed though. I am looking forward to having them cleaned again, and being able to clean them properly myself, I have loads of tea and wine stains again, I know it is my lifestyle that has done it, but trying to clean round the brackets isn't easy.

As I said previously my niece should be getting a brace too, although it keeps getting put back, I was telling my sister all about it and she is now in the thinking that she will be cleaning her daughters teeth for her all the time she has it on, I pointed out that a 11 year old probably doesn't drink as much red wine and tea as me, so it may not be such a problem!

I am that excited about having my teeth back that I have even bought a new toothbrush, a nice electric one, I did have one previously but it broke and I didn't see the point of getting a new one when it just gets ruined when brushing over the wires and brackets, but since I am now that close to the end I though it was time.

So let's hope that the countdown is defiantly on now........