Week 22

I cannot honestly believe I'm already 22 weeks into my orthodontic treatment! It has gone rather quickly so far, but then again, this year seems to be flying past. 

This was the shortest period I've had between orthodontic appointments, only 5 weeks. 

Saying that, just as I go in to wait for my next orthodontic appointment I suddenly realise that I feel as if I'm just getting used to how things are with my braces and happy that they are no longer causing me any pain! Just as it is time for an adjustment! That's how I felt today. My brace was just feeling fine, I could eat most things while I was on holiday last week and now... Hell.

My mouth hurts a lot. Like, A LOT. I'd somehow managed to forget how my teeth feel after an adjustment. 

While waiting to go in to my appointment, I started having the same thoughts as when I went for my last consultation. I wondered whether any of my teeth had actually moved in the period of time allowed (5 weeks this time), and considered for a moment that maybe there would be nothing to "do". I was wrong again.

He has changed both my top and bottom wires. I now had both metal coloured wires!!! Ahh. 

He has increased the gauges of both wires so they are now going to do more/quicker moving (Is that right?!) My orthodontist said that he is now going to close my gaps at the front up. Yay! No more scary Frankenstein smile. I do find it a little weird that he made gaps and is now going to close them again straight away. I do think that perhaps he made my "Big Gaps" to allow my upper front two teeth to rotate as they were rather bucked and turned towards each other the wrong way. Well, we'll see. Maybe you will be able to see in my photos. Oh and did I mention that as I was lying there he uttered my favourite word again... Chains. I now have a whole 10 link piece of chain, one loop on each tooth, spanning my entire set of bracketed upper teeth. This is the main cause of my current pain. That and the fact that someone just pulled my teeth around. 

Here are my current teeth:

No patch at the moment!

They look quite neat ey. Sooo much straighter already.

 

On a side note. I have sore cheeks. They still haven't hardened off to the new bottom wire expanses in the last 5 weeks. Got some more wax today. Fun times ahead. 


P.S. I have decided I have rather large lips.