Week 39

Another appointment down. 9 months into orthodontic treatment. And I have been well and truly told off. 

Right, so my orthodontist has told me off for not cleaning well enough between the brackets on my lower front teeth. And he's completely right. I have been rather lax in the past few weeks with using my pokey brush between the brackets. Not because it is quite tricky (which it is as the gaps are tight) but because I actually lost my special bottle brush toothbrush in my recent move!!! 

Well, misplaced. I actually found it the day before my appointment but I knew he was going to say something. But what made it worse was that he uttered the words 'plaque and bits of old food'. That was what he could see once he'd taken off my lower wire and set of chains.
Ooooo the shame. 
And he told me I'm gonna get serious brown marks on my teeth if I don't keep them super duper clean. Hmm. So I'm being good with the cleaning this month and forever... Oh and he scaled my teeth. That was fun. Not. 

Well after all that unfortunate business, he went on to add a chain back onto my upper teeth to close the gaps that had appeared between my 2nd and 3rd teeth on both sides. Why did that happen? It's all rather odd. 

Then he changed the chains on my lower teeth and did a weird thing with the chain that I only noticed when I was inspecting my teeth at home later on... You might be able to see in the photo ( yes my chains are now stained a lovely shade of yellow thanks to a yummy curry. It does make you wonder what it is doing to your teeth!!), but the chain going between the two middle teeth is actually a lot higher... I think by doing this he means to pull the middle teeth down slightly so they will be in line with the other ones. Maybe... Who knows, but it's all very clever. 

The other thing I noticed is that the new wires etc seemed to slot in quite easily this time. I guess that's because my teeth are all so much straighter that it's not so much of a struggle to bend the wires in. 

All was over rather quickly, and I spent the remainder of the day shopping with my mum so things weren't as painful as they usually are. All good news!!! 

Photos update:

 

mmmmm yellow chains

What gaps!!

Oh and look at the gaps where I had the teeth extracted... Exactly, what gaps!!! They are almost completely gone. On the top especially!! The bottom teeth have always been a little behind as they were started a month after but hey ho. 

9 Months into treatment

 

Before braces for some perspective!

 
I'm back to see him in 5 weeks time so we shall see where we are then.

In the mean time, I will be keeping my teeth and gaps all super clean!