June 12th and August 7th were my last 2 orthodontic appointments. In June the wires were simply replaced and tightened around each brace; there didn't seem to be much of a difference, it didn't take long for me to get used to them again.

The August appointment was a bigger change. I had both top and bottom wires replaced and they hooked up my 4 back teeth with the wire (the braces had already been placed on each of them) so now I have considerably more metal in my mouth. Previously I was able to floss unhindered between the back teeth and the 2nd-to-back teeth but no more. Flossing is a little more trouble but I invested 10 bucks into a Water Pik that works OK but I use a combination of flossing and cleaning techniques. I look forward to the day when I can perform regular dental hygience maintenance!

I also have an elastic in my mouth. Not so bad, I'm not really self-conscious about it. When I'm not wearing it, I feel like I'm getting away with something and my mouth feels "normal". But to wear it as much as possible, morning and night, will aid progress so that's what I'm doing. It's hooked near the back on the top right and down to a lower left, more-towards-the-front tooth to help in shifting my upper teeth more to the left/front. Approximately 25 years ago I had a tooth extracted from the upper right as there was not enough space for all my teeth so of course all my top teeth shifted to the right to fill in the gap. There was never any gap once all my adult teeth grew in, but the alignment of my top teeth is off. The centre of my 2 front (top) teeth is slightly to the right (it's still impossible for me to properly close my mouth so that my top teeth nicely sit on my bottom teeth). The elastic will help pull my top teeth back towards the left which will ultimately make them centred once again.

It's amazing science. Several weeks ago I noticed that 2 crowded teeth are now wonderfully separated sitting in their own places in the lower left of my mouth. I have little gaps between some teeth - it's kind of neat but I think at the next appointment, some (bottom front teeth) will be "slenderized" so that they fit properly as they are aligning and straightening up quite nicely except for some being too wide at the top and can't quite get to where they should be.

The orthdontic "assistant" (not sure of her real title; she's the one that actually placed the braces on my teeth, applied the solid wire and wired it to each brace) is the best. Meryl does a better job than the orthondotist himself. :) Although, Dr. Willy Dayan is great. He makes the decisions, she does the work (except for the slenderizing of the teeth). She had to work on another patient so he continued what she was doing, wrapping the tiny pieces of wire around each brace then clipping them off. However, he'd wire several at a time then would go "clip, clip, clip, clip" but that made for sloppy work. Instead, Meryl would wrap, tie, clip; wrap, tie, clip - each tooth individually. The ends of each wire poke out just ever-so-slightly and I can rub my bottom lip against that area and feel it "catch" on my lip. Annoyingly rubbing lip over wire becomes a habit I find hard to break but actually after 3-4 weeks, it's better. Teeth shift, metal moves... I no longer have to use wax to protect my inner cheeks.

Next appointment: Thursday, October 2, 2008.

It's hard to believe I've had braces for 5 months! I can almost say "just another year" before they're off. I'm still aiming to be orthondontics-free by my 40th birthday. That's still more than 15 months away. :)