180 days out

No makeup Sunday!  I have the house to myself today, so my major accomplishments are 1) a shower 2) cooking breakfast 3) reading a few hundred pages of my current book.

Midlines in the front are almost matched.

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170 days out

 

 

Upper lip is a little swollen

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160 days out

Nothing much new going on. Teeth are still moving, scar tissue is still healing, very small amounts of feeling is returning.

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150 days out

Back to the ortho!

Good news:

The gap in the bottom teeth is fully closed, and the lower midline is where it belongs.

Bad news:

The top midline is still 1mm off and the overjet correction won’t be fully treatable until all the teeth on the right side (top) shove over by that much. My next visit is in 8 weeks (bah!).  So, I’ll be stuck wearing my cheese graters for another 2 months minimum.

Powerchain on top

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140 days out

About 4 days ago, I was absentmindedly and very lightly feeling through the skin under my nose to the metal “L” plates underneath. I could feel them very distinctly, which meant the swelling has gone down a great deal.  Then the next morning came and I had a very swollen upper lip area!  That’ll teach me not to touch it. haha

After 4 days, that area is still swollen, though less so. It’s just swollen enough that my lips at rest don’t quite meet and the tip of the nose is more bulbous. Oh well, it will fade!

Braces: My teeth are still shifting around after 5 weeks in the current bands. Normally after a week or so, the bands don’t cause any pressure spots, but this morning every tooth is tender and I think I’ll struggle to chew anything harder than eggs.  Good thing I like eggs!  My orthodontist wants to move one of my incisors on the top further back so it is in line with the opposing teeth below, but because my upper jaw’s midline is slightly toward the wrong direction, I doubt he’ll manage to do that fully.

Upper lip swelling pushes the nose too

This tooth is the last one that needs to move (it’s still crooked)

Midlines are still a little off, but probably as good as they’ll get.

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130 days out

I got to have my teeth cleaned over the weekend and all of the brown streaks and spots from the surgical mouthwash have all been cleaned off.  Yay!  Plus the addition of a waterpik to clean my teeth better has been a very big “Oh, duh!” moment. I wish I had thought to buy one a year ago.  It makes cleaning out your braces after eating very easy and efficient.

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122 days out

After a week of holiday traveling, salty foods, and sleeping less propped up than usual, my jawline and neck feel a lot more swollen than they were a week ago. But, this too will pass.

My teeth continue to shift toward the right places, so that’s a bonus. 🙂

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115 days out

My ortho still needs to even out the uppers a bit

Gap all closed up

Overjet still needs a little more adjustment

Nerrrrrds! We went to the Trek Convention in San Francisco

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110 days out

Nothing much to report, other than the lower midline of the teeth being back where it belongs (in the middle of my face). The odd little gap in the lower teeth is closed up.

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105 days out

I saw my orthodontist again yesterday afternoon. After 12 hours of wearing the new rubber bands and tweaked wire, the gap in my lower teeth is almost entirely closed and my upper teeth are shifted around  bit.  He’s making other changes to the cant (tilt) of my upper teeth now, since he’s not satisfied with them being off-vertical by a small amount.  I have a “power chain” elastic hooking all of my lower teeth together to close the gap, and I think I may only need one more adjustment to correct the remaining little bit of overjet.

I’m still having periodic flare ups in swelling, mainly across the upper lip area and a little on the right side of my chin. This doesn’t look that bad, but it does usually give me some pimples and flaky skin. The pores stretch out then shrink down quickly so it’s a bit of a nuisance.

Fewer changes from this point.

Still puffy across the cheeks at upper lip-level

Power Chain elastic across all lower teeth

Gap almost closed after 12 hours

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