The Brace Faced Kiwi

Well, the spacers are finally in, which took all of 2 minutes total! There were a few seconds there where I felt like my teeth were about to pop out of their sockets, but other than that it was completely uneventful. Afterwards while we were talking I was finding them extremely uncomfortable, but the orthodontist and the dental nurse both complimented me on the health of my teeth (which considering I hadn't been to a dentist for 17 years prior to February, meant a lot to me) and said how nice they think my teeth will look once they're done because they're already white and a nice shape (!?!) which took my mind off it. My Orthodontist also told me that he thinks my teeth will move very quickly. He said however that the downside to this is that I'll see incredible changes in the first few months, then not a lot at all while the teeth settle and tweaks are made. He warned me that during that time I'll probably be cursing his name quite a bit, and wonder what the hell I was thinking in getting braces! Heheh!

As I went to pay, the receptionist told me not to worry about it until next week, which was fine by me, as I get to keep a nice healthy bank balance for a few more days, but then the nurse surprised me by saying that I'm only getting the bottom braces on next week. I asked why and she thinks it's because my ortho doesn't think my top teeth will take as long as the bottom to straighten up (touch wood!) and the bottom teeth need more time.

She thinks it'll be a few month yet before he tackles the top arch... While I'm a little disappointed, I'm pleased I'll get the chance to get used to them bit by bit, and that the really visible part won't be on for the whole two years! It does mean that there's no chance I'll have my straight braces smile for my holdays in February and May next year - which is where the disappointment comes in, as I was really hoping for this.

Of course, once I walked out of the office I had to give the spacers a test run. I was walking around the supermarket afterwards chomping down on them, trying to figure out what hurt and what didn't and more than once I got some funny looks after giving out a little yelp as I found one of the things that hurt! But after a couple of hours (sans any form of painkiller) I don't even know they're there and I have to keep checking to make sure they haven't accidentally popped out! I'm keeping my neurofen handy just in case, but I really hope I don't need to use them.

So - here are some pictures of the culprits, complete with giant holes from the extractions:

Upper Arch:

Lower Arch:

Looking at these pictures I'm surprised that more work needs to be done on the lower arch than the upper - but as my teeth have already shifted a little on top since the extractions, I do think that they'll probably move pretty quickly (where the lowers haven't budged).