Awaiting the Braces Off Celebration - Day 333 (April 5)

 I just spent a good 2 minutes trying to figure out how long it has been since surgery. I counted 333 days. Time has certainly flown by, and so much has passed without an afterthought. In addition to school, I have traveled to New Orleans for Habitat for Humanity to help build houses during Mardi Gras, wrote my dental aptitude test in February, and decided to take another year of undergraduate studies. The only issue I have is the fact that I have braces. I've taken grad photos, and just last weekend I had a Kinesiology formal and flashed the metal everywhere. It was such a good time with a limo, banquet dinner, and open bar that it wasn't an issue.

Where's my progress right now? My bite is lining up very nicely, and my bottom row needs to be narrowed. My teeth are straight and there are no gaps. I just saw the orthodontist, he bent the wire inwards and it went back inside. Of course I asked for a date and I got July. July. Just as scheduled so I cannot really complain. All I can do is wear elastics 24/7. I found out that the point of elastics is to pull the teeth together so that they are always biting together to angle both top and bottom jaw inwards. Just a little tidbit. Here is what my bag of elastics look like. They are 5/16" (7.9mm) and light(2.5oz)

Update Video, Elastics, again - Day 190 (Nov 14)

Basically another ortho appointment update.

My teeth are all straight, but the general orientation of my jaw still has to change, and it is the reason for having braces so much later past my surgery. This past Friday my ortho had me back on elastics to pull my lower jaw back to create an overbite(sorry I had originally said underbite). Why he is doing this just now is kind of frustrating in my opinion. I'm supposed to wear them whenever I can, and take them off to brush and eat. One thing about wearing these elastics is that they are super loose. The ortho assistant suggested that I twist them to put more tension in. I think it's a great idea and am going to tighten these pretty well. Lastly I just made a quick update video to show where I am at.