15 months and counting

Hi everyone, It's been a few months since my last post, and I've got a few updates but not much really. I had my lower linguals removed and put self-ligating outside braces on (still rubber band free because that just grosses me out). We made that decision because the lower wires kept breaking and of course if they're broken they're not doing their job. I was getting frustrated with them and wanted to hurry up the process. Dr. Cliff says the outside ones should be about 3 months faster. I won't be changing the uppers because they don't really bother me, and I really don't want visible braces. To be honest I hate the ones on the bottom - you can't see them so I like that, but they are still irritating even after 2 months, I find them sharper and food gets stuck worse in them than it did with the lingual. Oh well, at least the wires are staying put lol. The gaps are closing VERY slowly, it's frustrating but at least we're finally seeing some progress. We've been using elastic ties or power threads to help move them along, and I'm getting back to using my AcceleDent. The front crooked tooth that I hate so much is STILL crooked, and still leaves a nasty dark gap in pictures so my smile is definitely less than stellar haha, because I don't want everyone to see that :s We've also stepped up my appointment frequency to every 3 or 4 weeks which makes me happy, because it seemed like every time we went longer than that my teeth slid back to where they started. I think it's been a learning process for my ortho as well as me, in that adult teeth are a lot more stubborn than child or teenager teeth. I haven't had any new pics taken in awhile so I'll try to get them to do that at my next appointment, and post for you to see my progress. My lower teeth really seem to be straightening out - I've noticed and a few people at work have commented. For those of you worried about it I also have a boyfriend now - we met when I had all linguals and he's been super supportive about everything, including switching the lowers (Honestly I was terrified he'd be embarrassed of me, in hindsight that was stupid). All in all I'm pretty used to the braces, there are still times I want to rip them off and be done with it lol but I'm persevering and hoping that it will be over soon, and will all be worth it!

11 months and counting

Time for a quick update - it's been almost 2 months since my last post and not really much progress unfortunately. I'm posting updated pics, where you can see that the bottom teeth are straightening out a little bit but the gap at the top really hasn't closed at all. I've been very frustrated and after discussing it with Dr. Cliff I'm going to get the bottom braces taken off and replaced with self-ligating outside braces. This is because I've broken yet another wire on the bottom, and I'm sick of my tongue being constantly cut up and sore. I think it will be less of a transition on the bottom (switch sore tongue for sore inner lip for awhile) and because hopefully I won't break the wires on top. I doubt that I will switch the uppers, even though he thinks it will reduce the total treatment time by about 3 months, just because I still don't want to deal with food stuck in my braces while at company lunches/dinners, and because the top ones don't bother me all that much - I just wish they would hurry up and straighten!!! We moved up to a new wire on the top so hopefully that will help things move along, although I'll feel better when we put the power threads back on to close the gap on the left. Here are the latest pics from July, unfortunately a couple of the pics have weird marks on them, it looks like there was hair on the camera lens or something but you get the idea:

Month 10 with Harmony Lingual Adult Braces

Well it's been awhile since my last post, 2 months I think. I had suspected that my teeth had sort of backslid and having just looked at the pics from April I can see they really did - the gap on the bottom left was almost closed in my last post but when I went in yesterday it was back to being substantial. Thankfully the work they did yesterday has closed that again, not quite as it was but a LOT smaller. So needless to say I've been very frustrated, it seems like the last 2 months were just kind of a waste. I brought up my concerns with Dr. Cliff and he was super sweet about it and made sure to address my concerns. We put power thread on both the top and bottom but ran it further back so hopefully the teeth will move the right way and actually stay there this time. We also set my next appointment for 3 weeks from now so that it won't be so long with me being frustrated. Hopefully we will also put in the new bottom wire and reposition the brackets on one or both of the twisted teeth. My goal is to have the gaps on the left closed within the next 2 months (by the one year mark) and I would be thrilled if the front twisted tooth was more or less straight by then as well because I'm so sick of it being ugly and obvious up front that I'm ready to yank it out myself lol. So also at the next appointment I should be getting new pictures taken and I will post them here as soon as I get them. thanks for following :)

Updated pics

Finally got some updated pics so I wanted to post them Notice the second from the front tooth that was SO crooked before, it's still on a weird angle but it's not hardly covering the front tooth anymore which is awesome! You can really see it if you look at the inside upper pic. You can also really notice how the gaps on the left have closed, the bottom is almost done. Also last week was my root canal and we put a bracket on that tooth once it was done. Things really moved around which is good but I was in a ton of pain for almost a week, that was probably as bad as when I first got the braces on. At my next appointment in a few weeks I should be getting my new wires and getting brackets on the 2 remaining teeth that don't have any (both on the bottom).

month 7 with harmony lingual braces

just a quick update - after adding a second "stop" and some serious movement in the past few weeks my super crooked front canine is FINALLY not overlapping my front tooth and we can do my root canal. Once we do the root canal, we can put on the rest of my brackets and my hope is that then I'll really start to see my teeth straightening out :) We haven't been able to take pictures for the last couple visits but my next appointment is in a week and hopefully I'll get updated pics then so you can see the changes.

Harmony Linguals after 6 months

I just wanted to give a quick update - I had an appointment last week and asked Dr. Cliff to get pretty aggressive as I wasn't seeing the results I wanted, so he put in a new "stop" to help move the super crooked front tooth, and at the same time a power chain from my very front tooth to the back on the other side to keep the teeth from moving the wrong way and creating gaps. They also did a new power thread on the bottom left to close that gap. It definitely worked as I already see a lot of movement in the front, and it seems as though the gaps on the left have closed more. I have another appointment this week (only 2 weeks apart) so that we can check the progress and tighten things as needed so I'll try to update after that.

Updated pics

I don't have a lot to update yet, but I thought I'd post the latest pics from my December appointment. My next adjustment is in a couple weeks so I'll post again after that :) If you compare these to the pics I posted from August you should see that my front teeth are straighter, my bottom teeth have lined up, and how much the gaps on the left (right when you look at the pics) have closed. Hopefully my next set of pics will show how much the crooked front canine has improved!