...And They're On!

Everything went very smoothly today, although the appointment took a little longer than anticipated. I have full lowers and everything up to the [5]'s done on my uppers. There was a slight change of treatment plan, which is why the appointment ended up being quite a bit longer than scheduled. We spent some time talking, and have decided to do another RPE along with the braces - Yay! Fun! So I don't have my uppers banded, the bands were fitted, impressions were taken and I will have the RPE fitted after I return from my visit home next month.

I definitely listened to all the advice from those who have gone through this before me - plenty of water to be hydrated, but paid a visit to the restroom before getting started. Lots of lip-balm, and salt water rinses have also helped. The lip spreaders weren't so bad, although my mouth and jaw did get a little tired of being open for such a long time! I also had this strange thing to bite down on, which caused a couple of gags, but nothing too bad - Michelle was wonderful and did a great job throughout the whole appointment! Ryan, bless him, has quite a hilarious photo of me in sunglasses, lipspreaders and trying to keep warm under my blanket (Dr O keeps his rooms fit for the artic! ) The etchant and glue stuff was a little bitter tasting, but nothing too bad. Ry stayed and watched the lower bands and a couple of brackets go on, took some rather amusing photographs of me, and then departed for the nearby Best Buy to amuse himself whilst I got finished up. I have a .12 wire on the bottom and a .14 on the top, nothing too heavy at this stage. No elastics yet, I'm assuming not for a couple months now that we are moving ahead with a second RPE.

So far it has taken me around twenty minutes to clean my teeth and floss, hopefully I will eventually improve on that time! I was shown how to clean and floss whilst I was still at the office, but its definitely not that easy for the first time. The brushing wasn't too bad, and I also have some inter-proxy brushs for getting between the archwires and cleaning the brackets nicely. Flossing was definitely the hardest part... I usually use those little bits of floss that are on a stick, much much easier than trying to work with a piece of string! However, that is no longer an option (except for the back teeth on my uppers ) I bought some of this Oral B Super Floss, the stuff thats stiff, fuzzy and then floss. Its pretty tricky stuff though, but I've found that coming down through the archwire somewhat easier than going up. I hope this flossing lark becomes easier with time!

So far, no pain - and Ryan even took me to the Olive Garden for dinner tonight. I managed to bite into the breadsticks just fine, and managed a meal of Pasta with no problems. I'm definitely eating slower, but with cutting everything up real small, it wasn't too much of a hassle. I did however give up the after dinner mint, chocolate just isn't appealing at the moment. I had my dentakit, and was able to clean up easily after the meal. I think thats quite an accomplishment, eating in a restaurant on my first day with braces!

Here is one photo, but its late and nearly time for SNL!