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Carrie (or Mike for Carrie) Any thoughts on sparkly or metallic lipstick? I have seen it work on other women to bring extra shimmer around the braces and compliment/highlight them. 

Why do they put it in fixed?
Can you talk in the meantime without problems when wearing it?

Went to ortho today and they now want to make the appliance non removable and so are doing that next week.  Have to keep it in for 3 months which may delay the braces a bit.  Got the separators put in and have just started to be a bit painful. 

@mrmajestic723 - We just got back from a trip to Santa Fe for a family reunion. It seemed to me like reaction to Carrie's new braces was minimal to nonexistent, though maybe I missed something and she'll mention it when she responds. Anyway, we had a fun time visiting with family at the very cool resort.

As far as living the dream...it's even better than I'd dared hope. I literally cannot remember a time when I enjoyed life this much. Ticking things off the "braces bucket list" is extremely satisfying. And I expect things will only get better based on a couple of recent conversations with Carrie. For example, even though they haven't been prescribed for her yet, we started playing with her wearing (very light) elastics, which has been REALLY fun.

I'll keep updating Flickr. Thank you for the kind words!

Any updates? How is life in braces Carrie? Mike how is it living the dream? I hope all is going well. Those are some great pics you have been posting.

Unfortunately for Carrie's wine consumption habits, I detest red ligatures and power chains. Lavender is a possibility, however. Thanks for the input!

This may sound a little obvious, but if you are worried about the wine staining them, go with colors in the red spectrum. Colors such as red, dark pink, and dark orange should stay that color or darken a bit. Purple would also be good.

When I get my powerchains changed I go with colors that I feel bring up my mood. Sometimes I go all the same color and sometimes I do different colors top and bottom.

My situation is a bit different, because I am dealing with PTSD, and I find that the braces are helpful with dealing with the affects of PTSD.
The color of the elastics I choose for  my day depends on my mood. I have purple, green, pink and orange. I like the brighter colors, so will do orange or pink when I am in a better mood, and green or purple when I am down.

Silver, if available, is my favorite. 

Sorry guys, but I'm taking black off the table. I don't care for the way they look. My concern with white or clear is that I drink a lot of red wine and I'm afraid they'll stain. Thoughts?

Black or white !

As above, black.  Remember seeing a adult woman with black ones a few years ago, looked great IMO.

Black ligatures, or wire

Not really an update, but just a couple of things of interest. Carrie and I spent the holiday weekend in Tucson. We stayed at a nice resort, we had some nice meals, visited a couple of wineries, and went to a reptile show (as you may have seen in the Flickr photos). On a more somber note, we also visited the grave of one of my comrades who fell while we were in Afghanistan.

We were having a sundowner at the resort with a nice bottle of white wine when I asked her if she was still glad she got braces. She responded, "Absolutely. I wouldn't do any of it differently, and I'm very happy I got braces."

We drove back to Phoenix yesterday and spent most of the day lounging at the pool with a group of friends, some of whom were new to us. One of the new friends was curious about her braces, and mentioned that he'd thought about getting them himself. They talked about it for several minutes, which was interesting to hear.

Last night after the pool we were sitting on the couch and she was playing with her new snake (purchased at the reptile show, now named Henry). I was snacking on some cubed watermelon, and I started to feed her bites of it. It was surprisingly sexy!

My wife and I were chatting over a glass of wine the other night, and the color of her ligatures came up. She has an adjustment on June 28th. What do you think?

She currently has gray. You can see her now at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeinreallife/.

@mrmajestic723 - It's my pleasure. Really.  ;D

Thanks to you and Mike both.  You are a wealth of information for fellow enthusiasts. I hope you are both loving the journey as much as you show in your pictures.

Mr Majestic - I found the fakes to be quite comfortable. There were times when I wore them for an entire weekend. They're basically the same as teeth whitening trays with brackets glued on. The brackets feel kind of weird at first, but I found it a very easy adjustment. And you don't eat with the fakes in, so you don't deal with the same complications you have with real braces.

Also added the video with Carrie talking about her first adjustment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aW__-o8x8s&t=36s

Some pretty good shots of her braces in this one, even though it's cell phone video and not super high-quality.

I added a video of Carrie talking about her first month with braces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWurgB-IiU0&t=17s

She also has one talking about her first adjustment. I'll try to get that one edited and added to Flickr, as well.

What you describe is rather an Activator than a Bionator.

The appliance on your picture is an Activator as well. In addition it has got lip & cheek shields.

Is that a real appliance?