I had my appointment yesterday, and have appointments scheduled to get the Carriere appliance!
The office was pretty slow during my appointment, the quietest I've seen it any time I've been there. While I was back in an exam chair, two adult women also were there for appointments. From what I could overhear, both had braces. For the one sitting in the chair next to mine, I overheard something about posterior elastics and the ortho mentioned her bite opening, so I'm guessing she has a deep bite. I took a quick glance and she had metal lower braces, and maybe clear upper. When they were discussing when her next appointment could be, it was pretty obvious that she lives out-of-town and travels here for appointments. I wonder if she started treatment and then moved away. The other woman was on the far side of the room, but I did hear something about an archwire, so I know she had braces and not aligners. Later a kid sat down in a chair and was surprised to hear they were getting braces added to their second molars.
As for me, the ortho didn't specifically say if the amount of progress I've had with the tilting/torquing of my incisors was more or less what he was expecting, but he did say it's slow movement that you see over months and not usually weeks. They gave me a new archwire, very slightly larger and a stiffer material (now a .019"x.0275" TMA). I could feel the increased strength right away and my teeth were fairly sore by the evening. Not quite as sore today (though I did take Tylenol), but it's still there some. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress over the next few weeks.
The ortho told me that we'd schedule the appointments for getting the Carriere. First appointment in five weeks to get spacers, a week later will have an impression taken (and I think the assistant said they'll see which size bands fit me) and then a week after that the Carriere and the lower lingual holding arch (which is what has the molar bands) will be placed. I'll start using elastics (from the lower lingual holding arch to the Carriere) at that point.
Since my next appointments are sooner, I opted to go ahead and get red and green alternating ligatures. I didn't want to still have Christmas colors into February, but now I'll be able to change them at one of those appointments in January. This is my first time doing alternating or multiple colors, so I was worried I wouldn't like it. Happily, at least looking at it myself in the mirror, I find it fun and kind of like it. Still a little more subtle than I might have thought, since they are entirely behind the wire and brackets. The green does seem to grab the eye a little more than the red and draw attention, but again it makes me feel more comfortable with trying brighter colors or combinations in the future. I only had my braces as a kid for one Christmas which I had blue during, and if the ortho's estimate for my total treatment time stays accurate, this might be the only Christmas this time with braces, so this might be my last/only change to have seasonal colors for Christmas.
Don't have a picture to share yet, but I will try to this week.