Wife's braces journey

@anton08 - Thank you for your kind words and your concern for Carrie's safety. I'm sorry to hear about your friend's injury! Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of sports fans here in Arizona are kind, polite, and relatively calm. We've never felt like we were in any danger -- accidental or purposeful -- at the ballpark. I can't really picture Carrie wearing a mouthguard at a baseball game, though I suppose her Comfort Covers might be discreet enough to wear if she ever felt the need.

In any case, since we practice very traditional gender roles in our marriage, it's my responsibility to see that no harm comes to her, whether from stray baseballs or rowdy fans. While I am a very friendly person, as a former Army paratrooper and war veteran with a reasonably muscular physique, I can be fairly intimidating to folks around us in the stands if I want to be. Carrie is also a delightfully friendly woman who makes fast friends wherever she goes, so we don't tend to encounter trouble no matter where we go.
 
just wanted to say thanks for continuing to keep us updated on your wife's journey and posting the picture.  fun to see her progress.  My wife is in home stretch and they at doing one more month of fine tuning.  She gets her braces off end of July.  We'll see what they recommend for retainer wear and then I get to start.
 
Carrie has an ortho appointment this afternoon. It'll be either pink or light blue ligatures this time! I'm going with her to get pics and probably some video. I'll give everyone an update tomorrow and post the pics to Flickr.

Really hoping she'll be freed from the bite stoppers!

@bradhov - We're definitely going to get Carrie Hawley retainers when she's done with her treatment. We'll also get her a set of Essix for dressy occasions, but the Hawleys will be her main retainers.
 
UPDATE:

Carrie went with pink this time. She got a power chain on her top teeth, which looks great. I was a little surprised that she got a power chain this early in her treatment, but the movement of her teeth was opening a gap between her front teeth and also on the left side. The chain will obviously help close those up. No luck on the bite stoppers, alas.

I took some video of the appointment (the ortho tech was also quite hot!) which I'll post on Flickr once I get it edited.

And as a reward for being a good braces girl, she got Coldstone ice cream, a new pair of Warby Parker sunglasses, and two pairs of Johnston & Murphy shoes!  ::)
 
FURTHER UPDATE:

She definitely looks different with the pink chain, that's for sure. I love the look. When she had the gray ligs, her mouth always looked a little "dark" (which was the first thing one of our regular bartenders mentioned when he first saw her). Now it looks really bright, fun and cheerful. I definitely like this look more than I expected.

Wires are 22s, which you can hear the ortho say in the video if you listen really closely. She's definitely feeling achy between the new wires and the addition of the very tight power chain. The stubborn lower tooth finally rotated into position enough that she no longer needs the wire tie or even a figure-8, so that's good at least. She commented at yesterday's ball game that she was accustomed to her lower teeth being sore, but the uppers hurting this much was a bit of a new sensation. She's on very soft food for now: ice cream, Ramen, refried beans, mac-n-cheese, etc.

Interesting sidebar: a week or so before this adjustment, she was being poked by the archwire on her lower left side. Because her teeth had moved, the wire had emerged from the molar tube. She didn't want to bother to go in to get it fixed when her appointment was so close. She did ask me to order a distal end cutter in case it happened again, so I can just snip it off if it happens again. I have one on the way.

She was very pleased that I attended the appointment, as was I, so I'll plan to attend the next one. We goofed and scheduled her next one for August 11, but then realized that she'll be in Maine that week. She's going to reschedule today, and I'll take at least a partial day off to attend that appointment, too.
 
Carrie doesn't complain about things, but I suspect her upper teeth are still a little tender from the power chain. Heh, on Sunday she bit into a Swedish fish (gummy candy) and yelped that it hurt her front teeth. Though, hmmm, Saturday night she was able to eat a slice of pizza without an issue. Maybe she'll chime into the thread at some point on this.

As far as how Carrie thinks the chain looks, I don't know. I've never asked and she hasn't volunteered. I'd guess she's not crazy about it, but she doesn't really like how braces look on her in general. She's told me that she "likes to look her best" and that braces aren't her best look. This was one reason she was resistant to the idea of getting braces for so long. It looks good to all of us here, of course, but braces aren't of any interest to her except as they relate to me.

Next appointment is August 16. I've taken that afternoon off...and the next day. >:D

She also requested a new set of Comfort Covers, so I ordered those, and the distal end cutter arrived the other day. I'm always trying to make this as comfortable an experience as I can for her.
 
Thanks for the kind words, mrmajestic723! I'll actually have a bit of a pic dump on Flickr later, when I get a bunch of images from Saturday's casino night. I expect there will be some good images in that pic dump, since she was being very...playful...with her friends.

Carrie's been excellent. She very seldom complains about anything at all. The biggest change since she got braces -- thanks to the bite stoppers -- has been her choices in food. She's definitely moved to softer foods in general, but this seems to suit her fine, since she's never been a "foodie" type. In fact, I often tease her about having the palate of a 12 year old.

I did recently order her several more sets of Comfort Covers. She likes to wear those when she sleeps, and her original pair was getting worn out to the point that they were slipping off her back brackets.
 
Thanks! It was a really fun night.

She's off to a family reunion in Missouri, but I told her I expect daily selfies!
 
Mike or Carrie, is there anything Carrie (you) haven't been able to eat since getting the braces? I'm hitting all the no-nos while on vacation. If you or she think of anything, let me know.
 
Carrie's back from her family reunion, so maybe she'll chime in.

Her main issue has been the bite stoppers more than anything. She was never really a big consumer of most of the "forbidden fruit" foods, so giving them up hasn't been much of an issue. She definitely tends toward softer foods most of the time, and has basically given up on our normal low-carb lifestyle while she's in braces. She eats a lot of mac-n-cheese, Ramen, pasta, refried beans, soft stuff like that. Surprisingly, she's had no problems with bread, and can eat pizza, eggs benedict, etc. She also has no problem with her favorite Taco Bell meal of a Mexican pizza.

The puffy Cheetos, though. Oh man. She literally won't even eat them when anyone else is around. That and salad. She hates how all that gets caught in her braces.

Like I said, palate of a 12 year old!
 
My wife has had braces for over 20 months and the only major things she has not been able to eat are nuts and corn on the cob.  A few tortilla chips that are hard are also off limits, but she's found substitutes  Yes, my wife has similar issues with salad and is always asking if she has food stuck in her teeth whenever we go out to eat. She's avoided any appliances, but has had to wear elastics for well over 1/2 her treatment and that is more of a pain for her than the braces themselves.
 
not sure you've had this happen to you or not, Mike, but my wife and I went to baseball game last night (another blown lead and loss for my Tigers, but that is another matter!), but the woman sitting right by us had braces on and noticed my wife with braces.  The two spent half the game talking about their treatment, the good and bad.  It was pretty entertaining.  The woman had metal braces and elastics and was about half way through her treatment.  This was the first time we've gone out and had someone get into extended conversation about braces.  most times, there is maybe a quick comment from someone, but usually nothing more.
 
Condolences on the loss. My Dbacks lost last night, as well, though we weren't at the game since they're in St. Louis. Our #2 pitcher got hit in the head by a liner, but he's apparently okay, thankfully.

Carrie is extremely social and talks to just about everyone, but I'm sad to say I've never observed her having such a braces-centric conversation with another person in braces. She's had many (dozens, probably) convos with family, friends and acquaintances about her braces, why she got them, etc. But those have mainly been brief, as most people only care superficially, and the talk moves on to other subjects quickly.

The only somewhat lengthy convo I've observed was with a friend of ours who is a dental hygienist who also recently did Clear Correct (Invisalign knockoff). She had an above-average interest in Carrie's braces, for obvious reasons, but it wasn't anything like what you and your wife experienced.  I can only wish!
 
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