Wife's braces journey

Carrie has an appointment this morning with her regular dentist for her routine six-month cleaning. They don't know yet that she now has braces. Also, haha, this is the same practice that basically told her she was crazy for considering braces. But the son has now taken over the practice from the father who told her that -- and Carrie used to babysit the son when she was a teen!

I'll report back if anything of interest occurs.
 
Nothing big to report regarding Carrie's routine cleaning. No cavities and teeth sparkling clean. Her braces weren't a big deal. She did talk to the young dentist about them a little, which I found a bit comical:

"So a couple of years ago I asked your dad about getting braces. He told me I was crazy and didn't need braces. So I thought about it for a year...and got them anyway."

Young dentist: "Haha, that's cool."

And that was about it. Not even dentists care when adults get braces!
 
My wife actually had good experience with our dentist when she suggested braces to her and they recommended several places to go to.  When I asked the dentist about braces for me, she said it was no big deal and just said I'd need more cleanings during treatment.  I don't know if we just got lucky, but they've been suportive, though we had to bring up getting braces.  They didn't come right out and recommend we get treatment.
 
My dentist recommended braces more than 10 years ago. When I brought it up recently he seemed to be somewhat dismissive, though I do t know why. My guess is he thought I was only asking in relation to tmj disorder which the braces don't always fix.
 
Glad you liked it. It was very easy!

I'm documenting all this for posterity, but it's also a lot of fun.
 
after seeing your, I s=wish we'd done the same with my wife as the change has been pretty significant in terms of her smile and alignment.
 
I deleted the videos on Flickr. I only just now realized Flickr limits vids to 3 minutes! I'm setting up an unlisted YouTube channel to host Carrie's progress videos. I'll post a link here when the channel is up and running.
 
This afternoon will be Carrie's third adjustment. She'll *probably* go for lavender ligs. To be answered today:

Will the hateful bite stoppers finally come out?

Will she continue with the upper power chain?

Will she get elastics to start working on her bite correction?

I'll be taking the usual video at the appointment, of course.

On a side note, she'd quit wearing the Comfort Covers for a couple of months, but the inside of her mouth was still getting a bit irritated. She's back to wearing the Covers when sleeping. I ordered her three sets so she has spares, and wrote a note on my bathroom mirror (dry erase marker) to remind her to put them in before bed.
 
Awesome - thanks again to you for posting and Carrie being okay with pictures being posted!
My wife just got hers off yesterday and was bummed I couldn't break free from work to see them get taken off
 
@bradhov - That's sad news about missing your wife's removal appointment. I missed Carrie's first adjustment, but I'm not going to miss another. She prefers it when I go with her, anyway.

UPDATE:

Carrie had her third adjustment yesterday afternoon. I took a half day off work. We had lunch (Mexican food) and a couple of drinks, and headed to the ortho practice. We waited about ten minutes and then they took us in.

The orthodontist saw Carrie immediately. Results:

- She got a slightly heavier upper archwire. No change to the bottom, except re-tying with new ligs.

- She's continuing with the upper power chain.

- They did not have lavender ligs/chains, so she went with light blue. We both think it looks good.

- She had a couple of ligs in "figure 8" configuration previously, but those are now gone in favor of standard configuration.

- The hated bite stoppers remain in place.

- No elastics yet.

- The ortho will do x-rays at her next appointment and is likely to move some brackets. She may get the bite stoppers out at that time.

- Next appointment is October 12th.

Naturally she immediately felt pressure on her upper arch, because of the stronger wire and the power chain, but it's nothing she can't handle. We went to happy hour after the appointment, where she had some wine but no food.

In all, it was a pretty normal adjustment. I got some good video which I will post on YouTube once I get it cleaned up.
 
We're off to Milwaukee tomorrow through the 29th, so Flickr updates might be sporadic. I'll try to keep on top of it in case any of you are following!

Business trip for me, but Carrie is going to take a day and drive to Indiana to see her brother in Lafayette then some friends outside Chicago. That girl is always on the go.
 
The Milwaukee trip went well. We had a nice time exploring downtown Milwaukee, and Carrie enjoyed her trip to Indiana and Chicago. Many pics on Flickr. We were on separate flights (my decision to bring her was last-minute) and she did encounter a couple of delays on the way home, but nothing serious.

Her bottom teeth are clearly moving. The archwire on her lower left emerged from the buccal tube while we were in Milwaukee and was stabbing her in the cheek. Once we got home, I pulled out the trusty distal end cutter and clipped it off. She was immediately relieved!
 
It seems it was a nice trip ! Thanks for the news !

I hop the archwire did not hurt her too much ! How does she tolerate the treatment after a few months ?
 
Carrie isn't a complainer, so she doesn't make a big deal about soreness most of the time, even right after an adjustment. The fact that she mentioned the poking archwire several times is how I knew it was truly bothering her. I'm glad I'd already bought the distal end cutter so I could take care of it when we got home. Making an appointment at her ortho and driving 40 minutes round trip just to clip a wire seems excessive.

Anyway, she said she felt better immediately after I clipped the wire, and observed just a couple of hours later how quickly her mouth healed from the sharpness of the wire. Now if I could just get her to wear her Comfort Covers more consistently, she'd almost never have any irritation issues!
 
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