Wife's braces journey

To take it one step further - you are a paying customer, he is kind of service provider for you, and scolding a paying customer is quite inappropriate in most situations ;-)
 
So as it turns out, we're going to attend a large wedding in Boston in early October. I asked Carrie if she wants to have her braces off by then (which would be understandable). Her response: "I don't care if I still have braces in October."

Okay then. I guess we'll shoot for two years in braces!  >:D
 
MikeB said:
So as it turns out, we're going to attend a large wedding in Boston in early October. I asked Carrie if she wants to have her braces off by then (which would be understandable). Her response: "I don't care if I still have braces in October."

Okay then. I guess we'll shoot for two years in braces!  >:D
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it sounds to me like she's rather enjoying this after all! :)
 
In a bit of interesting news not directly related to Carrie's braces, our very good -- and pretty -- friend Britt has also just gotten braces. She went with clear top and metal bottom. She sent Carrie a video saying, "Look we're braces sisters now!"

Britt has been through three prior rounds of orthodontics: braces in her late teens, Clear Correct in her middle 20s and Invisalign in her late 20s. She's 30 now, and has finally found an ortho who can actually fix her underlying jaw problem (with a surgical assist). She'll be in these braces for nine months before lower jaw surgery, and an indeterminate time after surgery.

I should see her this weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing her new braces!
 
Carrie had another braces adjustment on Saturday September 1st. A few changes:

- "Final wire" on top
- Many bends in both archwires (this is causing some soreness)
- New elastic configuration (triangle) on the left to try to correct her midline

Video here: http://anonym.to/?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCrOz0kCYzM

Next appointment is October 26th, which is almost two months out. Heh, Carrie did that intentionally to try to drag out treatment as long as possible. Nice!

This also means she'll still have her braces for our friend's wedding in Boston next month. Excellent!
 
wow Carrie really is in this with you isn't she, you'll be the envy of many on this forum!

I'm sure Britt was inspired by Carrie's openness and positivity about the whole thing, good on her :)
 
Yes, Carrie has really turned around her opinion on braces, that's for sure. In the beginning, she only wanted them for a maximum of one year. Now she wants to keep them as long as she can!

Britt is a dental hygienist and is always in pursuit of the perfect alignment and bite. Unfortunately I haven't been able to see her in her braces yet!
 
looks like you struck gold on this experience - my wife wanted to be out as soon as she could, which was great for her, but disappointment to me!
 
MikeB said:
I think she'd keep them indefinitely at this point, if it wouldn't arouse some major suspicion!
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what an interesting outcome. I guess you may have to settle for fakes but your journey has been a fun one for you (both) no doubt!!
 
Part of me is actually looking forward to Hawley retainers, which have their own fun aspects. Heh, the other day she said, "If I fall asleep and forget my retainers, you'll have to put them in for me..."

She knows that she'll be wearing Hawleys the vast majority of the time, and for the rest of her life. I will give her special dispensation to wear Essix for dressy occasions, though.

And yes, I'll also need to make her a new set of fakes for occasional use. But right now I'm just living in the moment and enjoying it as much as I can.
 
Carrie had another adjustment (her tenth) on the evening of Friday the 26th. Not a whole lot of changes, but some interesting things happened.

- The ortho made some more tweaks and bends to her archwires, but kept the same sturdy rectangular stainless wires.
- He told her to continue wearing her elastics in the current asymmetric pattern (Class 2 on the right and a triangle on the left) to continue work on midline and overbite.
- He did some initial shaping and polishing of her upper front teeth, with more to come once her braces are removed, to get her closer to the “Hollywood smile” ideal.
- He estimated a mid-January removal date.
- We discussed retainers. He prefers to use Essix, so I told him I wanted to get Carrie a set of both Essix and Hawleys. He thought it was weird, but of course anything is possible with money!
-  She went with silver ligs.

So we have a tentative removal date, which causes mixed emotions for me. While I’d obviously prefer she stay in braces longer, I can tell that her smile is going to be absolutely deadly when the braces come off and the ortho does the final shaping. I am oddly excited about seeing that killer brace-less smile.

I’m also looking forward to playing with Hawley retainers! She already understands that she’ll need to wear her Hawleys at all times when I am around, though I will give her special dispensation to wear the Essix on dressy occasions (like the symphony, for example).

I did the usual video, but we took a trip to Flagstaff over the weekend and I haven’t had a chance to edit it just yet. I hope to get to it tomorrow. I’ll post here when I upload it to YouTube!
 
A little late on an update, but Carrie had an appointment the evening of Friday 12/14. We took off for a trip into the mountains early the next day, so I haven't had much of a chance to update between that and the usual holiday craziness. Anyway:

- Her teeth were 3D scanned for retainers.
- No changes to her archwires.
- She was put back in an upper power chain (silver at my choice).
- She is continuing with the same elastic configuration (Class II on the right, triangle left).
- Braces removal date is January 31.

I ordered both Essix and Hawley retainers for her. Her ortho recommends Essix, but of course Hawleys are preferred! She understands that she's required to wear the Hawleys whenever I'm around, but with special dispensation to wear the Essix when we do something "dressy" like the symphony or a wedding.

I took the customary video, but it will probably be a few days before I have time to edit it down, due to the aforementioned holiday craziness. I'll post as soon as it's done and uploaded to YouTube.
 
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