Day 71: Debracing ?

I went to see Dr. S yesterday for my second post-op appointment. I had both the top and bottom wires changed to 19s on the top and 17s on the bottom. The name of the wire wasn't something I had heard before, so I think this wire is different than the ones I usually have in. The OA marked different areas on the wire with a permanent marker, and Dr. S bent the wire a little at those markings. After I got the wire in, I finally got the courage to ask the big question

"When do you think I am going to get my braces off?"

"What, do you want them off soon?" - Dr S

Dr. S said they want to try to take my back molars closer together, but he thinks I could get my braces off in September!! We talked about it a bit more and I think we are going to plan on October rather than September, only because I want to make sure everything is absolutely perfect by the time I get these braces off and I really don't want to rush it. But regardless, October is still amazing! October is 2 months from now.

Two things I am currently worried about: My left front tooth is still a tiny bit in front of my right, and no one seems to pay any attention to it. Dr. S seems to overlook it all the time, and although it is really minor, it is not perfectly straight. He told me this is because my left tooth is thicker than the right. Anyway, when I asked about this today, he said 'We will see if the new wire helps at all' -- I am concerned because I feel like he doesn't really notice it or care.

The second thing is that he said he wanted to try to get the back molars a little closer together before taking off the braces. Well, right now there has got to be at least 1 cm of space between the top and bottom furthest back molar. He said that all of my teeth fit together perfectly already, except for the molars, but he really acts like the molars not touching doesn't really matter. It seems like we are going to make an effort to see if the teeth will get closer, but they may not end up getting closer. I don't want to have gone through all of this and then have my back molars not touch... it doesn't make any sense to me, but because we do most of our chewing on the second molars and forward, Dr. S and Dr. M talk about the furthest molars like they don't really matter or they won't really make my bite better.

Between the my desire to really get the molars to touch, and fixing the front left tooth situation, I think it will be more like mid to late October before the braces come off, but it's still great news. Late December would be 6 months post op, so I am way ahead of the game if we are throwing around September as a debracing month.

I have a new elastic configuration, and the OA told me it was really important to wear them as much as possible. I know I started not caring about bands much, but now I am going to keep these babies in ALL the time that I am not eating! The bands go on the 4th and 5th top tooth and then straight down to one of the bottom brackets, so it's like an upside down triangle. The bands I was given are definitely the smallest bands I have had to use yet!

I have my next appointment with the ortho August 29. Depending on where things are at, my next appointment 3-4 weeks later MAY BE my debracing appointment! This is a possibility, but I am kind of expecting to go to my appointment on August 29, make another appointment 3-4 weeks later, and then have the following appointment my debracing date, so something like mid October? That's only 10 weeks away!