I think the whole attitude of 'I will wear my elastics however I please' probably was not the right one to have, because my teeth were not fitting together properly on the right side. The left has always felt secure, but the right side has given me more trouble. Since being told my debracing date, I have been obsessing about every little thing, because I want them to be PERFECT before getting my braces off. I started panicking because the right side was not fitting together properly. There was a visible gap between the upper and lowers; the teeth just weren't meeting up right. I am now wearing my elastics as originally advised, as much as possible, in a triangular configuration. My bite is already feeling so much better!
Don't try to be smarter than your orthodontist. If you're feeling like the elastic configuration you're given isn't working correctly (it's making your bite feel worse) let them know. Don't try to mess with things on your own, because I did, and it DID mess with things.
I am on the home stretch!
Incognita | October 2, 2011 at 8:50 AM
Wow I can't believe your braces are coming off so soon!! It really is amazing how fast the time goes by! You must be so excited!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my braces come off sooner than later when I have the surgery. Can't wait to see your updates :)
Nora Simone | October 7, 2011 at 9:01 PM
Ohmygoodness! Not much longer now at all! I bet you're super excited :) I'm glad to hear that the bands have helped to tweak those last couple of things. Good luck and keep us posted!
Brent | October 9, 2011 at 8:08 AM
Hi Dani!
How cool for you!! I can't wait to see pictures of you with no braces! I know what you mean about those bands, they suck but we got to keep them in as much as possible!
Cheers,
Brent
Braced Blogger | October 16, 2011 at 7:26 PM
Dani - just curious but I saw on your list of procedures "bone shaving procedure." Can you tell me what this is? I have a little assymetry on one side of my jaw, and I was going to mention it to my surgeon. I'm sure he's noticed it but he didn't bring it up last year when I met with him for my initial consultation. Is this similar to what you had?
Dani | October 17, 2011 at 7:15 AM
Tara, my face was pretty asymmetrical. I was asked multiple times if something happened to the left side of my face, if it was swollen or something! Dr. M shaved down the left part of the lower jaw just to make it more symmetrical. If your jaw is placed a bit more to one side than the other, then that will be fixed by just moving it back to the center, but my issue was that the bone on one side grew a bit more, it was more prominent than the other side.