First brace experiences

The brace is now on, and I can report that so far it's all good :)

Yesterday morning was pretty tense, I'd barely slept the night before because of the anxiety, so I headed out feeling exhausted as well as full of sudden doubt about what I was about to do. The appointment itself started in the usual whirl of cleaning, suction and scraping, but before I knew it they were lowering the mould and I got my first chance to feel what the brace was like - the only way I can describe it is like finding a couple of London buses suddenly parked up along my teeth, they felt so bulky! The archwire went on next and Dr H started to talk through all the cleaning and maintenence, but by this point all I wanted was a mirror! My first thoughts on seeing my reflection was' hmmmm not too bad!'

As I got to work the realisation that I'd actually gone through with it suddenly hit, and I sat shellshocked at my desk staring into space for the next few hours. Reactions though, were good. No one noticed the brace (or my slighly impared speech) and were impressed by how unimposing it was. My first lesson in how to eat also came along quickly as I took a bite into my usual afternoon biscuit and felt a stab of pain shoot up my front teeth - so that's why they told me to eat soft food.

I was convinced I wouldn't sleep the night with this new contraption glued to my teeth, and fussing around with little brushes and wax seemed to take an age, but when my head hit the pillow I was out like a light. This morning the brace is already feeling quite normal and despite careful eating habits i'm already beginning to forget it's there.

I had a meeting with my boss earlier on and asked her afterwards if she'd noticed the brace. She said she hadn't and commented that it looked 'rather dainty'. Now that I was not expecting! She made my day :)

Still, I have bigger challenges ahead. On Sunday I visit my mother who's just arrived back from a long holiday. She doesn't know I've been braced and was still hoping I'd change my mind about the whole thing before she left so she's NOT going to be happy. If i'm lucky all i'll get is a dismayed look with a 'well as long as you know what you're doing' type remark. If she freaks out however I won't hear the end of it all afternoon. Fingers crossed it's the former!