No regrets

Albert Steptoe wore braces as a child...

I shall be treating myself to a few glasses of champers this weekend, as today is the 3 month anniversary of my top brace fitting! I'm thrilled that i've reached this point with NO REGRETS about the whole thing, and if anything I'm now even more confident in my decision to go ahead with surgery and braces.

In many ways i'm also enjoying the insights that new experience is offering, as well as learning a few things about myself in the process. Chief amongst these is the reaction from others that an individual must have a lot of self confidence to wear a brace as an adult, even though a quick scan of any orthdontic blogs will tell you that this is usually not the case. It's good to know that none of us should have any fears about flashing the hardware in public, seems it can actually be good for your image :)

I also can't help noticing how much dental crime is going on out there. We brits do seem to have a reputation overseas of bad dental habits, but whilst I doubt that the american style of teeth will ever catch on over here, I have to admit that there is some serious neglect going on. Fortunately things do seem to be changing - as reactions to my own brace are testament - but I have been astonished by the number of these wonky-toothed individuals telling me that THEY wore a brace in their youth! Huh? Twice I felt compelled to know more, and asked as diplomatically as possible whether they were now in retainers. The answers I got both times were along the lines of 'I was given some, but..erm...forgot to wear them... then, er, lost them somewhere..and, y'know..' etc. What's the point in putting in all that time and effort when you're young only to end up with teeth like Albert Steptoe?! Makes me think that children should only be braced when they're older, when they'll appreciate it more and take care of the work that's been put into them. Paying for treatment yourself also makes a huge difference, as there's no way i'll be neglecting my lovely new gnashers once this is all over!

Speaking of gnashers it's about time I put down a few words on my own progress. Dr H. originally told me that both top and bottoms needed to be pulled upright first of all, and this indeed seems to be happening, as there is a subtle difference in the way my teeth look regarding their shape and prominance. This is great news for my deficient upper jaw, as the teeth now stand further forward and fill my mouth more, distracting attention somewhat from the fullness of my lower jaw. However what goes for the top also goes for the bottom, and my underbite has worsened - as Dr H said it would. Before my lower front teeth sat directly underneath the upper teeth (which wasn't a problem as they never met) but now there is definitely a widening gap between where the uppers end and lowers begin. I'm not too bothered by this though, as I was warned it would happen, however my trick of pulling back my lower jaw and lip when I smile is no longer doing its job of disguising my underbite so well. But like every underbiter in the world no doubt, I have a whole arsenal of tricks to disguise my underbite and turn my big square chin into a tiny delicate one, and i'll be relying on these more and more in the coming months.

So it's 12 days and counting until adjustment number 2. My ambition now is to get my gallery going and chart my dental progress accross the months, with my teeth moving already there's no time to loose. Watch this space.