Tinsel E - December update

Ruining my plan to sleep in to try and start killing my cold was my orthodontist appointment.

I knew from my last appointment that I was going to get a new wire... my last and FINAL wire!!!  Hooray!!!  And, true to his word, I did get my final wire today.  This is one big fat wire, and the technician had trouble threading it through my brackets.  I could feel the difference immediately, before she'd even closed the bracket doors to lock in place, or in her term, engage the wire.

I thought, great, I'm done... time to go home to sleep.  That's when the technician said, "I still have to put on your rubber band and hook."

WHAT.... ?!  Seriously?!

Sure enough, she somehow added another "hook" to one of my top front brackets.  The brackets on my bottom molars already have hooks (I guess permanently) on them.  She then gave me a mirror, showed me a tool that I would be using, and showed me how to hook a rubber band from my bottom teeth to my top teeth on my right side.

WHY?!

"[The orthodontist] believes your bite on the one side could be better adjusted."

Oh.

"You need to change the rubber band 2-3 times per day.  And take it out when you brush your teeth or eat."

"Why 2-3 times per day?"

"Because they lose their elasticity and become less effective."

I will do anything to make this go faster.  In the last month, my braces have really come to annoy me and I can't WAIT until I'm done with them.  I've been thinking about the fact that I've not even had them a year and they're frustrating me.  How in the world do teenagers deal with them for so long?!  I feel for them.  Anyway, to get them off faster, if that means I need to change a stupid rubber band 2-3 times a day, then fine!

Of course, now I feel more like a teenager than ever, and will be self conscious for a while that I don't have a rubber band come flying out of my mouth during a meeting or something... I can just see it now.... nailing someone in the face with it.  Wouldn't that be my luck!

On my way out, I went to see my primary care physician who is in the same building because he also has braces and wanted to commiserate with him.  We traded war stories (speaking of war - it is Pearl Harbor Day today), and got a chuckle from it all.

I came home and wanted to eat some breakfast.  Despite a little trepidation about the rubber band, I took it out, wolfed down my meal and then attempted to get the rubber band back on me.  It took me a couple of tries but it actually wasn't that difficult.  It's just not a flattering sight.  ::sigh::

Bring on the new set of canker sores, one where the new "hook" is and one where the rubber band rubs my check wrong.  Yay.

I got back again mid-January.  They didn't say it would be my final appointment, so I'm guessing I have to go at least into February.  Hopefully the rubber band comes off in January!!