1st Birthday with Tin Grins and 1st Adjustment!

I finally hit a quarter of a century last week! ANNNDDD to top it off it was my FIRST birthday with braces (apparently 2 more to come). I am getting used to having photos taken with the braces...and am trying not to make awkward faces anymore, which came in handy for this occasion. This is probably because I've seen some changes in my teeth and an starting to be proud of these darn things. If you scroll down to my last post you can see the changes from week 4 (when I got my lower brackets on) to week 11 (last week). Pretty good eh?!?

My lovely friends Ashley and Amanda had been searching all over the place to find me a special braces t-shirt (like the awesome ones I post on "T-shirt of the Week")... but couldn't find one ANYWHERE. So, to ensure that I could have my very own braces shirt they had one made for me!!! We were in Montreal last weekend and walked by a store called Bang-On where you can get any piece of clothing made with crazy graphics or sayings. Thankfully they had ONE graphic with teeth and braces, which was PERFECT! We add the catchy phrase "Tin Grins Are In" and viola!! My very own T-shirt of the Week! Thanks ladies, my tin grins heart you both :)

Another lovely surprise I need to mention is that I received a fricken hilarious birthday postcard from my orthodontist! I felt very special that they thought of me on that joyous day :) The little teeth have brackets and wires on them and are holding balloons and wearing party hats...AWESOME.

I went to my orthodontist this past Tuesday morning at 9 am sharp to get my 1st adjustment. I was actually super excited about it because it means that my teeth are shifting and that it's time to move them even more! While I was waiting for the ortho to work his magic, I noticed on the computer that it says that I will have my braces until OCTOBER 2011. I almost fell out of the chair.... When he first analyzed by teeth he said that they would be on for 2 years....and that way I would only have to have them on for TWO birthdays and be braces free for my 27th birthday....but no siree bob. I may have to have a discussion with him about that ;). I think it has a lot to do with my recovery period after I have the jaw surgery and how well my face/teeth adjust to the improvements. Let's all cross our fingers for me!!!

Anyhoo....the adjustment went really well. It only took 45 minutes. They took both wires out and shaved down some more of my bottom teeth. I mentioned that they had done this before in my post about getting the bottom brackets on....it was still just as weird feeling and a little painful. The reason they shave down some of the sides of my teeth is to allow for my bottom front teeth to have enough room to move forward and become straight (yey!). When it came time to put the wires back it, they chose a bit of a stronger wire this time so that it will pull those bottom teeth forward even more. As well, instead of using the ligatures on all the brackets, he twisted some really thing wires on a few of the brackets of my lower teeth. These wires work better for when your trying to move the teeth a lot because they can grab on to the brackets more forcefully.

Here's a picture to hopefully make clear what I'm writing about:

He mentioned that I may not see a huge improvement in the spacing of my top teeth for a bit because they are straightening them out first before they can pull them together. Which is a-ok with me...as long as it all works out in the end.

All in all it's been a great month or so since my last post! I will make a new video to speak a little more about my first adjustment and will post it on here in the next week or so!

Stay tuned....2nd adjustment will be in mid August!