they are on! (day one with braces...)

soo...  getting braces sucks.  both the experience of the application of the braces, and life with the braces. 
 
go in for my appointment.  first thing ortho chick does is pull out my spacers.  and i mean pull out, like i feel like my teeth will come with them.  gah!  then when they finally snap and pull out, little bits of food that was stuck in with them comes out as well (i swear i brushed, alot!).  ick.  she makes comments about my 'tight contacts' and it gets to the point that i want to yell, 'i'm sorry!'  apparently i have tight contacts.  blah.  so she pulls out the 9 rubber ones, then moves onto the metal ones.  she tells me that the metal ones don't like to come out.  and even with all of the moving and wiggling that they did while in, she's right.  she rips one out finally.  i'm convinced my crown came with it.  gets the other two out.  i'm ready to go home.  but no, this is just the beginning of the fun stuff. 
 
next comes the fitting of the bands around my molars.  this involves trying to make a metal band go around my molar.  i have to bite down on this tool to help shove it on.  i'm not into that.  she keeps telling me 'bite harder!'  i want to tell her, 'bite me ortho chick.  and by the way, you smell!' (she was a smoker.  and not even like her breath or her clothes were stinky (although they were) but also her hands just seemed to stink.)  once we got them on, she'd pull it off and we'd start all over again because she didn't like that one.  apparently she also didn't like trying to fit the bands on my crowns, crowns are a pain.  well doesn't that suck.  once again, I'M SORRY! 

finally get the four bands on my 6 year molars, then onto the one in front of them.  i wanted to cry.  'i need 2 bands?'  'yup.'  ugh...  these had brackets on the side of them so when i wouldn't bite hard enough she'd just grab the bracket with a pliers and shimmy it up my tooth to the gum.  wow.  thought i was in pain before!  so then she leaves them in.  i get to put on sexy orange tinted mechanic glasses and ortho chick puts a lip stretcher in (she asked first if i had ever used one before.  um, no...  why would i have???  is this some weird fetish thing i don't know about?  sorry...).  dried off my teeth with air, then she painted my teeth with what i know was etchant.  (i think she explained it as, this stuff tastes bad but it helps the glue stick to your teeth.  now i know they usually work with young peeps but...  i can handle the big words...).  then she put the bonding/sealant on it.  then she called over dr. hobday and started plopping the brackets on my lower teeth.  he adjusted them into place and asked me if we had talked about my two front bottom teeth.  we hadn't, and this is a major concern of mine, so i tried to tell him no, with the lip stretcher and his hands and brackets and stuff in my mouth.  he said he could either excavate my gums and bring those two teeth up to make them look right, but then my gumline would be off, although no one would notice although i'd have to worry about cavities, or i could bond them with dr. wong and not worry about cavities (and whatever the hell 'excavating' my gums means!  sounds NOT FUN!)  so he finished and ortho chick cleaned my lower teeth with water (very bitter taste!), took out the lip stretcher, and then i got to rinse.  she announced as she took off the lip stretcher, 'here is your first feel of your new braces!'  then asked, 'what's it like?'  ok, you just stretched my lips out and then dried out my entire mouth.  i have no idea how it feels, my mouth feels parched and weird without even trying to feel the brackets... 
 
back to the chair and the process starts all over again on top.  i go to rinse the nastiness out, and back to the chair.  now the fun part.  it's time to take out the bands!  then we get to put glue in them and shove them on, again.  luckily dr. hobday does this and he's stronger so they go on better.  side note, i thought maybe the stale smoke/ick taste of ortho chick's hands might have been the gloves she was wearing, however dr. hobday's gloved hands taste like mint.  yum! 
 
anyway...  now the bands are on for good.  ortho chick proceeds to do what feels like ripping out my teeth, but turns out to be her trying to get all of the glue out of my teeth.  she finally stops, however we both know there is a big chunk still on my lower right bottom back molar.  she says that she'll ask dr. hobday to try to get it later. 
 
she then asks what color i want.  i look them over and over as she waits impatiently (hey, first time here!  it's a big deal!).  i choose raspberry.  she puts a light wire on and then bands it in.  finally i'm done.  i now get to wait for dr. hobday to check me out.  as i wait i see a hand mirror on the stand next to me.  i think it's odd that ortho chick didn't give it to me so i could check things out, so i swipe it and check things out.  the color isn't as big of a deal as i thought it would be.  which is both a good and a bad thing i guess.  less noticeable braces is never a bad thing.  done looking at my new braces (for now...) i check out the rest of the stuff on the stand. 

i see my chart wide open and start to read it. lots of stuff i recognize, not sure of some of the stuff.  the first entry is notes from a phone call from dr. wong, my dentist.  bullet points state facts about me, that i have already been referred to dr. rahimi (oral surgeon), it mentions my issue (only back molars on either side touch, open bite.)  and the last bullet point says, please take good care of patient. 
 
that is why i like dr. wong so much and why driving to maple grove to visit him doesn't seem that bad. 
 
anyway, ortho chick comes back and says, i get to drill that cement out.  WHAT?  she looks (and acts) like she has never handled a drill ever before.  actually handling the drill, she looks like she hasn't EVER handles the drill before. she gingerly drills the cemented area in my mouth and i will her to stop.  she finally says, there, got it.  i feel with my tongue.  feels the EXACTLY the same.  oh well, i'll have them fix it next time. 
 
dr. hobday comes over and checks everything out.  must look good to him as he tells me it's all good.  ortho chick comes back and goes over first time braces wearer stuff, how to brush, how to floss, goes over the contents of my goody bag, and then gives me a sheet and tells me to pick a t-shirt design.  hmm, they are all... interesting, so i pick the most desirable of the three and then i am on my way. 

i'm starving and the ortho chick told me to eat well tonight as my teeth won't hurt yet. yea!