this, that and a pokey wire (just short of 7 months, or 29 1/2 weeks!)

wow. i haven't been around for a bit. my dad passed away the day after my last entry (sept 23). amazing how my teeth were so sore that night from my powerchains, new archwire and wire ties, yet the pain seemed to disappear instantly after hearing the news about my dad. anyway, things are getting easier every day and now it's time to catch up on my teeth.

been in to see dr. hobday twice since then. well, i've been into the ortho 4 times, seen hobday twice. was in twice to get a wire clipped. dumb powerchains! :) also went in to dr. wong for a teeth cleaning.

1st appt to dr. hobday was just a retie on october 20th. boring. i went from pink powerchains to a lilac chain on top, purple on the bottom. thank god i did the purple on the bottom, you could barely see it. it was pretty dark. the lilac was great, kinda a purply pink. i liked it alot. dr. hobday seemed to like my teeth movement. he told me that at my next appt i would be getting the band on my right side bottom 2nd bicuspid replaced because he didn't like the position of it. sounds good to me. he showed me how on my left side the 2nd bicuspid biting surface lined up with the tooth next to it, whereas on the right it made a step and the two were not on the same level. this is that same tooth that was quite rotated before that they had a hard time even getting a band on. i was quite intrigued as to how they get the bands off so i was all for this.

went in november 3rd to see dr. wong, my dentist for a teeth cleaning. they took x-rays of my molars, which i thought was weird, can they really see cavities with my braces?!? i think it may have been kinda pointless. all went well, he was very interested in my bite, not so much in my teeth. things must look well, i asked if i needed to come in for 3 month cleanings and he said no, just 6 month cleanings. WHOOHOO! so all that brushing, flossing, waterpiking and colgate phosphoring (ultra fluoride) must be working!

next appt with dr. hobday was on november 12th. a friday (this will be important later...). the assistant (the ever lovely lori, who i think traded someone for me as i was told chair 3 and then when i got into the room lori told me, 'sorry, chair one!', fine with me, i like her, she's nice and funny and doesn't stink like smoke). she took my wire off the bottom, and called dr. hobday over to remove my bracket (band). he came over, said hi, etc. had a pair of pliers and reached into my mouth with them, then took them out. to me, i thought he was testing them out, seeing if they were the correct size, but there was also some ick in my mouth, turns out it was the glue from my band, and my tooth was smooth! i looked at him in confusion and said, 'that's it? it's out?!?' he smiled and said, 'orthodontist secret'. so apparently getting your bands off isn't so bad. that's good. so then they scraped the rest of the stuff off my tooth and put on a bracket only! my tooth feels so naked! it's amazing! i can't even imagine not having braces, this one band off already feels so clutter free. :) i'm a dork. it will just be so cool though. i asked lori if i had to go back down to a flex wire and she said yes. :( but she did put in the biggest flex wire they have, so hopefully it's not too long before i'm back in the steels. i choose a spring/lime green chain for my uppers, and a darker green for the lowers. the upper green is just a hair too florescent for me, but it's ok overall. i have wanted this light green for some time, i may as well just do it. unfortunately, while putting on my lower chain my back bracket on the left side snapped off. gah! i had already been there forever and was almost done. lori just clipped my wire and said that we would put that bracket back on this next time. bummer. that is the back molar where i have a space between my furthest back molar and the one in front of it. so i'm sure next time i'll need to come in to get the wire clipped after a few days as that space will close up nicely with the chains, but torture me with the wire poking me. oh well. lori finished up and i was off. yea!

remember when i said that i went in on a friday, and that was important? um yeah... this is why. so dr. hobday had repositioned that one bracket (on the tooth that he took the band off of), and that is the same tooth that was rotated quite a bit when i first got my braces. well it seems that in the space of a day that tooth rotated enough that my teeth were fitting together more tightly than before, because i was already being poked by the end of my arch wire while eating. great. and it's mid day saturday. i have to wait until monday to get it fixed. monday morning comes along, i call dr. hobday's from home before work. oh, but the maple grove office isn't open on mondays, they can get me into rogers, in mid morning or mid afternoon... ugh, not going to work. of course, i have a work class tuesday morning so no getting in then. we finally figure out that i can come in tuesday november 16th at 4:20, up in CHAMPLIN! gah! what a joke! driving 20 minutes past where i normally go (which is a pain in itself) all for a 7 second procedure. oh well, i needed to do it, the wire was poking me and eating was not fun. i managed to get there 20 minutes early. they got me in, clipped it and i was on my way, 15 minutes before my appointment was even scheduled. ugh.

that's it, seems like i'm caught up now! my next appointment is this friday already. i think i'm going to do a christmas themed power chain this time. we'll have to see!