The Office

One wired day at work down, about 360 to go.

Today I heard, and appreciated, lots of stories, memories and experiences (including broken jaws, holes in palates and teeth reverting to their former crooked ways) from ortho veterans who went through it all years ago, the right way (that is, when they were kids). For the most part, the stories made me feel better and gave me hope.

Speaking of hope, I hope eating gets a little easier. My tactic to stick to a liquid diet to avoid the risk of having embarrassing bits of lunch lodged in my teeth went pretty well (it's enough to worry if people will take me seriously with my lips stuck on protruding metal and my tongue relearning the ropes--I don't need leftovers adding to the whole effect!). You might think that with eating not being all that enjoyable since my extractions--that's two and a half weeks now--I might lose few pounds, but so far, no luck. Sigh.

Adding extractions to the process has definitely caused more discomfort that I might be having otherwise. It's not uncommon, I know, (and it certainly pales in comparison to broken jaws and palate-separating cranks--ack!) but it does add another layer of trouble. I try to avoid it, but with four vacancies scattered up and down, I can't eat without putting pressure on at least one of those freshly healed spots. 

Another unforeseen side-affect for my cold-sensitive teeth: when walking outside in the frigid air, I need to keep my mouth closed to avoid chilling the metal, which then transfers an unpleasant shock to my enamel. One more reason for tactic two:

Tactic two: (after the liquid diet) is to keep my mouth closed unless absolutely necessary; that means no talking or laughing. That plan is already falling apart since I live and work with such entertaining people, so I don't think I'll be able to keep it up for the whole two years. Besides, what fun would that be?

I'm told that I'll get used to all this and that some days, I'll forget I even have braces. I look forward to that. I know we can get used to anything, so I believe it. People say, "Don't worry, two years will fly by." Well, at my age, I'm not looking for years to fly by--wired up or not! So each day I just hope to get a little better at mastering the art of wearing braces--and soon I hope to carry it off as well as any twelve-year-old kid.