Recently I had my brace fitting day - I had made my appointment early in the morning so I didn't have to wait around all day feeling anxious. Having heard stories of how much it was going to hurt I just wanted to get it over with. I arrived at the orthodontist practice and was asked to brush my teeth with a grey gritty toothpaste to prepare the teeth for the brackets. Everyone was really friendly and did their utmost to put me at ease. I lay on the chair and a plastic contraption was inserted into my mouth to keep it open, cheek pads were put in the side of my mouth to protect my cheeks and I had to bite down on a lollipop shaped suction thing to keep my mouth dry.

They then painted a conditioner onto my teeth and blew air from a nozzle onto the them to evaporate the conditioner. The brackets were then positioned (I've had porcelain brackets top and bottom with four metal brackets at the very back). No problem so far and no pain at all. A bright blue light was directed at each bracket to make the glue set. Then the arch wire was popped into place, along with a spring on one side and a ligature on the other and then I felt a tight feeling which was uncomfortable but not at all painful.

Time to look in the mirror and to my surprise - not only were the brackets tooth coloured, so was the arch wire. My mouth felt large but you actually can't notice any difference with my mouth closed.

I met my mum and we wandered around town for a few hours. I had soup for lunch without much of a problem but come supper time all I could eat was mashed potato and mashed carrot. I went to bed that evening without having taken any painkillers at all. This morning I woke at 6am with an uncomfortable pain and took some Ibuprofen and at work today nobody noticed at first. My speech is slightly altered but I think I'll get use to them pretty quickly. People have been interested in them but as soon as they've been mentioned once it seems as if they've forgotten about them. All in all then so far a great success.