Doug's Journey

[Dougsey]

Thanks mlm! I was just thinking the other day about how long I might need to wear these elastics... 2... 3 months?

9 months, huh? Now there's something to look forward to!! Closing the extraction gaps is probably going to
be the thing that takes the longest in my treatment. Expecting to close that large space in a couple months is pretty unrealistic so I expect to have a similar sentence to yours.

[KayKay]

Wow, I'm really impressed with your progress, Doug! Seems that I keep watching the mirror for evidence that things are moving - and hope that at the end of my first month I will see such great progress. Well done!

Thanks for sharing your journey with us.

[stephcsun]

Hi Doug,
Thanks for sharing your progress..it gives me hope to see such great progress being made in just a few months. I am hoping that I too will see several changes in my 3rd month. I just have to keep being patient..I am almost done with my 1st month and only notice minor changes..I can't wait until my spaces close up

[Dougsey]

Hello friends!
I had my 5 month visit yesterday. We gave up on the class 2 bands at the 4 month visit because they kept pulling off the molar
band that doesn't want to stay glued to the gold crown. I also had my top wire changed to the next size up so now I have the max wire both top and bottom.

At yesterday's appt, ortho did some shaping on the bottom of my centrals,
replaced chain on top and ligs on bottom. She also bent my top wire into a reverse curve to try to keep my top teeth from hitting my bottom brackets,
which they are starting to do now that the 6 front teeth are moving back and the extraction gap is closing.

She mentioned maybe doing some shaping on the bottom at next months visit (definitely needed as you can see).

I'm pretty pleased with the progress so far and my ortho office has been great!

Doug

[cdmoses6]

Lookin' good Dougsey!

Thanks for stopping by my thread! I just got done reading through yours. I got a chuckle from your comment about moose tracks icecream, it's my favorite! I always save all of the moosetracks till the end lol I am actually surprised how much stuff I can still eat (chips, nuts, caramel). As long as you are careful and chew slowwwwly haha Glad you have a great ortho! I'm not exactly thrilled with mine, but I am still very early in. Today marks week 3! Hope everything keeps running smoothly for ya, Happy Friday!

[TheProfessor]

Great progress! I can't believe you are already on the thickest wire! At the rate I'm going, I don't think I'll get ro the thickest wire until month 18 or so. It is interesting how different orthos take such different approaches.

[shredie79]

Impressive progress!! Yahoo!

[Dougsey]

Hi Gang!
I had my appt last week and now have molar bands on my back 4 molars so now all teeth are hooked up. It hurt a bit for the first few days but it's ok now.

Had to step back a notch on the arch wires and go from SS to NiTi (18 x 22 I think I heard her say)in order to connect the back molars. Power chain on both arches.

My only concern is that I still have the extraction gaps to close up but my top front teeth can't move back much more because they are starting to hit the bottoms. Ortho has done some IPR on the bottom so they move back and slant in just a bit but it still doesn't seem like there's enough room. Not quite sure how that's going to play out.

I hope everyone is doing well on their adventure!

[6bug]

Glad you took the journey. I believe in life that it's never too late to do anything!

[igneous]

awesome progress! looks great

[Dougsey]

Hi all!
It's been a while since I've updated my progress so here we are at 17 months. Wow! Does time pass quickly!

I'm not really happy with how my centrals look ever since ortho put a small step bend in the wire, to correct something that I couldn't see, lol. Midline has a cant to it that is bugging me. Also, one central is now longer than the other, but I suppose that could be shaped a bit. What do you all think? Honest opinions please because I'm getting close to the finish line.

The good news is the extraction gaps have closed up nicely!

Hope everyone's treatment is going well!