I DID IT! I am officially in braces! I was in the ortho's office for a total of one hour. I thought the overall process was done so well. The ortho and assistant worked so well together, and barely even spoke!
The Process.
I was called into the orthos office and given some sunglasses and told to lie down on the chair. He did the usual "bite down" thing. Then he took out the spacers. Ahh what relief. It was so quick to take out the spacers and it didn't hurt at all. Then the ortho popped some molar bands on my recently released molars. The top molars needed to go down half a size, but the bottom bands were ok. Then he had to take out the molar bands again to cover them in disgusting cement stuff. It really hurt to get my top right molar band taken out so that wasn't so pleasant.
So a bit of air was blown onto my molars, then the molar bands were inserted. A weird stick thing was held in between my top and bottom molars, where I was told to bite down hard, as this would help the molar bands on more. That felt weird and hurt a little bit, but was okay. I got a taste of the cement stuff and it was
yukky! It wasn't too uncomfortable though - at least not as bad as I had expected. They put some blue molar build up on my molars, but I can't actually feel it yet because one of my top teeth still hits my bottom bracket, but that should straighten out in a day or two
hooray to movement! Then, thank goodness, I was allowed to rinse my mouth out.
Back in the chair, the dreaded lip spreaders were inserted. I don't know what everyone is complaining about - they aren't so bad! The only thing which was uncomfortable, was when the ortho occasionally rested his hand on the plastic, which dug into my gums and hurt. But I didn't mind that because it took my mind off the yukky cement taste. I had to bite onto some weird cotton tube things. These definately made the process more comfortable. The ortho then rubbed some stuff on my teeth - I'm assuming this is the etchent stuff, because some of it got on my tongue and it was very very tangy. The ortho took out those cotton rods, and I was told to open my mouth wide. Then the assistant came over with a water tube, while the ortho had the air tube. That was a bit uncomfortable. I felt like I was choking, and the flavour of the etchent was sprayed onto the back of my mouth. So after a couple of seconds of that, more etchent stuff (I think!) was applied.
On with the braces
So the ortho and his assistant had this nifty, well organised process when putting on my brackets. The assistant would hand over the tweezers with a bracket on them, the ortho would pop it on, then hand back the empty tweezers, and swap them for another tool to position the brackets. Then he would hand back that tool, and swap it for the tweezers with another bracket on! They didn't even speak to eachother. It was like they could read eachother's minds. Another cotton rod was wedged between my teeth. First my bottom teeth were done, except all four of my pre-molars. Then the top row was done, excluding the four pre-molars.
I can't remember if the lip spreaders were still in when my pre-molar brackets were put on. Either way, my right ones were done first, from bottom to top again. These were then fixed with a uv light device. That took about 1 minute for all 4 teeth. Then my right ones were done. I'm pretty sure they didn't shine the uv light on all my other front teeth. Is that normal?
The cotton rods were taken out, and I was able to relax my mouth for the first time. The ortho asked how it felt, to which I replied "weird! but how I expected." The assistant then asked me if i wanted colours on my brackets. So I asked what colours they have and she showed me this whole draw full of them. I had in mind that I was going to get baby pink on the bottom, and purple on the top. But then I noticed they had a pretty dark pink, so I decided to get them on the bottom instead.
Archwire and ligs
This process was also really well organised. First the ortho put the top archwire in, and clipped the ends. The assistant would then hand over some mini scissor looking pliars/forceps, where the ortho would tuck the archwire in and pop the lig on. It took me about 10 teeh to realise that the ortho was actually putting the ligs on. I didn't realise it was so quick! So then the ortho would hand over the used tool, and the assistant would hand over another one with a new lig on them. Same process happened for the bottom brackets.
Finishing up
The ortho then said that I was a lovely patient, with "great teeth to work on" and said goodbye until next time. The assistant showed me my goody bag. She demonstrated how to brush my teeth and urged me on how important it is to look after my teeth. At this stage I still hadn't seen my teeth! Then the assistant walked over to a bench quickly, so I had a quick squiz at my teeth with the handheld mirror next to me. My first thought - those aren't so bad! I was told to book 3 appointments for the future. Appointments are generally 4-6 weeks apart, and I'm glad they are quite close together. Before I left, I quickly went to the bathroom to have another look at my teeth in the mirror. They really aren't that bad. They are obvious, but not hideous.
On my ride home, I kept on looking at my teeth in the mirror (I wasn't driving). I couldn't stop myself. I kept touching them and seeing what it looked like when I spoke. Like I said before, they are obvious, but not terrible.
Its been about an hour since getting my braces, and I'm starting to feel the pressure now.
Here are much awaited pictures. It's amazing how braces really show you how crooked your teeth are. But I like it, because it helps motivate me, and it reassures me that I am doing the right thing.
And my goody bag!:
What does everyone think?
Take care,
Pearls
I don't know if it's just me but I'm hella paranoid about having even remotely wiffy breath when someone is staring straight into my gob! Hehe. 
They look terrific...love the ligs!
