After almost two months since the initial orthodontic treatment, I went in for the first follow-up office visit. My appointment was at 9:15 am today.
After I checked in, I was soon to be led to the second chair in the treatment room. I was hoping to see the orthodontic assistant, J, again today because she was really nice during my initial treatment, but it seemed like she was not working this Saturday. It was another orthodontic assistant who worked on my braces today.
This lady (I didn’t ask for her name) didn’t tell me what she was going to do (J would tell me what’s coming next so I would be prepared), and after I lay down on the chair, she started doing something on my brackets. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was opening the doors of my brackets. (I wanted to capture the moment, so I asked for her permission to make pictures while she was working on my teeth, and she said sure, but unlike J who would stop the task for a moment to let me take clear pictures, this orthodontic assistant continued working, so this time I didn’t have too many pictures of my teeth.) I felt that she was using a tool to push open the doors of the brackets. I felt force on my teeth when she was pressing on some brackets to open their doors.

After the doors were all opened, she first removed the wire from the top row, and then from the bottom row. I was given a chance to brush and floss without the wires! It made me feel happy to brush without the wires. Knowing that she would close the doors of the brackets later, I was also brushing on the brackets, and then I flossed. Not that I floss often, but it sure was much easier to floss without the wires, but because the doors of the brackets were open, when I opened my mouth wide to floss, my mouth’s inner flesh was pressing onto the poking bracket’s doors. That was uncomfortable, so I quickly picked a few difficult-to-reach areas to floss (mainly toward the back), and then I went back to the treatment room.

After lying on the chair again, Dr. G came to look at my teeth. He asked me how I feel about braces, and I told him that I am used to it now. I then told him that I feel my teeth are misaligned (when I said this, I meant my middle two teeth on the top row are off from the center). He said that my central incisors will stay crooked until later, when he gives me bigger wires and rubber bands to correct the alignment, and then I would see the teeth getting straight. After hearing this, I was thinking that, okay, I don’t know when that is going to happen, but I can’t wait… I hope the middle top two teeth can be straight and aligned soon, because I see that right now the middle top two teeth are pushing my dividing muscle tissue to the right, and I don’t know how it is going to affect that muscle tissue if the two teeth keep pushing it toward the right side.

And then the orthodontic assistant came back. She brought two new wires, looking a little bit bigger than the ones I wore before. Remembering that others said it hurts to get the braces tighter, I asked her if it is going to hurt. She said that because the wires are little bit bigger, for sure I am going to feel more pressure on my teeth.
She first put the wire in on the bottom row. I guess it is not easy to put the bigger wire in, so she was using force to make the wire go in to the opening doors of the brackets. On some brackets, I felt that she was pressing on my teeth that I got a bit worried that my teeth would break…. Finally, she put the bottom wire in and closed the doors, and then she moved on to working on the top wire.

It also took a few minutes for her to get the top bigger wire in, and again, I also felt stronger push on my teeth for few seconds when she was pushing the top wire in to some brackets’ opening.

After she closed the doors of the top brackets, she was done.

Before I left, I asked her a few questions. I asked her why I am changed to bigger wires today. She said that Dr. G examined my teeth and thought that the initial wires have done their job, so he wants me to switch to bigger wires this time. She told me that with the bigger wires, I will feel more pressure on my teeth, and my teeth will move faster. I also asked her why my initial wires moved from right to left on the top row. She said it is because the smaller wires are thinner, so it moves while inside the brackets, and it doesn’t mean that my teeth move with the wires. (Okay… then my guess in yesterday’s blog post is wrong; I thought moving wire means my teeth are being moved….) Lastly, I asked her that how many pairs of bigger wires would a patient switch to. She told me it depends, and the wires I have now are bigger than before, and depending on my teeth’s condition by the next follow-up appointment, I might switch to another pair of bigger wires.
Before I left, I went to the front desk to schedule for the next appointment. The next time I will come in will be Saturday on 5/21/2011 at 11:00 am, so five weeks from today. I wanted to get appointments at around 9:00 am, but the earliest one is at 11:00 am for the next month’s Saturday appointment. Wanting to get early morning appointments, I also made an appointment for 6/18/2011, and I got the 9:15 am spot.
This follow-up office visit lasted about 35 minutes, so I left Dr. G’s office at 9:50 am. Since the moment I get the bigger wires on, I keep feeling constant pressure on my teeth. This feeling is sort of intriguing, because when I got my initial wires on, I also felt constant pressure on my teeth, but after few days, I was used to the braces and sometimes I even didn’t feel them until I felt pressure again, and soon after, I got used to feeling pressure on my teeth. So revisiting the feeling of constant pressure on my teeth makes me remember I have braces. Hopefully it is like what the orthodontic assistant said, that the bigger wires will make my teeth move faster.
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