Adjustment #4: "It just came to me, like a gift," he said.

So today was adjustment #4. I had been anticipating this one because I knew Dr W would finally be able to make some significant changes to my oral apparatus. Here's the play by play...

My night time FFMP hasn't been doable for me, I can't sleep with it mostly because I can't keep my lips closed. He made some adjustments to it last time but they only helped somewhat. So for now he thinks that we'll have to wait until my alignment gets better and hopefully that will allow a better fit. My plan calls for another FFMP as part of my long term retention so I assume this is when we'll try again, or maybe shortly before I get my braces removed.

On top he took the power chain off (no more worry about stains, woohoo!) since my 3-7's have moved forward 1.5mm like he wanted. I was surprised by that because I couldn't see much difference but he said the arch wire was sticking out at the end, so there's the proof. I guess I just got used to it since I didn't really feel any poking. I mentioned the amount of space around my laterals and he said he actually wants to create more space around them so they can be bonded into the proper shape and size. So, he had a look around my mouth and after some pondering and contemplation he decided to use #9 ligature wire to divide my teeth into three groups in order to create the space around the laterals. So now underneath the arch wire is the ligature wire from 3-7 on both sides as well as tied between my incisors. I noticed a couple of sharp spots on the way home if I run my tongue over it. Hopefully that won't be too bad if I can train myself not to do it. The extra wire is going to make food get stuck more often, bah! Dr W, in his humorous style, was impressed with his idea since it meant not having to use coils. "Darn I'm good. It just came to me, like a gift," he said. Corollary: I'm good too. :o)

On the bottom I now have a heavy #17 wire with some first and second order bends in it. This ought to make a big difference over the next 8 weeks. I can't wait for my lower arch to finally be more levelled off. He also put a tiny piece of ligature wire on one of my incisors which needs to be rotated slightly. Getting the heavy wire clipped into place was way more bearable since I had my brackets repositioned last time. I had already taken some Advil this morning, so pain is minimal right now but I can definitely feel new movement starting already.

The idea for next appointment is to remove my lateral brackets and use an arch bypass so that Dr G can then bond my laterals into the proper size and shape. This is going to make a big difference cosmetically so I'm psyched about that! Hurrah for only 2 more months of peg laterals!! Then I'll go right back to Dr W to have brackets put back on.

I mentioned that Dr T may be able to get me in for surgery as early as July. Dr W said he thought that would be good timing. So we'll see what happens. It's really sounding like it will be closer to October though.

It was difficult to get good photos this week. Since my arches are wider (yay!) now it's hard to hold my mouth open this far! So here's an underbite shot which shows the ligature wire on top and the #17 on bottom. More photos are on my Flickr site (see top right link on this page).