Freedom day September 24th!

Freedom day is September 24th! More on that shortly.

Let's take a step back first. I had adjustment #17 five weeks ago but I didn't post anything because the changes were so small that it wouldn't really be noticeable. That said, he did tighten up my bite a little bit more by bringing my pre-molars closer together. I do see an improvement, especially on the left side now. I also asked about the last molars at the back on my left side, the upper one feels like it's too far out, but he looked at it and said that it looks good and that he wouldn't want to put any more torque in the wire but just to give it a bit more time. He also put more expansion in the top wire as well as moved my top eye teeth down very slightly. The last five weeks have been steady and I've felt the changes taking place. If I sleep on the side of my face I can feel my teeth shift with the pressure but then shortly after I get up I feel them push back into place, it's a weird feeling, like someone put a rope on them and is slowly pulling, but not painful at all.

Today is what I was sure would be adjustment #18 but to my surprise he said he thinks I'm done! He wants to make sure I'm psychologically ready though and said that he wouldn't take them off until I was ok with it. My two main concerns were as follows:

1) My right eye teeth seemed to be slightly clashing and stopping my right side occlusion from completely closing. He took a close look and explained that it may appear as clashing but in fact it's just the way things are fitting together because of the shape of my teeth. He also used some contact paper to prove it. There was a small dot and so he ground the lower tooth down ever so slightly. I think I can feel a difference. The other option would have been for him to move the upper eye teeth down a bit more and then do more grinding but it may make me look like I have fangs, so he really didn't recommend it. Since my eye teeth are not worn down - since they were never in my bite previous to orthodontics - they don't have the same shape as might be expected and so they don't perfectly close the space between the upper and lower eye teeth.

2) My last molars on the left don't totally overlap. This is the same issue I've been talking about over the last two or three appointments. He looked closely again and said they look good even though they may feel off or different from the right side. Consider also that my right side has a bracket on both molars whereas the left has a bracket only on the top tooth. (Actually it does have a bracket but the wire is not attached so the tooth is free to move if it wants to.)

So back to the being psychologically ready part. He spent a fair bit of time discussing the overall situation with me and that he believes we have done all we can do with the orthodontics side of things and that it's time to move into the retention phase. The reasons why it appears as though things still aren't quite perfect is because of my genetics, that is, some of my teeth aren't ideally shaped, and that the level of granularity that orthodontics can offer is not at the same level that the human nervous system can detect, so in the case of my molars, they may feel off but physically they aren't really. So we have come to the limit, and anything beyond this will likely have to be cosmetic, but he wants me to wait because we don't know yet what will happen once my braces come off. He is planning to use fixed retention (willy wires, hehe!) on both top and bottom plus night time TMJ appliances, so it's a very strict retention plan.

Let me just say that I am definitely thrilled with my results; the difference is like night and day and I credit Dr Waese with getting me to that outcome. He is a very intuitive man and is as much an artist as he is a scientist. I will definitely miss him and his staff as they have treated me like gold since my first day!

So, September 24th is when I get my fixed wires on and braces off. One week later I go back for final records. And then a week after that I go back to have my TMJ appliances fitted. And then? A new chapter!

As usual, check out my latest photos in the gallery, my last set before braces come off!