11 January 2010

Today I had the brackets for my braces fitted. I didn't know what to expect – I had read tales of people feeling as if they had a mouthful of metal. Again, the orthodontist was lovely, and explained each step of what she was doing. Having the brackets attached to my teeth was painless – first some bonding stuff was applied, then the bracket was put on top and the bond was activated with UV light. It was a bit fiddly, but that was all.

The orthodontist explained that she couldn't complete the procedure today because she still needed to fit something called a "Trans-palatal arch". This device would be holding my molars in position while the front teeth shoogled around into their correct places.

The side brackets had little spiky bits sticking up, so the orthodontist gave me some silicone wax to apply to cover them over. This helped a lot – I couldn't feel the brackets once this stuff was on.

I had to have the spacers left in, or at least have new ones fitted, but this wasn't as bad as last time.

In the meantime, I would be having my premolar on the left-hand side extracted, to make room for the toothsome tango that would be happening over the next year or so.