Had my ortho appointment this afternoon, and was surprised to find that I needed more equipment in my mush. The orthodontist was concerned that the gap in my teeth wasn't reducing as fast as she had hoped. Therefore, she fitted a power chain. I had not expected this so had not done my usual research on ArchWired - I was imagining a(nother) huge hunk of metal in my mouth. In fact, the chain is made of elastic, as Archwired explain here: http://www.archwired.com/power_chains.htm

The orthodontist also fitted a "Z-string" around my gappy teeth, although it seemed more like a G-string to me, as it was twanging a merry tune while she was working with it. In addition, I have the thick wire back on my upper teeth, and a thicker wire on my lower ones - so my mouth was feeling pretty crowded when I left the dentists.

As threatened, here are the pictures:

I particularly like the big hook things on the corner brackets - I'm feeling like a cyborg with all this lot!