Week Seventeen

Finally a post on the right day! Yay for me! I do not notice much difference since last week but to me, the difference since I've started this journey is amazing! The proof is in the pictures:

First Day


Week Seventeen


Quite Stunning, don't you think? I wonder how amazing they'll look in another 612 days(approximate). May be I'll be able to be a "Teeth Model" and get jobs selling toothpaste? HA!

The pain has subsided for the most part since week sixteen. I can bite now, which is nice and I was able to eat steak (double nice) if I cut it in small pieces. They are still hypersensitive to hot/cold but since I can chew solid food, I'm not going to complain.

I feel bad for my poor husband having to listen to me whine these last three weeks. This power chain/heavy wire combo has been very painful and I'll admit I've whined the whole time. It's just hard some days and while I KNOW this is the best thing to keep me from a life of pain and bad chewing, I will admit that if I would have known it would hurt this much I would have thought a little more about this. It's the first real "crisis of conscience" I've had with my braces.

I know I'd have done the same thing, I mean the alternative was my alignment getting worse, having more difficulty chewing and my TMJ growing worse and more painful. I don't think I would have taken the decision as glibly as I did. This is a thousand times more difficult than it was when I was a kid. I really don't remember them hurting except the first week and then only for a day or so after an adjustment. Three weeks of solid pain is not fun.

They say it's worse for an adult, that the nerves and roots are established and that this is what causes the pain. I believe them.

On the plus side, I go back to the Ortho in just 3 weeks, I'm halfway done with this power chain and I'm hoping that I won't need another one. At least not right away.

Oh well, it gives me a "medical reason" for all the ice cream I've been eating, right? ;-)