End of 5th stop

Omg sorry for the lack of updates as I was oversea, to America and Taiwan! (It was a fun 18 days holiday!).

Ok this weekend I will be heading back to Malaysia for my 6th appointment. Which means I'm on the treatment for 5 full months. Time flies. Here's my current condition:

Both the gaps of my removed teeth are closed yippie! But there are now gaps in between my first molars and second molars, which I don't know why. Ortho said that my upper row is done woot. They won't be moving anymore and will just stay like this till the end of the treatment ( and forever I hope). I noticed that my bottom row is kinda slanted which is due to the gap of the molars not being even. The gap on the left is bigger than the right. It looks kinda ugly from the front :( by the way the two irritating separators are still glued to my teeth, if you are wondering. It has been 3 months. And I don't see them getting removed anytime soon. Not before my bottom row move in more (when all the gaps are closed). Patience patience! So far I'm kinda happy with the result. I feel like my feature changed, especially my jaw, to the better. Hopefully it won't revert back when the treatment is done!

4th Stop

Just had my forth appointment last Saturday. My teeth didn't move at all during the pass one month. I suspected it was due to my molars no longer touching the two separators but my top teeth are touching my bottom brackets causing them not able to move forward. I raised my concern to my ortho and he did some re-adjustment. He also changed both my top an bottom wires for the first time.  Probably to a thicker wire. True enough my top teeth started moving to the front. My front teeth are now some space away from the bottom brackets. I can feel that my top teeth are protruding out now. I regretted not telling him during the last appointment as it was already the case even then. One month wasted. Hopefully next month I can remove the separators... Another problem i am hsbing now is that my bottom teeth look slanted. It is becsuse the gap between the removed left tooth closes far faster than the right. So the 'semi circle' shape left side of my bottom teeth is smaller than the right. It is pretty obvious when my mouth opens big enough. Hopefully the gap gets smaller soon.

 I chose gray band this time but somehow it look translucent. Not quite like what I expected.

3rd Stop

Just went for my 3rd appointment last Saturday and returned in disappointment. The two irritating separators are still attached to my teeth. Ortho said that my teeth didn't move enough yet. The top row isn't forwarding enough and the bottom row isn't backwarding enough. Currently my top row is touching the brackets of my bottom row. It has to move more to the front to be able to get over the bottom brackets. That will be when the separators can be removed..

I just noticed that ortho used power chain for my bottom row for the first time.

Baby blue this time. Started liking this color more and more :D

1.5 months

1.5 months on braces. 8 days to next appointment. Still not able to close my mouth due to the separators.

My top row has started to move forward. Somehow the gap in between the top and bottom row is slowly decreasing too.

I am really glad that for the first time in my life my upper lip is more protruding than the lower lip in my side profile :)

However, due to the 2 irritating separators, I am still not able to close my mouth fully. Which means I still have problem chewing even though the teeth no longer causing me pain. Worse, ulcers have been developing non-stop at 3 of the 4 canines. They are unbearable. 

20 days to my next appointment..

OMG

See what happened to my top row after mere 6 days? All straighten! Yay~ Can't wait for them to go further in front.

2nd Stop

Had my second appointment last Saturday (20th July). Yep I fast forwarded my appointment as I forsaw some problems keeping the original appointment date. I As I will be going oversea to Korea 4 days after the original appointment, I fear of not being able to eat anything during the trip. True enough. I was really glad I changed my appointment, because my ortho decided to put on the top braces for me! I never expect that so fast, like maybe 2-3 months later after my bottom row shifts to form a 'smaller circle' so that my front row can then be shifted to the 'front'. Well if my ortho said my top is ready, then why not. The procedure of putting up the top braces is the same as the bottom. This time round, I didn't need to wait 20 mins for the dry-off as he went adjusting my bottom row in the mean time.  I chose purple band this time =D

Ortho sticked on 2 white 'separators' to my top inner molars (red arrows), which resulted in the top and bottom rows not being able to be fully closed.

The front teeth of both rows are still 'hanging' when I fully close my mouth (separators touch the bottom molars).

He explained that this is necessary for the top front teeth to move outwards, without any barriers (bottom front teeth). With the separators there, technically bitting with front teeth are impossible. Chewing with back teeth are impossible too. So? Chew with separators. Meaning I can only chew with one tooth with the separator on each side. Also means, porridge week again! Which was why I was really glad I changed my appointment date (extra 2 weeks to get use to it before flying off). Orto did said that slowly I will be able to close my mouth completely. Does that mean the separators will get thinner and thinner everytime I chew and slowly be gone? And by then my front teeth will be at the front when I close my mouth? I really look forward to that!

The whole process of putting on top braces, and adjusting the bottom row took around 30 minutes. I assumed that the same pain will start occurring few hours later for the top row, but surprisingly nope, I didn't feel the pain. Just very mild pain, when the separators touch the bottom row. However, both side (tiger teeth) of the top row are giving me mild ulcers, due to the tiny screws. I am used to the bottom braces being in my mouth. But I don't think I can get used to the top one so fast.

Oh, putting on the top braces created a problem for me. I couldn't speak clearly now. The word pronunciation, especially those with 's' and 'z', are off.  I speak like a 3 years old kid now.. :(