Day 200/Final Day: And they're off!
The deed is done!
I can't believe it!
No seriously, I still have this awful feeling like I've taken it off too soon and I'm going to wake up tomorrow with my teeth everywhere.
I swear to God I just saw it move and now there's some gaps and I'm desperate for some retainers asap.
I think I had a bit of a one of a kind experience when it came to removing braces. I know it's not meant to hurt, but mine did. And this is why:
I have very sensitive gums
Also, I happened to have sensitive lips connected to my gums
When you have a combination of both, tugging on the two, it becomes a real pain.
Pretty much what happened was that I had my lips pulled open as they yanked out my brackets. The actual process doesn't hurt but the process of keeping my lips and jaw open was really saw. My orthodontist was actually a bit worried because I started bleeding and started looking for cuts and it turns out that it was just because mine was surprisingly sensitive and was a bit swollen. It was a bit of an embarrassing procedures because I started tearing up a little bit.
After she literally took a pair of dental pliers and pulled my brackets off, she spent ages actually cleaning the glue off my teeth. She was terribly thorough (and also pointed out the staining in my teeth...because...well...you know I did drink a ridiculous amount of coffee...).
(Let me clarify, I am actually exaggerating. They are not actually yanking the brackets off your teeth but it is a matter of physics; they squeeze the bracket off and it's done in a way that it should cleanly pop off your teeth without damaging your tooth yet leaving some excess glue. That's why the ortho usually has to polish your teeth off after. The sound is a bit terrifying though and some excess force is necessary but it really doesn't hurt unless your gums are weak!)
In addition, she even shaved down my teeth. Like crazy wha?! I have like shaved down actor-type teeth since it was apparently a part of the package! Unfortunately, teeth whitening are not a part of the package so before I'll be leaving for Australia, I'll be booking in a scaling and polishing appointment. I actually have Misha Collins-type teeth (set with the overbite too!)
She even offered to shaved down my fang but I kind of like my fangs. I keep them just in case I can opt to be a vampire. Don't want to be a lame vampire if it ever happens.
After that, she did some impressions of my teeth; she took two just in case I lost my retainers in Australia so that there would be a spare in Malaysia and I'd just give her a buzz if anything happened. I'm awaiting her phonecall on when those will be ready since they have to send it to the labs to get it made.
In any case, the whole procedure took a good hour and a half (actually longer than them putting on the braces). She was a real perfectionist, despite our issues before, and I'm really pleased with the results.
I lost a good chunk of my files just now whilst I was trying to recover it from my backups so here are the best photos I could find:
After:
I have a really bad habit of smiling with my tongue.
Comparing before and after:
I used to have some epic staining then and she even scrubbed it off during today's appointment!
I still am extremely nervous about my teeth moving about so I'm being a bit careful. I'm still chewing using my back teeth since I'm so used to having braces and having a bit of a phantom braces issue. I'm so worried that my teeth will move back out of place but I guess that's what the retainers are for!
The gap before (near my fang) has started to open up which makes me a bit nervous! I noticed that I still have a bit of an overbite because that still wasn't resolved since I chose to remove it early out of fear of overcorrection.
I can't stop licking my teeth ahh.
As for the updates for this website, I'll be posting my last few entries on how the retainers feel like and any interesting updates that I'll have with my teeth. I'll keep it going if anyone has any questions and I'll freely answer them or start posting up braces tips. In the mean time, the posts will sort of slow down after now and I'll continue posting about my personal life here at my junky tumblr or focusing on my psychology blog for my PhD updates.
It's been a short but more memorable journey and I have never been around such supportive people as fellow bracketeers. I'll be putting my last reflections of having braces on my next update when I get my retainers.
Love you guys.