Monday, August 17, 2009


I really don't know why I bother going to the dentist with hope any more.

I've been wearing my braces patiently ever since Dec 2007, enduring countless ulcers, bleeding gums, stabbing pains and generally the discomfort and inconvenience of braces in general.

I also hate the elastics.

Then the dentist says in June that it might be able to be removed by August if I'm good and keep wearing my elastics. So I do, and wear them every day like a good girl.

Then I go back in July, and apparently I've been TOO GOOD (wth?!?!) wearing the elastics, and my teeth have moved out too much. So now I have to wear elastics to move them BACK. I cry inside, but not much I can do, so I wear them. The dentist tells me to wear them only until my front teeth move back out again, then stop.

So this month I go back, and the dentist says it's just nice. Great! She takes out the top wire of my braces, muttering something about wearing elastics in a different way, and I am apprehensive but at this point I've worn elastics in so many ways that I'm sure it can't be that bad. At the very least it probably won't be a very strong wire because she doesn't want my front teeth to move in that much.

But NOOOOOO.

After some tweaks she replaces the wire in my mouth, and immediately I can feel that it's a harder, stronger wire than the one before (you learn these things, having worn braces for 2 years...teeth are surprisingly sensitive things) AND she slips when trying to secure the wire to my teeth, and it hurts. Then as if that weren't bad enough, she instructs me to wear the elastics in a way that completely pulls my teeth shut together. I can't open my mouth at all without removing the elastics. Apparently, this is to 'pull my teeth closer together so that I can bite'.

At this point I nearly want to cry. It just seems to be going from bad to worse. She said she would monitor it when I came back in September, and if all goes well she would take it out in October...although considering she said much the same thing in June, I'm not hopeful.

Next month I am just going to go to the dentist with no expectations whatsoever. If it comes off, it comes off, if it doesn't, whatever.