Hardwear: The Start

So the one thing I did not ever consider about getting a mouth full of metal is that it tastes like...Well, metal. So that'll take some getting used to, as well as the bar touching my tongue and occasionally making me slur like I have the mumps or something.

Anyways, everything went entirely painlessly today, literally. As where with the first spacers they hurt and made it hard to chew, this entire procedure was easy and painless. Today I had my anchor put in, which is two bands around my teeth, and then a bar that goes across, along the roof of my mouth. After removing the spacers the bands just slipped in.

How an anchor works and how it's put in:

An Anchor holds back your back teeth, which have a natural inclination to move forward, kind of like politicians. This allows them to work with your front teeth so they have space to straighten out.

First you need spacers put in, these make room for the bands that go around your teeth, after an amount of time they can remove these and put in the bands. The band is sized to your tooth first, and then has an attachment welded on it else where.

They dry out your mouth and condition the tooth with something that tastes bitter to discourage you from touching it with your teeth. Then you rinse and spit, and they put in the bands with the help of some glue (and your assistance; biting down and squeezing when you're told). The glue is dried by an ultra violet light and one more rinse and spit and voila the first part of your anchor is complete. You may now spend you time running your tongue over the little metal clasps for the bar. The bar is v shaped bit of metal that runs along the roof of your mouth, they size it to your mouth and occasionally, if your mouth is retarded enough (like mine) spend a good deal of time twisting it into proper form. Putting in the bar is a little awkward and may have to be done a few times but it's painless. After that, unless you're only getting an anchor on top they'll put spacers in on the bottom so next appointment you can do it all over again!

The bottom spacers didn't hurt at all though I did need a spring spacer because my teeth were too tight in one area for the regular ones to fit.

Other than that and some payment issues I won't bore you with, it was rather uneventful. One of the lovely ortho ladies who was fitting me for the bands said "You're going to have to most beautiful before and afters" which, was in reference to my teeth being bad now but is also nice, because it's how I'm thinking of it now. "After all this my teeth will be straight...And won't that be something."

I really can't fathom it though..Should be an interesting ride

~E