First wire change and no elastics..

So I just got home from my first wire change, and I'm not sure if I mentioned it previously, but the old wire didn't go all the way to my back molars.  This new one does. I'm told it's because the previous wire wasn't strong enough and would have just snapped off from the pressure.  Interesting! Well, now all the top teeth are engaged and I'm happy to have them all be invited to the party.

The other thing is that I asked if they had any different coloured ligatures for my front clear braces rather than clear ones, since the clear ones stain so quickly, and when they do they turn a yellowy colour that's really unattractive. Well, I was thinking grey ligatures, but instead they wrapped a wire around them and between each tooth (just on the front clear brackets. The metal ones have doors on them and no elastic ligatures).  Here's a picture:

I'm not sure if you can really see the difference, but it's there.  Just a note about the terminology: although the elastics that go around your brackets to hold the wire in place ARE technically elastics (the ones people are usually referring to when they talk about "changing the colours of your elastics") I am calling them ligatures. There are other elastics used with braces, there are ones that go across all your teeth along the wire (these are called "power chains", meant to help close or prevent gaps) and there are the ones that go from hooks on the top braces to the bottom braces, in various arrangements.  These I call elastics, and they don't typically come in different colours. (At least I don't think so. Since I don't have bottom braces, I haven't had any of those and don't know much about them yet.)

Anyways, my new "ligatures" (actually wires) are an off-white colour and are apparently Teflon-coated so hopefully they won't stain with all the coffee I like to drink and curry and chocolate I like to eat. If they work, I'll be sticking with this new situation in the long run.  I love me some coffee!!!

Dr. O also set me up for a bottom braces date - March 5! I'm pretty excited.  Not to have more braces in my mouth, but to get this show on the road!! He did tell me he's giving the bone grafting time to take in the fractured/extracted area, and that he's nervous about moving the bottom teeth too soon considering the bone damage in the area and that the teeth are at risk. (This is normal for any teeth that have had trauma). It never feels good to hear that he's nervous about causing damage by putting on braces, but my dentist was nervous working on my mouth at times too, so I understand that I'm an extreme case for them. Anyhow, I think that date will also be another wire change for the top too. Exciting!

I also mentioned to him that there should be MRI results available soon, and he was definitely interested in seeing them. He also thought he would be sharing them with my dentist, Dr. T. as she would want to know what was happening too.  It's so nice to have such caring professionals looking after me!

In looking at the photo above, I can really see the unevenness in my chin and you can kind of tell that my jaw is off to one side.  I now see why Dr. P said he might do a little genioplasty (chin plastic surgery...I believe an implant) to even things out. He said that moving my jaw back to centre might fix that and I may not need it, but we won't know until surgery time.  I've come to realize that while this asymmetry is true, and it is there, it's not something people are looking at me and noticing.  I think that throughout this experience I'm truly learning to accept myself (although this is coming very slowly for me!) and to nit-pick less about my appearance.  Which is like huge weight slowly lifting off my shoulders. Sometimes it's a feather at a time lifting off, but hey. --- Progress is a process. ---