Well, tonight is the last night my teeth will spend in the aligners. It was just a four-month process and they feel like all-new teeth.
I mean, cosmetically they’re still too close to the ivory edge of the paint sample card. And my front teeth are still shorter than my canines (just like Mom’s).
But on the other hand, I can actually floss now without blood and violence. And before, the force exerted between the teeth caused every tooth to chip, like tiny tectonic plates rubbing against each other.
I started out comforted to have little snug life vests around every tooth, but in the last few weeks it has felt like I had a too-tight bra around every tooth, and taking it off felt like a little mouth vacation.
But in about 12 hours, I will take them off and then … start eating and flossing nonstop, I guess.
3 responses to “Tomorrow the teeth are unfettered”
… you don’t have to wear a retainer at nights after the process? Fascinating! I had years of braces, and *also* hypermobility, and my teeth… moved back, more or less, even with the overnight retainer, so then I got a springy retainer to wear all the time. I eventually gave up; they just are where they are, and if I got more of them extracted, maybe we could Brace them into position and have them stay put, but fundamentally I think they are just too crowded to sit still, sigh.
(But: if they recommend you wear the retainer, and you do not want to do the braces thing again: wear the retainer. And if this is the end of you wearing the retainer, maybe try it on once a week to see if your teeth are moving at all and wear it overnight if they have inclinations to do so?)
(I did not learn until after I was *thirty* that hypermobile people often have their teeth move back after braces to at least some degree. My orthodontist was So Disappointed In Me because he was sure I was not wearing my retainer and after All These Miserable Years of braces, and, look, yes, I was a teen and a slacker in many ways and lots of people lie about their dental habits and this was not an *unreasonable* assumption just an incorrect assumption but: actually: it turns out it’s the hypermobility.)
KC – Well! Funny you should mention it. I took out my plastic teeth because I thought I was done, and walked around all day with naked teeth like a tramp, and then got a message from the application that said, “Congrats, and keep wearing the last set until you hear from your dentist.”
Also, were you ever able to set the dentist straight?
I found out over 15 years later and while living on the opposite coast and I do not know whether he was still in practice and was further fairly confident that he wouldn’t remember, so I didn’t.
I guess I probably should have, in case he ran into any more hypermobile crowded-mouth kids, though! Oops.