I’ve had my upper braces for 5 days. I have some brackets on the lower arch but not all of them because there isn’t room yet; hence there’s no lower wire either. I’ll be getting the rest in a few months I think (or whenever there’s room!). In the end I got clear brackets on my front upper teeth. After I had it done I had regrets, thinking I should have got the metal ones. I was even thinking that I might ask to get them changed to metal but I’m feeling better about them now and I’ll just leave them the way they are.

In terms of pain, I had a bit of aching on the second day, and I get the occasional twinge, but for the most part I can eat normally. It’s a fraction difficult to bite into some things, but chewing is mostly fine. Something I’m already sick of, though, is brushing my teeth after everything I eat! I mean, before I got braces I brushed my teeth twice a day anyway, so it’s really only one extra time (unless I have a snack, which I’ve now decided not to, to cut down the brushing frequency), but it’s still annoying! It takes a bit of the enjoyment out of eating as well, knowing I’ll just have to brush it all away afterwards.

The day after I got them, I went to an end of year dinner for TAFE. I’d initially planned not to go because I thought I might be a bit self-conscious, or in pain, but the day I got my braces I thought I may as well get out there and get used to people seeing them, so I went. I’m glad I did - I had a good time, even though I didn’t eat anything (I wasn’t brave enough to try eating in public, plus I didn’t want to have to brush my teeth in a public toilet!). I’m becoming less self-conscious of them, but I still catch myself smiling at people with my mouth closed, so obviously I’m not completely over it yet.

I had my follow-up appointment today, where the ortho asked if I had any ulcers or sores. I told him about a bracket at the back that’s been cutting into my cheek, and he had a look and directly poked the sore part (ow!), and then got some plier-y things and twisted the offending tube out of the way. Much better! I rinsed with salt water a couple of times today, which gave some relief, but now the tube is out of the way, hopefully the salt water will actually fix the problem rather than just temporarily alleviating the pain.