day 75

So today I had another orthodontist appointment..
I got some really good news :)
And some not so great.

The expander is doing its job nicely. After turning the key a few times at today's visit my orthodontist told me that my expansion is now complete! Hallelujah! No more turning, bye bye spanner!
:) I now need to leave the device in place for a while for everything to retain its positioning.
He also said that my next visit, he will take the expander out! I was so happy to hear this, I wasn't holding up much hope for talks about removal today and yet here I was getting ready to hear when to book the procedure. I am booked in for the 17th April, that makes my total time with the palate expander to be (at a quick glance) 131 days, four months, one and a half weeks. I have to say that I am pretty happy with that! In roughly six weeks time, I will be expander free!

So that is my good news, finally I will be able to feel my mouth, my tongue will no longer rest against a piece of metal and I shall never have to turn that thing again!

As we were talking about it all, my ortho was saying how nice my teeth are starting to look. *blush
I have to say that I agree, much more attractive than even a few weeks ago!
My smile is broader, my teeth are starting to move into position, bar those horrible second incisors and after my dentist removed the mottling they are looking much healthier also.
This is all good, they are looking nice and most are healthy.
But my lower central incisor (i believe I have mentioned before about this one having some receding in the gums) seems to cause my orthodontist some concern. He went on to tell me that he is starting to think it would be a much safer and better idea to remove this tooth rather than my first premolar on that side. This is because of the receding gum, I will never get it back and it is looking quite low. This tooth is at much larger risk of decay and future extraction than any other tooth in my mouth, so he thinks it is best to be rid of it rather than take the healthy premolar, and then need this removed in the future anyway.
I asked him how it would look and how we would fill the gap and he showed me his teeth!
He had braces about 6 years ago and had crowding at the front, rather than remove two premolars, he had one incisor removed and the braces filled the gaps with the surrounding incisors and canines. His teeth did not look off-set or anything like that, just straight healthy teeth.
He then told me that it would leave quite an unattractive gap once he did remove it so it was also my choice. I agree with him, after all of this I would rather lose the tooth which is least healthy, the gap will be ugly, but its on the bottom arch and I can hide it easily.


Anyway I will post again soon when I get over the excitement of knowing the expander will soon be a thing of the past!! Bring on the braces, they will be a walk in the park!