Well it's official. I have braces. I went in at 8:00 this morning feeling a mixture of anxiety and excitement. The assistant made me feel very comfortable though and talked me through the whole procedure. Everything was done in just under 2 hours.


When the brackets were first applied, the assistant told me to bite down and make sure I could chew, but due to my overjet, the brackets on my top front teeth kept hitting the brackets on my bottom front teeth before I could even bite in the back. The orthodontist applied globs of glue to 2 of my back molars to build them up so I can chew. It is a very weird feeling but the glue will be removed as soon as my bite corrects some.


Luckily, my mouth hasn't been too sore yet, but I do feel like I'm constantly chewing on rocks. Eating has been quite an adjustment. I'm sticking to soft foods right now simply because I have to teach myself to eat all over again. When eating, I feel like something is going to fall out of my mouth at any minute and that food is getting stuck everywhere. It's pretty embarrassing, but I'll get used to it.


Here are some pictures that I took right after the braces were put on. Notice my hot pink ligatures! I decided that if I'm adult with braces, I might as well have fun with it! I love the pink and choosing my colors is the one really fun thing about this whole process. :)

Well one week from today I will officially be "braced." Right now I am feeling a strange mixture of both excitement and anxiety. I'm happy that this is finally happening, but no matter how much I research the subject or how many other people's stories I read online, I really don't know what to expect.


I went in yesterday to have that pesky metal spacer replaced with a nice rubber one. It definitely feels a lot better, but my mouth overall has already developed a dull ache and I can't really chew at all without experiencing pain anymore. I can't imagine how much worse it's going to get once the actual braces go on.


In other news, my 28th birthday is tomorrow. I think a turtle caramel cheesecake sounds like a good birthday cake. I doubt I'll be able to eat one of those for a while. ;)

Welcome to my blog! The purpose of this blog is to document my progress with adult braces and to share my experience with the world.

I have always had embarrasingly crooked teeth. Unfortunately, since we didn't have a lot of money growing up or any insurance, I was never able to get braces when my peers were getting them in highschool. As a result, I have spent most of my life being self conscience about my smile. I always smile in a way that doesn't show all of my teeth and do my best to cover them up when talking. Many people I know don't even realize how bad my teeth actually are, but since I am fully aware of it, it bothers me. My husband didn't even really know until I showed him a couple weeks ago and he said "Wow, your teeth really are crooked." Gee thanks, hun..

Now that I am a professional working adult making my own money, I decided to start researching braces. I also have great insurance benefits which cover $1500 of adult braces which certainly helps! I had a consultation with my orthodontist and was given an estimate of 15 to 18 months of treatment (which of course I am taking with a grain of salt). My x-rays, models, and photos were done on May 16 and the braces will go on on May 31. At the x-ray appointment, they also put spacers around 4 of my molars where the bands will go.

As for spacers, they have been an interesting experience in and of themselves. Three of my molars have rubber spacers around them which are like bright blue rubber bands. These aren't so bad. They just feel like food is stuck between my teeth that I can't pick out. The forth molar has metal spacers, however, because the crowding was too tight to fit the rubber ones in. This one is a real treat. Imagine having a piece of metal jammed between your teeth that jabs your gums each time you bite down. I have had to stop biting on that side altogether and am actually going back tomorrow to see if they can replace them with more rubber ones. I was told that after a few days, there may be enough space to do so.

Now I am going to post some of the most embarrassing pictures I have ever shared with anyone, let alone the entire Internet. These are my "before" pictures. Please ignore the quality. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take closeup pictures of your own mouth? You can easily see how bad my crowding is in these pics. You can also see that my teeth aren't the whitest in the world, but I'll fix that once the braces are off. Blame it on coffee. In the first picture, you can also see my lovely spacers.