Hello everyone! I've decided to start a blog following my journey with braces. I've had my braces on for 1 month and 7 days, since I got them on November 7, 2013. Already there have been changes to my teeth, but I still have a long way to go. My ortho never told me how long I will have them on for. As of right now I only have my top braces on. I don't know when I'm supposed to get my bottoms on either. I go for my first tightening on February 13. Here is a picture of my teeth before braces:

As you can see my two front teeth are angled backwards and my two teeth next to them are uneven. I have two holes in my gums where there should be two teeth but that's because I took this picture after I got two teeth extracted for my braces. I got my braces on two days after I got my extractions. Here's a picture of my first day with braces:

My braces here are obviously all up and down and crooked...kind of like a rollercoaster! Haha. Getting them on took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. It didn't hurt too bad but when they put the bands on my back molars, that hurt because the spacers only created a little space since my teeth were really crowded. It also hurt a little when they put the wire on but it wasn't too bad. My teeth were sore for about a week and a half after I got them. Every once and a while certain teeth with be sore but that's because they're moving. :) This is a picture of my braces after 1 month and 3 days:



In this picture, the left tooth next to my front teeth has moved down a lot and my front teeth straightened out quite a bit. also the right one, has turned a bit and moved down also. On the left, you can't see but there's a big gap still from where I got the extraction but the have to leave that open because I have an impacted tooth. This means that one tooth is stuck up in my gums. My ortho said that if it doesn't come in by next September, I will have to have surgery to get it moved down. In that surgery they would cut a window around the tooth, add a bracket to the tooth and attach it to the wire and later on once it has been moved, will be threaded through the wire also along with the others. the other gap on the right side has closed a lot.

Cleaning braces isn't that hard. I NEVER get food stuck in my braces. I never bite into my food I always rip it into pieces then I suck on them and swallow. So I never have to worry about that. I brush 2 times a day but sometimes I will brush after I eat something really sugary because the sugar can get under the brackets and create cavities and that wouldn't be good. I also floss 1 sometimes 2 times a day. It's better to try and floss at night but sometimes i'll be too tired so I floss extra well in the morning. My ortho gave me a braces cleaning kit that I bring with me almost everywhere I go, but I normally just put it in my mom's purse since I'm 14 and I don't want to carry that around with me. Here's a picture of the stuff that is in my braces kit:

I personally bought the mini toothpaste and added that to my braces kit. ok so from left to right: The white packet contains threaders to help floss. that little blue ting in the front that looks like a blue threading needle, that's what they look like. Then I have a mini travel toothbrush, with a red cap, a proxy brush (the little red thing with a clear cap) that helps clean around the brackets, it looks like a mini Christmas tree, a 2 minute timer, a mirror to help see around the inside of your mouth and stuff, floss, and mint wax for when a bracket is bothering me or if my wire is poking me.

I'll try to update this blog weekly but it all depends on whether I'm grounded or not...well see y'all soon!