10 months into braces

It's been about 10 months since Lesley-Anne was fitted with braces and I thought it was time for an update.

The progress has been slow and steady. Every two or three weeks, she'll go back for an adjustment - either to adjust the chain or tighten the wires. The day after these visits are the most uncomfortable for her, she'll usually go on a soup diet as biting puts too much tension on the teeth. We normally try to give her a wide berth on those days as she'll be about as congenial as a crocodile with a belly ache.

Having said that, the progress is clearly visible. She used to have a canine that was almost completely overlapped by an incisor, causing her not to be able to grind her teeth sideways. Today, that tooth is nicely positioned in the correct arch, meaning she can move her jaw freely.

For the past week, she's had to hook these tiny rubber bands on wires along the top and bottom molars on each side. They're supposed to align your top and bottom teeth but what these do is basically clamp your jaws shut. You take them off only for meals and wear them even when you're sleeping. Here's a picture I took to show the size of the bands in relation to a 10 ct coin.

This is the most uncomfortable part Lesley-Anne has experienced to date. Due to the prolonged tension, during the first hour or so when she puts them on, they sometimes give her a terrible ear ache. We're praying she won't have to wear them for more than two weeks!

There's still a long way to go, according to the dentist. Aligning the teeth is a slow and painstaking process and others have told me the last six months are the toughest to wait out as it seems like nothing is really happening. Well, with any luck, Lesley-Anne is almost halfway done. She just has to focus on the end results.