Moving along: 3rd Adjustment & 1st dental cleaning with braces!

So today was a big day for my teeth. First went to the ortho and had my wires taken out, then went onto my dentist's for the cleaning. Felt weird not to have the wires in for an hour, but kind of wish i'd bought my camera, as without wires I could much better see my progress. The staff at my dental practice who had last seen me just over 3 months ago for my extractions couldn't believe how much my teeth had moved! The cleaning went well, apparently i'm doing a great job at cleaning, so my crazy routine seems to be paying off. There were a few zingers and some sensitivity but not as bad as an orthodontic adjustment! The hygienist said now my teeth no longer overlap and now she's cleaned the parts of teeth that were formerly covered by other teeth, my cleanings should get easier and easier. The staff at the practice were so sweet telling me the only way is up and that i'm not going to regret going through this process - always reassuring to hear :)

After I went back to the ortho for my 3rd adjustment - youch! Wanted: a higher pain threshold. May have even gasped a few times. Basically my cross bite on my left side makes it hard to get the wire in, without a lot of pressure. Same deal as the last adjustment.
My bottom teeth got their 4th wire a steel one. After a lot of attempts 2 of the doors wouldn't close so the assistant moved onto the top. The top new wire would not go in, so they went back to the 3rd wire. The assistant said to me: 'I do not want to give you any more pain than you've already had today!' I have the same assistant every time which is great and she is awesome. Then the ortho came over and hammered in the remaining 2 doors telling me to hold onto the seat arms while he did it lol! Then they gave me power springs back on the extraction gaps and put some coily metal on my upper 4 front teeth to prevent them from splitting apart. Basically the ortho said he wants to move the upper canines back into the extraction gaps, so i'm expecting bigger gaps between the four front teeth and the canines... Hillbilly! He explained the four front teeth will come back too eventually to correct the overbite, but can't move them all at once - makes sense to me, it's a process... Not thrilled about having gaps at the front, but i've come this far and have to suck it up.

The ortho also told me today that in approximately 2 appointments i'm getting the forsus appliance on my left side. The forsus appliance is some crazy spring device... Here's a pic:

Picture credit: http://www.eckelsortho.com/Portals/0/forsus.png
Erm given my teeth currently hurt like hell from the new power springs top and bottom and new bottom wires... I really have no comment regarding this appliance and how fun it looks. The silver lining is that my original treatment plan had me having this appliance on both sides of my mouth. The good news is that now my right side probably won't need it. Just my left side - so am envisaging one sided eating from a lopsided chip munk... But that's 2 months ahead... Watch this space...