Super floss trauma

Well last night I attempted to floss my teeth for the first time in braces. I have to admit, I wasn't a regular flosser before I had my braces put on (occasionally I would use some of my boyfriends floss while he was flossing his teeth, only so I looked good and like I was caring for my teeth properly) so needless to say my floss technique isn't great.
I bought some Oral B super floss especially for the occasion and I was rather confused by the three different sections when I got it out of the packet, I didn't know what bit to use. I didn't use the specially designed reinforced end for easy threading under wires, I used the normal floss and struggled to thread it through the wires. I didn't use the strange spongey section, I thought that section was designed for a comfortable grip during the act of flossing. It's not. On further inspection of the packaging this morning I discovered you're meant to floss with it, it's good for brace wearers and larger gaps apparently.
I got round my top set of teeth doing what I presume is the correct flossing motion of backwards and forwards in about 20 mins, by this point my jaw was rather sore and I had shoulder and arm ache from holding my arm up in various odd angles to floss my stupid teeth.
I did consider giving up at this point, but I thought no, man up, it's a bit of jaw, shoulder and arm ache Natasha, finish flossing your teeth. So I embarked on the bottom set which was far harder as my teeth are much closer together and at funny angles, and then disaster struck! I got the stupid super floss stuck on my bracket. So there I was, stood in my bathroom at 11.30pm with this great big long piece of floss hanging out of my mouth, just wanting to cry. (Upon reflection I should of taken a picture of myself because I did look rather funny.) I did consider just going to bed with it in there and dealing with it in the morning as I was so tired but I took a big, deep yoga breath to calm me down and started to untangle it. I'm glad to say I didn't go to work today with floss hanging out of my mouth, I eventually got it out.
So tonight will be round 2 and I'm reading the instructions properly and starting a bit earlier than 11pm, wish me luck!

Picture update

I took some pictures on Friday 8th of June, a week on from when I had my braces fitted and I'm really impressed by how quickly my teeth are moving. I've noticed that my top teeth are staring to straighten out, my little snaggle tooth is slowly disappearing, its been pulled down to meet my other front tooth in length, and the bottom tooth that snaggle tooth met has also been brought forward a bit so it isn't leaning as far back in my mouth any more. I need to take some better pictures really and I will, I promise!

1 week in braces

1 week in braces

1 week in braces

Braces (almost) 1 week on

Wow a week (almost) has flown by! I hope the next year or so goes as quickly as that, it probably won't but I'm hopeful. So how has my first week in braces been? Sore and hungry, that's how it's been, rather sore and rather hungry indeed.
I'm a grazer, I eat little and often, probably every 2 hours during my working day I'll have something to eat or I'm snacking on nuts and fresh fruit, so I've had to cut that out this last week, mainly because it hurt to do anything other than swallow.
On Friday I cooked my man a brilliant birthday dinner of chicken and steak fajitas, with rice and salad, I was so hungry and it smelt lovely and looked so nice and yummy and it was all laid out on the table and then I realised I'm not going to be able to eat this. I gave it my best shot and had mainly rice, cut bits of chicken up really small and sort of chewed/mushed it up, I didn't attempt the steak or the peppers thought I should walk before I run. It just really hurt my teeth to chew anything, to have any more pressure on them was too much for me. I'm such a big wimp!
Saturday was pretty much the same, scrambled eggs for breakfast before we set off to London, couscous for lunch/dinner and a fair few Vodka and diet cokes. Then Sunday came and it all changed! I could chew again on the left hand side of my mouth without wanting to cry, so as we were still in London for my man's birthday weekend we went to a really nice French patisserie/cafe and had brunch! I had a crepe with honey, bananas and strawberries with Greek yogurt, it was sooooo good! I wanted another one but we had to get the train back so I held out till we got back home and then off we went to KFC for a good helping of fried chicken, perfect for a slightly hungover person that hasn't eaten properly for 3days! Granted I did have to cut it up small and avoided any really crunchy chips but I had a KFC in my stomach and I could chew again so it was a good day.
My teeth are still a bit tender but it is getting better, I just cant believe how much my teeth have moved all ready, I can feel my bite has changed and some teeth have moved a bit. On Thursday when i had them fitted I could really only feel the brackets touching the left hand side of my mouth/cheek but now I can feel them on the right hand side more. It's incredible. I bet they have only moved millimetres but still, it's great that they are moving!
I've ordered some special orthodontic brush heads for my electric toothbrush and some special floss, I'm getting a bit obsessed with cleaning my teeth, I'm worried that I'm not doing it right and they will all fall out. Does anyone have any tips on how best to clean bracey teeth?

Check out my new grill!!!

Here are some pictures of me Pre-braces and a couple of me with braces, I will take some better, with braces pictures soon, just quickly did these at work!

 Neutral

 Smiling

Teethy Smile

No Teeth Smile

The Naughty Teeth

My New Shiny Smile

My New Grill

I got braces on

Well I did it, I have braces and I never thought I would say this but I'm so bloody happy that I have braces. I had them fitted at 11.20 and I was really anxious and nervous yesterday morning so I took myself shopping, nothing like a bit of retail therapy to calm your nerves!
My Ortho Mr O'Neil was brilliant and so was my dental nurse, he made me feel relaxed and kept telling me how well I was doing and what a good job I was doing. At the time that was great to hear but when I think about it now all I was doing was lying there with my mouth open, some funny glasses on and breathing in a calm manner.
Having the brackets put on was fine, I had that lip stretcher thing in and had to bit down on a bit of cotton wool while he cleaned my teeth up a bit, then put the adhesive on and used a special torch/light thing to activate the adhesive then stuck on the brackets one by one. It was a very efficient affair, the dental nurse had them all ready each time, no messing around or fumbling which was nice, made me feel more relaxed.
It was so strange when he took the lip thing out and I could feel the brackets, they felt enormous, like I had a square of chocolate stuck on each tooth.
Then came the wire, I think I had a number 4 on the top and a number 2 on the bottom, not sure what all that means though. The bottom wire went on first and it felt strangely good, as he was tightening it I was thinking yes, this is what these pesky teeth need, they are heading in the right direction now. I quickly changed my mind when he did the top, that hurt a lot more than the bottom lol and because I still have a baby tooth incisor on the top I got to have a curly wurly wire going over that tooth as I don't have a bracket on it.
So I felt fairly good after I left the hospital, I had a good look at them in my car mirror and I don't mind them, they are a part of me and my smile now. I went shopping (again) and got some bits for my travelling tooth fairy kit; mini toothpaste, mini mouth wash, inter-dental brushes and nice cosmetic bag to keep it all in. Then I got some ingredients for my boyfriends birthday Peanut Butter and Chocolate cheescake, (it is his birthday today, Happy birthday Ben!) and I went to the checkout and the checkout lady was having a chat with me and there I was having a nice little conversation about the Jubilee Weekend with my braces on and she didn't recoil in horror or point and shout " EVERYBODY LOOK! THIS LADY HAS BRACES ON!" like I thought she would, it was fine. So I'm not worried about that any more and everybody at works has been great too.
Eating is a challenge, it hurts but that will go soon enough, yogurt doesn't hurt to eat nor does ice cream and peanut butter and chocolate cheescake batter, and I suspect it wont hurt to eat it when its cooked either. Brushing my teeth hurts, but again that will go soon, just used my yoga breathing to get me through a couple teeth that really hurt, but it's fine really, and trying to get to grips with inter-dental brushes is tricky I don't know what size I should use, I think I bought a number 4 not sure, I should of asked my Ortho but forgot in all the excitement. Anybody have any recommendations or does it all depend on the size of your own teeth? 
I'm off to London this weekend with my man to celebrate his birthday with his friends and his brother, so I got myself a nice new dress and some new shoes, (I couldn't resist!) and I'm pleased to announce that I can still drink vodka and diet coke, just with a straw! Yaaay!
Happy Jubilee weekend for those in the UK and happy weekend for everybody else!

It's brace face day tomorrow!

Well the day has finally come, I am getting my braces fitted tomorrow and starting my long journey to double jaw surgery to correct my underbite.
I'm scared about having them put on and how I will cope with them, how I will look with them, so really I'm just scared of the unknown and in 3 weeks time I'm going to be thinking you big silly wimp, what on earth were you scared about and why did you worry so much! I have worried so much I've given myself a mouth ulcer. Brilliant isn't it, I've given myself an ulcer before my braces have even had a chance at it.
The gravity of my little trip to the orthodontist tomorrow has also dawned on me, once those little metal brackets are on and the wire is threaded, that's it, I have committed myself to making my bite worse, to wisdom tooth extraction, to double jaw surgery, to having my mouth wired shut, to having a new face, to having a proper bite and I can't wimp out. So I am going to look towards that lovely end goal of having a proper bite whenever I get scared, or worried, or frustrated or fed up and try my hardest to stay positive and happy, and be less of a wimp.
If anybody has any tips for a fledgling brace wearer or essentials to buy for cleaning etc I would muchly appreciate the inside info.

10 days to go brace face nerves

I'm counting down the days till I enter the world of being a brace face, and if I'm honest I'm not looking forward to it, I'm scared, nervous, and worried. I don't think it will hurt having them put on (that's what I'm telling myself anyway) so I'm not too worried about that, I'm worried about how they will look. I know it's really vain to be worrying about that but we all have insecure days where we don't particularly like the look of ourselves and I'm not so sure that having a heap of metal in my mouth on said days is going to help.
I've been doing some crazy lady Google image searches about braces for the past couple of weeks attempting to familiarise myself with how braces look in peoples mouths so I don't burst into tears on my orthodontist when I look in the mirror after they have been fitted. So after a while I started to think...

Hey they don't look too bad, the ladies that wear lipstick with them look quite nice and attractive, yeah I can do that, I wear lipstick, I can be that person with the lipstick and the braces, make a feature out of them rather than trying to hide them. 

Then as I looked closer I started to realise there was a slight problem with my amazing plan...

Yes, look at all the lovely lipstick and brace wearing ladies, I can be that person, confident and smiling, look they all have nice white, straight teeth with braces on....... that meet.... together.....properly..... when they smile....... brilliant, they all have a correct bite!

Yes, I realised that I won't look like one of the nice lipstick and brace wearing ladies with their nice straight teeth that meet where they are supposed to for quite a while. They all had teeth that met properly, unlike mine. The whole point of my braces is to make my underbite worse so I can  have double jaw surgery and eventually  have a proper bite. 

So after a few hours/days of feeling sorry for myself and angry at the lipstick ladies for giving me false hope, I decided that I will be a lipstick and brace wearing lady! I will just be one with an underbite, and everyday I will try my very hardest to wear my lipstick and my stupid underbite with confidence and to remember the bigger picture, the end goal, straight teeth that meet properly. So tomorrow I am going on a shopping trip with my boyfriend, he is shopping for holiday clothes (5 weeks and 5 days to go!!!!) and I will be shopping for a brand new lipstick to apply in front of my orthodontist instead of crying on him.