:-# --> :-D

After 5 and a bit years (on and off, and on again) I had my braces out on Tuesday afternoon, and about time too! Though it was one of the weirdest appointments I've had at the hospital...

I got in on time, Monsters vs. Aliens was showing in the waiting room, pretty standard. My orthodontist was running late as usual, but when I eventually got called in, I saw another orthodontist instead, in fact she was the first consultant I saw 5 years ago. She said that the braces were coming off today and that I would need impressions taken. I was surprised how quickly the braces came off (there was a fair amount of pain involved), and at how long she took polishing the teeth to remove the residual glue.

After the metal was removed, I had to have impressions taken in order for the retainers to me made. Impressions are weird, it's odd having raspberry flavoured goo slowly setting around your teeth. My orthodontist was in a rush and she didn't wait long enough before removing the goo. Twice. I loved how easily the trays were removed: the last few times I've had the blocks in and it was a nightmare removing the trays - it felt like they were going to pull out all my teeth at once! I actually had 4 impressions taken that day, and I'll never need them again! Let's hope so anyway.

And that was it. She said "Right, that's done" and just disappeared. The nurse gave me the form to get my next appointment, but reception was closed for the evening so I gave it straight back.

Hopefully they've remembered to make an appointment very very soon. Now I'm just worrying about how far my teeth are going to drift before the retainers come in.

When I got home, I thought I’d see how long it would take for my parents to notice that my teeth were no longer full of metal. I hadn’t told them that my braces were coming off that appointment, I thought it would be fun to make it a surprise. When I was asked how the appointment went, I just mumbled “It was all right”. 15 seconds - that's all it took for them to notice.

When I brush my teeth, the brush just slides across the teeth, it doesn't feel like it's doing very much at all. I was used to the brush getting caught up in the metal. I'm glad my orthodontist spent so much time polishing the teeth, they now feel almost unreal - I've never had teeth which felt like this before!

I'll get some photos up here soon, when I take some photos.