I can’t believe it’s been over a month already.  I’ve actually already had my top fixed appliance (brace) on for 5 weeks and 3 days.  It now feels like a part of me and we’re so used to seeing it, it feels like I’ve always had it.  I’ve been doing my best to remember to take a photo every week to create a time lapse at the end, but may have forgotten once.  Time just goes so quickly nowadays.

Here are a few things I wanted to note down now I’m over a month in:

• Still only chewing on the right side of my mouth.  Mainly eating soft food.  I will only eat with a knife and fork or with hands if very soft or can be broken into tiny pieces.
• Have to brush with my electric toothbrush only.  It feels too bizarre and scrapey with my manual – it makes me cringe, kind of like a knife scraping on a plate/fingers down a blackboard sensation!
• No obvious movement yet – perhaps my peg tooth has moved back a little.  I’m curious to see if the orthodontist notices a difference at the next appointment.
• No one really bats an eyelid when I talk to them.  I thought more people would look at me strangely, but it’s been no different to normal.  There are still several family members and friends I haven’t seen, so they might ask.  I wonder if people feel rude asking – even some family members haven’t commented!  I don’t mind talking about it though if anyone is curious about anything, so they can ask away!  Or perhaps they just don’t really care.
• If I press lightly on the brace on a few teeth I can instantly feel the pressure, but not on others.  I can mainly feel this on the front teeth and the back teeth don’t feel under pressure at all now.
• Went to a party with finger food and avoided eating anything!  Didn’t fancy mushing quiche all over the brace or sandwich and other food was hard salad sticks which I can’t eat anyway.  First time I’ve avoided social eating because of the brace.  I could have asked for cutlery, but didn’t want to make my eating obvious!
• Photos of me showing brace look awful, but I hate photos of me anyway, so not unusual for me to try and avoid being captured!

All is well.  The experience is just fine and I have no less confidence with the brace on which was one of my main concerns.  Three and a half weeks until my first tightening – then I might be moaning in a blog post about the pain!!