My first brace tightening

Posted on 4:26pm Thursday 12th May 2016

I wasn’t worried about having my braces tightened today. Having the braces put on was so quick, pain free and easy, that I knew it would be a simple thing to do. My orthodontist is also very good and so friendly that I totally feel at ease around her.

I did think I would feel the same pain afterwards as when I first had them on. I was expecting to not want to eat for a few days as the pain would stop me, so we were a bit naughty last night! As I thought the teeth would hurt so much we had a ‘final meal before tightening’! A very naughty take away pizza!

Well, I should have had the sweet potato and veggie bean chilli I had originally planned on having as my teeth are not painful at all!

The appointment took all of ten minutes, if that. I was expecting maybe half hour as I really had no idea what happened at a tihtening appointment. The actual tightening took maybe two whole minutes! The rest of the time was spent finding my mould and having a look to see any difference.

So what happened at my first brace tightening?

The brace brackets were left place and just the wire was changed and tightened. My wire was changed for a slightly thicker wire. The orthodontist took out the old wire and popped the new thicker wire into the end brackets. She then twisted this into the brackets on the other teeth one by one. This perhaps hurt a little on a couple of teeth which have been feeling quite sensitive, but it’s so quick it was over before it bothered me. I had to ask ‘is that it?’ as I was so surprised at how quick it was!

The new wire will continue to align my teeth rather than moving them. My orthodontist thinks the teeth should be in a good position by my next tightening to start moving my canines into position. They are currently where my lateral incisors should be (2^nd back and should be 3^rd), which is exciting as that means my twisted canine should become untwisted by this appointment! Eek! I’m dying for that tooth to be untwisted. It’s so annoying, I wish I could just grab it and twist it myself!

I’d thought my two front teeth were looking slanted at the bottom, whereas at the start they were straight. We looked at the mould which confirmed my worry! Hopefully it’s just where the bite is being corrected and will sort itself out, but if not my orthodontist reassured me she will be able to move them. Phew!

My peg tooth has definitely moved in line with my other teeth and looks much better. A small change for anyone else to see but I could tell as soon as it moved. I didn’t think my twisted canine had moved at all, but my orthodontist thinks it has started. Hopefully this will become more noticeable to me soon.

The whole brace experience is going well and the first tightening was a walk in the park. It’s now six hours after my appointment and aside from a little extra pressure to some back teeth on one side, I really can’t notice any difference yet. I managed to eat lunch fine. Perhaps there will be more pain after the tightening to start moving the teeth. I’m so surprised there’s no pain yet as so many blogs I’ve read say they were in agony after every tightening.