Getting Braces Off: Amanda

Amanda: When I went to sit in the orthodontist chair, the first thing my orthodontist did was to check one last time that I had no overbite and my teeth were straight. Once he was certain this was the case, he whipped out a special “bracket remover”. Then he started to pull/cut the brackets off my teeth (I couldn’t quite tell since I couldn’t see it!). Once he had finished that, I rinsed a bit to get the pieces of dried glue out of my mouth. As I was rinsing, I felt my real teeth for the first time in two and a half years!

Then my orthodontist took out another tool, a little circular, spinning grinder, and ground off the old glue that kept the brackets on. I rinsed again. They were so much smoother! After I’d rinsed, he got out yet another tool, a rubber tipped grinder, and then scraped off the remaining glue. Again I rinsed.

Next was the polishing. Your dentist has probably done this with you. He took some cherry flavored gritty paste and, in effect, rubbed it over my teeth with his tooth polisher. Rinse again. In case you were wondering nothing hurt so far, except the bracket-pulling was a little bit uncomfortable.

Now that I had shiny, smooth teeth, he made a mold of my mouth so I could get my clear fitted retainer later that day. This process consisted of putting a hardening rubber on my teeth and letting it harden into a mold of my teeth. Next came picture time. My orthodontist took pictures of the inside of mouth from all angles. He then took face and profile shots of me smiling and not smiling.

After that, I went to the front desk and picked the color of my normal retainer. I chose camouflage.

Erik: I was in the waiting room basically listening to the sounds of grinding, the whir of little electrical devices, and the occasional “Go ahead and rinse now” from our orthodontist. Then about half an hour later, Amanda came out of the orthodontist office and she was smiling and it looked amazing! I remembered back to how her teeth looked before she got braces, and it was a huge difference. I was happy to see that the end result was so great, and I couldn’t wait until I got my braces off.

So we just want to say hang in there! Your teeth will look great when your all done!

-Erik and Amanda