OUCH....

I had braces for nearly 2 years. I got them off in 2003. My ortho put a permanent bonded retainer on the bottom and I was supposed to wear a removeable one on top. Well I did really good for the first year or so, but as time went on I wore my top retainer less and less. The bottom teeth stayed perfect straight thank to the permenant retainer, but the top teeth shifted slightly. It's not really bad, but still it bothers me (a little).

Well my bonded retainer started to come loose last week. It kept poking my tongue which really hurt. So after 5 years I called my orthodontist and set an appointment. They fixed the lower retainer. I thought that was all that was going to go on with my appointment but the orthodontist wanted to fix my top teeth. I don't have to pay anything extra... he'll include it in all that my parent's paid for my braces (which wasn't cheap!) He said I needed to wear my reatiner for 8 weeks... 8 LONG WEEKS. Then I will get a permanent retainer for the top.

When he was telling me this I was thinking "I don't even know if I still have my retainer" "I'm going to be in sooooo much pain. Do I even want to do this?" I decided that I could handle 8 weeks and that I should do it. I mean it's worth it if I can fix the teeth that bother me.

So I get home, find my retainer (which was suprinsingly easy to find), and proceed to jam it into my mouth. Well not really jam, but it definitely didn't go in easily. My teeth must of shifted a little more than I thought. It immediately felt really tight against my teeth. I knew I was in for some pain. Well that was 2 days ago and my teeth are still pretty sore. But I can notice that a difference in how they look already. Yay!

Besides the pain the biggest annoyance is talking. Aghh! It is so hard to talk with a big ol' plastic contraption in your mouth. Matt has been making fun of me because I sound so weird. Today I went on a lot of errands. I was tempted to leave the retainer out so I could actually be able to talk, but I toughed it out. Only 8 weeks more of being a metal mouth!