Braces Off

Today was the day of the deband!

I came in at 2pm.. walked to the chair.. my ortho came to do a final check up, to prepare for my retainer. Approximately 15 minutes later, the assistant started to do the removal.

Honestly up until today I never suspected that the removal would be painful at all. When I read on the internet people said it would be painful, but the rest assured that it would be painless.. I believed that I would fall into the second category. I assumed all of this time going through all the dental work, I had managed to survive quite well with almost no complaint.. so I thought I probably had a higher pain threshold compared to most people out there.

First off, they took both wires from upper and lower braces off. Then using different sizes of pliers, they started to pull off the brackets from the glue that are stick to my teeth. A lot of pressure here, and during some moments I did feel pain against my gum and teeth because of the pressure. There were challenging moments when removing the brackets from the far back wisdom teeth, but no pain. After all brackets were removed, the assistant told me that I could go rinse and brush my teeth but she gave me a disclaimer that the yellow color on my teeth are from the glue not the color of my real teeth.

After rinsing, brushing my teeth and flossing, I returned to the chair and she began drilling the glue off my teeth. After she was done, she polished my teeth. And then I went to rinse again while she prepared the mixtures that she was going use to take the impression of my teeth. This part is very similar to the first steps before I got braces. She took 2 impression of the upper mouth and then 2 more of the lower mouth, then before I left she asked me to bite off a wax paper.

I was given a gift before I left the office. They gave me a gift bag containing chocolates and candies, all the stuff that braces wearers aren't supposed to have during the treatment! :D

It feels very weird without braces! I can't believe it's my own real teeth that are touching my inner lips, not metals not brackets anymore. I went to buy gums and apples at the grocery store on the way home. I also bought Crest Whitestrips to begin my treatment trying to whiten my teeth by my own.

I have to come back to pick up my retainers in 2 days, it's also the same day I got scheduled to get Full Final Xray and photos.