More About The News

After visiting a few jewelry stores, I think Andy and I have found the jeweler we want to work with. His name is Brett and he's the owner of Decatur City Jewlers in Decatur, GA.

Brett carries the Beverley K Collection of platinum rings and believes firmly that smaller and flashier is better than dull and big. I like his philosophy! One other jeweler we visited was more about big, and on sacrificing some quality issues to get a bigger diamond. I'm sure ultimately the jeweler would have worked to get us what we wanted, not what they liked, but Brett's thinking fell in more with what I've decided I like.

Brett also doesn't do any advertising and hopes customers will come through with repeat business and will reccommend him to friends and family. He also realizes if you have an awesome, eyecatching diamond on your finger, people will notice it more than perhaps a bigger, less sparkly stone. Then you'll have an opportunity to drop his name as your jeweler.

As we were looking at the settings Brett had in the display case, he said he'd go pull a diamond for us to see in the settings. He asked what our overall budget was and without asking anything else about what we wanted in a stone came back with a:

round, ideal cut, 0.79 carat, SI2 clarity, I color stone.

The stone was marvelous. The ideal cut made it sparkle like nobody's business.

He also made us a discounted offer on the spot. After leaving the store, Andy and I decided this was the jeweler we wanted to work with. Then Andy told me to get lost and not mention it again.

I hope he's going to order the ring, but I don't know what his plans are!

NEWS!!

I haven't mentioned this on the blog before now because it wasn't really in keeping with the orthodontic theme of the blog. I initially intended for the blog to be about everything in my life, but quickly realized I wasn't dedicated enough to blog every day or every few days and it slowly morphed into a blog about nothing but the braces. But the thing I have to say out loud now relates to the braces, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Andy recently has started talking more and more about us getting married. We've started looking at engagement rings, talking about wedding options and even driving around neighborhoods looking at houses.

But here's the kicker: After 5.5 years of no action, Andy has decided he's ready to get married. I have no problem with that, but he announced once we're engaged, he doesn't see any point in having a long engagement, that we should just go ahead and get married as soon as possible.

Which is fine, but I still potentially have a year or more in braces. I mentioned this to him and said I don't want to get married in braces, and he acted like I'm being ridiculous and who cares if I still have braces when we get married. The answer to that question is "I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" As much as they don't really bother me and I'm dealing with the experience quite well, I don't want to not smile or smile and flash a mouth of metal in all my wedding photos. Ack.

So now, more than ever, I want Dr. Stewart to push my treatment along. Must get braces off asap!!!!!

My friend Kerry had braces at approximately the same age as me. Kerry also was engaged and opted to remove her braces before her treatment was quite finished because of the approaching wedding. Then she called the wedding off. Her teeth still look great to me, but she knows the treatment wasn't quite done and I think she told me she regrets not seeing it through until the end. Especially since the relationship didn't work out.

I'm paying waay too much money not to see the treatment through to perfection, so Andy may have to just cool his jets!!!!

Roughly 44 Weeks In

The bottom teeth are starting to show some movement. I'm getting little gaps between some of the teeth at the front. It's still really hard to envision where they need to go though. It seems to me that without the bite turbos I would have much straighter teeth, but the overbite would still be quite prominent. I guess I just have to be patient....

Flossing now that I have all the brackets on is a PITA! It takes much longer and sometimes the floss gets caught on a bracket in the back and shreds. The other night I had to use scissors to cut the floss loose it was so caught. I can't wait until I can floss in under 30 seconds.There's no doubt I'll floss every day for the rest of my life. Learning to floss with braces has taught me how important flossing is, and also how quick and easy it will be without them. It's absolutely worth taking the time to do it every day. My gums are so healthy right now!

I have an appointment scheduled in 2 more weeks, at 46 weeks total time.

40 Weeks in Braces

I've been pretty good about taking photos of the braces, but haven't been very good about posting on the blog or keeping up with what's what. I have two sets of photos, both taken after my week 40 appointment, but they appear to be shot on different days because I'm wearing a different shirt. I guess for blog purposes, we'll pretend they were taken at the same time, right after my appointment!

So, at week 40, Dr. Stewart changed the bottom wire to the next guage size up (I think it's an 18?). He also took out the top wire so I could get a good brushing and flossing in. But then the same reverse curve wire was popped back in along with a new baby pink power chain.

I also was having some trouble with the crown on the bottom. The crown was moving too much (was pulling upwards) compared to the other teeth and was actually starting to get painful. After examination, Dr. Stewart determined it was because the bracket was slightly high on that tooth. The bracket was removed [and it turns out to pull off a bracket only a quick tug with a pair of pliers is needed -- much less complicated and much easier than I envisioned] and replaced.

After only a day or so, the tooth had lowered and was back to where it should be, pain-free.

Dr. Stewart also asked his assistant to shave off a few mm from each of the bite turbos. Said as my teeth slowly move, he wants me to continually move towards closing my mouth without the turbos. I think she shaved off a little more than I would have liked. For the first week or so, I did bash my teeth on the bottom brackets often. I also cannot sleep without the Aqualizer. The mouthguard provides a nice cushion and prevents me from bashing my teeth on the brackets while I'm sleeping. Much more comfortable to sleep with, than without.

Here are some photos at approximately 40 weeks.