Day 27

I went to the hospital today.  I was expecting to see my normal orthodontist but actually saw the man I've talked about before, who I think is a more senior ortho.  When he first looked in my mouth he said 'Even better'... not sure what it's better than?  What he was expecting?

He said that now we're 'playing cat and mouse' with the elastics, I think he meant pulling everything one way then the other way until we get it in the perfect position.  He also said that we need to 'up the ante' with the bands... and we definitely have.  Apparently the point of this new configuration is to pull my lower jaw forward by half a millimetre.  I had to hold a mirror while he showed me how to put the bands on.  I now have the same rectangle box that I had before, with another band going from my canine to the back bottom tooth on top of it, and then another rectangle box on top of that!  So I now have three bands overlapping each other on each side!  It's very hardcore and is holding my teeth tightly shut.  I'm not looking forward to putting them all back on after my dinner.

He then went on to tell me that it will all keep getting better.  I think he said that all the swelling would have gone by... 6 to 10 months!  I'm pretty sure he said months, and not weeks, because he then went on to say that even after a year it won't have settled completely, but by 2 years I will look how I'm going to look forever.  He said I won't look like this forever, that my nose will come down (I assume he meant in terms of swelling) and that all the fine features of my face will become more defined with time.  This was all very reassuring as I do feel like I'm a bit of a chubby fat face at the moment!  He also said that I can have my braces off at 3 months post-op, whereas before he said 3 or 4!  So excited to get them off!  He then went on to show me all my old photos, which he's done before... I think he likes looking at the results because I suppose I'm like 'a job well done' to them!  I think he's proud of the outcome!