Day 4. Pain Easing, But We're Still Not Getting Along Well

Things are starting to feel a little better. I can bite down just a touch harder before I feel that ache/shooting pain. And bringing them together is bumpy. As the teeth draw together things feel disjointed, and then my jaw slides a little so the pieces fit and I can fake an actual bite.

Don't get the idea just because I can lay off the Tylenol the braces and I are getting along. I just finished by hygiene routine. Getting better at it; cutting the floss shorter so it doesn't get as gross and salivatorily viscous and smelly when I pull it through my mouth. But I popped the wire out again. Will have to darken the Dr. W door step at 8.20 tomorrow morning. Alda's going to think I am just doing it on purpose so I can go back to see her. She's so patient and understanding, can you blame me if I am?

Regarding that non-bite bite of mine, Dr. W informed me this morning my bite will never line up properly. I'm doomed by too many years of an uncorrected bite. "But you had braces," I hear you cry. Yes, but either the adolescent treatment didn't solve my bite problems, or there was only so much they could do in the stone age. I guess I'm lucky they had evolved past moving the teeth around with a crow bar. Add in 30+ years of bad oral genetics and, well, I guess I'm lucky I don't have to puree my solid foods.

Oh, I also learned I'm going to get my teeth shaved. Yee-ha! As I understand it, they're too triangular - wide at the top, narrow at the bottom. Horizontal bone loss at the base hasn't helped. So Alex is going to have to shave the tops a little to make them narrower, so they can be pulled closer to their dental neighbors. And that bite problem? He may may need to smooth out where the teeth fit together to improve it. All I can say is, bring on the drugs, because I sure don't want to be awake for that appointment.

266 days to go!