Day 4 - Still Pain, Thank You NASA!

The deft and cheerful Alda rescued me from loose wire purgatory this morning the way a good car mechanic tightens a loose hose. She put me up on the wrack, had me open the hood, and with a couple of tugs with her pliers had me running in no time.

I then had a long talk with Alex about the actual physics of orthodontia. Remember my awe at how he placed the brackets so adroitly? Well, in fact, he intentionally DID NOT place them in a straight line. He had to place them strategically, based on the direction each tooth needed to move - and with an accuracy of less than 1mm.

That's astronomically small, to mere mortals like you and me. In high school I had a summer job pipetting in a scientific lab. That meant I had to inject microliters of liquid in test tubes. If I so much as bumped the side of a tube I would render the experiment invalid, because the few microliters that would stick to the side would effect the concentration of chemicals. Let's make a long story short: it was quickly determined my best function was photocopying articles from scientific journals. So I get the precision of which Dr. W is capable.

Speaking of astronomy, Alex told me the wires in my jaw are made of an alloy invented for the space program. It's designed to grow stronger in heat; in space it contracted in response to the sun's energy, opening heat shields or reflectors or something like that...I don't remember exactly. So sometimes Dr. W will tell people to drink tea or other warm beverages as a way to increase the forces exerted on their teeth. Good to know my choppers are an example of technology transfer. But it still hurts.