Any updates? How is life in braces Carrie? Mike how is it living the dream? I hope all is going well. Those are some great pics you have been posting.

Carrie (or Mike for Carrie) Any thoughts on sparkly or metallic lipstick? I have seen it work on other women to bring extra shimmer around the braces and compliment/highlight them. 

So I wish a good time for both of you. I haven´t been here for quiet a while and came to this report of Carrie´s adventure in braces. She is for sure a true beauty, because she shows so much inner beauty in addition to the obvious outer beauty.  It is very rare in our times that a woman is acting with pure love, so she is maybe the one out of several millions, congratulations, Mike!

There is only one aspect that I am concerned about, the safety aspect. As far as I understood your report, you are both very keen in sporty activities. A long time ago I was standing near a woman in braces, when suddenly during a play a guy gave her with his elbow a heavy punch into her face without intention. I will never forget this, because she was heavily bleeding in her mouth, the lips had been pushed into the braces. This woman was the sister of a friend of mine, so I went to the family quiet often. After all these years I cannot remember how long she was suffering from this injury, but it have been some month for sure. And now comes the point, why I write this message: She was very soon after this had happened wearing a so called mouthguard for both the upper and lower braces. She once told me, that she very much regretted the fact, that she did not have such a protection for her lips when the accident occured. If I remember correct, she even was wearing this mouthguard at home, when she was playing around with a younger brother.

I am sure, that you both will understand, why I am writing this message, it would be such a drama, if anything alike would happen to Carrie. May you please think about this safety aspect and may you, please, excuse all my faults, because I am not a native English speaker.  I wish you a peacefull future for all the rest of Carrie´s treatment and the rest of your lifes.

Greetings from good old Europe!

just wanted to say thanks for continuing to keep us updated on your wife's journey and posting the picture.  fun to see her progress.  My wife is in home stretch and they at doing one more month of fine tuning.  She gets her braces off end of July.  We'll see what they recommend for retainer wear and then I get to start.

Any chance of another adjustment video? The pics are great but the videos add context.

UPDATE:

Carrie went with pink this time. She got a power chain on her top teeth, which looks great. I was a little surprised that she got a power chain this early in her treatment, but the movement of her teeth was opening a gap between her front teeth and also on the left side. The chain will obviously help close those up. No luck on the bite stoppers, alas.

I took some video of the appointment (the ortho tech was also quite hot!) which I'll post on Flickr once I get it edited.

And as a reward for being a good braces girl, she got Coldstone ice cream, a new pair of Warby Parker sunglasses, and two pairs of Johnston & Murphy shoes! 

FURTHER UPDATE:

She definitely looks different with the pink chain, that's for sure. I love the look. When she had the gray ligs, her mouth always looked a little "dark" (which was the first thing one of our regular bartenders mentioned when he first saw her). Now it looks really bright, fun and cheerful. I definitely like this look more than I expected.

Wires are 22s, which you can hear the ortho say in the video if you listen really closely. She's definitely feeling achy between the new wires and the addition of the very tight power chain. The stubborn lower tooth finally rotated into position enough that she no longer needs the wire tie or even a figure-8, so that's good at least. She commented at yesterday's ball game that she was accustomed to her lower teeth being sore, but the uppers hurting this much was a bit of a new sensation. She's on very soft food for now: ice cream, Ramen, refried beans, mac-n-cheese, etc.

Interesting sidebar: a week or so before this adjustment, she was being poked by the archwire on her lower left side. Because her teeth had moved, the wire had emerged from the molar tube. She didn't want to bother to go in to get it fixed when her appointment was so close. She did ask me to order a distal end cutter in case it happened again, so I can just snip it off if it happens again. I have one on the way.

She was very pleased that I attended the appointment, as was I, so I'll plan to attend the next one. We goofed and scheduled her next one for August 11, but then realized that she'll be in Maine that week. She's going to reschedule today, and I'll take at least a partial day off to attend that appointment, too.

Carrie doesn't complain about things, but I suspect her upper teeth are still a little tender from the power chain. Heh, on Sunday she bit into a Swedish fish (gummy candy) and yelped that it hurt her front teeth. Though, hmmm, Saturday night she was able to eat a slice of pizza without an issue. Maybe she'll chime into the thread at some point on this.

As far as how Carrie thinks the chain looks, I don't know. I've never asked and she hasn't volunteered. I'd guess she's not crazy about it, but she doesn't really like how braces look on her in general. She's told me that she "likes to look her best" and that braces aren't her best look. This was one reason she was resistant to the idea of getting braces for so long. It looks good to all of us here, of course, but braces aren't of any interest to her except as they relate to me.

Next appointment is August 16. I've taken that afternoon off...and the next day.

She also requested a new set of Comfort Covers, so I ordered those, and the distal end cutter arrived the other day. I'm always trying to make this as comfortable an experience as I can for her.