Thanks for the kind words, mrmajestic723! I'll actually have a bit of a pic dump on Flickr later, when I get a bunch of images from Saturday's casino night. I expect there will be some good images in that pic dump, since she was being very...playful...with her friends.

Carrie's been excellent. She very seldom complains about anything at all. The biggest change since she got braces -- thanks to the bite stoppers -- has been her choices in food. She's definitely moved to softer foods in general, but this seems to suit her fine, since she's never been a "foodie" type. In fact, I often tease her about having the palate of a 12 year old.

I did recently order her several more sets of Comfort Covers. She likes to wear those when she sleeps, and her original pair was getting worn out to the point that they were slipping off her back brackets.

Just uploaded a bunch more pics from casino night. Pretty good stuff!

Great pictures, thanks for sharing

Mike or Carrie, is there anything Carrie (you) haven't been able to eat since getting the braces? I'm hitting all the no-nos while on vacation. If you or she think of anything, let me know.

My wife has had braces for over 20 months and the only major things she has not been able to eat are nuts and corn on the cob.  A few tortilla chips that are hard are also off limits, but she's found substitutes  Yes, my wife has similar issues with salad and is always asking if she has food stuck in her teeth whenever we go out to eat. She's avoided any appliances, but has had to wear elastics for well over 1/2 her treatment and that is more of a pain for her than the braces themselves.

Condolences on the loss. My Dbacks lost last night, as well, though we weren't at the game since they're in St. Louis. Our #2 pitcher got hit in the head by a liner, but he's apparently okay, thankfully.

Carrie is extremely social and talks to just about everyone, but I'm sad to say I've never observed her having such a braces-centric conversation with another person in braces. She's had many (dozens, probably) convos with family, friends and acquaintances about her braces, why she got them, etc. But those have mainly been brief, as most people only care superficially, and the talk moves on to other subjects quickly.

The only somewhat lengthy convo I've observed was with a friend of ours who is a dental hygienist who also recently did Clear Correct (Invisalign knockoff). She had an above-average interest in Carrie's braces, for obvious reasons, but it wasn't anything like what you and your wife experienced.  I can only wish!

Nothing big to report regarding Carrie's routine cleaning. No cavities and teeth sparkling clean. Her braces weren't a big deal. She did talk to the young dentist about them a little, which I found a bit comical:

"So a couple of years ago I asked your dad about getting braces. He told me I was crazy and didn't need braces. So I thought about it for a year...and got them anyway."

Young dentist: "Haha, that's cool."

And that was about it. Not even dentists care when adults get braces!

My dentist recommended braces more than 10 years ago. When I brought it up recently he seemed to be somewhat dismissive, though I do t know why. My guess is he thought I was only asking in relation to tmj disorder which the braces don't always fix.