The good news. Things are looking good. The way my orthodontist said that, it almost sounded like I might be able to finish up before 12 months. My rubber band wearing has paid off!

The bad news. Detailing.

I couldn’t help thinking of how great my car looked after it got detailed. That was before the doctor took pliers to my wire. Now, I think of detailing as personalized pain. Whereas earlier, the arch wire asserted democratic pain–the same general push to move teeth to form a classic arch, regardless of your particular bite–detailing is a way to deal with your specific issues.

My issue all along has been the upper incisors hitting the bottom one. The one that’s still a problem is the upper right central incisor (see post on names of teeth to see which that is) which hits the bottom tooth. So the doctor said he’d angle that tooth forward.

He took out the arch wire and made two bends in the wire. More like twists; hardly looked like anything. But he put the wire back in and I could feel the pressure immediately.

And now, 18 hours later, ow! Not as bad as when I first got the wires on, but definitely mushy food worthy. Last night, I had difficulty eating sushi.

ADDENDUM: read more detail on detailing

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