I didn't magimix my dinner!

I didn't magimix my dinner! We had Sunday lunch this evening because we were too busy yesterday, and I ate it all without mushing it up! My teeth don't hurt anymore, but I'm being careful how I eat and it did take half an hour to eat roast lamb, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli, but I did it! I also had toast at lunch time, but I was careful with the crusts - and my first apple for eight days! I peeled it and cut it up very thinly. It was a Golden Delicious - not too hard and very juicy!

A Week and A Day!

A week and a day! I noticed today that there is no wire between my last tooth on the right and the next one to it. I hope that it was intentional! There's no sign of broken wire or any sharp ends so I suppose it must be. Quite a lot of the wire is taken up at the front where my teeth are very crowded, so I hope that that is it to save having a lot of spare wire left over at the end? Otherwise all is OK. I can definitely eat more without it hurting. However, there's an awful lot of food stuck around my brace when I clean my teeth after meals. I had some squares of Milka chocolate last night and sucked them until they melted. Lovely!

Nearly a week in braces!!!

Nearly a week in braces, well, one brace. It is feeling much more comfortable now. I went out for lunch with a friend and she asked why I wasn't eating my french bread, so I had to come clean about the brace. She said she hadn't noticed it! She's the first person to know outside the family. The sore places where it rubs are feeling better too, thanks to Bonjela. I only used the wax on the second day. It was ok, but I was worried about food getting stuck behind it, so I stopped. I can feel my teeth moving; they feel loose and wobbly, but at least they are attached to the brace!!

429 days to go to the wedding!

429 days to go to the wedding! Today, I didn't need to magimix my dinner. What did I have, I hear you ask? Baked salmon fillet covered with a little pesto - it melted in my mouth! - new Jersey Royal potatoes, asparagus and carrots, followed by a mango and passionfruit yoghurt. The asparagus stalks and the carrots were the hardest, but I ate them! Another friend came round for a cup of tea today, and she didn't notice my brace either, unless she did, but didn't say anything, but I think that if she had noticed, she would have said something!

Friends

I saw my friends today and no one mentioned my brace! I don't know if they were just being polite, though. I even managed to sneak off after lunch and clean my teeth without anyone noticing. I wonder how long it will be before someone says, 'Are you wearing a brace?' Still put my dinner in the magimix - it took too long to cut it all up with my knife and fork. Things I find hard to chew are red pepper and courgette - even when they are cut into tiny pieces, the skin is too tough for my poor teeth.

Day 4. 431 to go!

Four hundred and thirty one days to go to the wedding. Phew! If you have a mouth ulcer normally, it clears up in a few days. With braces, there are literally hundreds of days to go, and the other brace to look forward to. However, when I see people with a perfect smile, I can at last tell myself that I will have one next summer. That means over two birthdays away. I can manage breakfast and lunch, but dinner still hurts and I had to use the old magimix on my sausages and vegetables, but not the mash. Yeh!

You've only had it on for 48 hours!

'You've only had it on for 48 hours!' My daughter reminded me, when I said that it rubbed a bit. Great - 433 days seems such along time. I checked with the nice lady at the orthodontist's about the silicone wax. Basically, wear it if you need to, and remove it before cleaning your teeth, then perhaps put a fresh piece on. Well, after a dinner of blended risotto (don't ask!), I cleaned my teeth and decide to leave the wax off and just put on some Bonjela instead, and so far it doesn't feel so bad. I think that when I sleep, I squash my brace into the inside of my cheeks. This morning, I couldn't manage to put the gel inside at the back, because as fast as I dried it with a tissue, by the time I had the wax all ready, it was all wet again with saliva. Oh, well. I made smooth pate sandwiches for lunch. They were easy to eat. And I cut up a chilled ripe peach into very small pieces that I could almost suck. Delicious!

Day 3 with Braces

Well,I've made it to Day 3! There's another sore place down on the left hand side, and I'm wondering whether to put some more wax on it. It is very effective, but I'm not sure how long to leave it on for, and what to do about cleaning. It is 433 days to the wedding. Just 433 days to go! The bottom brace should be off, but as the top brace is hidden, it won't matter as it won't show. I hope I can eat all the food!!

Let me eat cake!

Although I was told not to eat sweet things when wearing a brace so it doesn't become trapped around it and damage my teeth, I thought I'd try a couple of the little lemon cup cakes I'd made - and yes, I did leave off the icing on mine and the little crystalized lemon . . . Well, they were soft and I was able to 'chew' them, personally, I think that half the pleasure of eating is in the chewing! I did clean my teeth immediately afterwards though. I also find that having a glass of water handy is useful when I'm eating to swill my teeth (and swallow!) to loosen the bits of food which feel a bit strange. Later on, I felt hungry again, so I braved a banana sandwich made with soft wholemeal bread. I'm pleased to say that I ate the whole thing without too much bother. Perhaps the pain of pressure on my teeth is going off, or I'm getting used to it more. By the way, the pain isn't constant like a toothache, it's just the pressure on the tugged-about teeth.

Eating- First Twenty Four Hours

It was past lunch time yesterday when I got home with my new Inspire Ice brace on my lower teeth, so I thought I'd better have something to eat. I'd already bought a carton of fresh leek and potato soup and some orange and mango smoothie. It all went down very well, and the brace didn't hurt a bit!

Afterwards, I cleaned my teeth as prescribed. All fine. For dinner, I decided to have pasta, although my husband was tucking into a big pepperoni pizza (crust too hard for braces). I boiled some tricolore pasta and added some basil pesto, and tiny bits of chopped red pepper, and sprinkled some parmesan cheese on the top. Yum! Not really. I put just one piece of pasta in my mouth and it hurt to chew it, just like a milk tooth feels when you wiggle it too far. Ouch. I tried to find a place around my mouth where it didn't hurt and managed to eat a few pieces, urged on by my husband, 'Just swallow it!' In the end, I got out my magimix and blended it all into a glorious green pasta mash and ate it, not bothering if some of the pieces were too big to swallow. For pudding, I couldn't face any fruit, so I had a cool raspberry yoghurt. Of course, I cleaned my teeth again, and was amazed to see all the food that had got stuck round the brace.

I don't usually eat anything in the evening, but I did have a glass of red wine with my daughter and her fiance while they all tucked into spare ribs and corn on the cob, things which I'll have to wait until next July to eat again.

At bedtime, I was too tired to read all the instructions on the interdental toothbrush and the silicon brace wax you need to cover any bit that sticks into your lips, so I did the best I could and went to bed. This morning my inside bottom lip was sore where it had been rubbing.

Breakfast was easy, I just crumbled up my usual Oatibix in some soya milk. Fantastic! I usually have a vitamin C tablet each day, but instead I got tried a fizzy one, the others are too hard to bite.

The orthodontist kindly gave me a goody bag of toothbrush, interdental toothbrush, travelling tooth brush, toothpaste, silicon wax etc. I half expected a bag of toffee too, but no. So, after breakfast, I cleaned my teeth , and tried again with the interdental toothbrush. I think it's meant to go up from the gum under the brace, but round the corner at the back of my mouth, there isn't much room. But I did what I could. Then after some mouthwash, I dried the area around the bit of the brace that was rubbing and pushed on some wax, and put some Bonjela on my sore lip. Ahhh! That's better! I'm not sure how long I can leave it on for. Should I take it off when I clean my teeth? Another thing to ask about next week.

Sunday lunch menu: roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, carrots, broccoli, beans, gravy - all lovingly chopped up in the blender and placed around my plate like a colourful palate. They still needed a little chewing, and the meat and vegetables were the easiest. For pudding? Strawberries and ice cream, mashed up together. Lovely! Then off I went to clean my teeth again.

Braces@56

Over the years, I had become more and more aware that my front teeth were getting crowded and my left front tooth was sticking out. Not quite as bad as Nanny McPhee, but you get the idea. On my eighth birthday, I was taken to the dentist to have SEVEN teeth out, so you can imagine that I was not eager to go as a teenager to get them sorted out then, and back in those days, you would have had to have at least four teeth extracted to make room. Noooo way!

In my wedding pictures, I looked ok, but when my daughter got engaged on Christmas Day, and they set a date for July 2011, I began to think that the time had come. If not now When? Time was ticking away and if I did not do it soon, who knows how much time I would have to enjoy my new smile? My husband said it would be 'an improvement', but you know that you should never ask them how you look.

Also, I have written a novel which I've been trying to get published (people helpfully mention how hard it was for JK Rowling), and in the back of my mind I think it would be nice to have a lovely smile for the author's photo inside the back cover.

So I made an appointment to see my local orthodontist last week. He was very kind and patient, and said that no, I was not too old and yes, he could do it without any extractions, and I was booked in for yesterday morning to have x-rays, moulds taken for an Incognito brace to be fitted behind my top teeth and Inspire Ice clear braces fitted to my bottom teeth. I have now had them on for twenty four hours!