Braces for the Old Man

Well, after much teasing from my wife and daughter about the gap between my front teeth... I finally went to an orthodontist to see about getting it fixed. I thought there was something they could do to just pull the front to teeth together.

What I found out was my entire 'bite' was off and getting worse. When I was a teenager I had braces... but that was in Bangkok, Thailand and they took out too many of my upper teeth. Now years later the upper teeth are separating into the left over open space. So not only did I have a little 'gap' problem, but my bite was getting much worse.

So on Tuesday I just bit the bullet and went in and got braces! One of the girls from our church, who's father is the Orthodontist did the actual work in 'gluing' the brackets to the teeth and stringing a temperature sensitive wire in between them. The wire wants to return to its normally straight state, and puts pressure on the teeth to gradually move them into the correct position.

This is going to take between 18 and 24 months! Yeck!

But, hey, 18 months from now I could have straighter teeth, or still be delaying the braces. So I just got it done.

It hurts way more than I remember as a teenager - I've been thinking "What have I got myself into" - but I'm sure that will pass. (Hopefully soon)

Here's the new look:
By the way - it was much harder to take my own picture that I'd have thought. After about 10 shots I finally got one that worked. (Try it sometime - get your teeth in the picture, good lighting, and nothing else in the shot)

A friend on Twitter said I looked like 'Jaws' from the James Bond movie 'Moonraker' - what do you think?