24 Yr Old w/ Damon Clear Braces on Top crowded teeth- Los Angeles, CA

As everyone else, I wanted straight teeth but my parents couldn't afford to pay for braces. With three other siblings my parents said only one of us would get them and since my little sisters teeth were worse than mine, she got them. I am now 24 and have a better paying job with better benefits (than my last job) so I decided to just go for it and not wait any longer. I knew I was going to have them for a while and I didn't want to be 30 and have braces so at 24 I decided to check out a bunch of orthodontists around my area. Since damon braces looked better than traditional braces I had very limited options as there are only select orthodontists that work with the damon system. After 4 consultations over a span of 2 months (these appointments were hard to come by, who knew) I made my decision after considering service, treatment, and prices. Two of the orthodontist I saw told me 4 extractions would be necessary. One other one said I didn't need any extractions, and they gave me the most affordable quote, but I didn't really like their service. The last ortho told me she would try avoid any extractions since I was a borderline case. She said if I changed my mind and didn't like the way my teeth were coming out, I could have the extractions later on and she wouldn't charge me for the treatment delay. Although her pricing wasn't the least expensive out of all the quotes I received I liked the fact she gave me a choice between having my teeth pulled out or not. On cinco de mayo I got my braces and the whole procedure took about 4 hours. Since i am a borderline case, my ortho suggested I get my teeth filed down, making them just slightly narrower. That is what took the most and I'm not gonna lie, it did hurt, but like they say, no pain, no gain. I got clear damon braces on top and metal ones in the bottom. I got brackets on all my teeth but different parts of my teeth have different size wires. It is now my second day and I've never missed food so much in my life. I guess it's almost as bad as when I got all four of my wisdom teeth taken out when I was in high school. The only reason I think it's worse is because on top of not being able to chew anything, I have all this pressure in my teeth and my brackets hurting my mouth. I've put wax but still. It sucks that I have to go to work and not being able to just snack on anything like I did before getting braces (and I snack alot cause I have a pretty fast metabolism, always hungry). The thing that is constantly bothering me is the bracket that they put in the inner part of my tooth since one of my molars isnt standing vetically. It's more like horizontally sticking out and they have to pull it back in to stand on top of the bottom molar. I've been putting wax, but since I also have elastics already and gotta change them regularly, I've had take out the wax and it scrapes my tongue real bad :( Beauty is pain. I hope I am able to chew in the next few days because I don't know how I can survive with all these shakes and baby food :/ thankfully I've been able to sleep without any pain keeping me up at night. Haven't had to take any meds either. Let's hope I don't need to in the next few days either.

Forgot to mention that my ortho said my treatment would take 24 months, unless I decide to get extractions later on. Anyways I am currently using the Toucan elastics which are 4.8mm. They're pretty easy to put in. Took me a while to get a hang of it but now it's pretty easy to change my elastics. It has taken me a while to get hang of brushing, flosing and cleaning my teeth at work. I feel like I'm in the restroom for 30 minutes. It's an adjustment period. I'm still having a hard time eating foods that aren't in liquid form, so I've been drinking protein smoothies in the mornings, soups for lunch, protein water throughout the day and another smoothie for dinner :( I've been making apple sauce with cinnamon and honey as a snack. Last night, I tried eating soft bread and it felt like I was chewing on a brick. Bad idea. My front teeth are really sensitive so I can't bite into anything. Overall my pain on a scale from 1 to 10 would be a 2 out of 10. One side of my mouth is a little more sensitive since I have alot more pressure going on in the left side of my mouth. Here are a couple pictures I was able to take in better lighting.

So it's been a while since I updated, but I didn't want to post without showing any progress. They took off my spring so that was pretty cool cause it really bugged me. My top teeth haven't really moved at all :( hopefully once I get my wire change, I will show some progress. Eating solid food hasn't really been a problem, but having food get stuck in your brackets every time you eat really sucks. I carry my toothbrush everywhere I go to clean up any food stuck between my teeth. In regards to wax, I still need to use some every now and then, but it's not often.