Laura Ashworth: Adults in Braces life update

I am so aggravated with myself for not blogging more about my journey as an adult with braces. From the very beginning, I made a promise to myself to NEVER hide my braces and to totally embrace them. I think I've done an overall good job with it. Of course, I cover my mouth when I laugh, but I think I did that before I had braces. Don't get me wrong... I'm so much more self counsious now that I have braces. Of course, I get some weird looks from people who see an adult in braces. But, I have never let that get to me or bother me. I think as an adult you just get to the point where you don't REALLY care what people think. So, I do wish that I would have blogged a little more about my journey. It will be 2 years in May. TWO YEARS. Did you hear me? Looking back, it seems like it has been 5 years BUT at the same time it seems like it could have only been 2 months. If that makes any sense to you, at all. I can't believe it's been that long but looking back I've been through SO.MUCH. on my journey. I've survived a tissue graft, spacers, a pendulum appliance, braces, canine exposure surgery, pulling my canine down from a bracket when it was in the roof of my mouth, to NOW. Holy Moly. Did I really go through all of that? I can't believe I've actually done it. You see, I've talked about needing this and getting these procedures done since I was in middle school. I just kept putting it off until I literally ran out of excuses and just jumped in head first. If you stumbled across this because you either have braces as an adult or if you are going to get them, then please know that this has NOT been a horrible experience AT ALL. Yes, there were ups and downs. There were many weeks that I was on a soft food diet due to surgeries. There were days when my mouth hurt to talk. There were days when I wanted to rip my braces off and be done with them. But, when it comes down to it, I've actually gotten used to them. It's a way of life for me. I always have to pick things out of my braces after I eat. I can't bite into a cheeseburger, a slice of pizza, a strawberry, or anything for that matter. A fork and knife have become my best friends! My estimated braces treatment length was 24-30 months. I'm about to head into my 24th month. I go back to the orthodontist tomorrow and I don't know when my estimated de-brace date is. We haven't talked about it, yet. But, I'm anxious to get them off! For those of you who don't know my story, you can check it out on some posts about it here on my blog. In short, I had an impacted canine in my upper mouth. Sorry, I'm not good with the dental lingo! ;) I had a tissue graft prior to braces to get enough tissue around the area I was going to have a future surgery. In June of last year, I had a canine exposure surgery. My baby tooth I carried around for 24 years was pulled and my canine tooth was exposed. A bracket was attached to the tooth and slowly my tooth was pulled down. It's fully down, BTW :) I've also had braces throughout the whole time and had to wear a pendulum appliance to help move my teeth. The pendulum appliance was put in at the beginning and I wore it until my exposure surgery. Here are some progress pictures and pictures from my journey. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about anything!

This was from the first few days of my braces journey. You can tell I had a space on MY upper left side (the right side of the picture). It literally closed up within a day! I was shocked.