Braces

My first few weeks of braces went great-ish. But there was a point where things just got quite uncomfortable and my aligners felt agonizingly tight and my teeth weren't quite tracking.

I remember the person who helped me force the first set of new aligners into my mouth (1) asking me if it was always this difficult to put them in and (2) telling me that things weren't quite lining up with one particularly troublesome tooth, but that "it'll be grabbed."

But it wasn't just grabbed. 

And it was uncomfortable and awful. 

And I've had a few adjustment periods since then, where they rescan my teeth and reorder a sequence of trays to get back on track. So, it's fine. But, like...also frustrating...because I started out with 20 sets of trays over a year ago...and now I have like 15 left to go...still.

Anyway, I laid them all out yesterday and noticed (too late) that when they should have given me trays five through whatever...they gave me tray nine through whatever...essentially skipping eight weeks (two months) of the treatment plan and setting me back at least that long, if not longer.

So that is a little frustrating...and explains that terribleness this summer.

But apparently it happens (and is incredibly painful, which is so good to know). 

I guess I should have been more observant because it certainly took me a while to notice. But I did begin to experience attachments popping off all the time so was in the dentist's office a lot (like every week!) to have my attachments put back on. And I complained that things weren't fitting right and was told (by the assistant) that it wasn't a big deal and that things would move. 

So obviously I need to be better about advocating for myself.

But I also feel like, I dunno, I'm paying quite a lot of money for this process so perhaps they should pay attention to these things...

Anyway, I'll be in braces until July if all goes according to plan...but since nothing has been going according to plan...I dunno...