An update on my lingual braces – the awesome and the awkward

Two months ago I got lingual braces at Park Orthodontics. So I guess it is safe to say at this point that I am pretty used to them and I thought it might be good to check in and give you some honest thoughts on the process so far…

THE AWESOME

The progress. Honestly, just take a look back at this post when I first had them fitted. I truly cannot believe the difference in just ten weeks.
95% of the time food is my friend. I eat whatever I like, from sourdough toast to steak, I have given these wires a good test and they are rock solid.
You cannot see them. At all. Not a single person I know has ever noticed I have them and, unless I tell them, they don’t know they are there. Which leads right into the awkward…

THE AWKWARD

When people want to see your braces and you have to open your mouth real wide and tip your head right back (picture a baby bird receiving its first meal) to show them.
5% of the time food is not my friend. For two days after I get a new wire fitted my teeth are tender and achy and, honestly, whilst there are probably plenty of soft foods I could manage, I usually wind up surviving on a self imposed smoothie style detox diet, powered by protein powder and overusing my Nutribullet.
Cleaning them. I get something stuck in there on an almost daily basis. Stringy green beans, that steak I talked about up there, toasted marshmallow (not smart I know but it was worth it)… I do use my electric toothbrush at least twice a day though and find it works really, really well.
Kissing. I am just gonna put it out there. Kissing just ain’t the same. Kissing your elderly relatives is absolutely the same, kissing your husband is not.
The lisp. By now, the speech issues are all but gone save when I stumble over that one, single, pesky, little word. And that word is ‘brace’. Not a word I ever had much cause to say before but now, for obvious reasons, I find it comes up a lot more…

Now, I know there are many more points on the awkward list here but I refer you to the very first point on the awesome list – the progress. SO worth it.

P.S. Yeah, I realise now that I bear a striking resemblance to Inspector Gadget here. Let’s not make a big deal of it, ok?