So... still rockin' the gap, unfortunately.  Getting bigger still.  ::insert frowny face emoticon here::  Causing me some issues at work since A.) I don't want to smile or let anybody see this, and B.) It is much harder to talk and give a presentation with a gap in your front teeth than having crowded teeth.  The lisp is awful if I'm trying to really annunciate (sp? god, I'm the worst speller)  and talk loud to a group.  So, this has given me a little taste of both worlds in terms of front teeth that are messed up-- both crowding and somebody with a huge gap.  Honestly,  both aesthetically and functionally (primarily with respect to speaking clearly), I think I'll take the crowded over lapping teeth.  God, I never thought I would hear myself utter the words "I want my jacked up crowded teeth back."  But I do.  I'm crossing my fingers that when I go in to get my wires taken out for a teeth cleaning on Dec 5th, the ortho will catch me and say, "hey, that gap looks big enough to do the bonding rebuild, so lets do it now and we'll close it back up!"  Seriously, that would be the worlds AWESOMEST christmas present!  So here you have it in all it's nasty glory:

If you could guess from the post title, I'm about to talk about how much I love my new Madonna like gap in my front teeth [/sarcasm].  I think for the first time since I got my braces, I am really self conscious again about smiling and showing my teeth.  Back to feeling like everybody is staring at my face.  Hopefully it's just like when I first got braces and it will pass, but this gap is killing me for now, especially at work when I give presentations to people.

Rewind to about 7 years ago.  Back when I hadn't even seen a dentist for at least a decade.  I went to in to see a dentist a friend knew in Philadelphia.  He mentioned he could do some bonding on my front teeth and make them look straighter.  At the time my two front teeth basically came one in front of the other and overlapped.  One of my teeth next to the big front teeth sat WAY far back behind all the other teeth.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have waited for braces, but the quick fix for a young chick in her early 20's who wanted to looked better?  Yea, I went for the bonding.  Unfortunately this guy ground down healthy teeth (the ones that overlapped in the front) and built the bonding on top of that.  At first it was great.  I really did have a boost in my smile, but after a year everything chipped, turned brown, and I was back to hating my teeth.  I got the bonding redone before my wedding, but at that point I knew it was a mistake being done in the first place because I had HEALTHY teeth ground down for nothing, and it would be tough to fix that now with braces, and if it was fixed, then I would have to have vaneers done there eventually.  My quick fix is going to end up costing me about 6 grand in the end for the vaneers.  But, I digress.......  

So, the whole fixing this with braces thing.  I don't think my ortho is happy about all the bonding I have up front, but it is what it is.  He finally took most of it off yesterday. I was so afraid of what my teeth where going to look like under it, but it wasn't bad.  But, I have to deal with two front teeth that are difference sizes now (the one got the overlap ground off of it, which is basically the bottom corner of the tooth on the inside).  He left a little bonding on the bottom so it's not completely awful with a chunk of my tooth obviously missing, but they still look kind of jacked up.  BUT.... this is all temporary.  He wants to try and get an idea where my normal teeth without the boding are and where he has to reposition them.  I got a spring put on my wire in between  my two front teeth to create a gap so he can rebuild the bonding on that tooth and have it in the correct position.  That won't be for another 8 weeks now though.  I'm almost considering going back and seeing if he can do it sooner, because this gap opened up super fast!

So, not the most flattering photo's, but I wanted to take one just after they put the spring on (bottom) and then one in a few weeks to show movement.  I didn't even need to wait a few weeks!  In about 6-8 hours I got the gap seen in the top photo.  Wowzers!  I don't even know if it's a good or bad thing to have your teeth move that quickly!  I wonder how much more it will open up, because at this point I'm already so self conscious of it!

I also got a power chain on the bottom to close up some space I had open up down there after the last wire change a few weeks ago.  Bottom front teeth are pretty sore, and top front teeth are pretty sore.  My back teeth are all good though, so I'm already chewing today-- bonus! :)

I go back in 8 weeks to get the bonding built back up on that one tooth after he's got the space in the front, then I'm guessing he'll close that space back up.  I think I get a wire change, and I'll take some progress models to have so I can show the surgeon at the consult later this month.  Then a week after that I come back and get the TPA (that bar that I absolutely hated across the roof of my mouth) back in to try and torque my upper right back molar in some more.  God, I am really dreading that.

Hoping to get in with my surgeon up at Kaiser by the end of the year.  Hopefully I'll have some news and a surgery date or estimate!