Australia

A day before leaving for Australia (November 22), I had another ortho appointment. Of course, I reminded her that I wouldn't be around for 3 months. She decided that my upper teeth are basically finished. Therefore, they wrapped a wire around them to keep them in place instead of using ligs. They were discussing a power chain, but decided that this solution was much easier to clean (I don't have access to my usual WaterJet in Australia, just a little travel version). The wearing of the elastic on one side opened my bit a little on the other side. Therefore, I have to wear elastics again to close that gap. As you can see on the picture, that's almost finished, the teeth are almost in place. I'm supposed to check for myself when they'll look symmetrical, since I'm far away in Australia. I think a couple of more nights of elastics and that's it.

I chose silver ligs for the first time for my bottom teeth, by the way. First, they match with the silver wire that's wrapped around the top teeth. And just in case something should come loose while I'm traveling, it'll be easier to match a color that's around everywhere. Anyway, I'm happy with it, it doesn't look as boring as I had thought.

Once I get back, I think there's only one main thing left to do. Since I have bands around several teeth, sometimes two back to back, first a few will be removed so that the gaps can close (at least partway) before I get a retainer. The only problem there is that I'll be traveling again for six weeks and this step requires appointments every two weeks for a couple of times. So I guess that has to wait until May and I'll finally be finished around the middle of the year.