The day came, and I finally removed my braces! I thought that was it the end to my braces journey, but it was actually a beginning of something new.
I have never ever talked about this to anyone because it used to hurt my self-esteem and self-confidence a lot. One of my biggest insecurities was my teeth and my bite. Prior to having braces, I have an open bite, which means when I clench my teeth together, there will still be a gap in the middle of both the upper and lower row of teeth. Other than that, it made me look like I had an underbite sometimes. I was really insecure about that and really hated how my sideview looked like. I was also made fun of my bite a couple of times in secondary school. I have always wanted invisilign because when I was 16 years old, my family couldn't afford for me to go through braces. And by the time I was determined to fix my teeth, I was already 20 years old. I thought that was really old to have braces, plus I was already in University. I did not want to be laughed at or mocked at for having braces at 20 years old. Unfortunately, invisilign was way too expensive for me. But since I was so determined to fix my teeth, I decided to settle with braces.
I don't have a proper photo of my "before" teeth, but I do have a few and I uploaded all my braces pictures, progress, etc on my instagram account @maubraces. During the past 2.5 years, I've received many requests of pictures of my teeth. So here you go! Go check it out if you're interested.
So I had braces on the 16th November 2013 and I removed it on the 18th June 2016. My overall experience with braces was a pretty good one I'd say. I don't think I've hated my braces or how I looked with it. It definitely looked weird initially, but I received many compliments on how I look with braces on. The good thing about braces is that it only gets better from the day you put it on. My teeth started changing slowly, and my bite was also fixed along the way. Thus, my appearance just kept on improving as time past. In contrary, my confidence level increased when I started wearing braces and I was never mocked for having braces in University.
There were definitely discomfort throughout my braces journey, but it wasn't super bad as the discomforts usually last for at most a week. Because my teeth were so crowded, I had 4 tooth extracted and during the time of treatment, I often had springs in my mouth to make space. To fix my bite, I also wore elastics and the worst parts of braces for me was probably the elastics.
During the past 2.5 years, I've worn elastics for a total about 6 non-consecutive months. I hate it because it hurts so much to the point where I would wake up in the middle of the night because my entire mouth was so sore. It was also really troublesome as you have to constantly wear them. Plus, they break at times when I'm outside. But despite the pain of elastics, they gave me the fastest results which was why I think I had a love-hate relationship with elastics. I also wore them diligently which is really important. The pain will go away in the next 2 days if you keep on wearing them, so just persevere! During the last 2 months of wearing braces, I had to put on "triangle" elastics where you simply form a triangle shape with the elastics. It was definitely the worst as it is almost impossible to eat with it (thus, even more troublesome) and it hurt for a week, which was the longest. I was actually told to only wear them at night for the first month, but because it felt like it kept shifting back to it's original places in the morning and afternoon, I decided to wear them 24/7. Thankfully, I did not over-correct my bite. If you're thinking of wearing your elastics more than what you're told to, do check with your orthodontist! I was 90% sure it was fine which was why I wore it the entire time.
After wearing my braces and elastics diligently for the past 2.5 years, it's finally time to get them off! It just felt so surreal because I never thought that one day I'd have straight teeth with the perfect bite.
Uploading this vlog onto my Youtube channel, I have received a comment regarding my jaw being misaligned. I do have this issue and my orthodentist had told me about my jaw condition prior to putting on the braces. However, going through a jaw surgery costs a bomb, hence I decided to give it a miss. I may or may not go for a jaw surgery in future, who knows? But for now, I'm satisfied with the way my face looks like.
When I removed my braces, I had to pick between 2 different retainers. The metal one and the clear plastic one. I read many pros and cons about the two but I still could not decided which was better for me. My orthodontist ended up recommending me the clear plastic one as it was supposed to hold my teeth in place better, so I went for it!
The first time wearing it, it was weird. It felt like there were a lot in my mouth and speaking was embarrassing because you will not be able to clench your teeth together. I honestly hated my retainers because they made my mouth so uncomfortable and sore! However, being the ace patient that I am, I still wore my retainers as much as I could and things got a lot better after. I realise the reason why it was so sore the first time was because within the 2 days of not wearing any retainers, my teeth has shifted. Hence, the retainers were only moving it back to it's original places. I found out that my teeth shifted pretty quickly. If I did not wear my retainers for about 6 hours, I can already tell that they have shifted slightly. Thus, make sure your wear your retainers!
I have filmed my very last braces update video where I talked about how to care for your retainers, so check it here!
Apart from caring for your retainers, of course we still have to care for our teeth. When I removed my braces, my teeth looked so yellow it was ridiculous! It didn't look yellow when I had braces on (you can tell from the vlog when I took them off). I'm not sure why but well, it did looked yellow so I wasn't 100% pleased with how it looked after I got the braces off.
Hence, I decided to whiten my teeth using the highly raved Crest 3D whitening strips. I have done a full review (with photos!) on it right here so click to check it out!
Overall, braces honestly changed my life. I'm so happy I went through the past 2.5 years with it and I'm so ready to spend the rest of my life diligently wearing my retainers. Having straight teeth boosted my confidence so much and I am totally in love with how I look when I smile right now! Not to mention, brushing becomes so much easier with straight teeth. No more jagged areas and cramped small spaces!
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