I’m de-braced and re-tainered! Yes, yes, I know that I’d previously mentioned a delay to May 20th. But, my dentist, once the retainer came in and all was well, arranged to stay late today so that we could go ahead and deband me.

Next steps: Follow-up appointment in a few weeks to make sure the retainer is doing its job, followed shortly thereafter by a whitening treatment just to finish things up beautifully.

Here’s my retainer:

Here’s a before & after shot:

Here’s me wearing my retainer:

(As always, you can click each picture to make them larger.)

I have a wicked lisp now that is best described as reminiscent of either Stan’s older sister on South Park or Cindy Brady. I’ll be wearing the retainer 24-7 for awhile (except for eating and cleaning times). My teeth look so awesome. They also feel huge. Strangely though, even though my teeth feel huge, every time I look at my retainer, I’m amazed by how small it is.

My mouth is sore from the retainer right now, just from adjusting to having it there instead of the braces. There’s also a couple of edges on the back of the bottom retainer that my tongue catches on if I move it in a certain way. Overall though, it’s not bad…just something to adjust to, like the braces were. Oh, and it’s way easier than the braces were those first few days, for sure. It’s even less painful than the day after an adjustment. It’s just a new thingie to get used to having in my mouth.