My braces journey

 

 Here, a video I took when I first came out from the clinic as I want to share my first smile to a particular one. I hope I don't looked too spastic. 

Braces was an 'In' thing when I was in secondary. That's nearly 10 years back. Gosh! Anyway, I never thought of placing braces during those days. Firstly, I was pretty sure I need to extract out 4 tooth. I'm afraid of pain. Secondly, Julia kept complaining of the pain and discomfort she was feeling back then. There were days whereby she survives plainly on campell mushroom soup! Scary. So here are some before pictures of me before I started my braces journey.

As you can see, those 2 tooth of mine are part of the reasons why I pluck up my courage to put on braces

And what is the reason why I don't bother that much of my set of teeth till much later date?

This is! If you can see, my teeth actually doesn't appear as what it is (real life) at certain angles. Yup, was still not inspired to get braces back when both Julia and Kailin had theirs. I believe this photo was taken during 2005?

Even in solo shot (from a distance), i think it looks fine

Apart from the reason to beautify my smile, I had another reason for myself to put on braces. Only 2 of my buddies knew it. However, I defeated the purpose latter. Oh well!

This is the most reason picture I took shortly (a few days) after I put on my braces. My mouth was still bleeding back then from the cuts of the metal wire

If I were to take picture from a distance away, I could hardly have my braces seen, which is awesome!

But in closeup shots, its pretty hideous! For example, the picture above. Look at the gaps of my teeth. And pardon me for my colored contacts, thin arch eyebrow and messy hairs. I believed I headed straight to meet Kailin after my morning class

Till date, all the above pictures were taken last year (Teeth was still protruding, gaps not fully closed yet)

 

Almost there

And that's the end of my braces journey. I know my smile looks kind of awkward. 

The mould on the left are the 'before' and on the right are the 'after'. You can see how crooked my teeth were especially on the bottom. But I don't really care as much back then as it couldn't be seen by others. 

I had my braces placed on my teeth on 1st December 2011 and I removed my braces on 31st October 2013 (I could remember the date as its easy to remember, normally I'm sucky with remembering dates).  That's exactly 23 months of journey! Something to share. Braces isn't exactly as scary as I thought it would be. Yes, I had to remove 4 of my teeth but it was a painless experience for me, I swear! That's because my dentist applied a straweberry flavored numbing cream for me (seeing how petrified I was, haha). My wisdom tooth are still intact till now though as I'm really afraid of removing it. The thought to cut my gum and break it into pieces. Wow! But I will be removing it really really soon. I wouldn't want to have complication in the future. Anyway, I had a consultation with a senior dentist this Thursday. So, yup! When I first placed my braces, indeed, there are discomforts. Of course, there would be! With additional wires in my mouth. I remembered I cut my food using a scissor during the first two days when I had my braces. Haha, Kiasi! However, I had steak at Hot Tomato in less than a week (yes, my teeth were strong enough). Throughout the process, I didn't survive through campell soup like Julia did, that's Kua zhang (exaggerating).

If there's something I would want to point out, that would be Yes, there are slight discomfort each time I went for my dentist visit as he/she would tighten my wires. But that only last for a couple of days. Haha, I was not stop to consume whatsoever food at all during that 23 months! Unlike those teenagers, I'm not really particular about the colors. Because of the condition of my teeth, normally my dentist would place clear rubber bands for me. O, and one more thing. I did my braces at NUH. The wait for my turn to consult a dentist was about 10 months. Cost wise, I believe I spent around $2.5k (not including x-rays, fillings, cleansing costs). If I would to choose again, I believe I would rather go to a private clinic. Thats because if I add up the sum, I believe its almost equivalent to having my braces done in private clinic. And one con of doing my braces at NUH is that I have to accommodate the timing of the undergraduate. Normally, it takes about 3 weeks for me to visit the dentist but during days when they had vacations of whatsoever, the longest wait could be up to 7 weeks for me (as I had a change of dentist as my previous dentist graduated). So ya, that's about it.

 Ending pictures of me with my retainers, which I had to wear 24/7 till 6 months later.