The good news is that I got my Herbst taken off today. The bad news is that it hurt- really bad. The other bad news is that I got full braces of today.

They pulled off the 4 brackets I already had on, and it felt really weird.

The orthodontist started by unscrewing the Herbst, then he started to pull the caps off my teeth. I had said before they started that it was going to hurt. (I knew this because they had taken something quite similar off before.) The hygienist said that it wouldn't hurt, and that I would only feel a little pressure. I have learned, as Dad said, that sometimes, a little pressure can feel a lot like pain! When they put the Herbst on, they stuck it on with cement. When they take it off, they do not dissolve the cement before they yank it off. They just take pliers and pull. Once he had finished to bottom ones, he moved on to the top. One of the ones on the top did not want to come off. So, he used this drill sort of thing to try to get it off. At this point, the bars that were screwed onto the bottom were poking up into the top of my mouth, his hands were pushing my gums farther than they were made to go, the drill was going in my mouth, and the hygienist had to tube that sucks everything up in my mouth. From my experience with Dr. Halford there are 2 dental instruments they have used on my that I do not like the most.

1. The drill thingy: It hurts! I gag a lot, and when there are a bunch of tools in your mouth, it is better for you not to gag. I gag when there is a bunch of stuff in my mouth and when there are really bad smells (particularly burning flesh.) As he was trying to get the cap off, the drill must have hit my gum, because it got burned by the drill. Now that area is black. (By the way, burning flesh does NOT smell good.) The pain that you get from the drill is one that feels like it is going all the way down to the roots.
2. Their pliers: They just yank and yank with those things! It is never good when those things are around.

After they got the Herbst off, they had to use the drill (refer back to the 2 instruments I do not like the most: it's #1 on the list) to get the cement off my teeth from where the caps had been.

Then, they put this awful thing in my mouth that held it open. The worst part about it was that it had a piece for my tongue that held it down, as well as hurting it. If my teeth got wet, they couldn't put the braces on, so the tongue piece had this suction mechanism on it I wouldn't have to swallow. (Going back to the gagging thing.)

With my braces

Here is my top 7 list of things you don't want to hear your orthodontist say. The ones with the asterisk by them are the ones I've heard.

1. Oops!
2. * Get the -- diamond (that is the drill he used)
3. * You'll have to wait -- more months before you can get it off
4. We'll have to do this again
5. * We put this on upside down
6. * This, this, and this are problems
7. * I'll have to work on this