And it starts

I never thought my crooked teeth were a problem to ever really worry about. It's all aesthetic anyway and I was comfortable having crooked teeth. To spend several thousand dollars on fixing what I didn't see to be broken would have been just silly -- and not quite my style. But, finally, the crowding in my lower jaw had gotten to the point of effecting my bite and causing me immense pain and I couldn't fight it anymore. It is finally time for me to get braces.

I needed to have all four of my impacted wisdom teeth extracted before I could start with the braces. That was done just over a year ago and I've just about completely healed up from it. An anesthetic was administered and I was in a "twilight" sleep for about a half hour while the surgeon sliced open my mouth. My teeth were broken in their sockets and pulled out in pieces, the incisions were packed with gauze. The surgery didn't take near as long as I had ever expected it to. I actually had to wait around in a recovery area for a longer period of time than I was in surgery.

I had my mouth packed with gauze for about a full day before I felt comfortable enough to take it out. My bleeding stopped completely by that point and I could see my holes starting to close up a bit.

The last picture of my smile before my bicuspid extraction the following morning.

not done