Tales of a formerly snaggle toothed bride to be and orthodontic relapse: Refinement tray 8 pictures and more!

Hello! Sorry I've been so lax about updating as of late.

I don't have any good excuses really aside from being on vacation and getting sick over the past week. Teethwise, it's been business as usual for the most part. I went to see my dentist just before my trip as I noticed some issues with my teeth and gums. She was really impressed (again!) with how much my teeth have changed since the first time I saw her but mentioned that I seemed to be having some trouble reaching my back teeth and below my bottom attachments (which were turning a bit yellow - yuck!) as she could tell from the build up. She checked my gum pockets and said there's been some pronounced improvement there as well. I guess I've come a long way from where I started.

In retrospect, it might have been better to have my teeth professionally after I got back from my teeth but hopefully it doesn't make too huge of a difference and I tried to be as diligent as I could while I was away. We were in Miami for a few days before our cruise (funnily enough, we were there for superbowl weekend and didn't even know it until after we booked our cruise - silly Canadians, we are) and enjoyed some really good food. This meant of course that we went to quite a few restaurants and I ended up brushing my teeth wherever I could as soon as I could. Most of the time, it wasn't a huge deal, since we ate at off peak times (empty bathrooms!) and our hotel was close to a number of eateries so sometimes I just waited until we returned. There were a couple of times (ie. Sat. before the superbowl) though when I had to just whip out the electric toothbrush in front a bathroom full of women primping and preening. I find if you don't look all embarrassed about it, nobody really seems to care but I still get the odd sideways glance (if I don't have a toothbrush in my mouth, I just look directly at them and smile warmly).

Surprisingly enough, once we went on our cruise (7 days through the Carribean with NCL), it was a lot easier to either get to our cabin or a semi-empty bathroom in between meals. Trying to keep my trays in for a decent amount of time was another matter. Between all of that food (everywhere, all the time!) and getting to various events, I have to admit, sometimes I slipped my trays in after a quick, discrete swishing and other times, I just kept them out for a bit. I thought the port stops would be more difficult to manage but we went on a lot of Cruise organized excursions and while they charged an arm and a leg, they did include lunches at nice venues with clean bathrooms. With all of that negligent tray wearing going on I ended up wearing tray 7 for a few extra days to make up.

We spent a couple more days in Miami (24C and they described it as cold!) before coming home to snow, -10C (mild by our standards), and all of the excitement around the Olympics (Vancouver's a pretty long way from where we live but it was still easy to get excited being part of the host nation). Since then I've been down with a bit of a cold but hopefully I'm getting through the tail end of it.

One thing I've noticed as of late is that I'm not quite as motivated to stop everything and put them in after meals anymore. I guess I'll just have find a way to keep myself on track - perhaps, thoughts of yet another long refinement set??

Pictures from the end of tray 8: