Wire tie

I have attempted to upload a picture of my wire tie on my wonky tooth. I have a moderately crowded arch on the bottom set of teeth, and my ortho made it clear from the start that she wasn't going to go down the extraction route. I have had a metal tie on the bottom tooth at the front (looks a bit blurry in the pic but you get the idea) to try and force it forward, I'd imagine. Its the second time in my 6 week adjustment I have this on my teeth. The only slightly amusing thing is that it shows my caffeine addiction on that tooth as there are coffee marks as the tooth moves!! I am *so* having my teeth whitened once the braces are off....

TBH I was dreading playing with extra metal in my mouth, but its not made much difference. I am playing quite well in the middle register at the moment, but the upper register is failing miserably still.... slightly *less* miserably than a few months ago though!!! At least the top 'A' and sometimes Bb is coming out 9 times out of 10. Can't wait for these things to come off my face and see the improvement in my playing. Its weird because my teeth moving have also affected slurring/tonguing etc as the space within my mouth has changed and so I've also had to adjust triple and double tonguing (yes, I can hear non-musicians sniggering at this!).

BTW - Bring on the areas after the 2nd at Leicester - well done City of Cambridge Brass Band! :D

Long time

Sorry it has been a long time since my last blog, but I've had some pretty catastrophic news lately. Enough on that, but....

Anyway, on braces - i have finally had a new wire on the bottom arch - Reverse arch wire!! Also on my most twisted tooth in the bottom arch I have a wire instead of an elastic ligature to twist my tooth into place. The only weird thing is you can see the coffee stain move on my tooth as it is twisted back into position! I am so having my teeth whitened after this is all over.....

Article

The final line of this article sums up exactly why I am in braces for the second time, and makes a VERY good point about how much emphasis is put on retainers.

I am not saying it was ortho's fault as I made the decision not to wear them after the braces came off. She was evil though - especially with those spacers! OUCH!!!! New one is a lot nicer.

Appointment a week tomorrow. Really hoping I get a new wire on the bottom, and hopefully even on the top its been so long. I've lost a lot of the bands again, but they stayed on a lot better this time. It is just because I haven't had an appointment for nearly two months now that a lot of them have perished and dropped off.

Demotivated again

Feel a be demotivated again, which is not great. Nothing to do with band in general, but not enjoying the test piece, I have to say, and I am struggling with elements of it. I will write more soon, but off to rehearsal in a while.

Also, the ortho cancelled my last appointment because of sickness, so I have been nearly two and a half months between adjustments. They are supposed to be every 6 weeks, so I am hoping it wont delay my progress. The quicker I get these bloooooody things off my teeth and onto the retainer stage, the better!

Waterpik

I bought a Waterpik to help clean behind the brackets and I've finally managed to learn to use it without soaking myself/the walls/the ceiling/the floor etc!

I've got the 'ultra' one because it had an orthodontic attachment with it. It seems just to be a fine rubber tip on the end of the plastic tube, but it is quite effective. The first couple of times I used it my gums absolutely poured with blood (EWWWWW!) but they seem to have settled down now, and I am getting used to using it now so its a lot more effective than just brushing. I'd definitely recommend using one as its much more comfortable than flossing with braces on, and seems to be effective at reaching into places that might have been missed. To be honest, there is no point going to the trouble of straightening my teeth if they are going to all drop out when I am finished with treatment!!!

Got my 'normal' dentist check up in three weeks, and then the ortho the monday after. Have to admit that I have removed the ligatures from my front two teeth. They had gone a really horrible colour and I am having to wait 8 weeks for my next appointment. I have to have my new staff photo tomorrow and I'm not having gross looking braces for a picture that is going to be in the front bloody entrance of the school!!! As the front teeth are the ones being pulled back the wire is kept in place quite easily by all of the other brackets and ligs.

New Mouthpiece?

I am losing a serious amount of air out the side of my face on the left side when I am playing. Where the (evil-hooked) bracket sits on the canine tooth it is preventing my lips from creating a seal with the heritage mouthpiece, and unfortunately as my teeth move, the problem is getting worse as the arch returns to its normal place.

I am going to try a mouthpiece with a wider rim to see if that helps. Probably wont help my high range, but as it is pretty much non-existent past top G I can't see that being a problem.... I can squeeze out about two top A's and then I die at the moment. It was getting better before the break, but the two weeks we had off killed me. I don't know what it is about home practise, but its not the same of two solid hours of band. Grrr, its like going back 10 years to when I started on Cornet!

Where did I put that damn Clarinet again....?! ;)

Practise makes?

Holiday from band - 2 weeks off! Great on the old bank balance, but not so great on the lip, especially as we have a concert in just under three weeks. The programme is quite a heavy blow - including Festive Overture to finish (love it, but it goes on and on and on!) and I'm sure Indiana Jones will be in there somewhere. I love Festive Overture - it proves certain things to me, but the less said about that the better. I am a much better player than I was a few years ago, and its nice to feel that some people have confidence in my ability. Finding the right mouthpiece was part of it, I do love the Heritage range by Denis Wick. I've had endless discussions with various people about it, and a mouthpiece really is a personal choice. The braces aren't really helping, but sometimes at the moment I am getting this really, really lovely sound - even better than pre-braces. It just stamina that is currently the problem. On Friday I was practising hymn tunes in the afternoon, just working on production etc, and someone stood outside my front door listening to me play for about 10 minutes! Not sure if that is flattering or just plain weird....

Last week my friend from Yorkshire, Geoff, came down for a visit with his other half. We spent most of the weekend talking about brass bands, and he brought Elvis down a tape to have a listen to. Amazing the sound of the bands he used to play with in the 80s - its funny how he *always* tells me about beating Dyke at the area!!!! Claims to fame, eh ;)

I have been practising the test piece for Folkestone Contest, which is in a few months. The piece has got quite a lot of double tonguing in it, if played correctly. I'm not quite sure of what speed we are aiming for, but as my front teeth have moved back significantly its all coming out a bit 'fluffy' at the moment. Practise makes, eh?