It's official. I'm now braces free.

I went in for my morning appointment to get my uppers removed, and the
orthodontist comes and takes a look and says "I guess the lowers can
come off today too". My expression told the story when she said that.

So I'm laying there going through the whole removal thing with my wife
watching over the assistant's shoulder. Boy, getting those bands off
was harder than getting them on. It wasn't terrible, just felt
strange, and one of them was a hare on the tender side. I go over to
rinse before the whole glue grinding and get my first look at my
braces free smile and I'm so shocked I'm speechless. I would almost
say it was surreal, and I can barely explain the feelings and thoughts
going through my head at that time.

So I finish up with the grinding, then out comes the impression trays
for that fun yet again! At least this time, it was one try each arch.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I go to pickup my retainers, and was
chatting with the assistant about finding a couple of packages of
rubber bands this afternoon, and hearing her tale of finding rubber
bands in a coat pocket from when she had braces 5 years ago.

I got clear retainers (I believe they are called Essix) for my upper
and lower, and creeped the orthodonist out when I felt pressure on a
couple of lower teeth! I was shocked too, considering the braces had
only been off for about 4 hours. So now I'm back at home trying to
figure out how to talk with these in my mouth.

Total Treatment Time: 3 days short of 2 years.
Estimated Time: 2 - 2 1/2 years.

Maybe I will have some more thoughts tomorrow once the shock wears off ...