The Nightly Routine

I have my evening routine down to about 30ish minutes, so far. I highly doubt it's going to be less than that, mostly because I enjoy the winding down routine.

It helps clear my mind and gets me ready for bed.

My routine is, so far, this:

After eating dinner (and my last diet coke), I swish once or twice with water, and use an interdental proxy brush to get any food particles from in between, in front, and behind the braces, followed by more swishing.

I wait 30-60 minutes to brush, because the acid in the soda weakens the enamel on the teeth, and I don't want to be brushing immediately after weakening that!

Before brushing I swish once just to make sure there's no food particles laying around, then I get my Sonicare toothbrush and stick some Arm and Hammer stuff on it (Note to self: Make sure to ask the ortho if this toothpaste is acceptable!), and go to town!

The Metal Mouth boards directed me to some great Brushing with Braces and Flossing with Braces videos! It helps to make sure you're doing it right, since de-calcification can occur without the proper care!

After brushing I rinse a few times (I haven't yet gotten the hang of spitting out liquids with this thing!!!), and then I get my floss and threaders and head to the front room (the previous steps take place in the bathroom). I like the front room cause I can chill in front of the TV and use my lit vanity mirror (on the non-zoom side).

Watching closely as I do it helps me to make sure I'm not skipping teeth, or being lazy. This evening I got through 2 of the 3 sets of teeth I thought could have had sealant or glue keeping them together - which was very exciting! But now the braces feel VERY weird again!!!

After the flossing, and making sure to get between both sides of each tooth (OMG EXHAUSTING!), I rinse with a fluoride rinse - after which there is no eating and drinking for 30 minutes (but it's bed time so no drinking anyway!).

Then I coat my lips with some LOVELY chapstick and get ready for bed! Chapstick has turned out to be THE most lovely invention ever, topped only by wax, of course.

I'm enjoying Blistex Deep Renewal currently, though I am really trying to get in to that Burt's Bees stuff. But it's just not doing anything for me.

This evening's routine is a little more, since I decided to sit down and write this post. But now it's time to lay out clothes for tomorrow, read a bit of Tolkien and hit the sack. Got a busy week of not chewing and coming ever closer to the pendulum appliance being installed!!

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