Yesterday was New Years Eve, and we spent the day at Wet ‘n’ Wild theme park on the Gold Coast, probably not advisable for your first day in braces. One of the things that they told me at my fitting appointment was that you need to remove them for swimming. Depending where you live in the world, this may or may not be a huge inconvenience. As I live in Queensland, Australia, where the temperature was 29 degrees celcius at 10pm last night this is something of a pain as we spend half the summer in our pool trying to cool down.

I was nonetheless able to wear them for most of the day- I took them out for 15 minutes for breakfast, managed to keep them in on all the water slides at wet ‘n’ wild, simply by choosing the more sedate ones that don’t throw you underwater at the end. Lunchtime was something of a challenge and I ended up trying to surreptitiously get them out in the corner of one of the outdoor eating areas as the queue for the toilets was about 100 deep. I managed it after a few frustrating minutes, although to say it was a struggle would be something of an understatement.

In the evening we went to watch the 8.30pm firework display at South Bank Parklands in Brisbane. There was a huge party in the beach area, with everyone in the water dancing and swimming. Ordinarily it would have looked fun, but I wasn’t up for trying to take my braces out in the dark on a public beach, so we watched the fireworks and went home about 9. By that time they had been in all day, and I actually managed to get them out relatively easily, so we could jump in the pool and begin drinking Champagne. I kept them out for a couple of hours so I could be social and drink through the evening, but about 11pm I got in a panic that my teeth would have shifted back, so I went through the whole brushing, flossing rigmarole and got them back in to toast the New year in with a glass of water….the things I do for vanity! At least I am hangover free today though..

It did occur to me that as I have rather overindulged over the Christmas period and managed to gain 7 pounds in about 4 weeks, it might actually be a good thing if I continue to find taking the trays in and out an ordeal. I have already lost 1 pound in the first 48 hours, so if this continues it would be a very welcome side effect. If they could somehow also help me build muscle tone too….

I just wanted to write something about how they are affecting my speech- or rather- how they are not affecting my speech. For the first 2 minutes of wearing them I felt very slightly lispy, and each time I put them back in after eating it takes me a minute to readjust, but other than that, I have not noticed myself lisping at all. I have quizzed my husband on this and he says he can hear no difference whatsoever in my speech, so that is reassuring. All this from the man who declared on the way to my fitting appointment

“Just what every man has always dreamed of.. a wife with braces”

He was joking, but I haven’t quite let him forget it yet!