IPR

Last night, I got the first of three IPR treatments.  IPR stands for interproximal reduction, and basically means that they reduce the width of some of your teeth.  Back when I was a kid, I remember everyone that had braces getting teeth extracted.  Apparently, this is now seen as being preferable as they're not removing any teeth, but creating room by making some of the teeth slimmer. 

When I first heard about it, I was worried.  When I was a kid, I ended up with quite a fear of dentists between having frequent dental problems and how my mother approached things.  My regular dentist now is the best, and is so calm and reassuring that I've largely gotten over that, but I still don't like drilling.  So, the entire thought of having them slenderize teeth with a drill wasn't high up on my list of things that I was looking forward to. 

It wasn't bad at all though.  Literally 2 minutes, and she was done.  A little drilling (that wasn't as all painful), checking the measurement to see whether she'd done enough, a little more, check again, and done.  I honestly think that a cleaning hurts more. 

And, then I got tray 5.  It was tight when they put it in, but it seems better already this morning.  And, it seems like the last 8 weeks have gone by really quickly... I can't believe that I'm already into the 2nd quarter of treatment.  I still can't 100% say that I can see a difference, but I can tell that my bite is different for sure.