Extreme makeover part 2

Lasik is so last month, now it's all about the teeth! As my wisdom teeth have come through in recent years, they seem to have pushed out of line my lateral incisors (second teeth in from the front on the top) which were starting to rotate round and cross over, and were looking more and more uneven compared to a few years ago.

Nothing drastic, but it was annoying me as well as making it hard to clean and floss properly, so after a bit of investigating I settled on Invisalign which are a set of removable plastic aligners that over the next year will gradually push the teeth back to where they should be. I got the first set this week, and after feeling like Jaws (the one from the Bond film, not the shark) for the first couple of days, they are settling down and I am getting used to them. I have to wear them 22 hours per day in order to work, as I get a new set of aligners every 2 weeks, each one very slightly different in order to gently move the teeth. I had a bit of a speech impediment for the first day but this has gone now, and I'm amazed at how unobtrusive they are and people only know they are there if they are told. The downside is that I can't eat with them in, or drink anything other than water or clear fluids, which might be a problem when out and about, but on the positive side I won't be able to snack!

So what's next? Perhaps botox? Lipo? Who knows! I think I'll be drawing the line after this though...

LASIK, 6 weeks on

As you may gather, today's picture is not especially encouraging, but I am hoping it is going to be a short-term measure.

I had my 6-week check up earlier this week, and as I've previously said on here, I hadn't thought that there had been any improvement for a while, and that I hadn't yet got the perfect vision I was after. Well, that was confirmed at my appointment and as I'd guessed, I am still a little bit short-sighted. I'm -1.25 in the left and -0.75 in the right, which is still a darn sight better than I was before, and within the predicted range for the surgery given my former prescription. My consultant was very happy with how things have gone - aside from being a little under-corrected I have had no problems, have healed very well, and am not experiencing any dryness or other side-effects. He has said though that I have to wear glasses for driving especially at night, but I am going to try not to wear them at other times as I do not want to be reliant on them, despite the fact that I cannot read the TV guide on my TV. So I have ordered a pair of the glasses shown here for under £20 off of the internet, as even if they look rubbish, I'm hoping that they won't be a permanent fixture.

So what now? My consultant has said that there is the option of having a "refinement" ie another laser procedure in 3 months time if my vision has been stable, but that he wouldn't automatically recommend it for such a relatively low level of myopia especially if there is any chance of it thinning the cornea too much. I guess it depends on the actual measurements which I will have taken at my next appointment in July - if it is down to me, and assuming the cornea can take it, I definitely want it done as I'm quite conscious of the deficit. It would only require a very small additional correction, and I would like to do all I can to get the best possible result overall.

People have asked me whether I am annoyed at not having 20/20 vision yet - I'd say that whilst yes, it is bummer and not quite what I was hoping for, I had been fully informed beforehand that especially for high prescriptions, it is not possible to guarantee perfect vision and the improvement has been so good that I would still certainly recommend having it done. I can't fault the clinic or surgeon and I think one has to be realistic about the limitations of treatment and the fact that there are no absolute guarantees. I have been looking on some LASIK fora and have seen some people on there who clearly were not adequately prepared and have found it hard coping with results, so I am pretty chilled for the moment. I have found someone who is in almost exactly the same position as me in that she had treatment at the same time, also from a -8.5 baseline, and who also has ended up similarly under-corrected - so we will be comparing experiences in the coming months.

My next appointment is at the end of July, the week before I go to Africa, so I will update re the LASIK then. The next topic will probably be on a more dental theme...