Braces...

12 days ago I got braces on my teeth. I know, not the most exciting way to start the new year!! I have been thinking about it for few years, since my front teeth started moving around like mad. And not just in one direction; they all wanna go their own independent way! Well my little biter friends, thats not gonna work, and certainly not for me!
I had a consultation with an orthodont in the summer of 2006, but I had to think it through a bit and, more importantly, wait for better economical times. Summer 2007 I had spent enough time thinking about it, and the banc account was ready to handle it too. As I am getting a little older, I was most worried about the esthaetical point of it: the thought of looking like a 15 year old when you have steadily reached 25 is not pleasant. So I went for a second opinion with another orthodont, one that seemed to be more involved in making the whole process a little bit more invisible. First thing I had to do when I got to the practise of this other orthodont is fill out a paper, or so I thought; it was a bundle of 7 (!) papers asking me absolutely every personal detail! Then the male dentist had a first look at my teeth. He immediately asked me why I had two teeth, the biggest one on each side of the upper back row, pulled when younger. I assured him I never had any teeth pulled, and that I already knew its some genetic defect. He said that thats almost impossible, that he has seen this condition in text books when he studied (which must have been like 60 years ago btw), but that he has never ever seen it ‘live’. He then got his wife, also an orthodont, to come have a look at their ‘mutant’ (thats how we denote an animal in the lab with a genetic deficiency!). He told me, I already know this, that its heritable. So ok, nobody’s perfect, I’ll just find myself a guy with lots of teeth then huh! Their conclusion came down to wearing ‘invisible’ braces, which make your teeth look like they are made of plastic, for definately a year, with a cost-price of about 4 to 5000 euros (!!). Now that would mutate my banc account, so I decided to stick with my first orthodont.
My lower front teeth carry brackets, the ugly grey ones, with a metal wire on them. They are all in different directions, so it looks messy, but the idea is of course to get them straight in the end. Then my top teeth have some sort of braces too, but on the back of the teeth so you actually dont see much of that. The plan is to push them outwards as they move a little inwards. At the same time, these upper things prevent me from biting and closing my mouth as otherwise I would bite of the brackets on the lower teeth. As a consequence I have to mash all my food. Its like I am cooking for an infant! I have breakfast, lunch and dinner, and nothing more in between. No cookies or choclate. I can only drink water as coffee stains and alcohol or certainly coke or other soda’s affect the glue which attaches the brackets to my braces. Alot of cleaning, some annoying pain and impeded speech at the beginning, but this is only for 6 months. Well, 5 and a half now. I will be freed in June, having the most perfectly straight teeth for the rest of my life. I think thats all more than worth it, and in the mean time, I will not forget to smile.