Cathy's Braces
Chapter 1: Introduction
So let me start by telling you who I am, I am Cathy a 18 year old blonde girl. And this is my orthodontic story. I’m actually not seeing an orthodontist for that long, and I’ve only been wearing the equipment for a couple of days, I am scared to go outside with it so I decided to write this story about it.
Let’s start at the beginning about two weeks ago, school has just ended and I was looking forward to a great summer. I have always been the popular girl in school, and you could say I was kind of mean to the less popular people at school. Less popular people with braces were an easy target for me to tease for the last couple of years, mostly bullying those who had any sort of orthodontic equipment other than the normal brackets most people wear during their teens. As for myself i didn’t need braces, or so i thought, my teeth aren’t perfectly straight or anything but my dentist always said it wasn’t nesacerry for me to wear braces. But he retired a couple of months ago so we had to get a new dentist, and I had to see him for the first time two weeks ago.
Chapter 2: A new dentist
So about two weeks ago I went to the new dentist for the first time, when it was my turn I stepped into his office and he introduced himself and asked me to lay down in the chair. He told me he looked at my dental records, and he had to compliment me with my records, but now he wanted to look at my teeth himself. So i oppened my mouth and he looked, and said: “well let me start by saying you have nice teeth you seem to brush them well and they are nice and white, but they aren’t the straightest and by the look of it you also have an overbite did your old dentist ever mentioned seeing an orthodontist? “ So I explained to him he said it wasn’t nesacerry for me to wear braces. But new guy clearly disagreed and said: “well i think it is, you should be in braces sooner rather than later, I’m going to call your mother and tell her you need braces and advice her an orthodontist to go see.” After that he said i could go, and should make an appoitment at the receptionist for the next appoitment in about 6months.
Chapter 3: I'm going to need braces!
I was kind off bummed out about having to wear braces after all, I used to be pretty proud of not having to wear braces. But after i started thinking about it i realised it wasn’t all that bad, and my teeth weren’t that straight anyway, but i did was kind off pissed at my old dentist for not sending me to an orthodontist earlier, now i’m going to wear braces at 18, while most people i know are just finishing with theirs I had to start with them.
When I got home the dentist had already called my mother, and she started about the braces right away. “so you need braces?” “ The dentist believes so” I replied. “Well oke, i have called the orthodontist your dentist adviced us and explainded the situation, and we are lucky she could fit you in for your first appoitment tomorrow so you are going to see her tomorow morning at nine, her name is Dr. Martin and her office is not that far away from here.” So there my faith was sealed i would have to get braces and i would get them soon by the looks of it.
Chapter 4: First time at the orthodontist
So the next morning it was time for my first ortho visit. I had to get up at 8 and ride my bike to the clinic. The clinic wasn’t that hard to fine and i arrived quite early at 8:45, so I checked in at the receptionist and could sit in the waiting room reading some old magazines. The waiting room didn’t look really out of the ordinary, the usual wooden chairs and old magazines where laying on the table. I was the only one sitting in the waiting room, after about 15minutes the receptionist said the doctor would see me now. When I walked in I saw a row of empty dentist chairs and there was a women there, she said: “ you must be Cathy I am dr. Martin please lay down in this chair. “ So i lay down in the third chair, my first impression of dr. Martin was that it was a nice woman. When i lay down she asked me to open my mouth and she looked in it, and she asked to close my mouth and she looked at it. After that she said: “ your dentist is right you need braces sooner rather than later, so when i talked to your mother on the phone she said that when i thought you needed braces i could start as soon as possible so that’s what were going to do today. I’m going to make some x-rays and photos and some impressions off your teeth to see what your problems are exactly and then we will start threatment as soon as possible.” After that she left and came back with a tray which was shaped like my mouth and in it some sort of paste. I had to bite down in it with my upper teeth, and after that my lower teeth. She said it was to make imressions of my teeth, I didn’t like biting down in it, because it tasted dirty. When the impressions where done, we went to a special room to make pictures of me and my profile. There were about eight pictures taken of me and my teeth. And finally there were x-rays made of my teeth. When all of this was done dr. Martin told me she was going to examine the photo’s, x-rays, and impressions taken of my teeth and will call me when i could come back to start threatment. With that my first visit at the orthodontist was done, it took about an hour and i could leave now
Chapter 5: Braces are coming soon!
When i got home I explained to my mother i did had to get braces and they will call me when i could start the threatment. After that i went to my usual buisseness not thinking too much of it, the braces now a days aren’t that bad some are hardly noticibale.
So I went on with my normal buiseness the next couple a days, talked to some friends of mine about the braces and they shared their experiences with me, they mostly had the normal fixed braces and they eased me by telling it isn’t that bad. All of my friends are done with their braces by now so that was kind off unsettling that i was going to be the only one with them. So the next week when i got home from a friend of mine my mother told me dr Martin had called and I could start threatment, my mother had made an appoitment for me the next day at 1 Pm.
Chapter 6: Starting threatment
So the next day it was the day to get my braces, at least i didn’t have to be there early like the last time and i could sleep late. I arrived at the clinic at 12:45, it was a lot buisier then the last time i was there. There were about 4 other people in the waiting room all younger then me. There were 3 girls and 1 boy sitting there, they all had the fixed braces it seemed and one of the girls also was wearing a headgear with a strap in her neck. She looked like such a dork in it, i thought. So after about 15minutes of waiting i was called into the threatment room. I walked in, and this time it was busier in the room there where patients lying on some chairs and there were some assistant’s working on them. There was a table there with all kinds of orthodontic equipment lying on it, and on the table was lying a tooth model with an activator and headgear in it, like this one http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mijnbeugelef4.jpg, i remember thinking how much the kid who was getting that would be pissed. I saw dr. Martin in the back of the threatment room and I walked towards here. When i arrived she said: “ hi cathy welcome back ready to start threatning those teeth of yours” i smiled and said yes. She told me to sit down in the chair and after i did she reclined it, put on some gloves and a facecap and told me to open my mouth. I opened my mouth and she started to look around in it, she asked me to close my mouth and look around in it. After that she said: “ you are ready to start your threatment i can see that you brush your teeth well so let’s get starting, i’ll be right back.” And she walked away for the chair.
Chapter 7: Starting threatment part II
She didn’t take long and I saw her coming back, she had something in her hand but from my reclined position in the chair i couldn’t see what. When she came back she put the thing in her hand on the table next to the chair. I was able to see it now, it was the teeth model with the activator and headgear i saw lying on the table when i entered, I was getting very scared now. “What’s that? “ i asked, and the moment i asked i saw some big mean smile on her face, she replied: “ that’s the equipment for your threatment, now open up your mouth.” As i opened up my mouth i started feeling really sad, I was not liking the idea of wearing that thing it looked really uncomfortable and i thought those things where only for younger kids. But looking on the bright side of it i would probally wear it only at night and the rest of the day i would be braces free. When my mouth was completly opened dr Martin inserted the activator in my mouth, when it was in my mouth for the first time my mouth felt very full it felt like my teeth were caught in plastic. Slime was building up inside my mouth i didn’t was very comfortable. When i tried to close my mouth i found out that because of the activator i couldn’t anymore my lips didn’t meet up at the end. When the activator was in dr Martin connected the headgear, first the strap on the left side, then she pulled the headcap over my head and brought it back to the right side i felt my hair messing up as she pulled it back down. Then she connected the right side and the moment she connected it I feld the pressure building up it felt as if the headgear was trying to pull all my teeth back into my throat. When it was in there dr Martin looked in my mouth and looked if it fitted well. “it seems to fit well” she said, “ this is your equipment it is called a van Beek activator, you will need to wear this all the time except for eating, bathing and sporting.” “ I cwant waer thith wall the time!” i tried to said, “well you are going to have to, my assistant debby is going to practice putting it in and out please make an appoitment for in 4weeks.” And with that dr Martin walked away and left me lying there with this unbelievebale chunk of plastic in my mouth, i started feeling pretty misserable and felt some tears coming up.
Chapter 8: First moments in equipment
After a short while of lying there the assistant came and practiced inserting and getting out the activator, it was hard the first couple of times but after some practicing i could do it. Debbie explained to me how to clean it and then gave me a retainer case and a headgear bag to keep it in during the few moments i was allowed not to wear it. So with that i could leave, i couldn’t believe it was just under half an hour ago i was good looking thinking of just getting some brackets and now i was this ugly nerd with activator and headgear. When i came out of the threatment room the first thing i deed i went into the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror hoping it wouldn’t be that bad. When i came in and had a look it was worse than i thought the headgear was ugly and totally messed up my hair it was coming out at all sides of the headgear, my face was looking really long because of the big activator and when i showed my teeth there were just a half an hour ago were a set of shiny white teeth now all there was was the pink plastic of the activator. At that moment i started to burst out in tears and cry, i locked myself in one of the toilets and cried for a couple of minutes. The crying caused for a lot of soliva coming up in my mouth and i found out swallowing with the activator in was very hard and every time i do i made i sluurp noise really loud. When i was able to get a grab of myself and stopped crying i dried my eyes and sat in the toilet booth for at least another 15minutes untill i gathered enough courage to go out in public like this. When i came out of the toilet and back into the waiting room it was quite busy there and i felt i was being looked at, i remember thinking my stuff must be really bad that even in the orthodontist office i would be stared at because of my braces. I walked up to the receptionist’s desk and she looked at me i said , or tried to say: “ I would like so mwake an appoitmenth thor over four weekth., slllllllrp” It came out even worse then i can descripe here, and at that moment i felt really embarresed and could just feel my head going red and the tears coming up again. Luckily the receptionist felt some compassion and asked all the quiestions and i could just nod yes or no from then, and i made an appoitment for over 4 weeks on a Wednesday afternoon at 3.
Chapter 9: Outside with activator
I walked away from the orthodontist office in the hallway, this was the first time i had to go out looking like this. This really scared me, normally it took me 15minutes to ride my bike back home but if i did it fast i could make it in 10. Luckily there was no one outside the orthodontists office and i could get my bike and ride it home, on the way home it felt like everyone i passed looked at me and this was very embarrising. I ride as fast as i could and made it back home in 10minutes orso, luckily i didn’t saw anybody i knew on the way home. When i got home i heard my mother yelling down the stairs how it went and when she got downstairs she said: “wow what is that?” and i replied by saying “ my aczivazor, i whave zo wear ith full zime,slllrp” she didnt understand me and asked if i was allowed to take it off, i shook my head and tried to say: “ only forth eazing bazing and thporzing” “ eathing bathing and sporting?” mom asked, and i could nod my head to say yes. “ well that’s though on you, but you are going to have to fight through it we are paying a lot of money for those teeth of yours so you are not going to extend threatment by not wearing it enough, i will be very strict on that.”
Chapter 10: My afternoon
Afer that i went up to my room and just cried a lot, which caused for a lot of slime to come in my mouth and i had to make a sluur noise a lot to swallow it. In the mean time the activator really started hurting more and the pain was getting really bad, also my jaws where getting tired from being in an unnatural position all the time because of the activator. After about an half hour i calmed down a bit and i had to go to the bathroom again, when i looked in the mirror there i could hardly recognise myself where normally had to be standing a beautiful blonde girl now was standing a nerd with a headgear my pearly white teeth were not visible anymore behind the pink prison my teeth where captured in right now. And my normally so well styled blonde hair was completly messed up by the dark blue headgear covering it, my hair was sticking out at all sides of the headgear it really was a mess. I spend the rest of the afternoon watching some TV and sobbing about the equipment, i was really scared what my friends would think of it my friends and i have bullied people with braces far less worse than mine before. Luckily it was vacation now so i could get used to them before i had to go back to school again, next year will be my last year in high school and i just cant believe i am probally going to spend at least the beginning of it trapped in activator and headgear. When it was about 6pm mom called that it was time for dinner, which meant for me i was allowed to remove the equipment. I went downstairs and this was the first time my father saw me in the equipment he looked at me and said: “hmm that doesnt look to comfortable, i’m sorry for you but i am paying a fortune for it so you are going to wear it as prescribed.” I nodded my head and went to get my retainer case and headgear back and removed the headgear straps from the facebow, the moment i removed the straps i felt a great relieve coming from my teeth. After that i removed the activator from my mouth, i didn’t really expect there to be so much slime coming from it but it did and my entire chin and my shirt where now full of my own soliva. It felt great to finally relax my jaws again and be released of my plastic prison for my teeth, i put the activator in the retainer case and put it and the activator in the headgear bag and joined my parents for dinner.
Chapter 11: Dinner
During dinner i could talk proparly for the first time in some like 5 hours so i grabbed this moment to try and convince my parents to at least let me have some more moments without it besides dining bathing and sporting, so i could go out like a normal person. But my parents wouldn’t give me any slack and side i had to wear it like the ortho perscribed, so i decided not to whine anymore because i knew my parents and it would only make them more angry. They have spoiled me my entire life, but when it comes to these sort of things they get really strict. So i decided to ask my ortho to about wearing it less in 4weeks maybe she will be easier to convince, and the coming 4 weeks i had vacation anyway so there wouldn’t be much people to see me in it. After dinner my parents made me put in the equipment right away again, and the pain in my teeth was back again it even hurt a little bit more then when i took it out. The rest of the night i spend chatting online with my friends and browsing the web looking for more information on my braces. My friends were really nice to me and they really felt sad for me i had the idea. Surfing on the web i found some ortho sites with pictures of braces and saw that the appliance that ive got was pretty much the worst kind of appliance there was.
Chapter 12: First night
So at around 11 i decided to go to bed so i went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, i still wasn’t used to my new mirror image and it still looked i was looking to another person and i didnt like what i was seeing. I removed my headgear and activator for brushing my teeth, it felt like a great relieve to remove it again. Looking in the mirror it felt good seeing myself like im used to again i started to brush my teeth, i don’t think i’ve ever brushed my teeth so long just to extend my time without it. When i was done with brushing my teeth i cleaned my activator it got pretty dirty from the food still stuck in my mouth during dinner and it started tasting really dirty, when i was done i put it back in my mouth again. It still hurted a lot when i inserted it but atleast it tasted fresh now. I went back up and changed for bed, i removed my shirt and discoverd this wasn’t that easy anymore while wearing a headgear but i managed and changed in my night clothing. I was pretty tired from this day and just wanted to end what was one of the worst days in my life as fast as i could so i went in bed and tried to sleep.
That was the start of a long night, as it seems sleeping it this equipment isn’t easy. I used to lie on my side while sleeping but as i tried to do that the first time the headgear bow got in the way and that was really uncomfortable, so i tried lieing on my back. That helped a bit the bow was not in the way anymore, but i still couldn’t sleep because it was hurting pretty bad at the moment and with nothing to distract me from it the pain seemed like doubled since i went to bed. This too went for the amount of saliva in my mouth and i had to swallow it every time it was too much, and swallowing while wearing an activator is not easy and i still couldnt do it without making a big sllrp noise. After about two hours at 1 orso i finally felt asleep out of pure tiredness, when i woke up the next morning it felt like something was different. Too my suprise my mouth was completly empty when i woke up, too my suprise i was not wearing my equipment anymore how could that be was all of this just a bad dream and was today the day i went to the ortho? I wondered, and kind off hoped.
Chapter 13: Waking up
I looked at my clock and saw that it was noon already, wow i thought did i sleep this long!? I realised that if all of it was just a bad dream i had my real ortho appoitment at 1, which meant i had to hurry to be in time. I rapidly got out of bed and when i stepped out i stepped on something, it felt kind of soft. I looked down and saw where i was standing, it was my headgear cap so it wasn’t a bad dream but all reality. I picked up the headgear but didnt saw the activator i looked around and saw i lieing on the floor about 50cm further from my bed then the headgear did. I picked it up and stated thinking how it was possible that it was on the floor and not in my mouth. It couldnt have just fallen out because the activor was lieing pretty far from my bed. Then i realised i must have removed it from my mouth while i was a sleep and thrown it away from my bed, which practically meant i missed a lot of hours that night. I hoped i would get used to sleeping with it and it wouldn’t happen again. I decided to start wearing it again, when i inserted the activator it still felt pretty huge when i had it in my hand. Once it was in i got a really bad taste in my mouth, the activator had been on the floor for god nows how long and it gotten i little dirty. I connected the straps of the headgear and the pain immediatly came back, not wearing it for a couple of hours made the pain come back twice as hard. I got back in bed and decided to ly around for some more. After about half an hour I decided it was enough and went to the bathroom and get a shower, i removed my equipment relieving my mouth of the pain and got undressed and took a shower. After that i got drest and went down to have some breakfast and after breakfast i went back upstairs to brush my teeth. I brushed them really well and when i was done i cleaned my activator again really well this time because i didn’t want it too taste like it did this morning. I put it in my mouth again and now it was nice and fresh again, i stood for the mirror now without wearing the headgear and realised that the day before the headgear messed up my hair pretty bad so i started thinking how i could prevent that. I always wore my hair lose, but that wasn’t an option with the headgear, so i had to tie it in a pony tail and then put my headgear on. I didn’t like my hair like this but it was better then lose atleast my hair wasnt all messed up now.
Chapter 14: carolin
Later that day a friend of me, Carolin, called on my mobile phone, there i found out that calling with my new look was not that easy, in fact it was practically impossible. First of all i was almost not to understand talking in person with someone let alone over the phone, and secondly my headgear kept bumping against the phone. So i hung up the phone and decided to continue communicating by sending text messages. She wanted to come over and later maybe go to the mall. I replied that she could come over, and an hour later she was here. I was nervous about her reaction about my new look, because we were the popular crowd in school and always bullied people with things like braces that are way less extreme than mine. When she arrived i could see that she was very shocked when she first saw me in the equipment. “ wow that’s pretty extreme, i thought you were just getting fixed braces” “ i zought tho foo, gueth i thwath wrong, slrrrrp’ I could see that she didn’t understood everything i said but she didn’t say anything about that and she was very comforting and understanding. We decided to see a movie that afternoon, i didn’t say much but sometimes i had to make a slurpy noise to get rid of the slime in my mouth which was very embarrising. After the movie Caroline still wanted to go to the mall, i didn’t really feel for it but thought i had to go out in public with it someday and well shopping always made me feel better when im depressed so i guess why not. On the way over i felt that at every light the people in the car were looking at me, and i swear i saw some laugh. I felt my head was getting red of embarrement every time we had to stop at a traffic light. My self confidence that once was so high, has dropped to zero now and i started feeling more and more unconfident about my self.
Chapter 15: The mall
When we arrived at the mall, ive parked my car in a parking spot as close as possible to the entrance. My friend exited the car and wanted to go inside, but the looks at the traffic light made me scared to get out of the car. After she talked to me for a while she convinced me to go in and we went into the mall. When we entered the mall i saw that it was pretty busy. We walked around for a while and i felt like everyone was looking at me, i could swere there were even some people who laughed at me. We went to some stores, and i tried on a nice t-shirt a liked. The time in the changing room it was really a relieve to get some privacy. It fitted really nice and i bought it, it gave a good feeling to myself to shop it always cheered me up to buy clothes. Although this time i felt like it had no use to buy nice clothes, since i am not going to look pretty anyway because of the equipment. We went on shopping after i bought the t-shirt, normally when my friend and i go to the mall we get lots of attention from the boys but now it was different, they did look but not in the same way. There was no chance of me getting a date ever again while wearing these terrible things. Just when we were about to leave i heard a big laugh coming from behind off me. “ Hahahaha that you of all persons look like that hahaha” I turned around and i saw a girl from my school, Jenny she always wore an cervical headgear to school and i just to call her antenna head Jenny. But this time no headgear or even brackets just pearly white perfectly straight teeth. “ oh and you even have the chunky activator thing in your mouth” she said with a big mean straight teethed smile on her face. “thuth up wenny youwe thil a nerth, slrrp” “ what did you say i did not understand you?’ I felt like crying at that moment and just turned around and walked back to the car as fast as i could sat in the drivers seat and bursted out in tears, not for the first time since i got the equipment. Carolin tried to comfort me and when i calmed down we drove back home and went to my room and cried in my bed. Seeing Jenny like this and she seeing me like this made me realise karma has turned against me and slapped me in the head hard.
Chapter 16: Questions
After this terrible experience in the mall i was afraid of getting out of the house again. So the next couple of days i didn’t get out the house at all. Luckily the pain from the equipment as getting lesser every day. I still sounded terrible wearing it, but it was getting a little better. Sleeping was getting better and better too, and i am able to sleep pretty normal with it in my mouth now and don’t unconsiounsly remove it anymore. During these days some more friends of me came over and they all felt very sorry for me and luckily were all very compasionate. One friend told me she had one as well, for 6months long before she got fixed braces when she was 13. But she only had to wear it at night and never showed it to annyone. I remember her having fixed braces back then, but i don’t remember seeing her in the activator. Lots of friends asked me how long i was going to wear it, or if i would get normal brackets after, and if i might wear it less later in threatment. And i realised i didn’t know the awnser to all of these quetions, i did not aske anything about my threatment when i got my activator. I think i was too shocked and too ashamed to talk with it that i just did not ask. So all i could do now was hope i wouldn’t have to wear it for that long or maybe even get to wear it less in a few months. I will need to ask all of these things dr. Martin at the next appoitment, hearing my friends story about the activator i assumed i would wear it for 6months orso. But what can i assume with my threatment so far, just 3 weeks ago i assumed never to need braces and when i heared i did i assumed i would just get the brackets and look at me now i could be the qeeun of braces-land with this kind of heavy equipment.
Chapter 17: The next weeks
After these first couple of horrible experiences going out in public with my new look i decided to go out as less as i can, and just hope i will get rid of it, or atleast get to wear it less fast. Since i still had 6 more weeks of vacation left, this would be easy during this time, because then i would have no obligation to go in public at all. So that was what i did i did not get out of the house much during this vacation. Friends came over to my house sometimes, and sometimes i would go to theirs. But i did not went to any public places. So i was pretty bored during most times in the vacation, but it beat going out like this. This is also why i started writing this story because i’m bored and had to write off my frustrations about this equipment. Atleast the pain it was causing was getting less every day, and even talking went a little better but i still lisped pretty badly.
Chapter 18: Back to the ortho
So that’s pretty much how i survived the next couple of weeks untill I had to go back to Dr. Martin again for the first check up after i got my equipment. I had some questions i needed to ask her about my threatment and was hoping to get some positive awnsers out of her, saying i would be done with my torture device soon or at least get to wear it less soon. My first check-up was at a Wednesday afternoon at 3 o’clock. I came in early like i pretty much always do, no matter where i go. I arrived at the office at about 2:45 and i checked in with the receptionist, i had to repeat my name 3 times because she didn’t understand me. It was very embarissing. So after that embarrising experience i sat down in the waiting room, and read a magazine. After about 5minutes a boy walked in, he was very handsom. I looked at him and he looked at me, he kind off laughed and i saw he did not have any braces. My face turned red when i laughed because he was probally laughing at me about my braces i tried to hide myself behinf my magazine and not look at him. He checked in at the receptionist and sat down and read a magazine as well. After a while sitting there, the ortho came in and said: “ Cathy i am ready for you now, you can come in John i see you are early i will be with you soon.”
Chapter 19: Ortho visit
She walked back into the threatment room, and i stood up and followed her in. When i walked in looking to my right there was the exact same apliance i have lying there at the same place mine was lying on the day i got it. Someone would be having a really really bad day today just like i had a month ago. I followed Dr. Martin further into the threatment room, and she asked me to lay down on one of the chairs. I was the only patient in at this moment. I layed down and she reclined the chair. “ So how was your first month with the activator.” “ Zerrible ith thucth.” “ I know it is not the most comfortable appliance but it is necaserry for your teeth, you will get used to it eventually.” “ I gueth tho.” “ Have you been wearing it as i instructed?” “ Yeth, i wath wearing full zime.” “ Oke good girl now open up.” I opened my mouth and she looked in it wiggling a bit at my activator. Then she disconnected the straps of the headgear and took the activator out of my mouth. I could now relax my jaws again. “ I am just going to tighten the headgear and activator and we will be done oke?” “ Excuse me Dr. Martin i have some questions i want to ask.” “ Oh oke well go ahead.” “ How long will i be wearing the activator?” “ Ah sorry we kind off rushed into your threatment so i forget to explain to you how the threatment is going to look like. You will be wearing this appliance you have now for about 1,5-2 years.” “ That long!?” “ Yes that long, remember you started too late so your threatment is less comfortable and longer then it would have been when you started like 6 years ago, when you are done with the activator and headgear combination we will start with normal fixed braces for another periond of 1,5-2years and you will probally need an headgear with your fixed braces as well.” “ So i am practicly going to look like a dork for the next 3-4 years?” I was starting to feel more and more miserable now and was getting close to crying. “ It doesn’t look that bad, anyway i have altered your equipment please open your mouth.” I opened my mouth and she inserted the activator, it felt tighter then before like it was closer too my teeth, then she connect the headgear straps again. When the headgear was connected the pressure came back on the headgear and it was definielty a lot tighter then before it was starting too hurt again. “ So we are all done now, you can go please make a new appoitment at the receptionist 4 weeks from today bye.”
Chapter 20: Bathroom sobbing
So i stood up out of the chair and walked towards the exit, Dr. Martin followed me towards the exit. I feeld pretty depressed because of the bad news i just received and was close to crying. I exited the threatment room and entered the waiting room, the boy who came in a little later then me was still sitting there. Dr. Martin followed me out and said: “ John i am ready for you now please come in.” He stood up and looked at me, i saw he laughed again in a mean way when he walked passed me, i felt my head getting red and was really close too crying now it was a really depressing thought that people would be lauging at me for the next 3-4 years because of this stupid braces. I fled to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, i was used to the sight of me with the headgear but the thought i would have to look at myself like this for the next 3 maybe 4 years was not at all nice, at that moment i just bursted out in tears and just cried for a couple of minutes. I tried putting myself back together, but i did not quite manage that. I decided to walk into one of the toilet booths and took a seat on a toilet. I just sat there and sobbed for about 15minutes orso before i finally pulled myself together and decided to go out make a new appoitment and go home.
Chapter 21: Back in the waiting room
So i walked out of the toilet room and entered the waiting room, there was one girl sitting there reading a magazine. She looked at me and i saw she had normal fixed braces. I walked towards the receptionist, but she was not sitting there so i stood there waiting. Then the door of the threatment room opened and Dr. Martin walked out, “ Lisa, i am ready for you now you can come in.” And Dr. Martin turned around and walked back into the threatment room. The girl with the fixed braces stood up and Followed Dr. Martin into the threatment room. I looked behind the desk, but there was still no sign of the receptionist, i wondered what took her so long. The waiting was getting pretty annoying, i was kind off sad and just wanted to go home as fast as possible. Then the door of the threatment room opened and the receptionist came out of the door. Finally now i can go home, i thought. She held the door and the boy who’s turn it was after me followed her out, but he did not came out the way he came in. He was wearing the same braces as i was and he too was not looking all too happy. I looked at him and i could see he had tears in his eyes, it was obviously a suprise too him he had to wear them. Somewhere i felt sorry for him, as i knew what he was going through right now but another part of me thought he deserved it for laughing at me.
Chapter 22: Meeting John
He walked towards me too go to the reception as well, i looked at him and he turned very red. “Tho, youve goz the thame ath i have too?” “ Yeth, i am thorry i laughed at you before.” Wow i really had to listen good to understand him, it felt weird listing to someone else talking like that. It is even worse then i thought it would be, i wonder if my speech is that bad. “ Doethent matter i uthed too laugh at people with big bratheth ath well untill i got thith a month ago.” “ Well I gueth karma hith back on oth.” “ Yeth gueth tho. ze firth couple of dayth will be ze worthe afther that you will get uthed too ith, whath ith your name?.” “ My name ith John and youth?” “ I am Cathy nithe to meet you.” “ Nithe to meeth you too, it ith good to know im not the only one with thith kind of braceth, you want to go have a drink and give me thome advithe on thith thing?” “ Thure i would love too.” And we both made new appoitments at the receptionist and left the orthodontist’s office, and went to a restaurant that was near the office to get some drinks.
Chapter 23: The restaurant
We found a quiet spot in the back of the restaurant and sat down together. Luckily it was not busy in the restaurant so the looks were not that bad. “Tho howcome i have not theen you before?” I asked him. “ I juth moved here two weeth ago from another thown.” “ Ah oke to whith thcool do you go?” “ I will go tho Midwood High thcool and you?” “ I am going there athwell.” The waitress came and asked us what we wanted to drink, she looked at us and i could see she was trying hard not to laugh i was not feeling that embarresed anymore since this happened a lot the last month but i could see John was very embarresed his head was all red and i could see he was close to crying. “ Don’t worry you wil get utheth too ith.” “ Oh that happeth a loth?” “ Yeth a lot of people look and thome laugh ith very embarrithing but i got uthed too it.” Then the waitress came back with our coffee. “Thankth.” I took my retainer case and headgear bag out of my purse and disconnencted my headgear, i put the headcap into the headgear bag and genlty removed my activator and put it in the retainer case. It was a big relieve to remove it, the pressure was getting pretty painfull after the tighting. I looked at John and saw him grapping his headgear bag and retainer case as well, he removed the headgear and put it in the bag then he removed his activator, but not as smoothly as i did and the spit was drooling out of his mouth and was all over his shirt. I started too laugh, and i saw his face turning red. “ Don’t worry, it happened to me as well te first time i removed it just remember to do it smoothly from now on.” “ Hehe oke, thanks for the tip.”
Chapter 24: Drinking coffee
“ You are verry pretty without your braces.” John said. “ Well thanks i guess, dont get used too it i won’t be seen much without them for a long time.” “ You have a long time to go with it?” “ Yes 1,5-2 years with the horrible activator and headgear and after that i still have to wear fixed braces.” “ Wow i hope i won’t have to go true it that long, how long have you had it now?” “ I got it last month thought i would have to wear it for like 6months tops but today i hear 1.5 year minimum.” “ Yeah that sucks to hear, i hope i won’t be in it that long, did you know you were going to get this kind of braces before you started?” “ No they were a complete suprise for me, i expected getting clear braces for a year orso not this mess for so long.” “ She took me by suprise as well with this thing.” “ I guess she has a hand of that, you want to hear how i got tricked into these braces?” “ Yeah sure.” And then i told him my complete story, pretty much all i told you guys before. It felt good getting all of that anger out and telling the story to someone and John looked geniunly interested in the story. It took me quiete a while telling the story and after i was done we had like 2 refills of coffee already. “ Wow that’s some story, you want to hear how i ended up like this?” John asked me and i replied by just saying sure.
Chapter 25: John's story
So he started telling his story: It all started about 1,5 years ago, i always knew my teeth were not of the straightest kind and i always had a overbite but due to the late changing of my teeth my orthodontic treatment was postponed several times before, the question was not if i needed braces but the question was when i would need them. And at my half yearly appoitment at my dentist he said i was finally ready to go see an orthodontist. He recomended an orthodontist to me and i made an appoitment for a week later. Being a late starter at 17 at that time i was motivated to start the treatment as fast as possible. So a week later i went to the orthodontist, it was a really nice office with a friendle receptionist i checked and she asked me to have a seat and explained that the ortho was going to pick me up when he was ready for me. A couple of minutes later the ortho came out and invited me in, he was a nice looking older man. I followed him into the treatment room, there were like 3 dentist chairs in there and in one of them a girl was lying and a assistent was working on her mouth. I layed down in one of the other chairs and opened my mouth. He took a look inside my mouth and after a while said: “ Well you definietly do need braces, i will call your parents and tell them that i think you need them then you can come back next week and we will make impressions so that i can make a treatment plan and when you decide to continue after that we can then start fixing your teeth, ok?” And with that i could leave and come back a week later.
Chapter 26: John's second ortho visit
He did call my parents, and we talked about me getting braces and we all agreed is should do it. So the next week i went back to the ortho’s office and sat down in the waiting room. There was another girl sitting in the waiting room, i looked at her and could she she had braces. After a couple of minutes of waiting someone came out of the treatment room and left and the receptionist said the other girl could go in, and she walked into the treatment room and left me all alone in the waiting room. Just a couple of minutes later a guy walked out the treatment room, and the receptionist told me to go in. I went in and a assistent asked me to sit down in one of the chairs. She asked me to open my mouth and she took out a big iron spoon like thing. She put it in my mouth and then took it out again then she took another one put that in and said: “Hmm this looks the right size.” She filled it up with some sort of paste and made an impression of my upper teeth, she did the same like that with my lower teeth. The imrpession paste was really dirty and the full mouth made me gag a little, after she was done i could wash my mouth and she said she was going to take x-rays of my mouth. She took me to another room and i had to bit down on some machine then she left and she made the x-rays, after that she took me to another room again and made some normal photos of me and my teeth and profile, then i she said i could leave and should make an appoitment again for in a week later to discuss the treatment plan.
Chapter 27: Treatment plan
A week later i went back again to the ortho office, checked in at the recptionist and again i sat down in the waiting room. It was not very busy apperently because there was no one there in the waiting room. I decided to read a magazine, but apperently they did not get changed that often and most the interesting ones i had read last few times. So i was just staring around the waiting room a bit. After about 10 minutes the ortho came out and asked me to follow him to his office. I entered the office, there was a desk there and some chairs and a computer. He asked me to sit down and he sat down behind the desk. “So John we have examined your impressions and x-rays and have made an treatment plan for your braces. We think you will need fixed braces for probally about 2-3 years to fix your teeth. Your overbite we will try to fix by using elastics in combination with the braces okay?” “ yeah sure doc sounds like normal regular braces when can we start the treatment?” “ you sound really eager to start.” “ Yes i am the sooner they are in the sooner they go out right? “ “ Yeah that is true, well we need to install spacers first before we can start treating you i think we have time for that today and then we could have you in braces as soon as next week oke? ” “ oke next week sounds good.” I followed him into the treatment room and he asked me to lay down so that he could install the spacers. I did and opened my mouth, he said it wasnt going to take long. He took a pair of pliers and put 4 elastics between my upper back teeth. And whith that i could go and come back next week for the braces.
Chapter 28: John get's braces
During the next week the spacers hurt pretty bad, especially the first days and it felt like i had food stuck between my teeth constantly. The next week it was time for my ortho visit, i had an early appoitment at 9 o’clock. I arrived at the office and there was no one there but the receptionist, i checked in and she told me i was the first patient of the day that day. I was pretty nervous when i sat down in the waiting room, it was still 5minutes before i had my appoitment and i knew it would be the last 5minutes of braces free teeth for me. I spend it rubbing my tongue over my smooth teeth and took a look in the mirror smiling and looking at my white teeth before i went in for my appoitment. When i got in the ortho asked me to lay down in the chair, and open my mouth. After that he took some sort of machine and started cleaning my teeth. When he was done cleaning my teeth, he took some pliers and removed the elastics he had put between my teeth, he then said there was enough room between them to put in my molar bands. And with that he started placing my molar band, he first had to try out the right size and then force it over my teeth. After about 10 minutes he was done with all the molar bands he had to place and started with the placing of the brackets on the rest of the teeth. That took about an hour to do so, when he was done with that i could drink some water before he went on with the archwires. He took some sort of plier thing and popped open all my brackets and then run the archwire through the brackets, he repeated the same routine for my lower teeth. And with that i was braced, he gave me some wax which i could use if the braces were cutting up the inside of my mouth and said i should make an appoitment for a check up in four weeks.
Chapter 29 : John has braces
A couple of hours after i got the braces i started feeling the pressure and the braces started hurting quite badly. Beside the pressure the braces where also quite sharp and where cutting the inside of my mouth pretty badly, luckily the wax seemed too help against that but i could not wear the wax when i was eating and the braces where cutting up my tongue during eating quite badly. So during the first couple of days eating had become a pretty painfull thing to do. Luckily most of the real unpleasant discomforts dissapeared after a week orso, and i got used to the braces pretty well. In the months that followed the only times the braces were really uncomfortable during the first couple of days after an ortho visit. The only thing that was constantly a little bit uncomfortable where the elastics i got during my first check up after i got the braces. The 2 elastics i got went from my canine teeth on my upper jaw to the 2nd molar teeth on my lower jaw and the annoying thing about them was that they did not like me opening my mouth. Everytime i opened my mouth the elastics pressure increased and tried to force me to close my mouth again, which was quite uncomfortable. A little more than a year after i started my treatment, my father got a new job and we had to move here. Because of the moving, i had to get a new orthodontist. My old orthodontist told me that because orthodontics use different kinds of methods it might be possible i had to get my braces removed and get new ones but he would send my files to the new ortho after we moved and it would not be such a big problem.
Chapter 30: John goes to dr. Martin
My dad would start his new job after the summer, so i could finish my year in school. We moved too here right after the vacation started and started the look for a new orthodonist. After looking in the yellow pages we found that there were two orthodontist here in town, Dr. Martin and another one i can’t remember his name. We called the other one first, but he could not fit in a new patient for at least a two months. Then we called Dr. Martin and she could fit me in for our first appoitment a week later. A week later i had my appoitment at Dr. Martin, i checked in at the receptionist and sat down in the waiting room which did not look all that diffrent from the waiting room at my old orthodontist. I was the only one sitting in the waiting room and decided too read a magazine. After about 5minutes a woman came in and called my name, i followed her into the treatment room. She introduced herself as Dr. Martin and asked me to lay down in one of the chairs and open my mouth. “So John i received the files from your old ortho and read them i believe your ortho told you orthodontist some times use different methods?” I nodded my head to explain that he did. “ Oke good well i use different kind of braces than your old orthodontist, think a van beek type of braces is best for you, so today i am going to remove your old ones, make some new impressions and then we can start with the new braces next week.” Then she asked me to open up again ad she took a pair of pliers and just ripped out my braces, this was not really a pleasant feeling. When the braces were out she made new impressions of my teeth which went the same as with the last ortho and it still was not any fun and when that was done she said: “ So we are all done now please make an appoitment for sometime next week, when i will have your new braces ready bye.” I left the treatment room and made an appoitment with the receptionist for the next week and went back home.
Chapter 31: Dr. Martin's waiting room
It felt weird having smooth teeth again, just like it felt weird getting the braces on. And looking in the mirror it was cool to see my normal teeth again, but i knew i could not enjoy it too long because the next week their would be new ones there. The van Beek kind i was getting the ortho said, i had never heard of it so i thought it was some new technique or something. We did not have internet at the new house yet so i could not look it up. The next week was pretty boring i could not chat with my old friends and there just was not much to do around the house. Untill today, because today i had to go to the orthodontist and get my new braces. My appoitment was at 3:15 this afternoon, but i arrived very early like at 2:50, i checked in and went to the waiting room. I saw you sitting there and you looked at me, i saw you was wearing this huge kind of braces and thought it was pretty funny and started laughing a little. I saw you were embarresed because you turned red like a tomatoe and tried to hide yourself behind a magazine. I decided to read a magazine as well and after about 5minutes Dr. Martin came in and said: “ Cathy i am ready for you now you can come in, John i see you are early i will be with you soon.” And you stood up and followed Dr. Martin to the treatment room and i continued reading my magazine. After a while Dr. Martin came out and you followed her out Dr. Martin said: “ John i am ready for you now please come in.” And i followed her in, i looked at you when i walked in and noticed you looked pretty sad. I could not help laughing a little at your huge funny appliance and saw you turned red when i did but i walked on and followed Dr. Martin insede to the treatment room.
Chapter 32: John get 's braces, again
I entered the treatment room and Dr. Martin said i could lay down in chair three while she went to the bathroom and she walked away. I looked around through the treatment room and saw a table with all kinds of orthodontic equipment on it. Als lying on the table was a model of someone’s teeth with in it a huge kind of appliance with a headgear connected too it it looked the same as you were wearing i thought. I went to chair three and layed down and waited for Dr. Martin to come back. I did not take long for dr. Martin to come back from the bathroom. She reclined the chair all the way back and asked me to open my mouth. She looked in my mouth, and asked me to close my mouth and looked at it again. Then she asked: “ So i believe you are ready for the braces how about you.” I nodded and she told me she would go get them and walked away. She came back pretty fast and she had something with her and she lay it down on a tray next to the chair. I looked at it and saw it was the teeth model with the big plastic braces and headgear lying it. I looked at it in shock for a couple of seconds and startet connecting the dots. “Is that a van beek type of braces?” i asked the doctor in shock and she replied: “ Yes that is a van beek.” “ I was expecting to get a different kind of fixed braces and not a big thing like that.” “ Well i guess you was expecting the wrong thing i’ve told you that you were getting this so please open your mouth. “ I opened my mouth and she took the appliance out of the impressions of my teeth and inserted it into my mout. It felt even bigger then it looked and almost imediatly my mouth filled with slime. I tried to close my mouth but the appliance was keeping my lower and upper jaw apart from each other and i could not get my lips to meet up because of the van beek braces. Dr. Martin wiggled a bit with the appliance and looked a bit in my mouth with the appliance in, and said it fitted well. Then she took the headgear and connected the strap at one side and pulled the headcap around my head and connected it at the other side. The pressure i felt then was enormeus it felt like all my teeth were pulled back into my mouth. “Oke John so this is your new appliance, you will need to wear it like this pretty much all the time you are only allowed to remove it for showering, sporting, eating, and brushing teeth oke?” I felt like crying at that moment wearing this thing all the time i tried to protest but the words came out mumbled and lispy. She replied by asking “ Oke!?” again but this time a little more strict and i replied by saying oke. “ Great now i am going to the next patient the assistant will help you with the removing and inserting of the appliance by yourself see you next month.” And she walked away and the assistant came and teached me how to remove and insert the appliance. After practising a couple of times she said i could go and i left the treatment room very depressed and pissed of because of the new appliance. Walking in the waiting room i saw you standing there and i was very embarresed, well the rest is history and now we are here drinking coffee together.
Chapter 33: The next days
When he was done telling his story we pretty much finished our second cup of coffee and decided too go back home, we exchanged email adresses and phone numbers. I took the activator and headgear out of my purse and inserted it again, immediatly the pressure of the appliance was back on my teeth and slime was building up again inside my mouth. He also took out his activator and headgear and inserted it, or at least tried to insert it he was having quite some trouble doing it but he managed to insert it eventually. “ Won’t worry youl geth bezzer ath ith thoon.” I said talking with a huge lips again. “ Woh i hope tho, well thee you lather.” He replied and i had to listen very careful to understand him he was lisping so bad which made me realise how bad my lisp probally is and it is even worse than i thought it was. We both went separate ways after that and i headed home. During the next couple of days i spend most of my time chatting and emailing with John. Since we were both embarresed to go out with the bad appliances we had enough time to do so and i was really starting to like him was really a nice guy. He lived just a couple of blocks away from my house and we arranged that i went to visit him there, him being really new with the braces did not want to go out of the house with them.
Chapter 34: going out of the house again
On the day of our date i went to his house at about noon, he lived just i couple of blocks away in our neighbourhood so i decided to walk there. It quite scary since i did not go out much since i got the activator and most of my friends came to visit me at my house or i drove myself to their house. After the embarrising incident at the mall i kept going out in public time to an absolute minimum. My mom kept bothering me about it and telling me i should not be embarresed about it and not to care what others think about it. And since i had to go out in public with it in two weeks when school started again she kept telling me people will see it anyway at the first day. Oh man school is just two weeks away i realised at that moment, what had to become the best year of school it being my final year and all was already doomed to be the worst before it even started. And the first day in school was already doomed to be the worst of my live, i was expected to be the hot popular senior now was the nerdy dork with big braces. Even thinking about that day was almost making me cry. I walked out the door and looked into my street and saw that there was no one there. I started walking towards John’s house, the sun was shining and it was quite warm out. It has been good weather through out the entire vacation but because of my braces i spend most of it inside and was not able to enjoy this nice weather. I had walked like a block orso from my house and was on the halfway point to john’s house, luckily there were not many people out on the street and i did not see anyone i knew. But then i saw someone leaving a house, i looked at the guy leaving the house and i knew this guy he was in my school. He always was a total geek wearing glasses and braces and i used to tease him a lot over the last years in school. I looked at him and he seemed to have lost a lot of geekness over the summer, he was not wearing his glasses anymore and instead of braces he just had straight teeth. He did not see me yet, and i didn’t want him to see me but there was no way to go. I started panicing and decided i would just hide in the garden of his neighbours so i jumped into their garden and hid behind some bushes.
Chapter 35: Busted!
He walked out of the door and i hoped he did not had to go my way, if he had to go the other way the chances that he would not see me would be quite large. But i was not lucky and he had to go in the direction i was hiding so i tried to hide really well and stay real quiet. He was getting closer but he has not seen me yet, he walked right by me and i thought i was off the hook. Untill he turned around and looked in the bushes and saw me. I felt my head turnig red like a tomatoe as i stood up, and saw him looking at me with smile on his head. “Cathy hahahaha you of all persons looking like that oh that’s hillarious after all those years of making my life miserable you look like that” he said. “Thuth uf” i replied “ what did you say i could not understand you there is a big piece of plastic in your mouth haha you look even worse than i did back in the day.” I was feeling quite miserable and started crying and run away. “Yeah run away miss lispy headgear girl run you dork!” he shouted at me as i ran away. Once i was around the block i started crying real hard. After several minutes i got myself together and walked on towards john’s house.
Chapter 36: Which door?
The rest of the walk towards John’s house was one long walk of shame in my perspective. Luckily i did not come across someone i know along the way, but there were some strangers walking around. Pretty much all of the strangers looked at me, or atleast i thought they did and i was really embarresed and could feel my head was red like a tomatoe the whole way to his house. Then finally i arrived in the street he lived in, i started looking for his house but could not remember if he lived on 48 or 46. I stood there thinking about which number he said for a while but i could not remember it so i just decided to take number 46. I walked towards the front door and rang the doorbell. It took a while before someone came too the door but after a short time waiting a man opened the door. The man looked at me and i noticed he was looking at my braces and said: “Hello?’. “ Wello im look thorh thjon ith he hewe?” He looked at me as if he had just seen water burning, and replied: “ i am sorry i did not understand you what did you say?” At that moment i could feel my head becoming red as a tomatoe, and slowly repeated my question as clear as i could. He still lookd at me weird and said: “ no there is no John living here.” So that meant i guessed wrong, and i turned around and walked away with a head red as a tomatoe as fast as i could without actually running and went to the hous e at number 48. I rang the doorbell at 48 and waited, there was a lady who opened the door she smiled at me and said “you must be Cathy come on in.” And i walked into the door relieved i did not had to talk.
So let me start by telling you who I am, I am Cathy a 18 year old blonde girl. And this is my orthodontic story. I’m actually not seeing an orthodontist for that long, and I’ve only been wearing the equipment for a couple of days, I am scared to go outside with it so I decided to write this story about it.
Let’s start at the beginning about two weeks ago, school has just ended and I was looking forward to a great summer. I have always been the popular girl in school, and you could say I was kind of mean to the less popular people at school. Less popular people with braces were an easy target for me to tease for the last couple of years, mostly bullying those who had any sort of orthodontic equipment other than the normal brackets most people wear during their teens. As for myself i didn’t need braces, or so i thought, my teeth aren’t perfectly straight or anything but my dentist always said it wasn’t nesacerry for me to wear braces. But he retired a couple of months ago so we had to get a new dentist, and I had to see him for the first time two weeks ago.
Chapter 2: A new dentist
So about two weeks ago I went to the new dentist for the first time, when it was my turn I stepped into his office and he introduced himself and asked me to lay down in the chair. He told me he looked at my dental records, and he had to compliment me with my records, but now he wanted to look at my teeth himself. So i oppened my mouth and he looked, and said: “well let me start by saying you have nice teeth you seem to brush them well and they are nice and white, but they aren’t the straightest and by the look of it you also have an overbite did your old dentist ever mentioned seeing an orthodontist? “ So I explained to him he said it wasn’t nesacerry for me to wear braces. But new guy clearly disagreed and said: “well i think it is, you should be in braces sooner rather than later, I’m going to call your mother and tell her you need braces and advice her an orthodontist to go see.” After that he said i could go, and should make an appoitment at the receptionist for the next appoitment in about 6months.
Chapter 3: I'm going to need braces!
I was kind off bummed out about having to wear braces after all, I used to be pretty proud of not having to wear braces. But after i started thinking about it i realised it wasn’t all that bad, and my teeth weren’t that straight anyway, but i did was kind off pissed at my old dentist for not sending me to an orthodontist earlier, now i’m going to wear braces at 18, while most people i know are just finishing with theirs I had to start with them.
When I got home the dentist had already called my mother, and she started about the braces right away. “so you need braces?” “ The dentist believes so” I replied. “Well oke, i have called the orthodontist your dentist adviced us and explainded the situation, and we are lucky she could fit you in for your first appoitment tomorrow so you are going to see her tomorow morning at nine, her name is Dr. Martin and her office is not that far away from here.” So there my faith was sealed i would have to get braces and i would get them soon by the looks of it.
Chapter 4: First time at the orthodontist
So the next morning it was time for my first ortho visit. I had to get up at 8 and ride my bike to the clinic. The clinic wasn’t that hard to fine and i arrived quite early at 8:45, so I checked in at the receptionist and could sit in the waiting room reading some old magazines. The waiting room didn’t look really out of the ordinary, the usual wooden chairs and old magazines where laying on the table. I was the only one sitting in the waiting room, after about 15minutes the receptionist said the doctor would see me now. When I walked in I saw a row of empty dentist chairs and there was a women there, she said: “ you must be Cathy I am dr. Martin please lay down in this chair. “ So i lay down in the third chair, my first impression of dr. Martin was that it was a nice woman. When i lay down she asked me to open my mouth and she looked in it, and she asked to close my mouth and she looked at it. After that she said: “ your dentist is right you need braces sooner rather than later, so when i talked to your mother on the phone she said that when i thought you needed braces i could start as soon as possible so that’s what were going to do today. I’m going to make some x-rays and photos and some impressions off your teeth to see what your problems are exactly and then we will start threatment as soon as possible.” After that she left and came back with a tray which was shaped like my mouth and in it some sort of paste. I had to bite down in it with my upper teeth, and after that my lower teeth. She said it was to make imressions of my teeth, I didn’t like biting down in it, because it tasted dirty. When the impressions where done, we went to a special room to make pictures of me and my profile. There were about eight pictures taken of me and my teeth. And finally there were x-rays made of my teeth. When all of this was done dr. Martin told me she was going to examine the photo’s, x-rays, and impressions taken of my teeth and will call me when i could come back to start threatment. With that my first visit at the orthodontist was done, it took about an hour and i could leave now
Chapter 5: Braces are coming soon!
When i got home I explained to my mother i did had to get braces and they will call me when i could start the threatment. After that i went to my usual buisseness not thinking too much of it, the braces now a days aren’t that bad some are hardly noticibale.
So I went on with my normal buiseness the next couple a days, talked to some friends of mine about the braces and they shared their experiences with me, they mostly had the normal fixed braces and they eased me by telling it isn’t that bad. All of my friends are done with their braces by now so that was kind off unsettling that i was going to be the only one with them. So the next week when i got home from a friend of mine my mother told me dr Martin had called and I could start threatment, my mother had made an appoitment for me the next day at 1 Pm.
Chapter 6: Starting threatment
So the next day it was the day to get my braces, at least i didn’t have to be there early like the last time and i could sleep late. I arrived at the clinic at 12:45, it was a lot buisier then the last time i was there. There were about 4 other people in the waiting room all younger then me. There were 3 girls and 1 boy sitting there, they all had the fixed braces it seemed and one of the girls also was wearing a headgear with a strap in her neck. She looked like such a dork in it, i thought. So after about 15minutes of waiting i was called into the threatment room. I walked in, and this time it was busier in the room there where patients lying on some chairs and there were some assistant’s working on them. There was a table there with all kinds of orthodontic equipment lying on it, and on the table was lying a tooth model with an activator and headgear in it, like this one http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mijnbeugelef4.jpg, i remember thinking how much the kid who was getting that would be pissed. I saw dr. Martin in the back of the threatment room and I walked towards here. When i arrived she said: “ hi cathy welcome back ready to start threatning those teeth of yours” i smiled and said yes. She told me to sit down in the chair and after i did she reclined it, put on some gloves and a facecap and told me to open my mouth. I opened my mouth and she started to look around in it, she asked me to close my mouth and look around in it. After that she said: “ you are ready to start your threatment i can see that you brush your teeth well so let’s get starting, i’ll be right back.” And she walked away for the chair.
Chapter 7: Starting threatment part II
She didn’t take long and I saw her coming back, she had something in her hand but from my reclined position in the chair i couldn’t see what. When she came back she put the thing in her hand on the table next to the chair. I was able to see it now, it was the teeth model with the activator and headgear i saw lying on the table when i entered, I was getting very scared now. “What’s that? “ i asked, and the moment i asked i saw some big mean smile on her face, she replied: “ that’s the equipment for your threatment, now open up your mouth.” As i opened up my mouth i started feeling really sad, I was not liking the idea of wearing that thing it looked really uncomfortable and i thought those things where only for younger kids. But looking on the bright side of it i would probally wear it only at night and the rest of the day i would be braces free. When my mouth was completly opened dr Martin inserted the activator in my mouth, when it was in my mouth for the first time my mouth felt very full it felt like my teeth were caught in plastic. Slime was building up inside my mouth i didn’t was very comfortable. When i tried to close my mouth i found out that because of the activator i couldn’t anymore my lips didn’t meet up at the end. When the activator was in dr Martin connected the headgear, first the strap on the left side, then she pulled the headcap over my head and brought it back to the right side i felt my hair messing up as she pulled it back down. Then she connected the right side and the moment she connected it I feld the pressure building up it felt as if the headgear was trying to pull all my teeth back into my throat. When it was in there dr Martin looked in my mouth and looked if it fitted well. “it seems to fit well” she said, “ this is your equipment it is called a van Beek activator, you will need to wear this all the time except for eating, bathing and sporting.” “ I cwant waer thith wall the time!” i tried to said, “well you are going to have to, my assistant debby is going to practice putting it in and out please make an appoitment for in 4weeks.” And with that dr Martin walked away and left me lying there with this unbelievebale chunk of plastic in my mouth, i started feeling pretty misserable and felt some tears coming up.
Chapter 8: First moments in equipment
After a short while of lying there the assistant came and practiced inserting and getting out the activator, it was hard the first couple of times but after some practicing i could do it. Debbie explained to me how to clean it and then gave me a retainer case and a headgear bag to keep it in during the few moments i was allowed not to wear it. So with that i could leave, i couldn’t believe it was just under half an hour ago i was good looking thinking of just getting some brackets and now i was this ugly nerd with activator and headgear. When i came out of the threatment room the first thing i deed i went into the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror hoping it wouldn’t be that bad. When i came in and had a look it was worse than i thought the headgear was ugly and totally messed up my hair it was coming out at all sides of the headgear, my face was looking really long because of the big activator and when i showed my teeth there were just a half an hour ago were a set of shiny white teeth now all there was was the pink plastic of the activator. At that moment i started to burst out in tears and cry, i locked myself in one of the toilets and cried for a couple of minutes. The crying caused for a lot of soliva coming up in my mouth and i found out swallowing with the activator in was very hard and every time i do i made i sluurp noise really loud. When i was able to get a grab of myself and stopped crying i dried my eyes and sat in the toilet booth for at least another 15minutes untill i gathered enough courage to go out in public like this. When i came out of the toilet and back into the waiting room it was quite busy there and i felt i was being looked at, i remember thinking my stuff must be really bad that even in the orthodontist office i would be stared at because of my braces. I walked up to the receptionist’s desk and she looked at me i said , or tried to say: “ I would like so mwake an appoitmenth thor over four weekth., slllllllrp” It came out even worse then i can descripe here, and at that moment i felt really embarresed and could just feel my head going red and the tears coming up again. Luckily the receptionist felt some compassion and asked all the quiestions and i could just nod yes or no from then, and i made an appoitment for over 4 weeks on a Wednesday afternoon at 3.
Chapter 9: Outside with activator
I walked away from the orthodontist office in the hallway, this was the first time i had to go out looking like this. This really scared me, normally it took me 15minutes to ride my bike back home but if i did it fast i could make it in 10. Luckily there was no one outside the orthodontists office and i could get my bike and ride it home, on the way home it felt like everyone i passed looked at me and this was very embarrising. I ride as fast as i could and made it back home in 10minutes orso, luckily i didn’t saw anybody i knew on the way home. When i got home i heard my mother yelling down the stairs how it went and when she got downstairs she said: “wow what is that?” and i replied by saying “ my aczivazor, i whave zo wear ith full zime,slllrp” she didnt understand me and asked if i was allowed to take it off, i shook my head and tried to say: “ only forth eazing bazing and thporzing” “ eathing bathing and sporting?” mom asked, and i could nod my head to say yes. “ well that’s though on you, but you are going to have to fight through it we are paying a lot of money for those teeth of yours so you are not going to extend threatment by not wearing it enough, i will be very strict on that.”
Chapter 10: My afternoon
Afer that i went up to my room and just cried a lot, which caused for a lot of slime to come in my mouth and i had to make a sluur noise a lot to swallow it. In the mean time the activator really started hurting more and the pain was getting really bad, also my jaws where getting tired from being in an unnatural position all the time because of the activator. After about an half hour i calmed down a bit and i had to go to the bathroom again, when i looked in the mirror there i could hardly recognise myself where normally had to be standing a beautiful blonde girl now was standing a nerd with a headgear my pearly white teeth were not visible anymore behind the pink prison my teeth where captured in right now. And my normally so well styled blonde hair was completly messed up by the dark blue headgear covering it, my hair was sticking out at all sides of the headgear it really was a mess. I spend the rest of the afternoon watching some TV and sobbing about the equipment, i was really scared what my friends would think of it my friends and i have bullied people with braces far less worse than mine before. Luckily it was vacation now so i could get used to them before i had to go back to school again, next year will be my last year in high school and i just cant believe i am probally going to spend at least the beginning of it trapped in activator and headgear. When it was about 6pm mom called that it was time for dinner, which meant for me i was allowed to remove the equipment. I went downstairs and this was the first time my father saw me in the equipment he looked at me and said: “hmm that doesnt look to comfortable, i’m sorry for you but i am paying a fortune for it so you are going to wear it as prescribed.” I nodded my head and went to get my retainer case and headgear back and removed the headgear straps from the facebow, the moment i removed the straps i felt a great relieve coming from my teeth. After that i removed the activator from my mouth, i didn’t really expect there to be so much slime coming from it but it did and my entire chin and my shirt where now full of my own soliva. It felt great to finally relax my jaws again and be released of my plastic prison for my teeth, i put the activator in the retainer case and put it and the activator in the headgear bag and joined my parents for dinner.
Chapter 11: Dinner
During dinner i could talk proparly for the first time in some like 5 hours so i grabbed this moment to try and convince my parents to at least let me have some more moments without it besides dining bathing and sporting, so i could go out like a normal person. But my parents wouldn’t give me any slack and side i had to wear it like the ortho perscribed, so i decided not to whine anymore because i knew my parents and it would only make them more angry. They have spoiled me my entire life, but when it comes to these sort of things they get really strict. So i decided to ask my ortho to about wearing it less in 4weeks maybe she will be easier to convince, and the coming 4 weeks i had vacation anyway so there wouldn’t be much people to see me in it. After dinner my parents made me put in the equipment right away again, and the pain in my teeth was back again it even hurt a little bit more then when i took it out. The rest of the night i spend chatting online with my friends and browsing the web looking for more information on my braces. My friends were really nice to me and they really felt sad for me i had the idea. Surfing on the web i found some ortho sites with pictures of braces and saw that the appliance that ive got was pretty much the worst kind of appliance there was.
Chapter 12: First night
So at around 11 i decided to go to bed so i went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, i still wasn’t used to my new mirror image and it still looked i was looking to another person and i didnt like what i was seeing. I removed my headgear and activator for brushing my teeth, it felt like a great relieve to remove it again. Looking in the mirror it felt good seeing myself like im used to again i started to brush my teeth, i don’t think i’ve ever brushed my teeth so long just to extend my time without it. When i was done with brushing my teeth i cleaned my activator it got pretty dirty from the food still stuck in my mouth during dinner and it started tasting really dirty, when i was done i put it back in my mouth again. It still hurted a lot when i inserted it but atleast it tasted fresh now. I went back up and changed for bed, i removed my shirt and discoverd this wasn’t that easy anymore while wearing a headgear but i managed and changed in my night clothing. I was pretty tired from this day and just wanted to end what was one of the worst days in my life as fast as i could so i went in bed and tried to sleep.
That was the start of a long night, as it seems sleeping it this equipment isn’t easy. I used to lie on my side while sleeping but as i tried to do that the first time the headgear bow got in the way and that was really uncomfortable, so i tried lieing on my back. That helped a bit the bow was not in the way anymore, but i still couldn’t sleep because it was hurting pretty bad at the moment and with nothing to distract me from it the pain seemed like doubled since i went to bed. This too went for the amount of saliva in my mouth and i had to swallow it every time it was too much, and swallowing while wearing an activator is not easy and i still couldnt do it without making a big sllrp noise. After about two hours at 1 orso i finally felt asleep out of pure tiredness, when i woke up the next morning it felt like something was different. Too my suprise my mouth was completly empty when i woke up, too my suprise i was not wearing my equipment anymore how could that be was all of this just a bad dream and was today the day i went to the ortho? I wondered, and kind off hoped.
Chapter 13: Waking up
I looked at my clock and saw that it was noon already, wow i thought did i sleep this long!? I realised that if all of it was just a bad dream i had my real ortho appoitment at 1, which meant i had to hurry to be in time. I rapidly got out of bed and when i stepped out i stepped on something, it felt kind of soft. I looked down and saw where i was standing, it was my headgear cap so it wasn’t a bad dream but all reality. I picked up the headgear but didnt saw the activator i looked around and saw i lieing on the floor about 50cm further from my bed then the headgear did. I picked it up and stated thinking how it was possible that it was on the floor and not in my mouth. It couldnt have just fallen out because the activor was lieing pretty far from my bed. Then i realised i must have removed it from my mouth while i was a sleep and thrown it away from my bed, which practically meant i missed a lot of hours that night. I hoped i would get used to sleeping with it and it wouldn’t happen again. I decided to start wearing it again, when i inserted the activator it still felt pretty huge when i had it in my hand. Once it was in i got a really bad taste in my mouth, the activator had been on the floor for god nows how long and it gotten i little dirty. I connected the straps of the headgear and the pain immediatly came back, not wearing it for a couple of hours made the pain come back twice as hard. I got back in bed and decided to ly around for some more. After about half an hour I decided it was enough and went to the bathroom and get a shower, i removed my equipment relieving my mouth of the pain and got undressed and took a shower. After that i got drest and went down to have some breakfast and after breakfast i went back upstairs to brush my teeth. I brushed them really well and when i was done i cleaned my activator again really well this time because i didn’t want it too taste like it did this morning. I put it in my mouth again and now it was nice and fresh again, i stood for the mirror now without wearing the headgear and realised that the day before the headgear messed up my hair pretty bad so i started thinking how i could prevent that. I always wore my hair lose, but that wasn’t an option with the headgear, so i had to tie it in a pony tail and then put my headgear on. I didn’t like my hair like this but it was better then lose atleast my hair wasnt all messed up now.
Chapter 14: carolin
Later that day a friend of me, Carolin, called on my mobile phone, there i found out that calling with my new look was not that easy, in fact it was practically impossible. First of all i was almost not to understand talking in person with someone let alone over the phone, and secondly my headgear kept bumping against the phone. So i hung up the phone and decided to continue communicating by sending text messages. She wanted to come over and later maybe go to the mall. I replied that she could come over, and an hour later she was here. I was nervous about her reaction about my new look, because we were the popular crowd in school and always bullied people with things like braces that are way less extreme than mine. When she arrived i could see that she was very shocked when she first saw me in the equipment. “ wow that’s pretty extreme, i thought you were just getting fixed braces” “ i zought tho foo, gueth i thwath wrong, slrrrrp’ I could see that she didn’t understood everything i said but she didn’t say anything about that and she was very comforting and understanding. We decided to see a movie that afternoon, i didn’t say much but sometimes i had to make a slurpy noise to get rid of the slime in my mouth which was very embarrising. After the movie Caroline still wanted to go to the mall, i didn’t really feel for it but thought i had to go out in public with it someday and well shopping always made me feel better when im depressed so i guess why not. On the way over i felt that at every light the people in the car were looking at me, and i swear i saw some laugh. I felt my head was getting red of embarrement every time we had to stop at a traffic light. My self confidence that once was so high, has dropped to zero now and i started feeling more and more unconfident about my self.
Chapter 15: The mall
When we arrived at the mall, ive parked my car in a parking spot as close as possible to the entrance. My friend exited the car and wanted to go inside, but the looks at the traffic light made me scared to get out of the car. After she talked to me for a while she convinced me to go in and we went into the mall. When we entered the mall i saw that it was pretty busy. We walked around for a while and i felt like everyone was looking at me, i could swere there were even some people who laughed at me. We went to some stores, and i tried on a nice t-shirt a liked. The time in the changing room it was really a relieve to get some privacy. It fitted really nice and i bought it, it gave a good feeling to myself to shop it always cheered me up to buy clothes. Although this time i felt like it had no use to buy nice clothes, since i am not going to look pretty anyway because of the equipment. We went on shopping after i bought the t-shirt, normally when my friend and i go to the mall we get lots of attention from the boys but now it was different, they did look but not in the same way. There was no chance of me getting a date ever again while wearing these terrible things. Just when we were about to leave i heard a big laugh coming from behind off me. “ Hahahaha that you of all persons look like that hahaha” I turned around and i saw a girl from my school, Jenny she always wore an cervical headgear to school and i just to call her antenna head Jenny. But this time no headgear or even brackets just pearly white perfectly straight teeth. “ oh and you even have the chunky activator thing in your mouth” she said with a big mean straight teethed smile on her face. “thuth up wenny youwe thil a nerth, slrrp” “ what did you say i did not understand you?’ I felt like crying at that moment and just turned around and walked back to the car as fast as i could sat in the drivers seat and bursted out in tears, not for the first time since i got the equipment. Carolin tried to comfort me and when i calmed down we drove back home and went to my room and cried in my bed. Seeing Jenny like this and she seeing me like this made me realise karma has turned against me and slapped me in the head hard.
Chapter 16: Questions
After this terrible experience in the mall i was afraid of getting out of the house again. So the next couple of days i didn’t get out the house at all. Luckily the pain from the equipment as getting lesser every day. I still sounded terrible wearing it, but it was getting a little better. Sleeping was getting better and better too, and i am able to sleep pretty normal with it in my mouth now and don’t unconsiounsly remove it anymore. During these days some more friends of me came over and they all felt very sorry for me and luckily were all very compasionate. One friend told me she had one as well, for 6months long before she got fixed braces when she was 13. But she only had to wear it at night and never showed it to annyone. I remember her having fixed braces back then, but i don’t remember seeing her in the activator. Lots of friends asked me how long i was going to wear it, or if i would get normal brackets after, and if i might wear it less later in threatment. And i realised i didn’t know the awnser to all of these quetions, i did not aske anything about my threatment when i got my activator. I think i was too shocked and too ashamed to talk with it that i just did not ask. So all i could do now was hope i wouldn’t have to wear it for that long or maybe even get to wear it less in a few months. I will need to ask all of these things dr. Martin at the next appoitment, hearing my friends story about the activator i assumed i would wear it for 6months orso. But what can i assume with my threatment so far, just 3 weeks ago i assumed never to need braces and when i heared i did i assumed i would just get the brackets and look at me now i could be the qeeun of braces-land with this kind of heavy equipment.
Chapter 17: The next weeks
After these first couple of horrible experiences going out in public with my new look i decided to go out as less as i can, and just hope i will get rid of it, or atleast get to wear it less fast. Since i still had 6 more weeks of vacation left, this would be easy during this time, because then i would have no obligation to go in public at all. So that was what i did i did not get out of the house much during this vacation. Friends came over to my house sometimes, and sometimes i would go to theirs. But i did not went to any public places. So i was pretty bored during most times in the vacation, but it beat going out like this. This is also why i started writing this story because i’m bored and had to write off my frustrations about this equipment. Atleast the pain it was causing was getting less every day, and even talking went a little better but i still lisped pretty badly.
Chapter 18: Back to the ortho
So that’s pretty much how i survived the next couple of weeks untill I had to go back to Dr. Martin again for the first check up after i got my equipment. I had some questions i needed to ask her about my threatment and was hoping to get some positive awnsers out of her, saying i would be done with my torture device soon or at least get to wear it less soon. My first check-up was at a Wednesday afternoon at 3 o’clock. I came in early like i pretty much always do, no matter where i go. I arrived at the office at about 2:45 and i checked in with the receptionist, i had to repeat my name 3 times because she didn’t understand me. It was very embarissing. So after that embarrising experience i sat down in the waiting room, and read a magazine. After about 5minutes a boy walked in, he was very handsom. I looked at him and he looked at me, he kind off laughed and i saw he did not have any braces. My face turned red when i laughed because he was probally laughing at me about my braces i tried to hide myself behinf my magazine and not look at him. He checked in at the receptionist and sat down and read a magazine as well. After a while sitting there, the ortho came in and said: “ Cathy i am ready for you now, you can come in John i see you are early i will be with you soon.”
Chapter 19: Ortho visit
She walked back into the threatment room, and i stood up and followed her in. When i walked in looking to my right there was the exact same apliance i have lying there at the same place mine was lying on the day i got it. Someone would be having a really really bad day today just like i had a month ago. I followed Dr. Martin further into the threatment room, and she asked me to lay down on one of the chairs. I was the only patient in at this moment. I layed down and she reclined the chair. “ So how was your first month with the activator.” “ Zerrible ith thucth.” “ I know it is not the most comfortable appliance but it is necaserry for your teeth, you will get used to it eventually.” “ I gueth tho.” “ Have you been wearing it as i instructed?” “ Yeth, i wath wearing full zime.” “ Oke good girl now open up.” I opened my mouth and she looked in it wiggling a bit at my activator. Then she disconnected the straps of the headgear and took the activator out of my mouth. I could now relax my jaws again. “ I am just going to tighten the headgear and activator and we will be done oke?” “ Excuse me Dr. Martin i have some questions i want to ask.” “ Oh oke well go ahead.” “ How long will i be wearing the activator?” “ Ah sorry we kind off rushed into your threatment so i forget to explain to you how the threatment is going to look like. You will be wearing this appliance you have now for about 1,5-2 years.” “ That long!?” “ Yes that long, remember you started too late so your threatment is less comfortable and longer then it would have been when you started like 6 years ago, when you are done with the activator and headgear combination we will start with normal fixed braces for another periond of 1,5-2years and you will probally need an headgear with your fixed braces as well.” “ So i am practicly going to look like a dork for the next 3-4 years?” I was starting to feel more and more miserable now and was getting close to crying. “ It doesn’t look that bad, anyway i have altered your equipment please open your mouth.” I opened my mouth and she inserted the activator, it felt tighter then before like it was closer too my teeth, then she connect the headgear straps again. When the headgear was connected the pressure came back on the headgear and it was definielty a lot tighter then before it was starting too hurt again. “ So we are all done now, you can go please make a new appoitment at the receptionist 4 weeks from today bye.”
Chapter 20: Bathroom sobbing
So i stood up out of the chair and walked towards the exit, Dr. Martin followed me towards the exit. I feeld pretty depressed because of the bad news i just received and was close to crying. I exited the threatment room and entered the waiting room, the boy who came in a little later then me was still sitting there. Dr. Martin followed me out and said: “ John i am ready for you now please come in.” He stood up and looked at me, i saw he laughed again in a mean way when he walked passed me, i felt my head getting red and was really close too crying now it was a really depressing thought that people would be lauging at me for the next 3-4 years because of this stupid braces. I fled to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, i was used to the sight of me with the headgear but the thought i would have to look at myself like this for the next 3 maybe 4 years was not at all nice, at that moment i just bursted out in tears and just cried for a couple of minutes. I tried putting myself back together, but i did not quite manage that. I decided to walk into one of the toilet booths and took a seat on a toilet. I just sat there and sobbed for about 15minutes orso before i finally pulled myself together and decided to go out make a new appoitment and go home.
Chapter 21: Back in the waiting room
So i walked out of the toilet room and entered the waiting room, there was one girl sitting there reading a magazine. She looked at me and i saw she had normal fixed braces. I walked towards the receptionist, but she was not sitting there so i stood there waiting. Then the door of the threatment room opened and Dr. Martin walked out, “ Lisa, i am ready for you now you can come in.” And Dr. Martin turned around and walked back into the threatment room. The girl with the fixed braces stood up and Followed Dr. Martin into the threatment room. I looked behind the desk, but there was still no sign of the receptionist, i wondered what took her so long. The waiting was getting pretty annoying, i was kind off sad and just wanted to go home as fast as possible. Then the door of the threatment room opened and the receptionist came out of the door. Finally now i can go home, i thought. She held the door and the boy who’s turn it was after me followed her out, but he did not came out the way he came in. He was wearing the same braces as i was and he too was not looking all too happy. I looked at him and i could see he had tears in his eyes, it was obviously a suprise too him he had to wear them. Somewhere i felt sorry for him, as i knew what he was going through right now but another part of me thought he deserved it for laughing at me.
Chapter 22: Meeting John
He walked towards me too go to the reception as well, i looked at him and he turned very red. “Tho, youve goz the thame ath i have too?” “ Yeth, i am thorry i laughed at you before.” Wow i really had to listen good to understand him, it felt weird listing to someone else talking like that. It is even worse then i thought it would be, i wonder if my speech is that bad. “ Doethent matter i uthed too laugh at people with big bratheth ath well untill i got thith a month ago.” “ Well I gueth karma hith back on oth.” “ Yeth gueth tho. ze firth couple of dayth will be ze worthe afther that you will get uthed too ith, whath ith your name?.” “ My name ith John and youth?” “ I am Cathy nithe to meet you.” “ Nithe to meeth you too, it ith good to know im not the only one with thith kind of braceth, you want to go have a drink and give me thome advithe on thith thing?” “ Thure i would love too.” And we both made new appoitments at the receptionist and left the orthodontist’s office, and went to a restaurant that was near the office to get some drinks.
Chapter 23: The restaurant
We found a quiet spot in the back of the restaurant and sat down together. Luckily it was not busy in the restaurant so the looks were not that bad. “Tho howcome i have not theen you before?” I asked him. “ I juth moved here two weeth ago from another thown.” “ Ah oke to whith thcool do you go?” “ I will go tho Midwood High thcool and you?” “ I am going there athwell.” The waitress came and asked us what we wanted to drink, she looked at us and i could see she was trying hard not to laugh i was not feeling that embarresed anymore since this happened a lot the last month but i could see John was very embarresed his head was all red and i could see he was close to crying. “ Don’t worry you wil get utheth too ith.” “ Oh that happeth a loth?” “ Yeth a lot of people look and thome laugh ith very embarrithing but i got uthed too it.” Then the waitress came back with our coffee. “Thankth.” I took my retainer case and headgear bag out of my purse and disconnencted my headgear, i put the headcap into the headgear bag and genlty removed my activator and put it in the retainer case. It was a big relieve to remove it, the pressure was getting pretty painfull after the tighting. I looked at John and saw him grapping his headgear bag and retainer case as well, he removed the headgear and put it in the bag then he removed his activator, but not as smoothly as i did and the spit was drooling out of his mouth and was all over his shirt. I started too laugh, and i saw his face turning red. “ Don’t worry, it happened to me as well te first time i removed it just remember to do it smoothly from now on.” “ Hehe oke, thanks for the tip.”
Chapter 24: Drinking coffee
“ You are verry pretty without your braces.” John said. “ Well thanks i guess, dont get used too it i won’t be seen much without them for a long time.” “ You have a long time to go with it?” “ Yes 1,5-2 years with the horrible activator and headgear and after that i still have to wear fixed braces.” “ Wow i hope i won’t have to go true it that long, how long have you had it now?” “ I got it last month thought i would have to wear it for like 6months tops but today i hear 1.5 year minimum.” “ Yeah that sucks to hear, i hope i won’t be in it that long, did you know you were going to get this kind of braces before you started?” “ No they were a complete suprise for me, i expected getting clear braces for a year orso not this mess for so long.” “ She took me by suprise as well with this thing.” “ I guess she has a hand of that, you want to hear how i got tricked into these braces?” “ Yeah sure.” And then i told him my complete story, pretty much all i told you guys before. It felt good getting all of that anger out and telling the story to someone and John looked geniunly interested in the story. It took me quiete a while telling the story and after i was done we had like 2 refills of coffee already. “ Wow that’s some story, you want to hear how i ended up like this?” John asked me and i replied by just saying sure.
Chapter 25: John's story
So he started telling his story: It all started about 1,5 years ago, i always knew my teeth were not of the straightest kind and i always had a overbite but due to the late changing of my teeth my orthodontic treatment was postponed several times before, the question was not if i needed braces but the question was when i would need them. And at my half yearly appoitment at my dentist he said i was finally ready to go see an orthodontist. He recomended an orthodontist to me and i made an appoitment for a week later. Being a late starter at 17 at that time i was motivated to start the treatment as fast as possible. So a week later i went to the orthodontist, it was a really nice office with a friendle receptionist i checked and she asked me to have a seat and explained that the ortho was going to pick me up when he was ready for me. A couple of minutes later the ortho came out and invited me in, he was a nice looking older man. I followed him into the treatment room, there were like 3 dentist chairs in there and in one of them a girl was lying and a assistent was working on her mouth. I layed down in one of the other chairs and opened my mouth. He took a look inside my mouth and after a while said: “ Well you definietly do need braces, i will call your parents and tell them that i think you need them then you can come back next week and we will make impressions so that i can make a treatment plan and when you decide to continue after that we can then start fixing your teeth, ok?” And with that i could leave and come back a week later.
Chapter 26: John's second ortho visit
He did call my parents, and we talked about me getting braces and we all agreed is should do it. So the next week i went back to the ortho’s office and sat down in the waiting room. There was another girl sitting in the waiting room, i looked at her and could she she had braces. After a couple of minutes of waiting someone came out of the treatment room and left and the receptionist said the other girl could go in, and she walked into the treatment room and left me all alone in the waiting room. Just a couple of minutes later a guy walked out the treatment room, and the receptionist told me to go in. I went in and a assistent asked me to sit down in one of the chairs. She asked me to open my mouth and she took out a big iron spoon like thing. She put it in my mouth and then took it out again then she took another one put that in and said: “Hmm this looks the right size.” She filled it up with some sort of paste and made an impression of my upper teeth, she did the same like that with my lower teeth. The imrpession paste was really dirty and the full mouth made me gag a little, after she was done i could wash my mouth and she said she was going to take x-rays of my mouth. She took me to another room and i had to bit down on some machine then she left and she made the x-rays, after that she took me to another room again and made some normal photos of me and my teeth and profile, then i she said i could leave and should make an appoitment again for in a week later to discuss the treatment plan.
Chapter 27: Treatment plan
A week later i went back again to the ortho office, checked in at the recptionist and again i sat down in the waiting room. It was not very busy apperently because there was no one there in the waiting room. I decided to read a magazine, but apperently they did not get changed that often and most the interesting ones i had read last few times. So i was just staring around the waiting room a bit. After about 10 minutes the ortho came out and asked me to follow him to his office. I entered the office, there was a desk there and some chairs and a computer. He asked me to sit down and he sat down behind the desk. “So John we have examined your impressions and x-rays and have made an treatment plan for your braces. We think you will need fixed braces for probally about 2-3 years to fix your teeth. Your overbite we will try to fix by using elastics in combination with the braces okay?” “ yeah sure doc sounds like normal regular braces when can we start the treatment?” “ you sound really eager to start.” “ Yes i am the sooner they are in the sooner they go out right? “ “ Yeah that is true, well we need to install spacers first before we can start treating you i think we have time for that today and then we could have you in braces as soon as next week oke? ” “ oke next week sounds good.” I followed him into the treatment room and he asked me to lay down so that he could install the spacers. I did and opened my mouth, he said it wasnt going to take long. He took a pair of pliers and put 4 elastics between my upper back teeth. And whith that i could go and come back next week for the braces.
Chapter 28: John get's braces
During the next week the spacers hurt pretty bad, especially the first days and it felt like i had food stuck between my teeth constantly. The next week it was time for my ortho visit, i had an early appoitment at 9 o’clock. I arrived at the office and there was no one there but the receptionist, i checked in and she told me i was the first patient of the day that day. I was pretty nervous when i sat down in the waiting room, it was still 5minutes before i had my appoitment and i knew it would be the last 5minutes of braces free teeth for me. I spend it rubbing my tongue over my smooth teeth and took a look in the mirror smiling and looking at my white teeth before i went in for my appoitment. When i got in the ortho asked me to lay down in the chair, and open my mouth. After that he took some sort of machine and started cleaning my teeth. When he was done cleaning my teeth, he took some pliers and removed the elastics he had put between my teeth, he then said there was enough room between them to put in my molar bands. And with that he started placing my molar band, he first had to try out the right size and then force it over my teeth. After about 10 minutes he was done with all the molar bands he had to place and started with the placing of the brackets on the rest of the teeth. That took about an hour to do so, when he was done with that i could drink some water before he went on with the archwires. He took some sort of plier thing and popped open all my brackets and then run the archwire through the brackets, he repeated the same routine for my lower teeth. And with that i was braced, he gave me some wax which i could use if the braces were cutting up the inside of my mouth and said i should make an appoitment for a check up in four weeks.
Chapter 29 : John has braces
A couple of hours after i got the braces i started feeling the pressure and the braces started hurting quite badly. Beside the pressure the braces where also quite sharp and where cutting the inside of my mouth pretty badly, luckily the wax seemed too help against that but i could not wear the wax when i was eating and the braces where cutting up my tongue during eating quite badly. So during the first couple of days eating had become a pretty painfull thing to do. Luckily most of the real unpleasant discomforts dissapeared after a week orso, and i got used to the braces pretty well. In the months that followed the only times the braces were really uncomfortable during the first couple of days after an ortho visit. The only thing that was constantly a little bit uncomfortable where the elastics i got during my first check up after i got the braces. The 2 elastics i got went from my canine teeth on my upper jaw to the 2nd molar teeth on my lower jaw and the annoying thing about them was that they did not like me opening my mouth. Everytime i opened my mouth the elastics pressure increased and tried to force me to close my mouth again, which was quite uncomfortable. A little more than a year after i started my treatment, my father got a new job and we had to move here. Because of the moving, i had to get a new orthodontist. My old orthodontist told me that because orthodontics use different kinds of methods it might be possible i had to get my braces removed and get new ones but he would send my files to the new ortho after we moved and it would not be such a big problem.
Chapter 30: John goes to dr. Martin
My dad would start his new job after the summer, so i could finish my year in school. We moved too here right after the vacation started and started the look for a new orthodonist. After looking in the yellow pages we found that there were two orthodontist here in town, Dr. Martin and another one i can’t remember his name. We called the other one first, but he could not fit in a new patient for at least a two months. Then we called Dr. Martin and she could fit me in for our first appoitment a week later. A week later i had my appoitment at Dr. Martin, i checked in at the receptionist and sat down in the waiting room which did not look all that diffrent from the waiting room at my old orthodontist. I was the only one sitting in the waiting room and decided too read a magazine. After about 5minutes a woman came in and called my name, i followed her into the treatment room. She introduced herself as Dr. Martin and asked me to lay down in one of the chairs and open my mouth. “So John i received the files from your old ortho and read them i believe your ortho told you orthodontist some times use different methods?” I nodded my head to explain that he did. “ Oke good well i use different kind of braces than your old orthodontist, think a van beek type of braces is best for you, so today i am going to remove your old ones, make some new impressions and then we can start with the new braces next week.” Then she asked me to open up again ad she took a pair of pliers and just ripped out my braces, this was not really a pleasant feeling. When the braces were out she made new impressions of my teeth which went the same as with the last ortho and it still was not any fun and when that was done she said: “ So we are all done now please make an appoitment for sometime next week, when i will have your new braces ready bye.” I left the treatment room and made an appoitment with the receptionist for the next week and went back home.
Chapter 31: Dr. Martin's waiting room
It felt weird having smooth teeth again, just like it felt weird getting the braces on. And looking in the mirror it was cool to see my normal teeth again, but i knew i could not enjoy it too long because the next week their would be new ones there. The van Beek kind i was getting the ortho said, i had never heard of it so i thought it was some new technique or something. We did not have internet at the new house yet so i could not look it up. The next week was pretty boring i could not chat with my old friends and there just was not much to do around the house. Untill today, because today i had to go to the orthodontist and get my new braces. My appoitment was at 3:15 this afternoon, but i arrived very early like at 2:50, i checked in and went to the waiting room. I saw you sitting there and you looked at me, i saw you was wearing this huge kind of braces and thought it was pretty funny and started laughing a little. I saw you were embarresed because you turned red like a tomatoe and tried to hide yourself behind a magazine. I decided to read a magazine as well and after about 5minutes Dr. Martin came in and said: “ Cathy i am ready for you now you can come in, John i see you are early i will be with you soon.” And you stood up and followed Dr. Martin to the treatment room and i continued reading my magazine. After a while Dr. Martin came out and you followed her out Dr. Martin said: “ John i am ready for you now please come in.” And i followed her in, i looked at you when i walked in and noticed you looked pretty sad. I could not help laughing a little at your huge funny appliance and saw you turned red when i did but i walked on and followed Dr. Martin insede to the treatment room.
Chapter 32: John get 's braces, again
I entered the treatment room and Dr. Martin said i could lay down in chair three while she went to the bathroom and she walked away. I looked around through the treatment room and saw a table with all kinds of orthodontic equipment on it. Als lying on the table was a model of someone’s teeth with in it a huge kind of appliance with a headgear connected too it it looked the same as you were wearing i thought. I went to chair three and layed down and waited for Dr. Martin to come back. I did not take long for dr. Martin to come back from the bathroom. She reclined the chair all the way back and asked me to open my mouth. She looked in my mouth, and asked me to close my mouth and looked at it again. Then she asked: “ So i believe you are ready for the braces how about you.” I nodded and she told me she would go get them and walked away. She came back pretty fast and she had something with her and she lay it down on a tray next to the chair. I looked at it and saw it was the teeth model with the big plastic braces and headgear lying it. I looked at it in shock for a couple of seconds and startet connecting the dots. “Is that a van beek type of braces?” i asked the doctor in shock and she replied: “ Yes that is a van beek.” “ I was expecting to get a different kind of fixed braces and not a big thing like that.” “ Well i guess you was expecting the wrong thing i’ve told you that you were getting this so please open your mouth. “ I opened my mouth and she took the appliance out of the impressions of my teeth and inserted it into my mout. It felt even bigger then it looked and almost imediatly my mouth filled with slime. I tried to close my mouth but the appliance was keeping my lower and upper jaw apart from each other and i could not get my lips to meet up because of the van beek braces. Dr. Martin wiggled a bit with the appliance and looked a bit in my mouth with the appliance in, and said it fitted well. Then she took the headgear and connected the strap at one side and pulled the headcap around my head and connected it at the other side. The pressure i felt then was enormeus it felt like all my teeth were pulled back into my mouth. “Oke John so this is your new appliance, you will need to wear it like this pretty much all the time you are only allowed to remove it for showering, sporting, eating, and brushing teeth oke?” I felt like crying at that moment wearing this thing all the time i tried to protest but the words came out mumbled and lispy. She replied by asking “ Oke!?” again but this time a little more strict and i replied by saying oke. “ Great now i am going to the next patient the assistant will help you with the removing and inserting of the appliance by yourself see you next month.” And she walked away and the assistant came and teached me how to remove and insert the appliance. After practising a couple of times she said i could go and i left the treatment room very depressed and pissed of because of the new appliance. Walking in the waiting room i saw you standing there and i was very embarresed, well the rest is history and now we are here drinking coffee together.
Chapter 33: The next days
When he was done telling his story we pretty much finished our second cup of coffee and decided too go back home, we exchanged email adresses and phone numbers. I took the activator and headgear out of my purse and inserted it again, immediatly the pressure of the appliance was back on my teeth and slime was building up again inside my mouth. He also took out his activator and headgear and inserted it, or at least tried to insert it he was having quite some trouble doing it but he managed to insert it eventually. “ Won’t worry youl geth bezzer ath ith thoon.” I said talking with a huge lips again. “ Woh i hope tho, well thee you lather.” He replied and i had to listen very careful to understand him he was lisping so bad which made me realise how bad my lisp probally is and it is even worse than i thought it was. We both went separate ways after that and i headed home. During the next couple of days i spend most of my time chatting and emailing with John. Since we were both embarresed to go out with the bad appliances we had enough time to do so and i was really starting to like him was really a nice guy. He lived just a couple of blocks away from my house and we arranged that i went to visit him there, him being really new with the braces did not want to go out of the house with them.
Chapter 34: going out of the house again
On the day of our date i went to his house at about noon, he lived just i couple of blocks away in our neighbourhood so i decided to walk there. It quite scary since i did not go out much since i got the activator and most of my friends came to visit me at my house or i drove myself to their house. After the embarrising incident at the mall i kept going out in public time to an absolute minimum. My mom kept bothering me about it and telling me i should not be embarresed about it and not to care what others think about it. And since i had to go out in public with it in two weeks when school started again she kept telling me people will see it anyway at the first day. Oh man school is just two weeks away i realised at that moment, what had to become the best year of school it being my final year and all was already doomed to be the worst before it even started. And the first day in school was already doomed to be the worst of my live, i was expected to be the hot popular senior now was the nerdy dork with big braces. Even thinking about that day was almost making me cry. I walked out the door and looked into my street and saw that there was no one there. I started walking towards John’s house, the sun was shining and it was quite warm out. It has been good weather through out the entire vacation but because of my braces i spend most of it inside and was not able to enjoy this nice weather. I had walked like a block orso from my house and was on the halfway point to john’s house, luckily there were not many people out on the street and i did not see anyone i knew. But then i saw someone leaving a house, i looked at the guy leaving the house and i knew this guy he was in my school. He always was a total geek wearing glasses and braces and i used to tease him a lot over the last years in school. I looked at him and he seemed to have lost a lot of geekness over the summer, he was not wearing his glasses anymore and instead of braces he just had straight teeth. He did not see me yet, and i didn’t want him to see me but there was no way to go. I started panicing and decided i would just hide in the garden of his neighbours so i jumped into their garden and hid behind some bushes.
Chapter 35: Busted!
He walked out of the door and i hoped he did not had to go my way, if he had to go the other way the chances that he would not see me would be quite large. But i was not lucky and he had to go in the direction i was hiding so i tried to hide really well and stay real quiet. He was getting closer but he has not seen me yet, he walked right by me and i thought i was off the hook. Untill he turned around and looked in the bushes and saw me. I felt my head turnig red like a tomatoe as i stood up, and saw him looking at me with smile on his head. “Cathy hahahaha you of all persons looking like that oh that’s hillarious after all those years of making my life miserable you look like that” he said. “Thuth uf” i replied “ what did you say i could not understand you there is a big piece of plastic in your mouth haha you look even worse than i did back in the day.” I was feeling quite miserable and started crying and run away. “Yeah run away miss lispy headgear girl run you dork!” he shouted at me as i ran away. Once i was around the block i started crying real hard. After several minutes i got myself together and walked on towards john’s house.
Chapter 36: Which door?
The rest of the walk towards John’s house was one long walk of shame in my perspective. Luckily i did not come across someone i know along the way, but there were some strangers walking around. Pretty much all of the strangers looked at me, or atleast i thought they did and i was really embarresed and could feel my head was red like a tomatoe the whole way to his house. Then finally i arrived in the street he lived in, i started looking for his house but could not remember if he lived on 48 or 46. I stood there thinking about which number he said for a while but i could not remember it so i just decided to take number 46. I walked towards the front door and rang the doorbell. It took a while before someone came too the door but after a short time waiting a man opened the door. The man looked at me and i noticed he was looking at my braces and said: “Hello?’. “ Wello im look thorh thjon ith he hewe?” He looked at me as if he had just seen water burning, and replied: “ i am sorry i did not understand you what did you say?” At that moment i could feel my head becoming red as a tomatoe, and slowly repeated my question as clear as i could. He still lookd at me weird and said: “ no there is no John living here.” So that meant i guessed wrong, and i turned around and walked away with a head red as a tomatoe as fast as i could without actually running and went to the hous e at number 48. I rang the doorbell at 48 and waited, there was a lady who opened the door she smiled at me and said “you must be Cathy come on in.” And i walked into the door relieved i did not had to talk.