Sophie's van day braces experience
In the beginning………..
As a toddler I was fascinated by my mother’s beautiful silver smile. At night she wore another piece of jewelry between her lips and round her cheeks. I loved to touch it but was taught that I had to be very careful indeed. By the time I was nearly 4, I realized that other mothers did not have these ornaments, my mother was very special.
She was out all one afternoon and came and collected me from her friend. That evening I went into her bedroom; she was sitting in only her underclothes at her dressing table with the gleaming silver wire frame in her hands, just about to insert it in her mouth and I could see in the mirror that she was crying.
‘Why does it make you cry, Mummy?’, I asked.
‘Because I now have to wear this all the time now, Poppet.’
‘But you look beautiful.’
‘One day I will indeed look beautiful with a lovely white smile like other Mummies.’
From that time on my Mum wore the wire frame nearly all the time except when she dressed specially to go out with my Uncle.
About a year later Mum came home from the dentist without the silver covering her teeth or the wire frame. Instead she had thin wires tight against them. I recognized these as similar to what my older cousin Jayne, who lisped, had. When I asked what had happened she said that her teeth were now in the correct position but she had to wear plates to keep them in place. That evening she showed me the two acrylic plates with their shiny wires.
At the end of my prayers I asked that I could have plates like my Mummy!
Becoming more aware ……………
My next encounter with such things was when I was about 9 and my best friend at school returned to class from a visit to the dentist. She had obviously been crying. I passed a note to her asking why. She wrote back that she had to have a brace on her teeth. ‘What is a brace?’ I wrote. ‘A plate with wire springs to straighten my teeth, silly.’
Two weeks later Sarah came to school with lips firmly closed over her rather ‘obvious’ teeth. Eventually she had to display her upper teeth surrounded by wires. The appliance was uncomfortable and she removed it from time to time. I was completely fascinated. That night I tried to imagine having a plate fitted.
One evening, in my bedroom, Sarah showed me her brace and described how it was prepared and fitted. Until then I had imagined that the dentist opened a drawer and selected one!
Sarah then said smugly that I was certain to need braces and that she had heard our mothers talking about it.
That night was bliss. I imagined having impressions taken as Sarah had described, then, two weeks later lying back in the chair while my pretty young dentist inserted my plate and told me to wear it all the time, day and night and during meals, exactly as had been dictated to Sarah. I vividly recalled my dentist’s perfume and her lovely soft fingers.
From that time I was alert to see whom else had braces. Out shopping with my mother we saw several older girls with wires round their upper teeth then I noticed a shy, very pretty, blonde girl of about 16 with all her teeth covered in silver just like my mother had had. That night I enquired what it was she wore and my mother showed me an album of photographs mapping out the whole of her own treatment. She explained what bands were and how fixed braces and headgear worked and why retainers were necessary. She showed me X-rays and photographs and showed where she had had four back teeth extracted to ‘allow for the tooth movements’. She actually still had some of the plaster casts (with her maiden name Angela Deeley written in ink in the base of the plaster) and still had the original retainers as well as a new pair which even now she had to wear when she slept. The pièce de resistance was when she brought out her headgear assembly and the Kloehn bow she had had to wear all the time for a year. How I loved that still shiny wire frame and how she loathed it! More revelations: ‘You know your cousin Siobhan has just had braces and headgear? And Matty (Matilda in my class at school) has to have an expander fitted for a time prior to having full braces?’
So, my mother must have had braces in place when she married my dear father (who had died shortly after I was born).
I went to bed determined to gain access to this treasure trove of my mother’s treatment records. I could not wait until I saw Siobhan and Matilda. I lay awake most of the night imagining having bands and archwires and headgear. I was cross for not having thought to ask if I would need braces. Stupid child! On with the light and out with the mirror. I could immediately see both sets of my teeth were overcrowded and still there were gaps, and I fancied that the upper ones were prominent compared with the lower ones. Why had I not thought of this for myself after Sarah’s callous remark?
I could conjure up Dr.. Wasteney saying, ‘Mrs.. van Day, it is time for Sophie to have braces. I am afraid she will need full braces and headgear for several years and will probably even after that need retainers at night for the rest of her life.’
Reality Sets In
Before breakfast I went into Mum’s bedroom. Rather self-consciously she smiled to show the wires of her two new nighttime retainers gleaming silver in contrast to her beautifully white teeth.
‘Will I need braces, Mum?’
‘I’m afraid so, Poppet. We have an appointment with Dr. Wasteney a couple of days after the end of term, for an assessment.’
‘Will I have bands and headgear like you?’
‘Bands probably only on the back teeth; they use brackets now, much neater, on the other teeth. I sincerely hope you do not need headgear.’
I counted the days to my forthcoming appointment.
I asked Matty to go swimming with me. When I made her laugh I could see some bands on her premolars and molars. I told her my cousin Siobhan had been fitted with braces. Matty then blurted out that she had had an expander for two weeks. She turned to the sun, opened her little mouth wide and showed the expander across the roof of her mouth banded onto four teeth. She explained that her mother had to turn the tiny screw each night and she could distinctly feel the expansion.
‘I shall be in braces and elastics for the new term, just like Erica.’, she said. ‘Erica also has braces?’. ‘Oh, yes. Horrible things. Her mother told mine she cries herself to sleep each night.’
A little later I was in the supermarket with my Mum when I noticed that a checkout assistant had braces: she was ever so old – maybe 20. She was also desperately shy. I noticed how even her lower teeth were but that the brackets nearly obliterated them. She also had white elastics each side from the upper canines to the lower molars. I wondered how she could talk with these in place and also later questioned my mother why she had a lower brace when the teeth were so even. ‘She probably had extractions each side, upper and lower, and the elastics pull the group of her lower, back teeth forward to correct the malocclusion.’
First hand experience
Came the day. We arrived at the surgery early. ‘Mrs. van Day would you please bring Sophie through now?’
From my horizontal position I could see that the nurse had a type of upper brace on apparently flawless teeth. I could clearly see the single band each side and a wire across the roof of her mouth between these bands and another wire tight round the front.
Dr. Wasteney completed a thorough visual examination and said, ‘Sophie, you need orthodontics treatment. Braces. You probably know that your mother had extensive treatment in her early 20s and she has fantastic teeth today as a result. There is a lot to be done; there will be seemingly endless appointments but it will be worthwhile in the end. Today, I will just do the preparatory work in order to make a complete assessment. It is totally painless but the impressions will be a strange sensation. I expect you to have interceptive treatment initially with a removable, functional appliance over both sets of teeth for a couple of years, then, a bit later, you will almost certainly require comprehensive treatment with fixed appliances. I shall commence with taking impressions, then take a couple of bite registers, some measurements in a headframe, panortho and ceph X-rays, and a series of photographs.’
The first of what was to be many sets of impressions over the years was a strange experience indeed. The alginate tasted foul from the initial, lower, impression. I nearly gagged from the upper one but, nonetheless, in a perverse way enjoyed the sensation. The first bite register was, apparently, standard. For the second one I had to posture my lower jaw forward and when I bit into the material the teeth did not close completely.
I was by then just old enough to experience, but not understand, sexual excitement and I was by this time in a highly charged state. So much so that immediately after the impressions and bite registers I could hardly walk to the chair under the headframe apparatus!
The nurse turned from the telephone to say, ‘Dr. Wasteney, Mrs. Barrett says Lynsey’s facebow has broken. When can she come in for a new one?’
I was all ears. Lynsey, aged 17, was the school beauty famed for her bust and her exquisite face and fair hair. I had no idea she had braces, let alone a facebow. What super news! I could hardly contain myself at the thought of Lynsey with braces and a facebow. I had a crush on Lynsey which far exceeded my love for Petal, the pony I shared with two other girls.
I was trembling as I sat in the headframe distinctly smelling the quality perfumes used by Lisa and the gentle nurse as they adjusted the apparatus and took the register of my upper teeth in relation to my facial features. Lisa explained everything she was doing and there and then I determined to become an Orthodontist.
After the X-rays I was asked to sit in the chair once more. I was shown an illustration of how lip retractors worked and permitted to fit them myself so the intra-oral photographs could be taken.
‘I will call you to make an appointment in a week or two when the appliance is ready.’, said the nurse. ‘We shall need to make several appointments during the early stages but later on four or six weekly will suffice.’
Immediately I got home I phoned Matty to say I was to have braces and told her about Lynsey whom Matty also adored. We arranged to go to the tennis club knowing Lynsey frequented it.
That afternoon I took the dog for a walk past Lynsey Barrett’s house and several times walked past it and on past the surgery hoping to see her in her facebow.
The dog got plenty of exercise that week but it became clear Lynsey had gone away on holiday. However, outside the surgery I did see a couple of teary-eyed girls and stoical teenage boys who looked as though they had appliances.
One day at the club I watched my mother playing. I was so proud of her perfect figure and her strong, shapely, bronzed legs. (I looked down at my own limbs seeking reassurance that they would eventually be as lovely as hers!) Between sets she came over to me to say my appointment was the next day and she had already contacted Julie’s mother to say I could not come as arranged to take Julie out. My classmate, Julie, had broken her leg and thigh and I frequently took her out in her wheelchair. Mrs. Ince could not wheel Julie because of a bad back which left Julie bored at home for much of the time.
The First Encounter with a Fränkel Appliance
My mother and I arrived everywhere early. Today was no exception at the surgery. I had hoped to sit for half an hour and see who had what. No luck. I was called into the surgery, by the nurse with the brace, almost immediately.
I expected to see my brace on the ceramic tray next to the chair but what I saw were the plaster models of my teeth encased in wires and pink acrylic. Lisa asked me to sit down and then proceeded to show me the casts, the appliance and the assembly. ‘This is called a Fränkel 2 appliance and I studied its use for my PhD. The 2 indicates it is designed to correct a class 2 malocclusion where the upper teeth are prominent compared with the lower ones. In your case its value is to help the lower jaw develop and preclude the need for surgery. If you look at these register marks on the casts you will see how the appliance will force you to posture your lower jaw forward. Let me try it in your mouth.’
‘Sophie, this is not an easy appliance to become accustomed to. Initially it will be difficult to speak. To remove it and to fit it you need to relax your muscles. Try removing it. …….. Now try replacing it.’ (My hands shook. The feel of the appliance in my hand was most peculiar.) ‘Good. It is to be worn all the time except for meals and sport. You may find you are able to wear it for running, cycling and proper swimming; if so that is beneficial. Here is a sterilizer box to keep it in when you cannot wear it and here are some notes on this type of appliance in general and your prescription in particular. Do practise reading aloud to yourself until you can speak clearly. Josephine will make a series of appointments so I may check that the appliance is working as it should. Some patients experience problems at night and I will ask your mother to look in to see how it is accommodated while you sleep. If it is a problem I can fit a headgear, a wire device attached to the brace and straps over your head, to hold it in place.’
Oh, why could she not fit headgear there and then? I would have loved to have had one to wear in the privacy of my room.
‘Please fit these lip retractors and I shall take record photographs of the appliance in place.
Going Public
While Mum made the further appointments I tried to look nonchalant and gazed at the waiting patients. A tall Jewish girl in her mid teens sat next to her boyfriend; in her lap was a facebow and a blue denim cervical strap which she fingered nervously. The young man said something to her but she shook her head and kept her lips compressed.
My mouth felt indescribably full from the bulky appliance. In order to accommodate the brace I had to posture my lower jaw forward and bite gently into the acrylic which kept my teeth apart. This was something I had to live with for the next two years and I was never to be fully accustomed to it.
My mother forgot I could not speak and chattered away as usual as we walked home.
I rushed to my bedroom and took out my father’s shaving mirror to examine my mouth. What an appliance! I took the Fränkel 2 out and studied it then hurriedly reinserted it. I tried talking but could only gurgle.
I took the dog for a walk and dreaded meeting anyone whom would talk to me. I even practised removing the appliance rapidly into my handkerchief in case I had to talk, but that was not so easy.
Holding the brace, I phoned Julie and said I would come over but could not talk. Would she please explain to her mother. Julie was fascinated by my brace and asked my expert opinion if she too would require one. I thought not.
Julie needed to buy some baggy pants to go over her leg cast so I got her into her wheelchair and we headed off to the shops. Julie chattered nonstop but I could not reply. Inevitably a shop assistant spoke to me and all I could do was point to my mouth and shake my head. I pushed Julie home in her wheelchair but we encountered Mrs. Barrett who stopped to chat. She soon twigged I had a brace but did not volunteer information about Lynsey.
I removed the appliance for tea and Julie examined it carefully before returning it to its box. I decided to tell her about my reaction in the dentist’s and, to my surprise, she said she had a similar reaction about her leg cast particularly when the limb was encased to the very top of the thigh; and again when she was told she may need a calliper on the limb for six months or so. I persuaded her to wear a really short skirt on our next excursion rather than try to conceal her cast.
On our next outing, quite by chance, we met Lynsey in a cafe. She came over, she who would not normally acknowledge juniors, and said she had heard I was now in braces. She thus revealed her own fixed braces and elastics. I was dying to ask if she had headgear but did not dare. We were left to admire that bust and both of us giggled when we realized we were puffing out our little chests to imitate hers. I was trying to imagine Lynsey’s superb blonde tresses constrained by multiple headgear straps like my mother had worn for a whole year.
Thanks to Julie persevering at forcing me to practice speaking I was able to talk reasonably well within a fortnight. I think Lisa had been rather concerned at my first checkup, after a week, that I could only gurgle. My mother had said that she had seen me sleeping and the appliance seemed to be firmly in place. I removed it and said that several times when I woke it had been displaced.
‘Leave it another two weeks. You do not want to have headgear unless you really have to.’ I was disappointed.
When I was again able to speak my Mum arranged a visit to her sister’s (where I would meet Siobhan and hopefully see her with her facebow). Siobhan, then 15, and I looked at each other in embarrassment. I spoke first, lisping, ‘I have had a horrid Fränkel appliance fitted.’ ‘I have full braces for three years.’, said Siobhan.
In her room, playing tapes, she quietly took out a facebow and headgear neck strap. ‘I have to wear this on my lower brace 20 hours every day. It is really awful. Look. Fortunately there are three other girls at school who have to wear some sort of headgear during the day. It is not surprising, is it, that you and I have braces? Both our mothers had braces and headgear.’
We went for a swim and Siobhan changed her neck strap to a waterproof one and told me sternly we must not lark about or she would have to remove it. I was in awe of her developing figure, slim hips and long, graceful legs. I was also proud of how disdainfully she wore the headgear and looked directly at anyone who stared; and both boys and girls did stare.
I was really encouraged when, at parting, she told me how brave she thought I was and also how good-looking I had become.
The New Term at School
While I was admittedly fascinated by braces it probably did not make it any easier to be seen with this complex appliance and I rather dreaded going to school with it.
The first morning we had to line up for registration. The senior girls sauntered past, not having to endure this indignity. There was Lynsey with a black combi headgear, stark against her fair hair. She came straight up to me and asked how I was getting along with my brace. I looked her firmly in the bosom and mumbled that it was worse than I expected. ‘Wait until you get headgear, then you will find out which is worse! Anyhow, hope the term goes OK for you. I would like to see you in the junior tennis team.’ Praise indeed from the Goddess.
We soon established that in our year four girls had acquired plates and one an upper fixed brace. Two sported new glasses and a frail, gentle little girl named Amy had a back brace which forced her chin into the air.
Matty and I took Amy under our wings and we three rather frightened little girls faced up to the coming term together. Amy was almost grateful for her back brace that it had finally brought her two close friends. Julie rejoined the class a bit later, still in a cast but now on crutches, and we made up a rather battered foursome. Later still, Julie had the cast removed and became the first girl in the school to have a calliper from her shoe to the top of her thigh. It was a source of pleasure for her friends to unstrap her for swimming and subsequently to strap her into the leg brace. The greater pleasure was to see continual improvement until she could dispense with the gross apparatus.
As time went on I learned more about orthodontics and even did some research in the town library where I came to understand some of the terms and the reasons for different treatment. I went so far as to acquire Dr. Wasteney’s paper on Fränkel appliances.
One day the opportunity presented to gain access to Mum’s box. I was able to try her upper facebow on my appliance with a bit of forcing it into place. Regrettably her cervical strap was too large but I fashioned one from some waist band material and office staples.
Just before Christmas Mum noticed that the Fränkel appliance did indeed come adrift when I slept. Within a couple of days I had my very own facebow and combi headgear plus safety strap to wear at night. Could not have wished for a better Christmas present.
That first night I was in ecstasy. I had not fully recognized my feelings before but now, with the aid of some Cosmo magazines, I realized fairly accurately what these sensations were.
Our school had Wednesday afternoons for sport and compensated by our working Saturday mornings. Consequently, in term time, dental appointments tended also to be on Wednesday afternoons and I quickly gained the habit of looking in the ‘exeat’ register to see who had had an appointment. On the Thursday I would look to see if they had the characteristic compressed lips of the new bracee.
Our school still had the ‘fagging’ system and, as luck would have it, I was allocated to Lynsey. If we were the only ones in the study we would sometimes talk about braces and how we reacted when we realized we were to be braced. Lynsey would arrange that we were not disturbed and then ask me to don my headgear. We also had to admit our fascination for each other and I duly learned how adolescent women make love. It was innocent enough in our case.
I also learned of the power of someone who has experienced something unpleasant over those who have not been initiated. Any girl with protruding or crowded teeth was of interest to me and I would mentally design their appliances, imagine them being fitted, and wait to see what actually transpired.
The two years passed quickly. Lynsey no longer required headgear during the day and left for University but still with full braces. Amy had an op on her back, was in a cast from hips to neck for a couple of months and then rapidly developed into a fine ballet dancer. Matty progressed rapidly from expander to braces with elastics, and then on to removable retainers on a truly lovely set of teeth.
During those two years I had the Fränkel appliance replaced twice. After two years of constant wear the Fränkel therapy ceased and I was provided with two removable retainers until ‘comprehensive treatment’ could be commenced a further two years later.
Fixed Braces
The day before my 14th birthday impressions and bite register, X-rays and photographs were taken and just ten days later I was informed I should have all four second molars extracted, have full fixed appliances and upper and lower facebows to wear all the time except during contact sports.
Mum was really distressed on my behalf.
A few years later Mum informed me that there had been an alternative treatment plan whereby I would have had all four premolars extracted, but I would still have needed an upper facebow and the eruption of the wisdom teeth could have been problematical. I was rather glad to have been condemned to wearing two facebows but clearly Mum had had regrets that she had not consulted me.
Spacers were placed and I underwent extractions. Two weeks later bands were placed on my molars and premolars and I was measured for an Interlandi headgear. During the measurements I had to hold the vertical, flat plastic strips in front of my ears while the horizontal straps were placed one above and one below my ears. The vertical (coronal?) strap was fitted over my head and, finally, one strap was connected to all three; it commenced at the middle of the back of my neck right up to the middle of the strap over my head. The next day the large metal brackets were bonded to my other teeth and I was fitted with the two facebows which were connected to the headgear with elastics.
That night I gave myself up to pleasure vividly reliving the fitting process and, particularly, the sensation of having facebows inserted and tensioned onto the headgear.
The fitting procedure was completed after the weekend when the two archwires were tied in with fine wire ligatures. I was also provided with a waterproof version of the Interlandi headgear because Lisa was well aware of the amount of swimming I indulged in.
I created a sensation on the first day at school with two facebows. How many others quailed at the thought that they may have to undergo such treatment? Not that I entered this phase of my life without considerable trepidation. I was proud that I was able to leave the surgery wearing my new headgear but I really loathed being stared at and, as I supposed, being a figure of ridicule.
I actually found the facebows to be comfortable and the massive wires against the inside of my cheeks were smooth and kept my cheeks off the more complex parts of the braces.
I became a magnet for all the other bracees. I rapidly learned the orthodontic history and plans for several others in the school including a student teacher who admitted to me that she had to wear high pull headgear and J-hook traction on her upper brace for 12 hours every night.
Soon after my being fitted with the appliances, Siobhan phoned to tell me her time in braces was over except for retainers to be worn at night. She was delighted with the result and had celebrated by giving up her virginity.
When I attended for one checkup at the surgery I met a boy of 15 who had recently had full, fixed braces. He seemed fascinated by me, my orthodontia or my now rather well-developed boobs.
We met for tennis and cycling and I was introduced to his twin sister, Virginia, who had similar braces to Simon but with two pairs of white class 2 elastics.
At home they had a swimming pool and sauna which I initially used with Virginia. When the parents were away we would swim naked and sauna all three. They were fascinated by my insistence that I change into waterproof headgear for swimming.
The Ortho’s surgery had been extended and now had a large room with five chairs as well as the three original individual surgeries. I opted for treatment in the communal area because I was always interested to see what was being done to others.
I had been in headgear for about six months and was undergoing archwire changes. In the next chair was a girl of my age or a little older; a well-built, dark-skinned girl with long, luxuriant copper hair, mostly covered with a tight surgical cap, and amazing dark-blue eyes. She looked petrified. Josephine, the nurse who had once had a brace herself, was inserting tubes into Maryam’s nose and then put a ‘draught excluder’ tape around her jaw line and up and around her hairline. She then wiped Maryam’s face with Vaseline, told her gently to close her eyes, and placed pads impregnated with Vaseline over the eyes. Another nurse was mixing a bowl of plaster of Paris which was then spread over Maryam’s upturned face. I saw her flinch and her calves and thighs tauten; her knuckles became white. Then a layer of gauze was applied followed by more plaster. Maryam was writhing but the nurses restrained her. ‘It will soon be over.’ But the ensuing five minutes must have seemed like a lifetime to the victim.
The cast came off, the tears flowed and the nurses cleaned up the superbly structured face. Lisa came up to see how the patient was and then proceeded to apply 12 bands to all of Maryam’s upper teeth.
I waited outside for Maryam and, without a word, took her soft hand and lead her to a coffee shop and let her compose herself. She explained that she was training to become a violinist. The news that she needed facemask traction to correct a class 3 malocclusion was therefore doubly unwelcome. Lisa had suggested that, instead of using a Petit or Delaire facemask, which would have had pads on the forehead and an acrylic cup over her chin, Maryam could wear an acrylic mask which would not interfere with her lower jaw or the violin. I was gradually coming to understand that the facemask was a sort of reverse of normal headgear and was to be used to provide the reaction to springs pulling her upper teeth forward.
As a toddler I was fascinated by my mother’s beautiful silver smile. At night she wore another piece of jewelry between her lips and round her cheeks. I loved to touch it but was taught that I had to be very careful indeed. By the time I was nearly 4, I realized that other mothers did not have these ornaments, my mother was very special.
She was out all one afternoon and came and collected me from her friend. That evening I went into her bedroom; she was sitting in only her underclothes at her dressing table with the gleaming silver wire frame in her hands, just about to insert it in her mouth and I could see in the mirror that she was crying.
‘Why does it make you cry, Mummy?’, I asked.
‘Because I now have to wear this all the time now, Poppet.’
‘But you look beautiful.’
‘One day I will indeed look beautiful with a lovely white smile like other Mummies.’
From that time on my Mum wore the wire frame nearly all the time except when she dressed specially to go out with my Uncle.
About a year later Mum came home from the dentist without the silver covering her teeth or the wire frame. Instead she had thin wires tight against them. I recognized these as similar to what my older cousin Jayne, who lisped, had. When I asked what had happened she said that her teeth were now in the correct position but she had to wear plates to keep them in place. That evening she showed me the two acrylic plates with their shiny wires.
At the end of my prayers I asked that I could have plates like my Mummy!
Becoming more aware ……………
My next encounter with such things was when I was about 9 and my best friend at school returned to class from a visit to the dentist. She had obviously been crying. I passed a note to her asking why. She wrote back that she had to have a brace on her teeth. ‘What is a brace?’ I wrote. ‘A plate with wire springs to straighten my teeth, silly.’
Two weeks later Sarah came to school with lips firmly closed over her rather ‘obvious’ teeth. Eventually she had to display her upper teeth surrounded by wires. The appliance was uncomfortable and she removed it from time to time. I was completely fascinated. That night I tried to imagine having a plate fitted.
One evening, in my bedroom, Sarah showed me her brace and described how it was prepared and fitted. Until then I had imagined that the dentist opened a drawer and selected one!
Sarah then said smugly that I was certain to need braces and that she had heard our mothers talking about it.
That night was bliss. I imagined having impressions taken as Sarah had described, then, two weeks later lying back in the chair while my pretty young dentist inserted my plate and told me to wear it all the time, day and night and during meals, exactly as had been dictated to Sarah. I vividly recalled my dentist’s perfume and her lovely soft fingers.
From that time I was alert to see whom else had braces. Out shopping with my mother we saw several older girls with wires round their upper teeth then I noticed a shy, very pretty, blonde girl of about 16 with all her teeth covered in silver just like my mother had had. That night I enquired what it was she wore and my mother showed me an album of photographs mapping out the whole of her own treatment. She explained what bands were and how fixed braces and headgear worked and why retainers were necessary. She showed me X-rays and photographs and showed where she had had four back teeth extracted to ‘allow for the tooth movements’. She actually still had some of the plaster casts (with her maiden name Angela Deeley written in ink in the base of the plaster) and still had the original retainers as well as a new pair which even now she had to wear when she slept. The pièce de resistance was when she brought out her headgear assembly and the Kloehn bow she had had to wear all the time for a year. How I loved that still shiny wire frame and how she loathed it! More revelations: ‘You know your cousin Siobhan has just had braces and headgear? And Matty (Matilda in my class at school) has to have an expander fitted for a time prior to having full braces?’
So, my mother must have had braces in place when she married my dear father (who had died shortly after I was born).
I went to bed determined to gain access to this treasure trove of my mother’s treatment records. I could not wait until I saw Siobhan and Matilda. I lay awake most of the night imagining having bands and archwires and headgear. I was cross for not having thought to ask if I would need braces. Stupid child! On with the light and out with the mirror. I could immediately see both sets of my teeth were overcrowded and still there were gaps, and I fancied that the upper ones were prominent compared with the lower ones. Why had I not thought of this for myself after Sarah’s callous remark?
I could conjure up Dr.. Wasteney saying, ‘Mrs.. van Day, it is time for Sophie to have braces. I am afraid she will need full braces and headgear for several years and will probably even after that need retainers at night for the rest of her life.’
Reality Sets In
Before breakfast I went into Mum’s bedroom. Rather self-consciously she smiled to show the wires of her two new nighttime retainers gleaming silver in contrast to her beautifully white teeth.
‘Will I need braces, Mum?’
‘I’m afraid so, Poppet. We have an appointment with Dr. Wasteney a couple of days after the end of term, for an assessment.’
‘Will I have bands and headgear like you?’
‘Bands probably only on the back teeth; they use brackets now, much neater, on the other teeth. I sincerely hope you do not need headgear.’
I counted the days to my forthcoming appointment.
I asked Matty to go swimming with me. When I made her laugh I could see some bands on her premolars and molars. I told her my cousin Siobhan had been fitted with braces. Matty then blurted out that she had had an expander for two weeks. She turned to the sun, opened her little mouth wide and showed the expander across the roof of her mouth banded onto four teeth. She explained that her mother had to turn the tiny screw each night and she could distinctly feel the expansion.
‘I shall be in braces and elastics for the new term, just like Erica.’, she said. ‘Erica also has braces?’. ‘Oh, yes. Horrible things. Her mother told mine she cries herself to sleep each night.’
A little later I was in the supermarket with my Mum when I noticed that a checkout assistant had braces: she was ever so old – maybe 20. She was also desperately shy. I noticed how even her lower teeth were but that the brackets nearly obliterated them. She also had white elastics each side from the upper canines to the lower molars. I wondered how she could talk with these in place and also later questioned my mother why she had a lower brace when the teeth were so even. ‘She probably had extractions each side, upper and lower, and the elastics pull the group of her lower, back teeth forward to correct the malocclusion.’
First hand experience
Came the day. We arrived at the surgery early. ‘Mrs. van Day would you please bring Sophie through now?’
From my horizontal position I could see that the nurse had a type of upper brace on apparently flawless teeth. I could clearly see the single band each side and a wire across the roof of her mouth between these bands and another wire tight round the front.
Dr. Wasteney completed a thorough visual examination and said, ‘Sophie, you need orthodontics treatment. Braces. You probably know that your mother had extensive treatment in her early 20s and she has fantastic teeth today as a result. There is a lot to be done; there will be seemingly endless appointments but it will be worthwhile in the end. Today, I will just do the preparatory work in order to make a complete assessment. It is totally painless but the impressions will be a strange sensation. I expect you to have interceptive treatment initially with a removable, functional appliance over both sets of teeth for a couple of years, then, a bit later, you will almost certainly require comprehensive treatment with fixed appliances. I shall commence with taking impressions, then take a couple of bite registers, some measurements in a headframe, panortho and ceph X-rays, and a series of photographs.’
The first of what was to be many sets of impressions over the years was a strange experience indeed. The alginate tasted foul from the initial, lower, impression. I nearly gagged from the upper one but, nonetheless, in a perverse way enjoyed the sensation. The first bite register was, apparently, standard. For the second one I had to posture my lower jaw forward and when I bit into the material the teeth did not close completely.
I was by then just old enough to experience, but not understand, sexual excitement and I was by this time in a highly charged state. So much so that immediately after the impressions and bite registers I could hardly walk to the chair under the headframe apparatus!
The nurse turned from the telephone to say, ‘Dr. Wasteney, Mrs. Barrett says Lynsey’s facebow has broken. When can she come in for a new one?’
I was all ears. Lynsey, aged 17, was the school beauty famed for her bust and her exquisite face and fair hair. I had no idea she had braces, let alone a facebow. What super news! I could hardly contain myself at the thought of Lynsey with braces and a facebow. I had a crush on Lynsey which far exceeded my love for Petal, the pony I shared with two other girls.
I was trembling as I sat in the headframe distinctly smelling the quality perfumes used by Lisa and the gentle nurse as they adjusted the apparatus and took the register of my upper teeth in relation to my facial features. Lisa explained everything she was doing and there and then I determined to become an Orthodontist.
After the X-rays I was asked to sit in the chair once more. I was shown an illustration of how lip retractors worked and permitted to fit them myself so the intra-oral photographs could be taken.
‘I will call you to make an appointment in a week or two when the appliance is ready.’, said the nurse. ‘We shall need to make several appointments during the early stages but later on four or six weekly will suffice.’
Immediately I got home I phoned Matty to say I was to have braces and told her about Lynsey whom Matty also adored. We arranged to go to the tennis club knowing Lynsey frequented it.
That afternoon I took the dog for a walk past Lynsey Barrett’s house and several times walked past it and on past the surgery hoping to see her in her facebow.
The dog got plenty of exercise that week but it became clear Lynsey had gone away on holiday. However, outside the surgery I did see a couple of teary-eyed girls and stoical teenage boys who looked as though they had appliances.
One day at the club I watched my mother playing. I was so proud of her perfect figure and her strong, shapely, bronzed legs. (I looked down at my own limbs seeking reassurance that they would eventually be as lovely as hers!) Between sets she came over to me to say my appointment was the next day and she had already contacted Julie’s mother to say I could not come as arranged to take Julie out. My classmate, Julie, had broken her leg and thigh and I frequently took her out in her wheelchair. Mrs. Ince could not wheel Julie because of a bad back which left Julie bored at home for much of the time.
The First Encounter with a Fränkel Appliance
My mother and I arrived everywhere early. Today was no exception at the surgery. I had hoped to sit for half an hour and see who had what. No luck. I was called into the surgery, by the nurse with the brace, almost immediately.
I expected to see my brace on the ceramic tray next to the chair but what I saw were the plaster models of my teeth encased in wires and pink acrylic. Lisa asked me to sit down and then proceeded to show me the casts, the appliance and the assembly. ‘This is called a Fränkel 2 appliance and I studied its use for my PhD. The 2 indicates it is designed to correct a class 2 malocclusion where the upper teeth are prominent compared with the lower ones. In your case its value is to help the lower jaw develop and preclude the need for surgery. If you look at these register marks on the casts you will see how the appliance will force you to posture your lower jaw forward. Let me try it in your mouth.’
‘Sophie, this is not an easy appliance to become accustomed to. Initially it will be difficult to speak. To remove it and to fit it you need to relax your muscles. Try removing it. …….. Now try replacing it.’ (My hands shook. The feel of the appliance in my hand was most peculiar.) ‘Good. It is to be worn all the time except for meals and sport. You may find you are able to wear it for running, cycling and proper swimming; if so that is beneficial. Here is a sterilizer box to keep it in when you cannot wear it and here are some notes on this type of appliance in general and your prescription in particular. Do practise reading aloud to yourself until you can speak clearly. Josephine will make a series of appointments so I may check that the appliance is working as it should. Some patients experience problems at night and I will ask your mother to look in to see how it is accommodated while you sleep. If it is a problem I can fit a headgear, a wire device attached to the brace and straps over your head, to hold it in place.’
Oh, why could she not fit headgear there and then? I would have loved to have had one to wear in the privacy of my room.
‘Please fit these lip retractors and I shall take record photographs of the appliance in place.
Going Public
While Mum made the further appointments I tried to look nonchalant and gazed at the waiting patients. A tall Jewish girl in her mid teens sat next to her boyfriend; in her lap was a facebow and a blue denim cervical strap which she fingered nervously. The young man said something to her but she shook her head and kept her lips compressed.
My mouth felt indescribably full from the bulky appliance. In order to accommodate the brace I had to posture my lower jaw forward and bite gently into the acrylic which kept my teeth apart. This was something I had to live with for the next two years and I was never to be fully accustomed to it.
My mother forgot I could not speak and chattered away as usual as we walked home.
I rushed to my bedroom and took out my father’s shaving mirror to examine my mouth. What an appliance! I took the Fränkel 2 out and studied it then hurriedly reinserted it. I tried talking but could only gurgle.
I took the dog for a walk and dreaded meeting anyone whom would talk to me. I even practised removing the appliance rapidly into my handkerchief in case I had to talk, but that was not so easy.
Holding the brace, I phoned Julie and said I would come over but could not talk. Would she please explain to her mother. Julie was fascinated by my brace and asked my expert opinion if she too would require one. I thought not.
Julie needed to buy some baggy pants to go over her leg cast so I got her into her wheelchair and we headed off to the shops. Julie chattered nonstop but I could not reply. Inevitably a shop assistant spoke to me and all I could do was point to my mouth and shake my head. I pushed Julie home in her wheelchair but we encountered Mrs. Barrett who stopped to chat. She soon twigged I had a brace but did not volunteer information about Lynsey.
I removed the appliance for tea and Julie examined it carefully before returning it to its box. I decided to tell her about my reaction in the dentist’s and, to my surprise, she said she had a similar reaction about her leg cast particularly when the limb was encased to the very top of the thigh; and again when she was told she may need a calliper on the limb for six months or so. I persuaded her to wear a really short skirt on our next excursion rather than try to conceal her cast.
On our next outing, quite by chance, we met Lynsey in a cafe. She came over, she who would not normally acknowledge juniors, and said she had heard I was now in braces. She thus revealed her own fixed braces and elastics. I was dying to ask if she had headgear but did not dare. We were left to admire that bust and both of us giggled when we realized we were puffing out our little chests to imitate hers. I was trying to imagine Lynsey’s superb blonde tresses constrained by multiple headgear straps like my mother had worn for a whole year.
Thanks to Julie persevering at forcing me to practice speaking I was able to talk reasonably well within a fortnight. I think Lisa had been rather concerned at my first checkup, after a week, that I could only gurgle. My mother had said that she had seen me sleeping and the appliance seemed to be firmly in place. I removed it and said that several times when I woke it had been displaced.
‘Leave it another two weeks. You do not want to have headgear unless you really have to.’ I was disappointed.
When I was again able to speak my Mum arranged a visit to her sister’s (where I would meet Siobhan and hopefully see her with her facebow). Siobhan, then 15, and I looked at each other in embarrassment. I spoke first, lisping, ‘I have had a horrid Fränkel appliance fitted.’ ‘I have full braces for three years.’, said Siobhan.
In her room, playing tapes, she quietly took out a facebow and headgear neck strap. ‘I have to wear this on my lower brace 20 hours every day. It is really awful. Look. Fortunately there are three other girls at school who have to wear some sort of headgear during the day. It is not surprising, is it, that you and I have braces? Both our mothers had braces and headgear.’
We went for a swim and Siobhan changed her neck strap to a waterproof one and told me sternly we must not lark about or she would have to remove it. I was in awe of her developing figure, slim hips and long, graceful legs. I was also proud of how disdainfully she wore the headgear and looked directly at anyone who stared; and both boys and girls did stare.
I was really encouraged when, at parting, she told me how brave she thought I was and also how good-looking I had become.
The New Term at School
While I was admittedly fascinated by braces it probably did not make it any easier to be seen with this complex appliance and I rather dreaded going to school with it.
The first morning we had to line up for registration. The senior girls sauntered past, not having to endure this indignity. There was Lynsey with a black combi headgear, stark against her fair hair. She came straight up to me and asked how I was getting along with my brace. I looked her firmly in the bosom and mumbled that it was worse than I expected. ‘Wait until you get headgear, then you will find out which is worse! Anyhow, hope the term goes OK for you. I would like to see you in the junior tennis team.’ Praise indeed from the Goddess.
We soon established that in our year four girls had acquired plates and one an upper fixed brace. Two sported new glasses and a frail, gentle little girl named Amy had a back brace which forced her chin into the air.
Matty and I took Amy under our wings and we three rather frightened little girls faced up to the coming term together. Amy was almost grateful for her back brace that it had finally brought her two close friends. Julie rejoined the class a bit later, still in a cast but now on crutches, and we made up a rather battered foursome. Later still, Julie had the cast removed and became the first girl in the school to have a calliper from her shoe to the top of her thigh. It was a source of pleasure for her friends to unstrap her for swimming and subsequently to strap her into the leg brace. The greater pleasure was to see continual improvement until she could dispense with the gross apparatus.
As time went on I learned more about orthodontics and even did some research in the town library where I came to understand some of the terms and the reasons for different treatment. I went so far as to acquire Dr. Wasteney’s paper on Fränkel appliances.
One day the opportunity presented to gain access to Mum’s box. I was able to try her upper facebow on my appliance with a bit of forcing it into place. Regrettably her cervical strap was too large but I fashioned one from some waist band material and office staples.
Just before Christmas Mum noticed that the Fränkel appliance did indeed come adrift when I slept. Within a couple of days I had my very own facebow and combi headgear plus safety strap to wear at night. Could not have wished for a better Christmas present.
That first night I was in ecstasy. I had not fully recognized my feelings before but now, with the aid of some Cosmo magazines, I realized fairly accurately what these sensations were.
Our school had Wednesday afternoons for sport and compensated by our working Saturday mornings. Consequently, in term time, dental appointments tended also to be on Wednesday afternoons and I quickly gained the habit of looking in the ‘exeat’ register to see who had had an appointment. On the Thursday I would look to see if they had the characteristic compressed lips of the new bracee.
Our school still had the ‘fagging’ system and, as luck would have it, I was allocated to Lynsey. If we were the only ones in the study we would sometimes talk about braces and how we reacted when we realized we were to be braced. Lynsey would arrange that we were not disturbed and then ask me to don my headgear. We also had to admit our fascination for each other and I duly learned how adolescent women make love. It was innocent enough in our case.
I also learned of the power of someone who has experienced something unpleasant over those who have not been initiated. Any girl with protruding or crowded teeth was of interest to me and I would mentally design their appliances, imagine them being fitted, and wait to see what actually transpired.
The two years passed quickly. Lynsey no longer required headgear during the day and left for University but still with full braces. Amy had an op on her back, was in a cast from hips to neck for a couple of months and then rapidly developed into a fine ballet dancer. Matty progressed rapidly from expander to braces with elastics, and then on to removable retainers on a truly lovely set of teeth.
During those two years I had the Fränkel appliance replaced twice. After two years of constant wear the Fränkel therapy ceased and I was provided with two removable retainers until ‘comprehensive treatment’ could be commenced a further two years later.
Fixed Braces
The day before my 14th birthday impressions and bite register, X-rays and photographs were taken and just ten days later I was informed I should have all four second molars extracted, have full fixed appliances and upper and lower facebows to wear all the time except during contact sports.
Mum was really distressed on my behalf.
A few years later Mum informed me that there had been an alternative treatment plan whereby I would have had all four premolars extracted, but I would still have needed an upper facebow and the eruption of the wisdom teeth could have been problematical. I was rather glad to have been condemned to wearing two facebows but clearly Mum had had regrets that she had not consulted me.
Spacers were placed and I underwent extractions. Two weeks later bands were placed on my molars and premolars and I was measured for an Interlandi headgear. During the measurements I had to hold the vertical, flat plastic strips in front of my ears while the horizontal straps were placed one above and one below my ears. The vertical (coronal?) strap was fitted over my head and, finally, one strap was connected to all three; it commenced at the middle of the back of my neck right up to the middle of the strap over my head. The next day the large metal brackets were bonded to my other teeth and I was fitted with the two facebows which were connected to the headgear with elastics.
That night I gave myself up to pleasure vividly reliving the fitting process and, particularly, the sensation of having facebows inserted and tensioned onto the headgear.
The fitting procedure was completed after the weekend when the two archwires were tied in with fine wire ligatures. I was also provided with a waterproof version of the Interlandi headgear because Lisa was well aware of the amount of swimming I indulged in.
I created a sensation on the first day at school with two facebows. How many others quailed at the thought that they may have to undergo such treatment? Not that I entered this phase of my life without considerable trepidation. I was proud that I was able to leave the surgery wearing my new headgear but I really loathed being stared at and, as I supposed, being a figure of ridicule.
I actually found the facebows to be comfortable and the massive wires against the inside of my cheeks were smooth and kept my cheeks off the more complex parts of the braces.
I became a magnet for all the other bracees. I rapidly learned the orthodontic history and plans for several others in the school including a student teacher who admitted to me that she had to wear high pull headgear and J-hook traction on her upper brace for 12 hours every night.
Soon after my being fitted with the appliances, Siobhan phoned to tell me her time in braces was over except for retainers to be worn at night. She was delighted with the result and had celebrated by giving up her virginity.
When I attended for one checkup at the surgery I met a boy of 15 who had recently had full, fixed braces. He seemed fascinated by me, my orthodontia or my now rather well-developed boobs.
We met for tennis and cycling and I was introduced to his twin sister, Virginia, who had similar braces to Simon but with two pairs of white class 2 elastics.
At home they had a swimming pool and sauna which I initially used with Virginia. When the parents were away we would swim naked and sauna all three. They were fascinated by my insistence that I change into waterproof headgear for swimming.
The Ortho’s surgery had been extended and now had a large room with five chairs as well as the three original individual surgeries. I opted for treatment in the communal area because I was always interested to see what was being done to others.
I had been in headgear for about six months and was undergoing archwire changes. In the next chair was a girl of my age or a little older; a well-built, dark-skinned girl with long, luxuriant copper hair, mostly covered with a tight surgical cap, and amazing dark-blue eyes. She looked petrified. Josephine, the nurse who had once had a brace herself, was inserting tubes into Maryam’s nose and then put a ‘draught excluder’ tape around her jaw line and up and around her hairline. She then wiped Maryam’s face with Vaseline, told her gently to close her eyes, and placed pads impregnated with Vaseline over the eyes. Another nurse was mixing a bowl of plaster of Paris which was then spread over Maryam’s upturned face. I saw her flinch and her calves and thighs tauten; her knuckles became white. Then a layer of gauze was applied followed by more plaster. Maryam was writhing but the nurses restrained her. ‘It will soon be over.’ But the ensuing five minutes must have seemed like a lifetime to the victim.
The cast came off, the tears flowed and the nurses cleaned up the superbly structured face. Lisa came up to see how the patient was and then proceeded to apply 12 bands to all of Maryam’s upper teeth.
I waited outside for Maryam and, without a word, took her soft hand and lead her to a coffee shop and let her compose herself. She explained that she was training to become a violinist. The news that she needed facemask traction to correct a class 3 malocclusion was therefore doubly unwelcome. Lisa had suggested that, instead of using a Petit or Delaire facemask, which would have had pads on the forehead and an acrylic cup over her chin, Maryam could wear an acrylic mask which would not interfere with her lower jaw or the violin. I was gradually coming to understand that the facemask was a sort of reverse of normal headgear and was to be used to provide the reaction to springs pulling her upper teeth forward.