Braces for Karen

I have wanted braces all my life. Ever since my permanent teeth came in, too big for my small jaws, I can't remember a time when I didn't want braces. All of my sisters got braces, but I didn't, because the orthodontist said my back teeth were aligned all right and I wouldn't have trouble chewing.

Now, as an adult, my husband and I have put several of our children through braces, but my getting them just wasn't enough of a priority.

Well, a couple of months ago, I went to the dentist for what I thought was going to be a filling on one of my front teeth. Instead, it was a root canal! Because that tooth was behind its neighbor, the decay had been undetected for a couple of years, in spite of my complaining to the dentist about pain there. I have other teeth in a similar line-up. We decided it was time for me to get braces.

It was one of those dream come true moments, where you're not sure it's really happening because you've wanted it for so long! It got real pretty fast.

I was seated comfortably in the padded, reclined chair. I'd had my picture taken several times, as well as a panoramic X-ray. Some of the pictures were taken with cheek retractors. Basically it's a plastic shoe horn that stretches your cheek away from your teeth on one side so they can get good pictures of the side of your teeth. I don't want to see those pictures.

The photo op being over, I was fitted with another lip and cheek-stretching gizmo. This one fit into my mouth, stretching my lips and cheeks to amazing proportions, covering my tongue and cutting into the gums below my bottom teeth. Ow! I knew I was in for a canker sore there, if not a blister. Every time they did something new in my mouth, they pushed on the gizmo and it cut against my bottom gums. They really need to bevel the edge of that thing! Of course, I couldn't say anything. Trying to speak with all that in my mouth would have been ludicrous and would have sounded like something coming from a cow! I just endured the process.

Finally, they were finished. "All done," the technician said, cheerfully. "Go rinse." I stumbled to the sink to rinse the nasty tasting glue out of my mouth. My tongue was eager to explore its new environment. "Hold on," I thought, "someone glued little Lego blocks to my teeth by mistake!" I couldn't believe how big braces felt! They stuck waaaay out from my teeth.

When I got home, I showed my sewing student my new metal mouth. She is almost ready to have her braces come off. "How do your teeth feel?" she asked. "So far, just some pressure. Not bad at all," I replied. She told me it was the evening of the second day that it started getting bad for her. It ended up being like that for me too. I went on a yogurt and applesauce diet for about the next 14 days.

Now, sever weeks later, I can eat most things, but my teeth have a way of randomly hurting. Just one or two at a time, but I never know who's next.

I am so excited to be getting straight teeth. No more avoiding smiling. No more being ashamed to show my teeth. I will have between 18-24 months before they come off, but it will be so worth it! I have a new appreciation for the young women I work with at church who have braces. It's amusing that they talk to me about my braces and commiserate about things like bands and tightening the wires.