My Orthodontic Adventures

I've had a lot of fun wearing braces for the last 28 months. I thought I should commemorate some of the truly great moments, so that my posterity will know to what lengths I went to have straight teeth in my old age. (Maybe this qualifies as my mid-life crisis??)

When I went to the orthodontist's office the first time, she showed me all of the options. Regular silver braces, clear braces, and behind your teeth braces. I don't think I'm a person who feels the spirit constantly in making my decisions, necessarily. But for some reason, I had the clear impression that day in that office, when I was 40 and Cindy Lynn was 19, that I would be the mother of the bride in braces.

Which was enough to make the extra $$ for clear braces very worthwhile.

And I was. (The mother of the bride in braces.)

Here is a picture that shows my braces pretty well. I think this is just a couple of months into my treatment.

Clear braces do have their downside, though. If you are wearing metal braces with brightly colored ties, and you get a piece of food caught in them (which you always do), it isn't too noticeable. If, however, you are wearing clear braces and you get food caught in them, it's like you have bits and pieces of brightly colored food magically hanging on your teeth. Yuck. With braces you can't easily sweep away those bits of salad that like to hang out between your teeth and gums, and so you're much more likely to have bright green bits here and there. Such fun.

For the first year of braces I carried a toothbrush with me so that I could brush my teeth just as soon as I ate something. Everyone always told me that I didn't need to, but I am well aware of the discomfort of talking to someone with a little piece of pepper or spinach caught between their teeth. I don't want to cause those around me to be even more uncomfortable!

After the first year I got better at managing food in my mouth and eating more carefully, so I've been able to relax a little. But I still have that toothbrush in my purse, just in case.

One afternoon my wonderful friend Nancy invited several homeschooling moms in our ward out to lunch. Dessert was a beautiful piece of cheesecake topped with several large fresh strawberries. I love strawberries, and without thinking, picked one up and bit into it. It was only after I had finished it that I began to consider the damage done to my braces. Everyone at the table assured me that they were fine, but I excused myself in a hurry and rushed to the bathroom and it's mirrors to find out the true story.

Hanging from each bracket was a long, stringy, red piece of strawberry. Each piece showed like neon against the clear brackets and my teeth. Gross!

Another bad thing about clear braces is the clear ties that go around each bracket. Every month they offered me smoke colored ties, which go on dingy but don't stain so much. Every month I told them that no, I wanted the perfectly clear ties. And every month when they took off the last month's ties, I had to look away so that I wouldn't see how stained they were. Usually they didn't look so bad in my mouth, but hanging there all together on the probe it was disgusting.

Even when I've been so careful those darn ties have gotten stained. I haven't given up all tomato based foods completely, or drunk tomato soup through a straw, but I promise you I haven't bitten into anything other than that strawberry for the last 2 years. Every bit of food that has come into my mouth has come in via spoon, fork, straw, or been broken by my fingers. I cannot wait to be able to just sink my teeth into something without having to think about what it will look like afterwards.

I've had a few canker sores this week from flying & spending a long weekend in the desert—dehydration seems to make my mouth more vulnerable to being irritated. So I've been using more wax than normal on my brackets.

Last night after a yummy chili dinner I was sitting here at my computer and thinking how glad I was that I'd finally remembered to put wax on a bracket in front that had been irritating me all day.

Then I realized that it wasn't wax...it was a kernel of corn from the chili, stuck shiny side up right on top of the bracket.

Funny how fast comfort can turn disgusting....