Our family got braces last week.
My daughter's wearing them, but the whole family got braces.
They've actually brought us together in ways I couldn't have predicted.
If your family has them, then you know about those first few days of adjustment.
"Hello, small teenager mouth. We're metal and wires. We're moving in right next to your teeth. We'll try not to be a bother."
Good luck!
On day one, everything was sore and she was moving slow. Answering questions was really a pain; especially the ones from little brothers.
"Does it hurt?" "Are they uncomfortable?" "Does everything taste like a fork?"
Yes, yes and yes!
Day two was worse. It was as plain as the frown on her face.
By night two, she couldn't take it anymore.
Dr. Dad was paged. You know it's bad when I seem like a viable option for getting results.
I never had braces, but I knew wax is the answer until we could get in to see the real doc.
So there we were in the bathroom. The dad and the teen. She was trying to keep her cheeks off her teeth while I tried to get the wax to stay on the braces. Neither one of us really wanted to bring up how ridiculous we looked. It was like trying to thread a needle in the dark.
I'm sure we didn't try 1,000 times. I probably only felt that way to my poor kid.
Then, finally, a chunk of the wax attached.
It wasn't comfort, but I could see relief.
"Thanks Dad."
A week before braces, I'm quite certain she wouldn't have even let me look in her mouth, much less try to get all the way to that last...molar... way.. in... the... back.
"Braces: Bringing Families Together." Dentists should think about using that.
No matter how old she gets, it's still nice to be able to make her feel better.
In this case, nice to be the knight in shining armor to the teen with the shiny smile.
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)