"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring" except and for the 13 year old boy who knew he was getting braces and a tied in headgear in two days.
I was at a holiday party last week and talking to my neighbor’s cousin who was in town from Boston. He was my age and his wife, who was somewhat younger, was wearing Invisalign and had forgotten to take it out as the hors d’oeuvres were being passed. As she excused herself for a moment I mentioned to Barry that braces had changed and he just laughed.
His ortho, Dr. Kelly, told patients right up front, before a band was put on, that he insisted on full time headgear wear, if needed. Kelly said Barry needed it.
A year earlier when he first went to Kelly, they decided to wait a year before treatment but the deal was made and money was exchanged so by the time he finally got the braces they were almost paid for. There was no going back. At the time they decided to wait a year the ortho and his mother pressured him to sign on to the treatment plan.
Barry said he really did not understand the full implications of the plan but he knew headgear was part of it but since Kelly insisted and his mother agreed, he signed. His cousin was a little older and only wore his neck brace at night or when his mother was mad at him. Barry said he obviously hated the idea, we ALL hated braces back then, but he was 12 and they were talking about something a year away so there was no panic at the time.
He knew a girl in another class that wore a neck brace to school and a guy who graduated last year had worn a high-pull all the time, school, mass, everywhere. His cousin, who lived in Vermont wore a neck brace and always bragged he only wore it when his mother complained.
Flash forward a year and Barry was 13 going on 14 and in 8th grade. Just before the Christmas break, he sat next to the girl who wore her headgear for all of 7th grade, and asked her what her orthodontic experience was like. He then uttered the dreaded words “I’m getting braces next week.”
She went on to confirm that she hated her braces and really, really hated the neck brace headgear she now only had to wear at night. She was upset that her ortho said she would have her braces off before high school and now he said she had at least another year.
Then she asked the fatal question “Who is your orthodontist?”. When Barry responded Dr. Kelly he said a look of pure venom crossed her face. It was at that moment the panic started to creep in.
It was also the first time he heard the word ‘facebow’. She explained that was the wire part and that Kelly makes it a part of your braces while other orthodontist make it removable. Apparently she saw the look on his face and said, as nicely as possible, “I’m sorry, you didn’t know that, did you? He does that to all of his new patients.”
And he hadn’t known that. As the possible reality of that began to sink in Barry said he could feel his balls shrinking back into his body as his testosterone leaked out. He started pleading with her that it wasn’t true and he wasn’t going to wear headgear, like she could do something about it. She was nice and tried to talk him back in off the ledge by saying he would get used to it and yes there were the jokes but after a while everyone gets used to seeing you in it. All lies.
Whe asked her how long she had it on it was the bitterness in her voice he remembered to this day “14 months, three days and five hours.” That was it for Barry who went home and flatly stated he was not going to wear braces, never mind headgear. His father, who worked a second job and his frugal mother who had mostly paid it off, as Barry said “did not react well to that.”
Needless to say there he was on December 26th, 1968 all but tied to the chair as the full set of braces, with facebow, were firmly affixed to his teeth. He overheard Kelly telling the assistant that Barry would never wear his headgear and “that’s why they get no choice.”
It was also the first time Barry found out about his combination headgear. His parents had warned/threatened him about misbehaving in any way. The assistants kept telling him how well he was taking it and all he could think of was moving to a leper colony, his life among normal people was now over. He said he did not leave his room, except for meals and bathroom breaks. He refused visitors but could not refuse to go to mass on Sunday. As bad as that hour in public view was, he said it was nothing like January 6 (before it became infamous) when he had to go back to school and there was nothing he could do about the straps on his head and the wire sticking out of his mouth. He wore it until August, about nine months.
Anyone who has been there, even if the headgear was removeable, knows the misery and humiliation that followed. When my headgear was tied on it was only j-hooks, albeit there were four of them, I could still drink out of a glass, I could still eat foods like apple or pizza without cutting it up. He couldn’t. On balance I had to concede, for the first time, that his braces were worse than mine. They would never do that anymore.
When his facebow finally came off, two weeks before he started high school, he said it was the first full look he had at the braces, which he wore for another two years. They had always been hidden by the inner arch. He said there is only one picture of him at the time. His brother has it and brings it out every Christmas, now to show the grandkids.
