Chapter 26
"Ladies, it's good to see you all again! I've not heard from any of you, so I'm assuming none of you have had any problems?" asked David.
4 girls with beaming metal smiles looked at David. "No, I think we've been ok. Even Dianne seems to have coped ok with all the metalwork you gave her!" commented Jenny.
"Oh, good. So, I guess the important things I need to do is see how Dianne and Linda are getting on with their treatments. But why don't we start by taking out all of your old ligatures and archwires, so you can all have a good brush and floss. Knowing Jenny, I'm sure she has encouraged you all to bring your toothbrushes along today?"
"I treated us to a set of 4 new toothbrushes, and a fresh tube of toothpaste" said Dianne, taking them out of her bag.
"Ok, well, Dianne, why don't I start with you....". Dianne got into the chair, which David reclined. Before removing the ligatures, he took a quick look at her teeth and braces. "Ok, now can I ask you to remove your headgear and lip-bumper, and pass them over to Angela?" Davis watched as Dianne took them out, her elastics too, then looked again at her teeth. "You seem to be managing to keep your teeth well cleaned, so well done..."
"I persuaded her to get herself a water-pik, like I have..." said Jenny. David deftly removed all the ligatures, and then the archwire. Clearly Angela had been warned what was about to happen, as she had line up 4 metal trays, each with one of the girls names on. She had already placed Dianne's facebow and lip-bumper into the first one, and now added her two archwires.
"There's some floss over at the sink too" said Angela, "help yourself."
"Oh, my, I'd almost forgotten how much easier it is to floss without the wire in the way!" commented Dianne, as she started to brush her teeth. Linda was next in the seat.
"Mmm, you've been cleaning yours well too. How have you managed with the two screws in your palate?"
"Oh, annoying as hell to start with, and the brackets hurt my cheeks the first week or so, but I almost forget about them now. But as Dianne just said, flossing isn't easy!" David started by removing the elastics between the buttons on Linda's two molars, and the two mini-screws. After that, he removed the yellow ligs from her teeth, finally taking out her archwires, which he passed to Angela. After she had been sat up, she got out of the seat and joined Dianne at the sink.
"You know, it's not that often I get to treat so many patients at the same time!" commented David. "Yes, I'll often have a mum or dad with two children. I even have a mum with two daughters being treated. But for together is quite rare. I mean, I can treat you individually, if you prefer..."
"That would be SOOO boring!" said Jenny. "Go on Carol, you go next...."
"Well, I'm assuming your 'treatment' has been pretty uneventful..." said David.
"Absolutely. No pain or discomfort, except for the brackets digging into my cheeks: it's that sort of thing that you forget from your earlier treatment" commented Carol.
"And, like Linda and Dianne, you are brushing well" commented David as he removed her ligs and archwires. "Ok, Jenny, your turn... I KNOW your teeth will be beatuful and clean, they always are!". Jenny got into the chair, where her ligs were removed.
"Oh, that feels nice" said Dianne, returning from giving her teeth a good floss between the teeth, and then a brush. With Dianne replacing Jenny in the chair, he proceeded to do a scan of Dianne's teeth, so he could compare it to the initial visit.
"I think we should take some pics for our fans" suggested Linda, who had just returned from flossing brushing her teeth. She got her camera from her bag, and went over to Dianne, still in the chair, being scanned. She expected Dianne to try and stop her taking pictures, but she actually said nothing, so she took a wide angle of Dianne in the chair, then got closer, then took a couple of pics of the scan on the screen.
"I guess I should let you take some close-ups, shouldn't I?" said Dianne once the scanning was done. It was interesting how Dianne's attitude to her braces had change over the past weeks: before getting them, she was very apprehensive, but now she seemed to have fully accepted them, being very chilled about pictures being taken.
The girls gathered around as David showed them all Dianne's progress on the screen: you could see slight movement of her lower teeth. "Something tells me that you've been wearing your headgear and elastics quite a bit, your lowers have been moving well. I hope you took some painkillers before you came, because I'm going to upgrade your archwires to something slightly bigger, which is likely to cause a bit of soreness"
"Oooh, yes, I remember that many months ago!" commented Jenny.
"But otherwise, keep doing what you're doing. So, are you all having matching ligatures again? If so, what colour are you going for this time?"
"Funnily enough, we talked about that on the way here." said Carol. "When we go on tour, we'll need you to give is something a bit special - in fact, we may bring in the four ladies from Northern Girls, to get their ligatures changed for the tour too. But this time we'd like to go with that blue neon colour you had last time, if you still have enough?"
Angela went and got the ligatures out. "These?" she asked.
"Yep, they're the ones!"
"That fine, we've got plenty of them!"
Dianne sat patiently as David fitted her with new archwires, and add the ligatures. No pain yet, but she remembered back to when she was a teen, and how the aching or soreness would usually take an hour to kick in.
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"Ok, Linda, cam I take a look at you now, please?". Linda got into the char, and opened her mouth, letting Jenny take some pictures. Then, David scanned Linda's teeth.
"I'm not expecting anywhere near as much movement from your teeth, but I'm hoping that those two molars have started to rotate...let's take a look... Ah, excellent, it's not a lot, but if you look carefully you can see a slight change." David refitted the same archwires to Linda's teeth, holding them in place with fresh neon blue ligatures, then, after checking that the two mini-screws were still secure in her palate, fitted the two small lengths of powerchain between them and the buttons on the inside of her teeth.
"If you want, you can come in sooner for a 5 minute appointment, and I can just change those elastic powerchains I just put in... the elastic looses its stretch fairly quickly, so changing them would help yout two molars to rotate a little quicker. Your choice... just phone reception. I can often squeeze a 5 minute appointment in the same day too."
"Ok, I'll keep that in mind. You done with me?"
"Yes, I am. Who wants to go next?"
"I will..." offered Jenny. David lay Jenny back, then scanned her teeth.
"Well, as expected, just a tiny bit of movement. To be honest, there's not a lot left to do to your teeth, so maybe between now and next time you can take a close look at your teeth to see if you're happy. If there's anything you think needs doing, then we can discuss it.... after all, from what you said last time, you're not actually desperate to get them off, are you?"
"No... something tells me I'll be done in... about 5 months, when the tour is over!". David fitted her archwires back, held in with more of the bright blue ligatures.
"Ok, Carol, just you to do! I won't bother to scan your teeth, as I'm assuming that nothing has moved."
"No, not that I have noticed."
"It's not very often that a patient goes from having retainers and straight teeth, back to having metal braces." David leaned Carol back, and re-fitted her archwires and new blue ligatures.
"Angela, would you like to take a couple of group pictures, like you did last time?" asked Linda
"Sure... You know, I love it when you guys come in, it's so much more fun than most people!"
As Linda posted the pics of them all with their new bright neon blue ligatures, Jenny asked David "So, when's your next patient due in?"
David checked the computer. "In principle, as soon as you go, they already checked in."
"So, who are they? As in age and sex?"
"Her name is Mari, and she's 16. She'll be with her mum, I guess"
"Can we wait here and surprise her? We'll go as soon as we've said 'hello'?" asked Jenny.
David smiled. He knew Jenny well, having treated her for over a year now, and knew that they would probably relax Mari, who he remembered was often a little nervous.
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