She cries quietly as the orthodontist sits her on a stool infront if a full length mirror whilst she buckles the headgear up for the first time and explains her weartime schedule of at least twelve hours per day.
She had imagined a small night guard that she’d pop in when she got into bed not this huge contraption!
The same as when the twinblock was first installed she’s a good girl and she wears the activator religiously, even wearing it through the day on the days she works from home and fastening it in as soon as she gets in from the office on the other days wearing it through till morning only taking it out to eat and brush. It takes a bit of encouragement but she’ll even put it in when we have friends round sometimes. She can’t speak clearly with it in but despite her anxiety over the terrible lisp and the way she looks, she manages.
The twelve hour routine is a lot to put up with but the activator gets the job done. After twelve months of strapping it on every day, the orthodontist finally tells her she’s done with fixing her bite and no longer needs the activator, or the bulky twinblocks either.
Now it’s just the braces and the lip bumpers. She finds it weird being able to close her teeth together without the plastic surfaces clacking together keeping her jaws apart and actually takes a while adjusting her speech and the way she smiles.
She wears a collection of different elastics power chains and springs whilst the orthodontist adds the final touches to her smile but after just over three years, the braces are removed.
To make sure her old habits don’t come back her retainer is a twinblock appliance with a tongue crib. And the icing on the cake, her old buckle up leather headgear. The facebow is removable this time and she’s instructed to wear the plastic appliances full time for six months with the headgear only at night. Then after that it’s the plastic appliances and headgear every night plus any other time she’s comfortable with from there on. She’s upset about the crib, the blocks and the headgear because it means wearing bulky, embarrassing, lisp inducing appliances every night for the rest of her life, but I’m not complaining as I buckle her into her facebow!