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Author Topic: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!  (Read 28625 times)

Offline eddiestobbart

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #60 on: 19. July 2021, 02:44:22 AM »
So good!

Offline napacaster

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #61 on: 19. July 2021, 05:50:34 AM »
Excellent chapter!!!!

Offline bracessd

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #62 on: 19. July 2021, 17:16:59 PM »
Awesome!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #63 on: 19. July 2021, 17:24:54 PM »
If you remember, Amanda ordered quite a few braces from Mei, so still some more to come....

Offline acornjohn2001

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #64 on: 19. July 2021, 18:25:17 PM »
You are great, Sparky!!!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #65 on: 20. July 2021, 18:23:00 PM »
Chapter 36

Let me expand the story a little...



We spent a few more minutes exploring her 'non-twinblocks' together, it was a shame I didn't have my twin-blocks with me, because that would have been an amazing combination! Something for us to try another day!

"Want to try the expander?" I suggested.

"Oh, yes, that sounds like fun!". She managed to get her upper 'appliance' out fairly easily, but had a bit of difficulty with removing her lower one.

"Don't worry, you get used to how to get them out pretty quick, plus they'll ease off a bit..." I commented

I picked up the green braces box that had the 'expander' label on it, and opened it: wow, they looked quite amazing! I say 'they' because whilst I had expected to find a single upper expander plate, there were actually two, an upper expander and a lower expander.

Let's start with the upper expander... this was not your typical plastic plate with a split down the middle, with a single screw. No, this looked much more interesting! How do I describe it? Ok, so overall the plate covered much of the upper palate. At the front of it, there's a 3-way expander, expanding left, right and forwards. The front 'sub-plate' was kinda V-shaped (actually, probably more of a 'U') that fitted behind / would push forwards the 4 incisors. Behind that was a slit along the middle, with each side of the plate having another expanding screw, which would push the large molars backwards. So is that 3 expansion screws, or 5? - after all, the 3-way expander does have 3 screws.

The lower expander was more like a normal expander, but thicker, and with 3 single expansion screws: the first was in the middle, behind the incisors, and the ones on the sides were next to the rear pre-molars.

In terms of clasps, the upper one had Adams Clasps over the front premolars and the front molars, as well as having a nice thick archwire. The lower was similar, with 4 Adams Clasps, but instead of having a labial wire, the plastic came over her lower incisors.

Knowing that Amanda would probably not be wearing these out out in public, Mei had managed to make the plastic plates such that each part was a different colour! So, as I said, an amazing pair of expanders. Did I say they felt pretty thick too? No I didn't: the top one is a lot thicker than my expander (I don't have a lower expander), so I had no doubt that Amanda would have a much stronger lisp with these expanders than with the retainers or brackets.

I passed the expanders to Amanda, who spent a moment looking at them: I think she was as impressed with the quality and colourfulness as I was.

"They are quite thick, aren't they!" said Amanda, not as a question, but phrased more like she was thinking 'goody, goody!'. Looking once more into the mirror, she inserted the top one into her mouth, and pushed it upwards, seating it with a pleasing click.

"Oh my, itssth thso sssthick!" she said with a strong lisp. She put the lower expander in her mouth, and pushed it down into place.

"I cang hargly ththsssthpeak!" said Amanda. Well, it sounded something like that!

"Hey, can I have a look at it in your mouth?" I asked. She leaned back on the bed, with her mouth wide, so I could look inside: it looked quite amazing. Then I ran my finger over the archwire that went over her top front teeth. Next, I leaned over, and once again kissed her, slipping my tongue into her mouth. I was able to feel the plastic, as well as the two slits just behind her front teeth. Even better was the slit in the middle at the bottom, which of course was obvious because the plastic came over her teeth.

We were kissing when the dorbell went.... ah, good, my earlier planning looks like it has worked! "that must be our food, I think you need to go and get it" I suggested. "But make sure you leave your braces in...". Amanda gave me a really dirty look, as if to say 'you are kidding, aren't you?'. "Go on, don't keep the man or lady waiting!".

She went to the door entry intercom, and pressed the button. "Hello?" she said.

"Hi, it's your 'Deliver2me' order!"

"Oh, yeth, come thtraight up, top floor, itth the only flat up here" replied Amanda with a really nice lisp. I could tell from her big smile that, scary as it was, Amanda had enjoyed that. Of course, the next bit would be even more exciting for her: a couple of minutes later the doorbell rang. I made sure I was there to watch what happened, as well as to help, if a second pair of hands was needed for the food.

Amanda opened the door: it was a deliveryman, in his early 20's I guessed.

"Amanda Spencer?" he asked.

"Yeths, that'sth me, I'm Amanda Thspenenther" she replied. I was pleasantly surprised at Amanda, I had expected that she'd keep her mouth closed and just nod.

The deliveryman put his warm-bag on the floor, opened it up, and took out our food, passing it to Amanda, who smiled at him, letting him see her braces. "Thsank you thso much!" she added. I could see the slight smile of the delivery guys face: it wasn't often you saw a woman in her late 20's with braces and such a lisp!

"Oh my god, that waths stho sthcary!!" she said, "But thsuch fun!! Come on, let'sth have thisth before it getths cold"

We put some mats onto the dining table, which we put the foil trays on, removing their lids. "What is there to drink?" I asked

"There'th sthome sthwawbewwy miwlk in the frwidge" she replied, "and there'th thsome beer". I think she was enjoying speaking with a lisp as much as I was enjoying listening to it! Rather than the beer, I chose the strawberry flavoured milk for a change.

"So, you gonna try eating with your expander in your mouth?" I asked Amanda

"I thfink I'll trwy to thsee what itsth like..." said Amanda with difficulty. I smiled, because I  know how hard it is to eat with ANY sort of removable braces in your mouth: I did it all the time, and it took me several weeks to be good at it, despite the fact that the plates of my fake brackets were actually quite thin, and didn't cover all of my palate. Amanda was doing this for the first time, her plates were a lot thicker and covered much more of her palate, so filled her mouth so much more.

"Start with small amounts" I suggested, "That should make it a bit easier for you". She started with a small forkful of noodles: she got it into her mouth ok, but I could instantly see that she was struggling.

"That wasth stho difficulwt" she commented

"Yeah, it takes a while for your brain to get used to how to use your tongue again, because you don't have the normal amount of space in your mouth. My mouth feels huge when I take mine out, and the plastic on these is pretty thin. I bet you have half of it still stuck in your cheeks, held there by the clasps!". I could see her tongue probing the sides of her cheeks, and a smile came to her face.

"How doeths it do that?" she asked with a smile. She tried a couple more mouthfuls. "I'm taking them out, I need to eat before the food awll getsth cold!". I watched carefully as she removed her lower and upper expanders, and put them onto a mat on the table. I could see food - probably noodles - stuck in the gaps between the plastic, plus a bit on the clasps.

"Danny, I must say that I am so impressed that you manage to eat so well with your braces in. I know you've worn them a while now, but when I first met you, you'd only been wearing them about 3 weeks, and I don't remember you having problems eating"

"I can tell you that I WAS having problems, I was just being very careful not to show it! But mine are nowhere as thick as those are. Next time, try eating with something a bit more 'normal', you'll find it a bit easier!"

As we ate, we chatted about the braces she had tried in so far. "Which are your favourites so far, then?" I asked her

"They are all nice, but in different ways. These plates are so thick they make it so hard to speak and eat, which is fun. The hawley retainers are really nice and seem quite easy to wear, and only give me a bit of a lisp. But those 'not twin-blocks', having all that smooth plastic in my mouth felt absolutely amazing! And the brackets... well, I just love the look of them, they seem to look so natural on my teeth, but I also love the awkwardness and discomfort of the brackets on my lips and cheeks. "

"Yes, the brackets do tend to dig in a bit, don't they? Wearing the headgear helps to hold your lips and cheeks off the brackets a bit. But your cheeks soon get used to the brackets if you wear them a lot. So, did you enjoy answering the door in your expanders? I was going to give you them after the brackets, but thought that I might be able to time things so you'd be in them when the food arrived... that's why I have you the 'not-twinblocks' after the brackets!"

"You mean you actually *planned* that? You... you.... Oh, Danny, I hate you.... but I love you! It was rather nice though: I was both scared and excited at the same time!"

"Just wait till you wear your braces and headgear out in public the first time!". Amanda was silent for a moment, taking in the implications of my comment, then she smiled.

"My gut instinct is to say 'No Way!', but yeah, that's gonna be fun. What was it like for you, the first time you wore your headgear in public?"

I thought back for a moment... I remembered being in the first braces shop with Suki(*), where I had tried in both facebows and my interlandi, then had taken out my lower facebow, and tried my neck strap, then added my high-pull to make it into 'combi headgear'... and had been persuaded to leave it like that when we left the shop, and went to a bar, before having dinner. It was quite scary, but was made a lot easier because, apart from the people I'd met on my course, I knew noone.

(* a quick explanation: in the first part of this story [see the 'club' story area], over in Asia, I had bought braces from two different braces shops, Mei's shop was the other shop. Suki was an Asian girl - who wore fake braces - that was on the training course I was giving)

"Yeah, it's quite scary, but I think it was a lot easier for me because I didn't really know anyone over in Asia, so to be honest, if someone had started to stare at me or laugh at me, it wouldn't really have worried me that much.". I spent a few minutes telling Amanda a few more of the details of my Asian trip, especially how I felt when I had collected my braces.

"It a way, it was easier for me, because I was collected them one or two at a time. Yours have arrived in one big boxful!"

"So, what have we got left to try then?" she asked as we continued eating.

"Well, I seem to remember you wanted a sort of activator, with a B-shaped wire on the top..."

"Ah, yes, that's going to be fun to try...."

"Then there should be some sort of top plate so you can wear the facemask... and the facemask of course. Then there should be some sort of really thin plates..."

"Ah, yes, I'd forgotten those. I need to get used to those, if I want to wear them at work and out in the evenings! So what is in there for you then?"

"Well, there should be my new brackets, my 'spares' that will replace the broken ones. Oh, there's some J-hooks too"

"J-hooks should be interesting, they don't seem to use them any more, do they?"

"Well, you certainly don't see many pictures of them, do you. I guess they probably use elastics and other things instead."

"Hey, any idea what Mei has put in our 'gifts'?"

"No, absolutely no idea. Knowing Mei, I'm sure we'll like them.". We continued chatting as we ate our dinner. For pudding, we had ordered their 'selection of cold sweets', which contained a nice mix of a couple of the small egg-tarts, and some of that almond jelly, some lychees, and some lovely sticky banana pieces in a sticky sweet batter. I decided to give in, and removed my braces before attacking them!


Offline retained

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #66 on: 20. July 2021, 20:26:22 PM »
Excellent. Really like the amount of detail.
Looking forward to her going out with them in for the first time. And then, perhaps always keeping one or other of them in.

The descriptions certainly remind me of when I got my first ones and then others later. So self-conscious, especially of speaking, but so good.
I had made up my mind that right from the start once I had plates I would put them in straight away and keep them in, only taking them out for cleaning or swapping to different ones. I did manage that, and what a great feeling, almost 'relying' on wearing them for speaking and eating. I was a bit worried that the novelty would wear off but it didnt.

Offline napacaster

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #67 on: 21. July 2021, 06:29:08 AM »
All the details of the appliances are well written. Very descriptive, without going on too long, so we can get back to the wearing of the devices.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #68 on: 26. July 2021, 00:11:40 AM »
Chapter 37

More?



After dinner, we both cleaned up our respective braces, and brought all the braces back into the living room.

"So, you have your activator, facemask and plate, and the 'thin plates'... which do you want to go for?

"Hmmm, let me have my activator". Amanda's activator was in the deeper braces box (so the same as a normal retainer box, but about 50% deeper). I opened it and took it out, letting us both see it. It was as you would expect an activator to be: U-shaped, pretty chunky, with plastic between the teeth, and molar clasps to hold it in place. At the front, the top had a B-shaped wire to fit around the margins of her top front incisors, with a sort of lip-bumper at the bottom, in the form of a small zig-zagged wire, with the wire coming out of the middle of the activator just behind the canines. The plastic was coloured dark blue.

In many ways, it was probably the most extreme of the braces so far, and I didn't imagine Amanda would ever wear it out in public (which of course meant that I might need to work on a devious plan, to get her to wear it out in public!)

Amanda lined up the mirror, and put the activator into her mouth, pushing it up onto her top teeth, allowing the clasps to hold it in place. She closed her mouth and smiled, letting me see it in her mouth. The activator held her teeth apart by a couple of millimetres, with the B-shaped clasps on her top teeth fitting quite nicely, and looking interestingly different. And the lower lip bumper, even though it was set to be quite close to her lower jaw, visibly pushed her lower lip forwards.

"How on earf are you fupposed to talk wiv thif in your mouf?" said Amanda with a lot of difficulty: I'm afraid that I did laugh at her attempt to speak with it in her mouth. I watched as she ran her tongue around her mouth (I clearly couldn't see her tongue directly, but I could see the muscles under her chin moving)

"Wanna twy kiththing me?" she asked. The first thing I noticed was her lower lip, pushed slightly forward my the lower lip-bumper. I slipped my tongee between her lips: the most obvious thing I felt was her lip-bumper, at the bottom. Then my tongue reached the plastic that was holding her jaws slightly apart. Finally, I got to the B-shaped wire at the top, which didn't feel as obvious as a normal labial wire, as it was quite close to Amanda's gum-line.

So whilst the appliance looked good, and probably felt rather nice to wear, from a kissing perspective, it wasn't actually all that exciting. Well, except for the lip-bumper!

"You ready to try  the next ones yet?" I asked

"Give me a bit longer" said Amanda (heck, I can't work out how to type the sort of lisp that an activator gives you, I'm sure your imagination will do it for you though!)

While Amanda 'played' with her activator, I found my J-hooks. In concept, it's similar to a high-pull, but without the force modules, and the material extended to come down to the cheek, and at the end it's doubled back, with a space to put the j-hooks in: this bit lines up the j-hook & holds it in place. Further up the material is a hook, and you put an elastic between that and the top of the j-hook. Under the material is a pad, to make it a bit more comfortable on the cheek. The j-hook itself is, of course, like a thick metal wire, shaped like a fish hook: the top has a simple 180 degree bend in it (similar to a facebow), the other end is a lot thinner, and has a loop with a slight opening on it, which you hook over the archwire (or the hooks on the archwire, if you have them).


I put the bits together: Mei had included a bag of elastics specifically to go with it, which made it quite easy.

So, I borrowed the mirror, and put the headgear bit over my head: that was the easy bit. However, it took several attempts to successfully hook the j-hooks to my archwire. I'm sure once I've done it a few times, it will be much easier.

The elastics that Mei had included didn't actually apply much pressure, and it was surprisingly confortable to wear: unlike a facebow, there was no thick welded bit that goes between the lips, just the pair of thick wires going between my lips.

Next, I went over to Amanda (who was still 'investigating' her activator) and tried giving her a simple kiss on the lips: it was so easy to do! Finally, Amanda opened her mouth, and after a little tugging, got her activator out.

"You like that activator, don't you?" I commented.

"Yes, it's surprisingly nice... but let's have a kiss without it...". With my J-hooks still connected to my upper archwire, we kissed: as she kissed me, Amanda ran her hand over my headgear and the J-hooks.

"I think you should try on your facemask" I suggested when we ended the kiss.

"Oh, yes please! So what sort of facemask do I have there?" she asked me. There were actually two facemasks, so I grabbed the plastic bag containing the first facemask: it was the sort that has a chin-cup, with thick wires to the side of it (so maybe 5 cm apart) that go vertically, then at the nose, the wires come together, until they are about 1 cm apart... at the top there's a plastic clip, that connects to a strap, which has hooks at the end (similar to the hooks that hold the elastics on my J-hooks) that a strap hooks onto. As I opened the plastic packet, I noticed a note inside. "Hey, I came across this facemask hiding in our storeroom - I don't remember you having one like this, so thought you might like to try it! - Mei"

The facemask was in pieces, so I clipped the plastic chin-cup into the bottom of the wire bit, then fitted the top end of wire bit (where it's narrow) into the top strap, and passed it to Amanda, then got a couple of elastics from the bag that Mei had also included in the plastic bag of the facemask, and passed those to Amanda too.

"So what brace do I I use this with?" asked Amanda.

"Ah, sorry, yes....." I quickly found the box that said 'for facemask' on it, and passed it over. Amanda opened it, and unwrapped the brace: it was very similar to the one she had made me for my facemask: very minimal. Amanda had played with my facemask plate, so knew what to do: she hooked the two elastics to it, and put it into her mouth, then looking in the mirror, she put the facemask up to her face I then took the elastic strap with hooks at the end, and clipped it to the top strap on one side, pulled it around her head, and tried to clip it to the other side of the top strap, but it was really far too tight. So, having removed it, I adjusted it, and tried again: this time is seemed to be about right.

Next, Amanda stretched the two elastics from her mouth onto a couple of the pins on the 'bar' that goes across the front. I quickly realised that the elastics were pushing her top lip up: the bar needed to be adjusted down a bit. I noticed the small adjusting tool in the corner of the bag, so took it out, and used it to adjust the bar down a bit for her.

Whilst I had seen myself with a facemask in the mirror, and had seen Amanda trying my facemask on, this was the first time I had seen someone else properly wearing a facemask - and besides, this one was different from mine.

"It suits you!" I commented, "There's another facemask here when you're ready to try it. I opened the bag that contained the rather more normal facemask: it was the type with a heavy, and slightly bent, square-section rod down the front of the face. It too would need to be adjusted, so that the chin-cup, forehead pad, and the metal bar in the middle would be in the right places.

"Yes, it is rather nice" replied Amanda, "and the brace doesn't seem to affect my speech that much... nice!". As she talked, she put her hand to the top part of the facemask, feeling the top of the two vertical wires, and the strap across her forehead. Then she moved it down, following where the thick wires diverged as they came past her nose, briefly running over the horizontal bar where the elastics were connected, then finally, her hand felt the chin-pad.

After looking at herself a bit more, and feeling the facemask again, she unhooked the elastics, pulled the chin-cup outwards, allowing her to lift the facemask up and off her head. "I guess that one needs to be adjusted, to fit me..."

"Sure, let me do it." I put the facemask to her face: the chin-cup and forehead pad were clearly too close together, so I used the small Allen key to adjust it more sensibly, then held it to her face once again. "Hook the elastics on..." I said. Once she had done that, I adjusted the metal bar that went across the front, so that the elastics were comfortably between her lips. One again, I watched her as she looked in the mirror, and used her hand to feel the facemask.

I picked up the other facemask - the first one - and put it on myself: like my own facemask (the one with wires that go around the face) it had an elastic strap around the head, which held it in place, without needing any elastics connected to my braces. I borrowed the mirror from Amanda, and took a look at myself - yes, it looked good: I was going to have to borrow this from Amanda, and wear it out in public sometime! The question would be whether Amanda would ever be brave enough to try wearing a facemask - or headgear for that matter - out in public? I would just have to make sure it happened sometime!

"Not much left" I said to Amanda, "just your minimal plates and the 'presents'". While Amanda continued feeling her facemask, I got out the last (unwrapped) braces box, that simply said 'thin plates' on it, opened it, then unfolded the tissue to reveal Amanda's two minimal plates, one upper and one lower. They were both made from clear acrylic, and were amazingly thin, and the only wires were c-clips that would go around her rear molars. The top plate was large, to completely cover her palate, the lower one was quite delicate, like a thin retainer without the labial wire or clasps.

"They look nice!" said Amanda when I showed them to her, "I can't wait to try them...". She unhooked her elastics from the facemask, which she passed to me, then she removed her facemask plate, which she also passed to me, then took the two clear plates from my other hand. As the plates only had simple clasps at the reat, they fitted into her mouth silently. I could see the look of joy on her face as she felt the plates with her tongue.

"Mmmm, lovely" she said in an almost perfectly clear voice.

"Come on, let me have a look...." I asked. She opened her mouth, and tilted her head back: as I knew what I was looking for, the plate was reasonably obvious, but I suspected that most people would never notice it. With her head down, I looked for her bottom plate, but it was hidden by her tongue. "Move your tongue over a bit" I asked. When she did so, I could just manage to spot the plate, but I very much doubted that a normal person, unaware she had it in her mouth, would ever see it. The clasps around her rear molars were so far back, that they were pretty much impossible to see.

Whilst I hadn't even attempted to kiss her with her facemasks on, this time I leant towards her, and we kissed. My tongue quickly found the plastic of her upper plate, but it was clearly a lot thinner than the plates of her retainers or her brackets. The lower plate felt equally thin. As before, it was obvious that I was the one getting the most joy from this kiss, as my tongue could feel the lovely smooth plastic inside her mouth, yet the inside her mouth could not feel my tongue!

After we finished the kiss, Amanda tried talking with them in: she had a very slight lisp, that I was sure would disappear very quickly.

Offline eddiestobbart

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #69 on: 26. July 2021, 03:09:37 AM »
Thankyou for this great instalment. Can't wait to see what's in the "present" box!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #70 on: 26. July 2021, 17:33:11 PM »
Can't wait to see what's in the "present" box!

Ah, that's something for the 'future', but they will be things that have been talked about elsewhere, in the "past".

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #71 on: 26. July 2021, 22:44:16 PM »
Just a short chapter tonight!


Chapter 38

The presents



So, all that were left, that Amanda (and I) hadn't tried on were the two braces boxes that were wrapped in colourful paper. One had a label saying "Amanda", the other had a label saying Danny. I passed Amanda her 'present', and watched as she upwrapped it, then opened the box: in the top was a piece of folded paper that said:

"A little something to go with your brackets, I'm sure you'll enjoy them - blue is for the top. Mei". She upwrapped the tissue paper to find a rather nice pair of simple lip-bumpers. They were both made from a zig-zagging bit of wire, but unlike the lip-bumper attached to her activator, which had zig-zags of about 1cm, these were about half that size, and covered in clear blue or green acrylic. I passed her her brackets, and she fitted the blue lip-bumper to her top brackets, and the green one to the bottom brackets: they both fitted perfectly, and were about 5 mm in front of the brackets. When she put her brackets into her mouth, they noticeably pushed both of her lips outwards, which looked a bit strange.

"Go on, open yours!" she said in a bit of a distorted way. Amanda watched as I removed the wrapping from my box, and opened it. Again, there was a small folded note from Mei: "A little something to go with your new brackets: put your brackets in your mouth, then fit this over the top. Mei". I was intrigued to see what my present was. I opened the tissue to find what I quickly worked out was a red plastic bite-plate: a U-shaped appliance with lots of plastic at the front, and some large open-ended clasps that would hopefully bend out to fit over my brackets. I explained what it was to Amanda.

"Oh, nice!" she commented.

I found my - new - braces, and could see that this would sit perfectly on top of my top fake brackets. "Wow, Mei is amazing....".

I took out my current fake brackets, and put them onto the table, then put the top (new) brackets into my mouth - that was the easy bit. Next, using the mirror, I put the bite-plate into my mouth: the large clasps stopped it popping into place (they clashed with the brackets and tubes), so I had to carefully pull the large clasps outwards, and over my brackets: at that point it fitted perfectly.

So now, instead of having a fairly thin plate in the top of my mouth - one that I could talk with just fine - I now had a huge lump of plastic just behind my top teeth. Mei had made it from clear red plastic, and it was clearly visible, sticking down about 2mm below my incisors.

I spent a moment feeling around the extra plastic at the side and front of my mouth... the bite plate fitted perfectly on top of my main plate, and the front felt just huge!

"Tho, whak do you think of my bikeplake?" I asked Amanda, with a terrible lithp.

"It lookth pwetty extweem!" she replied, also with a substantial lithp. We spent a few moments letting each other examine our braces, then we kissed for a while.

As we finished kissing, I spotted the time on the wall-clock: it was nealy 10pm.

"Tho" I asked, "goo you like your ngew bwatheth?"

"Yeth, I do..." she replied. I decided to take my new brackets with bite plate out of my mouth, so I could speak more easily. When Amanda saw what I was doing, she did the same. The table was full of braces and headgear..

"Which is your favourite then?"

"Oh, that's unfair, there's so many to choose from. Tell you what though, I do like the thin plates, once I can speak ok with them in, I'm gonna have to wear them to work"

"Or maybe to court?".

Amanda smiled: "Yes, I guess I'll have to try that too!"

"Want a hand putting them away?"

"Actually, no, if you don't mind, I'd like to do that myself, so I can look at them again as I do so". That sounded very reasonable to me. She leaned over, and picked up her thin plates, and put them back into her mouth.

"I'll put my braces back into their boxes, so they don't confused with yours, but I'll leave them here for the moment" I said. "So, what's the plans for tomorrow?"

"Ah, yes, our 'end of short break from each other' meal out. It's all booked, come opver to Chambers when you're ready, there's no rush, no need to dress up. We'll go for a drink, then off to the restaurant.... you'll find out about them tomorrow."

Amanda got up and walked to the kitchen, and put on the kettle. "Fancy a hot drink?" she asked, "I don't know about you, but all this evening's braces excitement has made me a bit dry!"



Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #72 on: 28. July 2021, 20:06:10 PM »
Chapter 39

A Dark Knight



Our relationship continued on strongly over the next few weeks. As well as attending a couple of formal dinners with Amanda, we went to see a play at the theatre, visited the cinema, saw a stage show in central London, and went to "the 99 Club" in Leicester Square, which is a comedy club.

We've been having a lot of fun wearing various braces when together at home. Amanda wore her thin plates pretty much all the time (except at work) for 3 weeks, during which time she got sufficiently used to them that her lisp was 99% undetectable. However, it was taking longer for her to get used to eating with them.

One thing she has noticed - which I had noticed when I first got my braces, but had completely forgotten about - is that they expand a tiny bit when you drink something hot, and contract a tiny bit when you eat something cold, like ice cream. The cold isn't as noticeable, but the slight expansion when drinking coffee puts a tiny bit of pressure onto the teeth. It's a small thing, but is one of the fun effects of wearing removable braces.

I got her to wear her brackets out in public one weekend, when we went shopping over at Brent Cross (so it was very unlikely she'd meet anyone she knew), but I've not persuaded her to wear her headgear of facemask in public - yet!

It was on the Friday of the fourth week into our 3-month contract that I went out without Amanda, but with a mate of mine, to see a rock band at Wembley Arena. We had booked the tickets quite some time ago, when Amanda and I had just started going out. 'Darkest Knights' was one of my favourite bands, and it had been a pleasant surprise when we managed to get a couple of tickets: the Saturday gig had quickly sold out, leaving tickets for just the Thursday and Friday: we got tickets for the Friday.

With Wembley Arena not being too far from us, we were both able to leave work at our normal time, go home to change, and still get up to Wembley in plenty of time for a quick drink at a local pub, and still get to the gig ok. As expected, there were a lot of people around, but we managed to get in without any problems.

The gig was a really great gig, they played all their big hits, and a few others too. Plus there was a little bit of 'excitement' that happened part-way through the gig, that I was sure Amanda would be interested to hear about.

"How was your 'Darkest Whatsits' concert?" asked Amanda when I got to her place, later that evening.

"Darkest Knights" I said. "But you'll never guess who was there..."

"No... go on..." replied Amanda

"Remember Jenny, from CJD? It seems she has a new boyfriend...."

"Oh, you saw her in the crowd?"

"No, she was on stage.... So about six songs into Darkest Knight's set, Jenny walks onto the stage with her boyfriend, introduces herself, and after a bit of fun theatrics, gets the band to sing 'happy birthday' to him! Then a couple of songs later, she's changed from the jeans and t-shirt she was in, to a short white girl-band sort of stage costume, high heels, pink bow in her hair..... and a FACEBOW! ... then proceeds to play a couple of songs with Darkest Knights..... and I don't mean 'girl band style' stuff, she was playing full-on rock with the rest of the band. She's amazingly good!"

"Well, I've only met her on 3 or 4 occasions, but yeah, I could imagine her doing something crazy like that! Good on her! And I bet you enjoyed seeing her in headgear?"

"Of course! You know, when I met her that lunchtime, I spotted that she had rather crooked teeth, so maybe she got braces, and the headgear is actually for real? I mean, why would she even consider wearing it if it wasn't..... unless she's.... 'one of us'?"

"Let me look at her social media, might give us a hint...." said Amanda, quickly using her phone to search on Twitter. "Bloody hell! Look at this..." she added, showing me a couple of pictures of Jenny with closeups of her braces and headgear. "Let me get my laptop out...". Amanda was clearly as keen as I was to look at the pictures of Jenny in braces and headgear.

It didn't take us long to realise that Jenny was clearly no longer 'in hiding', and knew how to use social media to good effect, as there were quite a few pictures of her 'flaunting' her braces and her headgear, and her fans loved it all! There were also pictures of her with her new hair-style. "Ah, yes, I thought something looked different about her tonight... that new hairstyle really suits her!" I commented to Amanda. Having seen Jenny's own social media pictures, we found a load of other pictures taken recently by a few of her fans - it seems she like to organise 'meet-ups' with small numbers of her fans. Then we found a few 'professional' pictures, showing her apparently 'at work', some of which had her in her headgear.

"She doesn't seem to be scared to wear her headgear, does she?" commented Amanda, "it does start to make you wonder if she's like us...."

"Hey, you got her phone number? You ought to text her, tell her that I enjoyed what she did at the gig tonight" I said, changing the topic slightly.

"I have actually.... you really want me to?"

"Why not, I bet she'd appreciate hearing from someone who saw it. Do you think she'll remember us?".

"There's only one way to find out". Amanda got her phone out, and started to write a text: 'Hi Jenny, my boyfriend Danny saw you at the Darkest Knights concert tonight, says he enjoyed your bit of theatrics, and loved your playing with DK. Amanda (copyright lawyer)'... and hit 'send'.

About 5 minutes later she had a reply "Hi Amanda! So lovely to hear from you again! And so amazing that Danny was there! Tell him thanks for his comments: it's been a really fun evening, and I don't think Ben's gonna forget tonight - DK are one of his favourite bands, and we both chatted to them for ages before they played! And playing with them was absolutely amazing!!!"

Over the next 30 minutes, we exchanged a few texts: it seems that it was Ben's birthday weekend (Ben is her boyfriend), and Jenny had got in touch with Darkest Knights, and managed to set up the whole thing. She'd played the same two songs with the band the previous night, but wearing jeans and a t-shirt: the costume she wore tonight was a surprise for everyone, the band included!

I asked about the music style, Jenny replied "I've been greatly inspired by Ben, and discovered that I really love playing rock stuff.... some of CJD's new stuff will be a bit rockier, and will probably surprise some of our fans"

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #73 on: 30. July 2021, 22:56:43 PM »
Chapter 40

HG in public



This week, Amanda wore her upper 'thin plate' to work for the first time. She's been wearing both her 'thin plates' at home almost all the time, and sleeping in them too (as well as wearing various of her other braces at various times!!), so her mouth has got quite used to them. Speaking hasn't been an issue, she only had a tiny lisp with the plates to start with, and that disappeared within about a week. It was eating with them in that she found harder. So last week, she tried seeing how things went if she just wore her top plate: she found that a LOT easier... she could eat pretty ok with it in, it seemed that having the lower plate in at the same time is what was making things difficult.

So far, no one has commented about her voice sounding at all different, so what she's decided to do is to continue to wear her upper plate all the time, and add her lower plate as soon as she leaves work (ok, so occasionally she wears some other braces 'for fun', but apart from that, she wears her plates), so that includes eating at home... it's a slow process, but she's getting better.

Then, last night, with both her plates in her mouth, we went out for a meal, and she managed to eat the meal without any real problems, so good progress.

I will confess that I definitely approve of Amanda wearing her plates, if only because I really love their smoothness when we are kissing...

All of this doesn't mean that she doesn't wear her other braces... not at all, it's just that she now has SOMETHING in her mouth pretty much all the time.

It took some doing, but I FINALLY managed to persuade Amanda to come out in public with her headgear at the weekend! With her fake brackets in her mouth, we drove over to Alexander Palace, and parked. In the car park, she fitted her top facebow, along with a high-pull headgear: I'm not 100% sure who was more excited, Amanda or me, because she looked really good in it - a red strap in her red hair.. She had wanted to just wear a cervical headgear, but I reminded her that part the reason for doing it was to be actually seen (albeit hopefully NOT by someone you know!), and the high-pull would be a bit more visible.

It was clear that she was VERY nervous as we got out of the car, so I took her hand, as we started to walk in the park. It was interesting to NOT be the person actually wearing the headgear, which made it a lot easier for me to spot anyone who took a look at Amanda. As I had got used to, most people's attention was elsewhere, but occasionally someone would lokk, do a double-take, and take a second look.

We had got to a cross-junction between 2 paths, where there were a couple of seats, and I got Amanda to sit down with me... the idea was that, if we were static, and others were walking or cycling past, they might spot us more easily. Of course, when i say 'us', I really mean Amanda! We sat there for about 10 minutes, during which time 4 cyclists and 2 couple walking passed by... of which 1 of the non-cyclists looked straight at Amanda for a second or two.... and that was all. A bit of an anti-climax really.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Story: Asian Braces 2 - Back in London!
« Reply #74 on: 31. July 2021, 20:03:09 PM »
Chapter 41

Sunday at the zoo



So, it's a couple of weeks later... I had suggested to Amanda a few days ago that we could take a trip to London Zoo today. She liked the idea, so, late morning, we caught the tube to Regents Park. We had found there were a couple of places to eat nearby, so had an early lunch, then walked through Regents Park to the Zoo: our plan was to spend the afternoon having a relaxing look around. We got to the zoo around 1:15, giving us plenty of time to walk around before the place closed at 6pm.

I should also add in here, because it does become relevant later, that both Amanda and I were wearing fake braces. I always wore my brackets anyway, and Amanda wears her plates most of the time, but I'd persuaded Amanda that she was pretty unlikely to bump into anyone she knew at the zoo, so why not wear one of her sets of fake braces: she had decided to wear her retainers.

We started at "Gorilla Kingdom" where there were a variety of apes, large and tiny. After that, we saw the Tigers, and then went into the reptile house. From there, there was a tunnel under the road which lead to "Into Africa", where of course we saw giraffes, zebras etc. From there we saw the lemurs, the sloths, and next it was the meerkats. Of course, for us English, meerkats have become very popular, as a result of the use of meerkats in a long running set of car insurance adverts.

As you might expect, there were quite a few people looking at the Meerkats... after all, they ARE rather cute! Amanda and I were talking about them.

"Hey, look over there, behind that tree..." said Amanda with a very slight lisp caused by her retainers. Whilst Amanda wore her plate most of the time, and had worn her various braces quite a bit at home, she was still not 100% used to them, so still had a slight lisp - and to be honest, it was rather cute!

"Ah, yes... very cute..." I replied. We chatted about the meerkats for a bit. Then a familiar face appeared next to Amanda.

"Hey, Amanda, it IS you! I thought I recognised your voice!". Amanda turned to face her.

"Jenny?..... what are you doing here?" replied Amanda

"Well, probably the same as you are.... looking at the meerkats! And hello there, Danny isn't it?". It was, of course, Jenny, from CJD, who I had met one lunchtime with Amanda, the first week we were going out. I was a bit confused, because I thought she'd had a major haircut - she certainly had shorter hair when I'd seen her onstage at the Darkest Knights gig a few weeks ago - she now had long hair that looks pretty similar to what I'd seen when I first met her.

"Hi Jenny!... yes, well remembered. You here alone?"

"No, I'm with my boyfriend, Ben... Ben, this is Amanda, and her boyfriend Danny.". Jenny then explained to Ben that Amanda was her copyright lawyer, and how she had met me over lunch. As she spoke, I spotted that Jenny now had metal brackets on her teeth. Jenny turned to Ben: "Ben, remember I was texting on the way home after the Darkest Knights gig - well that was Amanda, telling me that Danny had just seen us at the gig"

"Hi Ben.... yeah, I was in the crowd at the Darkest Knights gig, so I only saw you at a bit of a distance."

"You were there? That was a crazy but amazing night! Jenny told me I was getting a birthday treat... she took me up to Wembley, and I saw the banners, and assumed she had got some tickets to the gig. No, that wasn't enough for Jenny, she had wrangled back-stage passes, and I got to meet the band before they went on stage. I assumed we'd just be watching them from the side of the stage, but the next thing I knew was she was dragging me onto the middle of the stage, and got the band and the crowd to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me... well, I guess you know the rest!"

"Yeah, that was quite some theatrics you did there, Jenny! By the way, I loved the outfit you wore when you came on to play!"

"The band didn't know I was planning on doing that" explained Jenny with a big smile, as we walked out of the meerkat section. "I'd actually gone up the previous day, practiced with the band, and we had worked out our plans for the evening.... then I played those 2 songs with them in the evening, but I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. So on the Friday, I started off in jeans and t-shirt again, but I went and changed into one of my stage outfits before I played with them... The look on Ginger's face when he saw me was just amazing!"

"Well pink and white aren't colours you'd normally associate with Darkest Knights. Hey, were you wearing some sort of headgear too?" I asked a bit nervously. Whilst I was quite sure she was, I didn't know if it was for real, or 'just for fun'.

"That's very observant of you, Danny, yes I was.... but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, I see you are a braces wearer too. It's actually part of my treatment"

"Ok, but it's not what I'd expected to see in public, let alone onstage at a big gig!"

"Well, soon after I got the headgear, I realised that the reason people didn't want to wear it in public was the fear that people would stare at them. Now, come on, if I go out as me, I'm gonna get stared at anyway, so I thought I might as well have a bit of fun with it. Besides, maybe it will make it easier for any kids who have to wear it".

"That sounds reasonable. But Jenny, I'm confused about something else - I thought you'd had your hair cut?"

"I did, my hair is quite short now... you saw it at the gig. This is my 'Clark Kent' wig" she explained, stroking her hair, "it's similar to how my hair used to be, and it's an attempt to try and disguise myself... not really sure if it's that effective, but I think it helps"

By now we had followed the path back under the road, and were by the zoo shop, and opposite us was 'The Terrace Restaurant'. I took a look at my phone: it was just after 3:30pm.

"Hey, anyone fancy a cuppa?" I suggested.

"That's an excellent idea" replied Amanda. "Jenny, Ben, why don't you join us?"

"Sounds good to me" replied Jenny, with Ben nodding in agreement. We went in and got teas and coffees, and some scones / cakes, and found an empty table. I sat next to Amanda, and opposite Ben, which allowed Ben and I to have a chat while Amanda chatted to Jenny.

About 5 or 10 minutes later, Amanda leaned towards me, and whispered into my ear: "Hey, have you noticed that Ben keeps looking at our mouths?"

"Not especially"

"Tell you what, let me smile in a moment, then you also smile a bit later, we can have a look."

"What you two whispering about" asked Jenny, smiling.

"Oh, nothing, just boyfriend - girlfriend smalltalk" replied Amanda, smiling. I quickly looked over at Ben, and indeed, I could see him looking at Amanda's mouth.

"Don't worry, Jenny, it wasn't about you!" I said, also smiling as wide as I could whilst keeping it natural. I was, at that point, looking at Jenny, taking the chance to have a look at her braces, but out the corner of my eye, I could see Ben looking at me.

Amanda and I looked at each other again. "He was, wasn't he?" said Amanda out loud.

"Yes, he definitely was!" I replied, nodding. Jenny looked confused, and Ben looked a little guilty.

"He was what?" asked Jenny.

"Ben..." asked Amanda, loud enough that Ben and Jenny could hear, but noone else would. "Ummm, do you, by any chance... erm... like braces?". I will admit that I would not have been able to ask such a leading question like that, but heck, that's what Amanda does for her job. Ben looked a bit embarrassed, and awkward.

Things were silent for a couple of seconds, then Jenny answered for him. "Yes, he does.... and?". Of course that made both Amanda and me smile widely.

"Don't worry Ben, you aren't the only one..." I said

"What do you mean?" Ben replied, clearly feeling rather awkward.

"Well, you see..." I said fairly quietly, "It seems you have the same 'problem' that both Amanda and I do... we both like braces too!" Ben was clearly a bit confused. "The braces that Amanda and I are wearing are actually not 'real' braces at all. In fact, I suspect that the only person here with real braces is Jenny! Well, I assume they're real, Jenny?". She nodded.

"OMG, you're kidding me?" said Ben, relaxing at last. "Those are really fakes?". I put my fingers into my mouth, and pulled my upper brackets slightly off my teeth, so Ben could confirm that they were not attached to my teeth. "Wow, I'd not worked that out, they look so real! Actually, Jenny bought me some fakes recently, but I've not been brave enough to wear them out yet."

"Well, this is the first time I've worn these retainers out in public, and it is fun" admitted Amanda, "but Ben has been wearing his braces for months now". We chatted about braces for a bit.

"You know, I kinda feel left out here" said Jenny, "I seem to be the only one that doesn't have a big thing for braces, I just happen to wear real braces!"

"Did you actually get them for Ben?" asked Amanda.

"No, I didn't.... I got them fitted two days after I first met Ben. Of course, for the first couple of weeks after we met, he had no idea who I really was, he just thought I was 'Miss Normal' with braces"

"Really?" I asked

"He's a rock fan, like you, Danny, and like you, he hardly knew who CJD were. In fact, after I met Ben, I started listening to some of his sort of music, and that inspired me. You probably don't realise, but some of the new music I've been working on recently is very rock-inspired, and that was because of Ben. And I guess that's how I ended up playing on stage with Darkest Knights."

"I bet you 'appreciated' her braces when she got them though, didn't you, Ben?" I said

"I can't deny it! And when I found out that she had to wear headgear too, well that was a very pleasant bonus!". We continued chatting about braces for a while longer, as we finished our drinks and cakes, then we went back out and visited the last part of the zoo, where we saw the monkeys and the lions. As we walked, we chatted: the afternoon had become so much more enjoyable, being able to share it with Ben and Jenny.

"Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed spending the second part of the afternoon with you guys - we should get together again sometime!" commented Jenny as we all left the zoo.