Julia began fitting my back teeth with metal bands, and it was painful as she forced them over my back teeth.

“Usually I put spacers in two weeks before to make this a little less painful, but I wanted to make sure you got your treatment started in time for school, so this will probably hurt you a little,” said Julia.

I grunted a little in acknowledgment that yes, it did hurt, and a little bit of drool came out when I did.

“So these are your molar bands these are a little different than most of the molar bands that orthodontists use because I like to make sure they are adaptable to any extra oral appliances that I will use.”

I had no idea what extra oral meant but I did not like the sound of it. Julia pulled something off of the tray that looked like a spider. I couldn’t really feel it because my tongue was pulled back, but it looked way too big to fit in my mouth. I was horrified when I saw her pull out another one and fix it to my lower jaw.

“These are called palatal expanders. I put one on each jaw to help widen your mouth. It works perfectly not only to help your jaw, but also to give me room for more treatment methods later!” Julia said making me cringe from her excitement. “The one I’m using is an older model so it’s not as sleek as some of the newer ones, but I always think doing it right is more important than comfort.”

“Julia did my treatment too, and it was not fun, but my teeth look great now!” Margo said as she handed Julia something else. I felt so panicky and helpless in that chair while they filled my mouth with metal.

“I’ll put your brackets on next before I add your other two appliances, oh wait no I’m doing three today! I forgot,” Julia said laughing.

How on earth would she fit three more appliances and braces into my mouth? The brackets took forever to put on my teeth, and I swear they were way bigger than any of the brackets I had seen before. She put a thick wire in and then pulled out a bright pink thick piece of plastic.

“These are called lip bumpers. They’ll pull your lips away from your teeth and make sure that they don’t cause any crowding or mess with your braces. They usually are just supposed to push your molars back but I like them because I think they help make sure your lips don’t mess with any of the appliances and I think they’ll help a little in your case too!” Julia said sliding one in between my lip and bottom teeth.

To my horror she pulled out another one and slid it between my top teeth and lip. I couldn’t feel it yet but it looked really bulky and uncomfortable.

“Final appliance for the day!” Julia announced. “This is a herbst appliance and I’m going to use it to start moving your jaw. You’ll go through a rotation of appliances for jaw moving later, but I wanted to start you with something more comfortable for today.”

That was comfortable? I would hate to see the appliance she though was uncomfortable. She fixed the herbst appliance into my mouth.

“Alright let’s get that lip spreader out of your mouth! I’m sure your mouth is sore from being open for the past couple of hours! Now know that this is just the start of your treatment, I will add some appliances and change some stuff out in a week or so, I just wanted to ease you into the treatment to start.”

My eyes widened and welled with tears as she pulled the spreader out and I felt my appliances for the first time.

An 'enjoyable' mouthful there, for sure! That moment when the patient thinks the world has already ended, and they find that things are only just beginning...

The first thing I realized was that my lips could no longer covered my teeth. I had to purse them out to get them over the ridiculously bulky lip bumpers that “might” help my case. The next thing I noticed was the massive amount of drool that was forming because my tongue had nowhere to go with the expanders. I couldn’t decide if the lack of space in my mouth was worse than the unnatural position my jaw was now in from the herbst.

“How does it feel?” asked Julia.

“Naaa good,” I said my speech coming out garbled. Not only could my lips not fully close from the lip bumpers, I was horrified to realize that my mouth wasn’t really opening either. Trying to talk caused a huge glob of spit to form that I struggled to swallow with all of the appliances.

“I thought your speech might be a little messy,” Julia laughed. “That’s so cute!”

I wanted to cry as I felt like she was openly mocking my discomfort.

“Let’s get you a mirror so you can see your new look!”

It was honestly worse than I could imagine. My cheeks were puffed out from the herbst and the lip bumpers made my mouth look like it had been stuffed. The fact that they were hot pink made it so much worse as they were super noticeable. My tongue was so uncomfortable with the expanders and my jaw looked so awkward. I did not want to spend another second looking at myself in the mirror and I wanted her to take all of this out of my mouth.

“Caaa we jus do normal brathes?” I asked barely understandable.

“You’re a very complicated case, so unfortunately no. I want to make sure you have the most thorough treatment possible. Don’t worry you’ll learn to love it!”

My tears threatened to spill over as I struggled to swallow.

“I caaan barely talk, you haf to take thomething out,” I lisped.

“I know your speech sounds bad right now, and unfortunately expanders just give you a lisp, but people will get used to you talking like that and soon you’ll forget you ever were able to talk without a lisp.”

“I’m alwayth going to thound like thith,” I cried.

“It might get a little better especially when I switch out appliances,” she said which gave me a little bit of hope. “I bet you’re starving though so let’s get some lunch, and we can just go over proper care when we get back to the house!”

The absolute last thing I wanted to do was go out in public looking like this, but I also thought that saying no could piss her off enough to add something new to my already full mouth, so I just nodded and prepared myself to face the public.

What a mouthful of appliances!  I wouldn't mind having all that.

Julia of course picked one of the busiest restaurants to eat at. I tried to convince her to get take out, but she insisted that it would be fun to go out to eat.

I was embarrassed when I noticed the hostess’s eyes drifting to my bulging mouth as Julia asked for a table for two. I picked up the menu holding it a little closer to my face to try to hide behind it.

“This looks delicious!” Julia exclaimed. “You might want to get something soft though, your teeth are probably pretty sore.”

She was right my mouth was already throbbing for the pressure of all the appliances and I hated how unnatural my jaw felt. The waiter came to take our order and when he asked what I wanted I tried to just point at the menu to avoid him hearing my lisp.

“Oh no! Tell him what you want Abby,” Julia said. “She just got some new braces today and she needs to practice talking.”

My face flushed bright red, “Can I get the lobthter thoup?”

I slurped trying to keep all my saliva in my mouth. This had to be one of the most humiliating experiences. I thought the embarrassment was over, but every time the waiter came to check on us Abby would condescendingly force me to say something like I was a child.

When the food finally came my predicament just got worse. The herbst didn’t allow my mouth to open very wide so it was difficult to get the spoon in and once the soup was actually in my mouth it was hard to swallow it past the expanders. I felt like more of the soup landed on my shirt than anywhere else. I was so relieved when we finally left the restaurant. I was so ready to get home and be alone.

Can't wait to find out what it's going to be

what a fantastic story. can´t wait what Julia has in mind for Abby. would be awesome if i could be in the same place like Abby is

what a fantastic story. can´t wait what Julia has in mind for Abby. would be awesome if i could be in the same place like Abby is

Might also be nice to hear more about Lucy too   Abby seems like maybe she could use a friend who she can relate to now, idk. 

Sorry, not my story, not my character.  Or if you prefer one of my favorite sayings "not my circus, not my monkey."  Not that we're in anyway talking about circuses or monkeys     Anyway, I'll stop talking now.