It was just after my 13th birthday. The Berlin Wall had just fallen, Sinead O'Connor was singing "Nothing compares 2 U" and everyone was wondering who really killed Laura Palmer. Myself, however, I was mainly occupied with saying goodbye to my old friends. Not many months ago my mother had finally decided to leave my father, resulting in her taking us, me and my younger brother, with her to a new town where I knew nobody.
This was also right after I had started my orthodontic treatment. I'd known for long it was coming, but it didn't scare me. A year or so with a retainer, then two years with fixed braces, and finally another year wearing a retainer. Lots of my friends wore braces, and although the retainer felt weird, and although I was later than many getting braces, I wore it as prescribed. But then, as we moved, I also had to find a new orthodontist in my new town. Which turned out to be relatively easy, as there was only one orthodontist there.
A week or so before school was about to start, I had my first appointment with him. He was an elderly man, probably well into his sixties, tall and slim, and with a moustache and a bald head that made him look a bit scare. He had been in touch with my old orthodontist, and after having checked my teeth, he said that he did not believe that a retainer was the best option by now. Instead, he said, he would fit me for fixed braces in two months or so. I was quite happy, actually, according to my old orthodontist I would not have fixed braces for another 7 or 8 months, but now I ccould start the "real" treatment almost 6 months earlier than predicted.
"But until then," he said, "you will have to wear a headgear."
To be frank, I did not know what a headgear was, and he did not seem intent on telling me either. Instead he fitted me with a device to keep my mouth open and my teeth exposed and started to do some works on my upper molars. When he was done, he called one of his secretaries, a young, pretty chubby brunette with thick glasses, and said something to her, before telling me to follow her. She took me to a room and asked me to sit down.
"OK," she said, "when you go back to the orthodontist, you will be fitted with headgear, which you will have to wear for a time. You know what a headgear is, right?"
"Something to wear on my head, I guess..."
"Yes, sort of. It is an extraoral appliance like this, and you will have to wear yours for 18-20 hours a day, at least for a couple of months."
She passed me a brochure, and on the cover there was a picture of a kid, younger than me, who had something looking like a steel wires coming out of his mouth. Actually it looked like a gag or something, which I had seen in some of the porn magazines I'd snatched from my father.
"I know," she continued, "it is not very attractive, but it is the best option for you. It is relatively commmon, although not as common as it used to be. Most kids wear them at night only, and perhaps a few hours in the evening but you will be wearing yours for an average of 18-20 hours a day, at least that is. The more you wear it, the better the result and the faster your smile will be perfect. We may also increase the hours if the results are bad. But I wouldn't suggest wearing it while eating. And not while brushing or doing sports."
I did not know what to say, but thought to myself that I was not, I repeat not, ever going to wear that device in public. Yes, I had seen a kid wearing headgear earlier, but I thought back then that he had broken his jaw or something. I browsed through the brochure and thought to myself, hell no...
When I was called back to the orthodontist, there was a device I assumed to be the headgear lying on the table. Or, actually two devices. One metal thing with two wires, one wider than the other, and a denim piece of cloth. I sat down and he immediately put the mouth spreader thing back and went to work. He took the metallic device and put the smaller set of wires into my mouth. He then took it out a couple of times, and did a few things with a plier every time it was out, before taking it out and removing the mouth spreader. He then reinserted the device and took out the piece of cloth. Then he connected it to the wider wires, took it off a couple of times, did some things I'm not sure what is, before he attached it to the wires. He said nothing before he told me to go back to the secretary.
Man, this felt weird, like I could not get my lips shut, and with a pressure on my molars and a pressure on my neck, and when I looked down, I saw the conture of something there. I went back to the secretary who took me to the same room. There she gave me a mirror. I looked awful.
"Not a pretty sight, huh?" she said. "You will get used to it. Now, I will show you how to put it in and out."
I could not utter a single word, but I followed her instructions. It was not very difficult, it was only about finding a tube on each of the two molar bands and then attaching the strap.
"Well, I think you can manage by now. You can take it out now, unless you want to keep it in, of course."
I shook my head.
"OK, she said, but remember, 18-20 hours a day, at least, and you may just as well get used to wearing it in public."
I left the office, embarrassed, with the headgear in my pocket, got on my bike and rode home.
I did a quick math in my head. 18 hours a day, seven days a week, that is 126 hours a week. Now, if I wore it continually, except for meals etc. during the weekend, that would amount to 44-45 hours or so. That would leave about 16 hours a day for the rest of the week. Now, if I put it on when I came home from school and took it off when I went out for schoold, I would just manage.
"How did it go?" my mom asked me when I got home.
"Horribly," I said, and took out the headgear.
"Djeez, do they still use those? Your aunt Mary wore that at night, I remember."
"At night only?"
"Perhaps in the afternoon too."
"Well, I said, lucky her..."
"How come?"
It just plumped out:
"I have to wear mine every second I'm at home..."
That night I put on my headgear, but couldn't sleep, so I decided I'd try it on the next morning. It hurt like hell, but I would not have to put in even more hours, and after a few days I was, well, not comfortable wearing it, but at least it did not hurt. My mother and my brother were encouraging too, and when I started school, I figured, I had actually worn it more than 18 hurs on average. But, hell no, I would not wear it to school.
At the next appointment, my orthodontist was actually quite pleased with the progress, and told me that if I kept up, I would definitely be readu for fixed braces in a month.
But there was one big obstacle coming up - a school trip destined to last for a week, with all of us sleeping in dorms. I was faced with a choice, show my headgear to everyone or not wear it at all. I chose the latter option, I was sure the progress would continue. The device was in my bag, but I never took it out, even after I found out a class mate of mine actually wore his headgear at night.
We were two classes at my school that year, and both of us went together. Now, I've never been the most popular kid, but I've neither been the least popular, and I thought this would be a great chance to get too know my class mates, which I did. But the best part of is was when I met Maria. She was in the other class, and I'm not even sure I'd taken notice of her before. It was the second last day we started talking and we kept on talking. She was a tiny, slim girl, with blonde hair in a ponytail, pearl earrings and also, when reading, she wore those kind of round steel rimmed glasses that were so popular then. And she wore braces, fixed metal braces, with rubber bands between the upper and lower jaws, two on each sidee, crossing each ther. We figured out we had the same taste in music, the same taste in movies - both of which diverged from most of our class mates - and we also despised the same people.
Maria was from a relatively wealthy family, her father being a lawyer. Howeber, she was not posh like the rest of her family, she was rather the grey mouse. She did, however, not ignore appearances. She never wore sportswear when not doing sports, and while most of the girls sported denim jeans and big sweaters, a denim shirt (you know, all buttoned up, as was fashion back then), she usually wore blouses and skirts. But the conservative appearance was an appearance only, mostly to appease her father, she said, and maybe even more, her stepmother. Her mother had died a couple of years ago, and after a period of grief her father had met a new woman whom he soon married, leaving Maria more or less to herself. Anyhow, Maria and I became a couple on that trip, and although we were only 13, it would last for quite some time.
But this created another problem. I would not let her see me wearing my headgear, and as we started to meet regularly, my compliance fell proportionally, so when I went back to the orthodontist two weeks later, he was not pleased at all.
"I see you have not worn it as much as you should."
I tried to think up an excuse, but he continued.
"This means we will not be able to fit your fixed braces today. The non-compliance has set us back, almost to where we were before we started, and for the next month I would like you to wear the headgear full time. And I think we shhould thighten it a bit."
I frowned as he adjusted my headgear.
"Should I call your mother so she knows, or will you be a big boy and make sure of it yourself?" he asked sarcastically
"Myself," I whispered.
"OK, see you in a month, and remember wearing it."
I rushed into the bathroom outside the office. What should I do? How would Maria react? My class mates? I decided to take it off anyway, but in the hallway I met the secretary.
"Where's your headgear," she asked before she saw me carrrying my bicycle helmet, you know, those old fashioned ugly heavy ones, "OK, I see, but as soon as you're finished riding that bike, put it on."
And I did, of course, I still wore it full time at home. But that was not enough, I was not as much at home, and I was supposed to wear it for even longer. Fuck it, I thought, I'll just keep on as before.
A week or so later I was at school, and I noticed Maria was not there. Remember, this was before SMS and cell phones, so after school I decided to drop by her house. Her father opened the door.
"Oh, it's you," he said. We usually met at her place, as she had her own room, whereas I had do share with my brother. "She's in her room, you keep it legal, OK?"
I went towards her room. Her door was open. I saw her sitting in her recliner, wearing a blue blouse and reading a book, with her glasses on. But I also saw the wire coming out of her mouth, and in addition to the neckstrap like the one I had, she also had a cap or something on her head. It looked like one of the devices my mother had forced my father to wear once to stop him snoring, only this was commected to the facebow too. She saw me and turned her head away. I could see the neckstrap beneath her ponytail, and I could also see two straps crossing the back of her head, one below and one above the ponytail. I smiled at her.
"Sorry, I didn't want you to see me like this. I went to the orthodontists this morning, and I've been wearing this thing at night for a time, but now he told me I should wear it 24/7," she sobbed.
I looked at her, uttering something like it is not that ugly.
"Thanks," she said ironically, "you don't know about this shit anyway. And I can't even take it off."
"You can't take it off?"
"No, my stepmother went with me today, and when he said I should wear it more, she asked how much, and although he said something like 14 hours or so, she went on asking what would be best, and ideally, he said, of course 24 hours is best. So 24 hours it is, then, she said, and told me that she also wore a headgear, and that didn't bother her. Sure... I could not say a thing, until he suggested he could wire it in, foor a week or so, so I had to get used to wearing it in public. But I don't want to. That's why I wasn't at school today."
I reached into my bag. I sometimes brought the headgear to school only to know where it was. And there it was.
"Hey, don't be sad, I've got one of those too," I said before I put it in and attached my neckstrap. She looked at me, then she smiled.
"I didn't even know you were a braceface," she said.
"Yup, and next month I'll have fixed braces too, at least if I wear this as I'm supposed to."
"OK, how much is that?"
"About exactly the same amount of hours as you," I said. "Now come on, come to school tomorrow, I'll wear mine too. We'll be the bracefacecouple!"
That day we kissed for the first time. Kissing in headgear is weird...
The next day I did not take out the headgear before going off to school. I did, however, decide to make something special out of it, so I put on my best shirt - I usually had a very relaxed style - and some nice looking pants. I did get stares, but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Today I would meet Maria, and toogether we would be the school's headgear geeks.
I saw her outside school. As usual she was dressed quite conservatively, with a white blouse and a black skirt, but she did nonetheless look a bit more sexy. I don't know if it was because she was more unbuttoned than normally, if it was the make up or if it was the fact that she was wearing the same headgear as the day before. And in the next couple of weeks, even when the orthodontist unwired her facebow, we contiunued being the headgear geeks.
But then it was time for my orthodontist appointment. I sat down in the chair.
"You haven't been wearing it consistently, I see."
"For the last two weeks I have."
"Yes, but it has been for weeks since your last appointment. I'm not sure what to do, you're more prepared for fixed braces, but you will have to continue wearing your headgear all day for at leeast another month anyway. Can I trust you to do it. I could wire it in, of course, but we don't usually do it these days, unless, of course, the parents want to. Or the patients, for that sake."
A thought struck me.
"Put on the braces and wire it in. I don't care. I'll wear it 24/7 anyway?"
"You sure?"
"More sure than I've ever been."
"And you don't want to consult your mother?"
"Nah, why should I?"
This was probably the first time he'd heard this from a patient. Probably also the last time, he retired a few years later. But he went on with it.
I had my headgear wired in for two consecutive months. I don't know why, but it felt better. Maria did not have her wired in again, but she followed my lead - or I followed hers. When the orthodontist finally unwired it, it was because I did not need to wear it 24/7 anymore, so he couldn't defend it morally. But I kept on wearing it all the time, as did Maria, leading to quick progress for the both of us. And when Maria was told she should not wear it more than, first twelve, then eight, hours a day, she chose to wear it to school, in solidarity. And when I got the same message, I did the same. It was not until Maria was told not to wear it anymore, <nd she had her headgear tubes removed, I changed my hours from day to night. She actually said to me once that she was jealous I was allowed to wear headgear, and I'm not confident it was a joke either. But all things come to an end, and after nearly two years in headgear, about one and a half of them together with Maria in school, it was over.
Maria and I stuck together for years, but after high school we moved to different towns to study. She still lives in our old hometown, but I do not. We're both happily married, we both have kids, and we're both happy for one another, and we do occationaly meet when I'm back at my mother's or my brother's. And I do wonder what would happen if we had not drifted apart. Would we be married? Would we have kids? And not least, how would those kids' teeth look?
