Part 3
Chapter 18
Frank
John sends me a message with the location and tells me Dr. Williams is waiting for me. Dr. Candy Williams is a young orthodontist and graduated with honors five years ago. First, she wants me to call her Dr. Williams because her first name does not show respect, she takes pictures and tells me I was going to be the best before/ after of her entire career. She asks me to open my mouth, sees the elastics and laugh saying they are useless, she removes the elastics of the lower face bow, the face bow with the hooks, then the j-hooks and its leather straps, the top face bow, and the Interlandi. When she removes the lip bumper she tells me that at least the lip bumper was removable and I don’t say anything because I will just make a fool of myself if I tell her that I’ve been wearing this shit for 10 months as if it was fixed. Then she removes the rake saying “this rake… it’s like it was not made for you to wear, it was attached to your second bicuspids but it’s small so it’s pulling your teeth inwards, we will take some time to fix it, I can only imagine how difficult it is to put in on every time you clean it” and I just close my eyes for her not to see my stupidity, how come I was considered a genius when I was younger??? The bottom and the top expanders are removed and she finally starts removing the bands. It takes her about one and a half hours to remove everything. She takes lots of pictures, whatever she removes she takes pictures. When she finishes, she makes impressions, x-rays, and then does a deep cleaning and asks me if I want to see. I think it will be like a fairy tale but what I see in the mirror is far from it.
My teeth are very white, but it looks like I had never even thought about braces in my life. My canines are lower, so this was something that worked in my previous “treatment”, but my top incisors were more protruding, the lower incisors are more aligned but there were gaps everywhere, the upper first bicuspids are not in the position they were before, they moved inwards, she said that most of the gaps were because of the bands but we have lots of work to do and that it’s up to me, I will tell the speed of the treatment and I didn’t ask anything, just said that I want it as fast as we can be.
She said she regretted what she was about to say but the truth is these six years wearing bands, five with headgear wired in meant nothing, I have a deep overbite and I’m not so sure if I had it before because it is the first time I hear the deep part, I knew I had an overbite but this is new. She didn’t have my first records, but it doesn’t matter because we are going to start from scratch.
My lower teeth just need to have the gaps closed, so something in the previous treatment worked but to close the gaps will take some time because the gaps needed to be closed and then be wired for some time to hold the position or else they would return. My top teeth are our real problems.
It’s noon and her very state of the art clinic has already given her the brackets I’m going to wear. I called Paul and he told me that Jenny woke up, had lunch and they talked a little, she felt tired and slept again. I’m not used to my mouth without appliances and talking is weird, it’s been five years with at least one headgear in the way and my mouth feels… foreign. I wanted to start next week, enjoy one week without braces but Dr. Williams told me that she would like to start as soon as possible, for me not to get used to something different from my next years, yes, in the plural, that’s why she is putting on the brackets now. She glues them in and asks if I prefer removable or fixed appliances and fixed is all I know so that’s what I told her. I guess she liked the answer because she smiles and tells me I can go to work now. It’s funny, my orthodontist wears braces. She is nice and I liked the way she works; she explains everything and asks my opinions regarding my treatment. I will go to work and return at 5 pm to put on the archwires, I also asked if I could have lunch and she told me just not to eat crunchy things. I run my tongue on my teeth and it feels weird but nice, although the brackets are scratching my cheeks but not as bad as the bands did.
I spent some time thinking what I was going to eat, there are so many foods that I love but I couldn't have because of the wired in headgears and then the expanders and the f**ing rake. I decide on a hamburger and French fries, which I love but there are ages that I don’t eat, I want to eat in the car because I don’t eat in public, the clerk says they are out of straws and I reply that I have my own then I remember that I don’t need a straw, when I remove the cover and sip the iced tea I ordered I feel my nose itching and my eyes full of tears and once again I cry. I’m too emotional today, I eat the hamburger, the fries, then I go to Jenny’s but she’s sleeping, I get into her bedroom and there she is, my sleeping beauty. For the first time I kiss her forehead and again, feel my eyes full of tears and I let her sleeping and go to Montgomery’s. My first stop is in my restroom to brush the metals and now I start to love the new braces because brushing is easy and faster, it took me only five minutes.
Everyone looked at me at work and even some girls stared but now in a nice way but I only have eyes for Jenny, John says that I look nice and asks me to let him see my new brackets and it’s weird but I understand that it’s a braces wearers thing, so I just smile and I can see that now who has jealous eyes is him, his brackets, bigger and colorful, this time they are bright blue and for the first time he is wearing headgear and I’m not.
“John, you don’t have to wear your headgear at work anymore, well, my new braces aren’t all in yet, but I won’t need to wear it all the time again.
“Oh, boss, but I want to keep it on, if you don’t mind, I have to wear it for at least 18 hours now, preferably all the time but not less than 18 hours. And I prefer not wearing it at home.”
“Okay, John, it’s up to you, and I’ve already told you, don’t call me boss, we’re friends.”
“Right, boss, but here at work o prefer calling you boss.”
“Well, call me whatever you want. I’m going to call Jenny, bring me the reports I asked in ten minutes.”
“Okay, Frank, boss.”
I call Jenny but she’s sleeping and I let her father know that I’m still worried because she’s too thin, even her face is different, but Paul told me she ate and will be waiting for me for dinner. At 4:50 I leave work and return to the clinic.
Dr. Williams puts on the archwires, explains everything she wants to do because she spent the afternoon studying my case and came to some conclusions and warns me that I won’t be happy with some things. She is going to use heat-activated wires with the self-ligating metal brackets, they work faster but I still need to wear headgear if I want this treatment to be fast, and when she told me that, I couldn’t believe my ears.
My teeth were foully pulled in the wrong direction and caused some bite problems that only the headgear would give her results faster and precisely. She explained that it would be only a cervical headgear for at least 16 hours a day but preferably 18 hours, although she warned me that if I wear it for less than 12 hours a day I can add three more years wearing headgear in my life, she can’t wire anything, what Dr. Rogers did was a crime, but my non-compliance means more time wearing anything she asks me to wear, the headgear, for example, each two hours I don’t wear it, means about four extra months. She still can’t tell me for how long but no less than one year if I handle the force she will apply. I’m going to wear elastics to put my canines faster in the correct place now and later elastics to help correct my bite.
My frontal top incisors that are protruding a little so I’ll have to wear a bite plate and explained me what it was and told me that was why she asked me if I preferred fixed or removable appliances and that I made a great choice once the fixed one is smaller. She glues the bite plate in and I feel how big it is but it feels nice but Dr. Williams says that I might have some difficulties with the bite plate but I will get used to it. She gives me two pills and while I take them without questioning she’s explaining they are painkillers and warns me that I will need them, she asks me to buy two boxes of Advil and asks me to return next Friday because she wants to see if there’s any unwanted movement or if she will need to change something. I think she’s too worried, I don’t think the Advil is necessary, but I say I’ll buy the boxes just to show that I understood but I don’t think I’ll take them.
“Okay then, Mr. Montgomery. I recommend you take a picture to remember the configuration of your elastics, now come here, you need a mirror.”
She sits behind her desk and asks me to sit, then she puts a mirror in front of me and I see all set for the first time. It’s nice, it’s clean, the archwire is zigzagging my top teeth and almost straight on the bottom ones. She asks me to open bigger and shows me the new shiny bands around my molars and teaches me how to put on and take off the headgear and shows me the correct position of the elastics: from my top and bottom canines to my top and bottom molars. First, put on the headgear, then the elastics, or else I won’t be able to open my mouth.
“I recommend you take a picture in case you have some doubts about the configuration: from upper molar to the upper canine, down to the lower canine and back to the lower molar. You need to wear them all the time, especially while eating, change them at least twice a day but four times would be the call to the fast mode. This is the right side of the face bow; first, you put it in the tubes, then you attach the cervical strap. It’s already with the amount of force I want it to apply, not that I don’t trust you, but some kids try to cheat when it hurts so with these straps, they don’t have this option. If you feel pain or any discomfort take an Advil, two during the first two days, if you feel too much pressure, cold beverages can help. And, of course, you need to relearn how to speak, so start, repeat my instructions.”
I wasn’t waiting for it and then I realized that I was so happy because I wasn’t wearing the bands and all those headgears and the frightening rake that I didn’t think that I could continue having speech impediments.
“I need to take a picture to remind the configuration: from the upper molar to the upper canine, down to the lower canine and back to the lower molar (okay, slurring a little but nothing shameful). I need to wear the elathticth (uh-oh) all the time, ethpethially to eat, change them twithe a day but four timeth to be fathter, check the right thide of the fathe bow (ugh), firtht put the tubeth and then the thervical thtrap (God, not again, at least it will improve through time), if I feel pain or any dithcomfort take an advil or drink cold beverageth and I need to learn how to thpeak again.”
“Okay, but forget the last part, you don’t have to learn how to speak, you’re a pro! It won’t be better than this.” She tells me smiling and somewhat proud.
“It won’t be better? Tho I’ll thound like thith for… how long?”
“I’m afraid that until the end of the treatment, but let's see how it goes, some people even need it after finishing the braces.”
With my luck, that’s probably my case. She gives me a bag of elastics (they are different, the ones I used to wear I could buy at stationary stores), two cervical straps, which she asks me what color I want telling me that she suggests black to match the suit I’m wearing and I choose dark blue, thinking about my other suits. She explains that the cervical straps are bigger because of the size of my neck and that she needs the strap to provide the anchorage she wants without hurting me, and that’s why they are this big. She teaches me how to put the headgear and the elastics on, and when I finish she says that I’m done and this week, if I feel pain because of the headgear, wear it in a break-in mode but I don’t pay attention when she explains it because I know that the pain the headgear causes is not unbearable. Then we start talking about the costs and I’m shocked. She tells me that these brackets, archwires and headgear are a little more expensive because they are the most modern they have nowadays and I might think it’s too much but from now on she will only charge for the tightening visits and any other appliance I may need to wear but so far, that’s it. When she tells me the price, I think she’s kidding me because it’s cheaper than the last 6 months I paid for Dr. Rogers/Gonzalez.
She follows me to the reception desk where I pay and tells me she wants to see me next week just to check how’s everything doing and that she won’t even charge for it. I get into my car and drive home. In the elevator, I look at myself in the mirror and see that I’m still wearing headgear. I’m so used to wearing headgear that I didn’t even notice and went to many places wearing it. I get into my apartment and head to the bathroom to take a good look at my new metals. Even with the ugly contraption my mouth is now something nice to see. The brackets are shiny little metallic pieces, the archwires aren’t even but they are thinner than the former ones, the face bow is thick, maybe a little thicker than the older ones but it’s shiny and brand new, the black cervical strap is comfortable and not very hot but it’s bigger that the old one, covering great part of my neck, it connects to the endings of the face bow with a very strong triangular piece of metal. The bite plate feels huge but isn’t very visible.
