Hello, here is my retrospective from the days before og got it.
Official disclaimer, there is a lot of childish behavior.
Once I had partially decided to get it my next hurdle, I know I was being extremely childish, was talking to my girlfriend about it. We have been together for almost 4 years and living together for 2.5. I had in my mind that she could mind this thing, you know kissing and stuff and most of all I had a huge feeling of shame and insecurity. Towards her and towards my social circle.
It took me almost a week to talk to her about it and as it should be and and was she was extremely supportive, though she made sure to let me know that she would use my speech mostly to bully me a little (in the caring and loving sense), and ultimately let me know she would stand by me, push me so I didn't chicken out, and mostly support all the way.
Before I had even talked to her I talked about this with my bests friends (girls), they knew about this from the beginning, once I was with my girlfriend I was almost on my denial phase. And never mentioned it to her. She would sometimes comment on my gap between the left front teeth getting bigger and I would dismiss her. So I started pestering these two poor girls daily with excuses, drama and tantrums about this. Even after I talked to my girlfriend. They were extremely supportive and helped me through.
Then there was a start date, to get the separators on, first appointment, I went to get them. And some wisdom from my end started to show up. Before I had talked to the dentist about every option I could think of (engineer mind) to have them all dismissed. So when I had them on I told my dentist, since this is inevitable, it is going to be visible and will affect my speech, do not go easy on me, please make it as effective and intrusive as possible to maximize its benefits.
Then the next few weeks while waiting for the second appointment, measuring bands and impressions, I was acting totally childish with said friends and the dentist, from making up insane scenarios in my mind and telling them about it to get off this, to feeling sorry for myself. They never relented and helped me push through. I didn't pester my girlfriend about this much at this time because I knew it would be better to save her patience for her I had this on, so I lashed out to the other girls in my life.
Fast forward a few weeks, nothing changed much, still pestering them and still childish, while appearing brave and stoic for my girlfriend, the dreaded day came.
I arrived to the office and immediately the receptionist asked me if I was OK, I was literally shaking and pale as ghost. She immediately called all other doctors, in knew all of them, all girls and small clinic as is said before. They talked to me, they tried to calm Me down and make me at ease. It didn't do much. After a few minutes my doctor was ready, she called me to the office told me to sit down on the chair. She took a few minutes to talk to me, help me calm down, this time it worked a little. A few minutes later I had it on... Most of my fears and anxiety were gone, it had a huge, uncomfortable device in my mouth I couldn't speak properly but I was at ease and very peaceful inside.