My Journey with Braces

It all started in October 2019, when I first visited my dentist to correct my teeth.

At first, like many of my friends, I thought that it would be FUN to wear braces… Well, as you might have guessed, it wasn’t quite what I expected. In fact, last night, I was GLAD that it was going once and for all.

Or at least I thought so.

Let’s go back all the way to the beginning. Like I said before, it started sometime around October 2019, when my parents decided to take me to the dentist to straighten my teeth and jaws. I was QUITE excited to see what they would say, but when they DID say what they said, my parents wanted to make SURE that I had to wear braces. And I understand why now.

We had checked with a different dentist, and after meeting with her, I was taken back. She said a lot of strange things, and it was those strange things that made us decide to go back to my usual dentist and get this done with. In short, this is what the OTHER dentist told us –

Well, according to her, I needed to EXTRACT four of my PERMANENT teeth and SPLIT my palate(roof of the mouth). Thankfully, I didn’t have to go through all that.

So I started with braces about a year ago. There was definitely a lot of pain and discomfort, but it was worth it!

About a month ago, I visited what I expected to be my final appointment. This time, when I entered, a different dentist was there, and he looked EXACTLY like the senior dentist at the clinic. It took me a moment to realize that he was someone different. I sat down at the usual seat. The new dentist (let’s call him Mr. X – because I don’t really know what his name his) inspected my teeth. Mr. X asked my usual dentist some questions, so I assumed that he was an intern or someone new. But then, HE gave instructions to my usual dentist, so I then assumed he was a senior inspector of some sort. And then, the senior dentist came in, and both Mr. X and him stood side by side and looked almost the same. It was only later that I learnt that Mr. X was the senior dentist’s SON. 🤯

So Mr. X wanted my teeth to be PERFECT, so I had to continue with my braces for ANOTHER month.

And last week, I visited the dentist for what I ONCE AGAIN thought to be my final appointment. I was pretty excited to get my braces removed.

Mr. X was there this time too. He checked my teeth, and was satisfied. His father (the senior dentist) too came and checked my teeth. They all thought I was ready to get rid of my braces. And so, my usual dentist did the process.

She started by what I felt like a tug on each of my teeth, and then RIPPED OFF the braces, with the wire and brackets together. I felt my teeth with my tongue, and let me tell you, IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST FEELINGS I’VE EVER FELT. It was smooth, unlike anything I’d ever felt in the past one year. It was definitely strange to me (it still is).

Up till then, I’d always thought that I would wear retainers directly after removing my braces. Retainers, if you don’t know, are like transparent boxes, but in the shape of your teeth, and they help your teeth to stay how they are, so that they don’t go back to their original form, and help them stay straight.

If you didn’t understand any of that, retainers are basically TRANSPARENT HOLLOW TEETH.

Or just google it, I’m fine with that too.

PHEW.

Moving on, once my braces were removed, my dentist cleaned my teeth. And for some reason, I’ve always found the cleaning process funny. So here’s what happens:-

There’s a hollow tube, which sucks the saliva out of your mouth. And then the dentist cleans the teeth using this pointed tool – I’ve always been a bit afraid that she might accidentally poke my gums and that I would BLEED and my gums would FALL OFF but luckily none of that ever happened. Then my dentist sprayed some liquid in my mouth. And this liquid, was extremely SOUR for some reason. It tasted like FIVE LEMONS directly squeezed into your mouth. But luckily that sucking tube sucked most of it away. She then asked me to wash my mouth, and I thought it was over.

 Well, I was WRONG. She stuck some other wire BEHIND my teeth this time, which I’m supposed to have WITH the retainers (those hollow transparent teeth), so it’s almost like having those braces BACK, but just smaller and behind my teeth.

 I don’t even know WHY I wrote this post, I started writing it BEFORE my last visit, because I had ASSUMED that I was going to come back from the dentist BRACELESS, but I’ve come back with I guess – HALF braces? Well, I’ve got another appointment on Monday to collect my retainers, and hopefully this gets over soon, but still, the entire journey with my braces was quite interesting.

Anyway, I have to go back and finish studying for my exams, I was supposed to stop writing and start studying half an hour ago, I don’t know what I’m still doing here.

Well, I hope you had fun reading this, so see you in the next post!

Bai!

And by the way, I just noticed that when I write two brackets together – (), it looks like a 0! Well actually it doesn’t. Not that much…

What?

Happy February!

Bai again!