Danna got into her car after leaving Dr. Brassard's office and tried to get a look at Jenny's handy work in visor mirror but couldn't get a good luck. "Oh well." She thought. "It'll be easy to see everything I'm getting in a few days." She bit down on her spacers feeling the springy squish of the rubber. It was a strange, unfamiliar sensation. She wondered how she was going to tell Jim. What would he think about all this? She hadn't even discussed it with him. She hadn't had a chance. Would her kids think she looked weird or scary? How embarrassing would it be to be the only mom with braces in the PTA?
   After she got home, she put it out of her mind for a while. She helped the boys with their homework, fed them and put them to bed. Jim had to do payroll and inventory so he didn't get home until an hour after the boys went to sleep. He walked in looking pretty exhausted. Danna greeted him in the living room and kissed him. "Hey baby. Long day, huh?"
"Woo! Yeah." he exhaled putting down his bag and kicking off his boots.
"Aw. Poor baby. Do you want me to warm you up some ziti?"
"Thank you babe but I grabbed a sandwich a little while ago. I was starving. Couldn't wait."
"OK. Well, I had an interesting day" she said with a wide eyed smirk.
"Oh yeah?" He asked plopping on the couch with a beer.
"Yeah. You remember how I said the gap between my front teeth looked like it was getting bigger and my fangs were kinda sticking out?"
"Yeah? Didn't you see Dr. Cooper a couple of days ago? What did she say?" taking a sip from his longneck.
"She said there really wasn't anything she could do so she recommended I see a colleague of hers and I saw him this morning..."
"And??" his eyebrows raising.
"And well... I need braces."
"What?!" he exclaimed.
"And headgear."
"WHAT??!!" he exclaimed. Then covered his mouth and chuckled. She gave him a punch in the arm.
"It's not funny! I'm gonna look ridiculous." she frowned.
"Do you have to wear the headgear all the time?!" he asked trying to be quiet so as not to wake the boys but finding it increasingly difficult.
"Oh God! Of course not! Are you nuts?" she laughed.
"Do you know when you're getting them?"
"Tuesday."
"Tuesday?!" he asked, almost choking on his beer.
"Yeah. Look. They already put my spacers in." She said opening her mouth and cocking her head back. He looked closely at them for a second. "Oh wow! Do they feel weird?"
"Very. Oh! and I got this." She said dropping her jaw and showing her new bottom permanent retainer.
"What's that for?" he asked, obviously perplexed.
"So my bottom teeth don't move while he's straightening out the top ones."
"Oh." he said accepting what she was telling him but clearly not fully understanding. "How long do you have to have them?" Danna paused for a few seconds.
"Oh God! I don't know! I never even thought to ask! The whole thing was crazy, Babe. I went in and they took all these pictures and x-rays and molds of my teeth and told me I needed braces and freaking headgear and he was like 'How about Tuesday?' and I just said 'SURE!' and just left and that was it. It was like an out of body experience. I'm still not totally sure what all I agreed to." He plopped back on the couch and she snuggled up next to him.
"Are you sure you want to go through with all this?" he said, his green eyes staring into hers. She thought for a minute.
"I mean, I guess so. He said if I don't fix it now, it's just gonna get worse and I'd rather have a metal mouth for a while than a giant gap tooth with vampire fangs." she paused for a second. "Are YOU ok with it?" she asked with a timid stare.
"Yeah. Of course. I mean it's covered by our insurance, right?" Danna rolled her eyes.
"Yes, idiot. 80% of it is so it's only like $40 a month out of pocket. That's not what I meant. I mean are you ok with having a 32 year old wife with a tin grin like a stupid teenager??" He put his arm around her and brushed her dark hair behind her ear.
"Aw Babe. Don't be silly. I'd love you even if you had to wear TWO headgears for the rest of your life." he said smiling. She turned her head.
"Hmm. I might hold you to that. Like I said, he was pretty spotty on the details." She put her head on his shoulder and they watched TV for a couple of hours before turning in.
   The next day, after sending the boys off to school, Danna showered and got dressed and met her sister, Amy, for lunch at a little café a few miles away. She told Amy the whole story and showed her the latest additions to her mouth while Amy just sat there wide eyed shaking her head. "Wow!" Amy finally responded taking a sip of her latte. "So you're getting braces for the second time nearly 20 after your first time?"
"Yup. Looks that way." Danna shrugged.
"You didn't want to look up Dr. Parker?" Amy asked jokingly.
"Uh no!" Danna exclaimed and they both laughed. When Amy was 14, it was determined that she was going to need braces and since Danna's orthodontist had done such a sub standard job and was almost certainly retired by then, their mother took her to Dr. Parker. A relatively young orthodontist with a new but very successful practice. He had much more modern training than Danna's first ortho and emphasized on not only straightening Amy's teeth but correcting her bite and facial profile which he did but Amy's treatment was much more extensive than Danna's ever was. She wore upper and lower braces nearly the entire time she was in high school. She had to wear headgear every night for nearly 3 years and elastics 24/7 for about a year after that. She got her braces off shortly before graduation but had to wear retainers full time for a year after that. Danna would accompany her on her ortho appointments every once in a while and it was occasionally brought up that she might need braces again but she quickly dismissed these suggestions. She felt she was far to old to be seen in braces and her parents couldn't really afford to have two kids in braces at the same time so it never got further than a polite suggestion.
"You know I still wear my retainers a couple nights a week." Amy said.
"You've gotta be kidding." Danna replied in disbelief.
"Nope. Your teeth really will move if you don't every now and then. I actually had to get a new bottom retainer about a year and a half ago. Mine broke."
"Wow. How long has it been since you got your braces off?" Danna asked. Amy thought for a minute.
"Oh Jeez. Like 12 years ago." Danna just shook her head and took a bite of her salad.
   The next couple days were fairly uneventful. Danna had some soreness from the spacers and found it uncomfortable to eat anything hard and took quite a bit of Tylenol over the next few days. Finally, Tuesday morning came. She got the boys ready for school like normal and Jim got ready for work and was about to leave. He took Danna in his arms and kissed her. "OK!" he said. "So, I'll see you tonight?" He smiled and rubbed his thumb on her chin.
"Yeah." She said softly, forcing a smile back. Then, for no real reason, she just started to cry. She felt so stupid getting this emotional over something as silly as getting braces but she couldn't help it. Jim Hugged her tightly and she hugged him back even tighter. He turned to the boys who were waiting by the door.
"Hey guys. I'll take you to school. Give Mom a little time to herself, ok?" They both yelled "Yeah!" running out the front door and piling into the cab of his pickup.
"Thanks Babe." she said wiping her eyes and rubbing his arm. He gave her a quick kiss and a wink.
"It'll be fine." he assured her.
"I know it will. I'm just being stupid. You know I cried the first time I got braces." she said giving him a smile. He laughed and hopped in his truck. She went to her closet and put on her black jeans, Chucks and her favorite old worn out Houston Rockets t-shirt. It was old and faded but it fit her perfectly and she always felt cute when she wore it. She would put that to the test today.
   She pulled into the parking lot of Dr. Brassard's office building and took one last look at her teeth in the mirror of her visor. "Well, here we go." she said to herself. She took the elevator up to the third floor and walked into his office. She signed in at the front desk and barely had time to sit down before Jenny emerged from the side door and said "Hi Danna! Great to see you. Come on back." Danna gave her a half smile and followed her to the back. First, Jenny took her to a sink next to the receptionists desk, handed her a new toothbrush and showed her where the toothpaste and floss were and told her to brush and floss real quick before they got started. Danna had obviously already done that before she came in but she complied.
   Then Jenny lead her to a room with three dental chairs and had her sit in the first one. The second one was empty and there was a boy, probably 12 or 13, in the third chair having his braces worked on by another one of the assistants. This didn't exactly make her feel any better. She already felt way too old to be getting braces and this was just confirming it. There were all kinds of tools and contraptions on the tray next to the chair Danna was seated in.
   Jenny put Danna's chair back and turned on the exam light. "How were your spacers? Any problems?"
"No." Danna said shaking her head.
"What about the permanent retainer? Getting used to it?" Danna had actually gotten used to it pretty quickly. She had been dreading getting braces so much that she had just kind of forgotten about it.
"It's fine." she said.
"That's good. Ok! Let's get those spacers out!" Jenny said excitedly. She took a dental scraper from the tray and popped them out one by one very quickly. Then she took two small metal rings with tiny horizontal tubes on one side from the tray and tried fitting them on Danna's back upper teeth. She wedged each of them on then removed them and made some adjustments and then wedged them back onto Danna's molars. She did this a couple of times then put some kind of glue on the inside of the rings and took a small, blue plastic stick with a wide rectangle on one side. She wedged the rings onto Danna's molars then had her bite on the wide side of the stick until the rings were in the correct position. Danna felt like she was going to break a tooth! Jenny noticed her wincing and said "I know. This part is kinda painful. Sorry. You ok?" Danna nodded.
   Next, Jenny took a cheek retractor and placed it in Danna's mouth. Then she positioned a suction wand in the corner of her mouth to keep everything dry. She cleaned Danna's teeth very thoroughly and waved what looked like a high tech hair dryer over Danna's mouth for about 30 seconds and said "This is just to keep everything totally dry before we put the glue on, ok?" Danna just nodded because she certainly couldn't speak with all this stuff in her mouth.
   Just then, Dr. Brassard walked in smiling with a positive energy about him just like before. He walked over to Danna and greeted her. "Hello! Well well well! I see you've started the party without me!" He chuckled gently shaking Danna's hand. He asked Jenny some technical questions that Danna didn't understand and took a quick look at Danna's mouth. He told Jenny everything looked fine and she could continue. Then he went over to the boy a couple of chairs down and began working on him. Making small talk about school and sports. Jenny began applying something to the front of Danna's upper teeth with what looked like a nail polish brush. After a few minutes, Jenny put down the little brush and said the doctor would be right over. A couple minutes later, Dr. Brassard said "All right Justin. You're good to go man! I'll see you next time." And the boy got up and an assistant lead him to the front.
    Dr. Brassard took off his gloves and washed his hands. Then sat down next to Danna and put on a pair of clean gloves and put his mask back over his face. He adjusted the exam light and lowered the chair slightly. "OK Danna. The hard part is pretty much over. I'm just going to glue these brackets on where they need to go and put on your wire and ligatures and we're all done for today. Sound good?" Danna nodded again still unable to talk or ask how long she was going to have to wear these damn things.
   He applied a small dab of glue on each of Danna's upper teeth and very carefully positioned each bracket. Then Jenny took a small blue light and cured the glue on each bracket. He then took a scrapper and removed any excess glue from each bracket. Then, finally took out the suction wand and cheek retractors. Danna immediately licked her lips and ran her tongue over the brackets. They felt HUGE and so weird. She finally had a chance to speak.
    "Uh Dr. Brassard?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"We didn't really discuss some of the details when I was here last. How long am I going to have to wear these?" she asked politely but with some obvious frustration in her voice.
"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to gloss over that. I'm not 100% sure though. It's going to depend on a few things. Adults teeth can be really stubborn sometimes so that's a problem we run into now and then but it's usually just one or two teeth. It also depends on you and how diligent you are about wearing your elastics and headgear once we start you on those. If everything goes smoothly and you wear your elastics and headgear as prescribed, I'd guess about 12 months." She could live with that. At least it wasn't 3 or four years like Amy's treatment. "Now I'm just going to put your arch wire in. Open please." Danna opened her mouth and he slid the wire into place making tiny bends in it here and there and secured it into the tiny tubes on her molar bands and used a tiny pair of wire cutters to clip the ends off. Then told Danna to feel around with her tongue and make sure nothing was poking her anywhere. She did and said it felt fine.
"Great. What color rubber bands do you want for your first day? We've got all the colors of the rainbow." He said holding up a small plastic box filled with all different color ligature. She thought for a minute.
"Um. Do you have clear? I don't think I want anything too crazy today."
"Of course." he said taking some clear ligatures from the box. He used the scrapper to apply one to each bracket. "All right. Are you ready?" he said holding a small mirror. Danna nodded and he handed her the mirror. She held it up and gave a wide grin. She was taken back for a second. It was a pretty dramatic change. They were SO shinny! Shinny and noticeable.
"I know it seems like a lot but you'll get used to it pretty quickly." he assured her.
"Well I actually had braces when I was in 5th grade." she said.
"Oh good!" he said smiling "Then you're already a pro at this!"
"I don't know about that." Danna replied.
"Don't worry. You'll do great and it'll be over before you know it. I'm gonna give you a month to get used to the braces and at your next appointment we'll put the spurs on your bottom incisors and get you started with your elastics. Then, the month after that, we'll get you started with your headgear, all right?"
"OK." Danna said giving a closed mouth grin.
"Great. I'll see you then." he shook Dana's hand and went down the hall to his next patient. Jenny gave Danna a small plastic bag and told her this was her braces care kit. There was a new toothbrush, toothpaste, orthodontic wax and some instructions on how to apply the wax, clean her new braces and a list of foods to avoid. Jenny showed her how to brush around her braces to prevent staining and how apply the wax. She told her that her teeth would probably start getting sore the next day but that it would go away in a couple of days and to just eat soft foods and take Tylenol until they felt better.
   Then she led her to the front desk where she made an appointment for the following month. Danna walked out into the waiting room and saw another teenage boy and girl waiting with their mothers. She quickly exited the office and made her way to her car. She threw down the visor and looked at her mouth for a long time. She felt she was back in 5th grade and just like back then, she began to cry. It was going tom be a long year. After a few minutes, she pulled herself together and headed home.

I must also say the same thing as 'brims' in regards to enjoying the embarassment factor of her orthodontic work ; ) I cant wait to read more especially whe she is placed into headgear!!! Keep it up..

I am really enjoying this story. I have added it to TheArchive.

I do have a request for you. When you post a new chapter, please just add it to the end of the last chapter as a reply. If you keep posting them as new messages, people are going to have to search for the previous chapters and they can be hard to find. When they are all part of the same thread, it is easy to find and read.

Good story!

Another awesome installment. I'm psyched for the next chapter. Sounds like she's in for quite a lot!

Thank you for a great story.

                                                                       Chapter 3

   Danna pushed on her new elastics with her tongue and opened and closed her jaw several times feeling them stretch and the increasing pressure on her teeth. When she got home, she immediately walked to her bathroom and examined the elastics, sticking her tongue through them and watching them stretch as she opened and closed her mouth. She left one bag of elastics by her bathroom sink and left the rest in her purse. When the boys got home a little while later, her oldest noticed the elastics right away.
"Mommy, what's that on your braces?" he asked seeming equally curious and concerned.
"They're called elastics. They're going to make my teeth nice and straight." she said smiling and opening and closing her mouth to show him how they stretched.
"Oh... What's for snack?" he asked, obviously done with this conversation.
"Ants on a log!" she replied.
"Yay!" he said joining his brother in the living room while Danna made their snacks. Jim came home a couple of hours later. He roughhoused with the boys like always, then walked into their bedroom.
"Hey Baby. You back here?" he shouted. Danna replied from the bathroom "Yeah. Just changing my elastics."
"Oooo… Let's see 'em" he said grinning. She sighed then bared her teeth opening and closing her mouth as he watched them stretch. Then she closed her mouth and sighed again with a defeated look. "Do they hurt?" Jim asked with a concerned look on his face. Now she felt like he really pitied her. 
"Kind of. It's not that though. I look RIDICUOUS!" She said flopping face down on their bed. He sat next to her rubbing her back.
"You do not." he said reassuringly.
"Oh!" She continued "These aren't even the worst part of my appointment today. He said my teeth aren't moving as quickly as he thought they would so I have to have the braces for four to six months longer than he initially thought, I have to wear these stupid elastics 24/7 for at least a month, probably longer and I have to go get fitted for my freaking headgear TOMORROW!" she exclaimed. Jim just kept rubbing her back and telling her she looked fine.
"Hey. Let's go out to eat. I'm sure you don't feel like cooking." Jim said, trying to make her feel better.
"Thanks Babe but I really don't feel like going out in public either." she said turning over on her back and rubbing his thigh.
"Yes... Of course." Jim knew that was a dumb idea as soon as he said it. "I'll just go pick up some burgers."
"OK." she said sitting up. Jim began to walk out the room when she called to him. "Don't forget the extra pickles!" He stuck his head back in the door.
"Duh! What do you think? This is my first day?" he said smiling. She called to him again as he was walking out the door.
"Hey Babe..." he stuck his head back in. "Thank you." He walked over to her and gave her a long kiss and smiled as he was walking out the door.
   When Jim and the boys got back from the burger place, Danna removed her elastics as quickly and discreetly as possible. She instantly imagined a hundred different scenarios where she would be forced to do this in public. Not to mention she would have to put them back on after the meal was over. This just filled her with dreed. "Is your burger ok, Hon?" Jim asked. Danna was in a bit of a daze.
"Huh?... Oh yeah. It's good Babe. My teeth are just starting to get a little sore." she frowned and Jim gave her a sympathetic frown back. in addition to all the other "good news" she'd gotten at her ortho appointment that day, Dr. Brassard had also fitted her with a new, thicker arch wire. Thinking about this reminded her about her appointment for the next morning. "Babe?" she said as Jim looked up with a mouth full of fries. "The only appointment they had available tomorrow was for 8 a.m. Do you think you could help get the boys ready in the morning and maybe take them to school?" He smiled.
"Of course, Babe." They finished eating and Danna cleaned up the empty wrappers then went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth and replaced her elastics. She looked in the mirror and sighed. She didn't say much for the rest of the evening.
   The next day, Jim helped get the boys ready and took them to school. Then Danna finished getting herself ready. She remembered what the receptionist had said and put her hair in a messy bun. It was a little chilly out so she wore her favorite maroon hoodie over her black long sleeve t and her Ugs with her dark blue jeans. She put on a very minimal amount of make up and no lip stick of course. What would be the point in that? She did put a double dose of lip balm on though. She had learned that this was a must before her ortho appointments because her lips got so dry. She tried to put the thought of headgear out of her mind She just listened to the radio and tried to keep her mind blank.
   When she walked into Dr. Brassard's office, things seemed a little hectic. The assistants were hurrying around in the back and she could hear a lot of shuffling of papers and the clanking of instruments. She checked in and the receptionist told her it would be just a few minutes. Danna took a seat across the isle from the only other person in the waiting room. A young red-haired woman in a plain white t and distressed stone washed jeans. She was quite beautiful, striking really. She glanced up from her phone for a second catching Danna looking at her. She smiled, revealing two silver wires from her Hawley retainers. "So, what are you in for?" she chuckled.
"Oh ya know..." Danna laughed giving her a wide grin and pointing to her braces.
"Ah. I see." smiled the young woman. "Had them long?" she asked.
"No. Just a month." Danna replied. "It's actually my second time in braces. I had them when I was a kid."
"Oh really?" asked the young woman. Danna nodded. "Wow. I hope I don't have to go through it again. That's actually why I'm here. I got mine off a couple of months ago and when I came in for my first retainer check, Dr. Brassard said it was pretty obvious I wasn't wearing these things like I'm supposed to." she said popping her retainers out and holding them up for a second.
"Oh yeah." said Danna "I didn't wear mine like I was supposed to when I was a kid and well... here I am."
"Did you have them long the first time?" the woman asked.
"No. Just a few months. You?" The young woman nodded, rolling her eyes.
"Uhh yeah. Almost 5 years. Two and a half in headgear and the rest in elastics pretty much 24/7 but I had a huge overbite, teeth coming out of everywhere. It was a mess." Danna felt like she wouldn't be too impressed with her treatment. Suddenly 18 months of braces and elastics and headgear only at night didn't seem like the torture session she was making it out to be.
"Wow. That must've been tough at your age. What are you, 22?" Danna asked.
"23" she replied "Yeah. It was kinda tough. Especially with my job."
"Oh? What do you do?" Danna asked.
"I'm a model." she replied. "No surprise there." Danna thought to herself "That's why it was so important that I get my teeth fixed. It was tough doing every single photo shoot with my mouth closed tight for 5 years so when I finally got my braces off, I was so excited that I guess I was sort of lazy about my retainers. But after Dr. Brassard said I might have to get my braces put back on, I got way more serious about wearing them all the time. They're a freaking pain though!" she said sticking her tongue out and rolling her eyes. Danna let out a little laugh. Just then, Jenny emerged from the back and let out a loud exhale.
"Woo! Sorry about the wait ladies. Danna? You ready?" Danna nodded and stood up. The young woman quickly slid her retainers back in her mouth, wiped her hand on her pant leg and held it out.
"I'm Alex." she said.
"Danna." she replied, shaking her hand.
"Good luck!" Alex smiled.
"You too!" said Danna as she followed Jenny to the back. Jenny apologized for making her wait and said they had had a small problem with some of their cleaning equipment but that it was all sorted out now. Danna told her it was fine. Jenny instructed her to remover her elastics and brush her teeth. After that, she led her to the private exam room in the back of the office. Danna had really hoped she wouldn't have to have her headgear fitted in a public environment. Dr. Brassard came in after a couple of minutes and apologized again for the delay. He was obviously a bit frazzled which was understandable.
   He took a tiny measuring tape from the tray and told Danna to open wide. He told Jenny to bring him a number 3 facebow and she retrieved it quickly. He told Danna to open wide and he slid it into place inspecting it closely. He then removed it and made some slight adjustments with a small pair of pliers and slid it back in Danna's mouth. He did this a couple more times. Then Jenny asked "What color neck strap do you want? We have blue, red, green, black and pink." Danna thought it really didn't matter because no one but her and Jim would ever see it.
"Uh... Black I guess." She figured it would match her hair color the best and be the least noticeable. Not that a giant wire sticking out of her face would be noticeable. Dr. brassard told her to lift her head up for a second and he put the neck strap in place and connected it to her facebow. Danna could instantly feel the pressure. He took out a small mirror and showed her how to fit the facebow into her molar tubes and then how to remove them and had her practice this a couple of times to make sure she could do it on her own.
   "Now Danna," he said "I'd like you to wear this at least 8 hours a day. if you can do more, that's great but no less than 8." She agreed. "And make sure you bring it to all of your appointments so we can make any necessary adjustments." She agreed to this too. He told her he would see her in a month and quickly exited the room, obviously already behind schedule for the day. Then Jenny gave her a small, blue vinyl bag to store her headgear in and a pamphlet of instructions on how to clean, care for and properly wear the headgear. It looked like it was published in the 1980's and of course all the people wearing headgear in the pamphlet were kids except for one very strange looking woman who was probably in her 40's.
   When she got home, she just put the headgear on her bathroom counter and pretended it wasn't there. She did her normal routine with the boys when they got home: snack time, help them with homework, TV etc. When it got to be close to dinner time and she hadn't heard from Jim, she started to get worried so she called him.
"Hey Babe." he answered.
"Hey. are you all right?" she asked, concerned.
"Oh yeah. I was supposed to run my the north side job site this morning but I didn't have time because you needed help with the boys."
"Oh Babe! I didn't know that! You should've said something." she exclaimed, apologetically.
"Nah. It's fine. I'm actually almost done here. Should be home in about an hour."
"OK. See you then." She said as she hung up. She made the boys some chicken tenders with mac and cheese and figured she'd find out what Jim wanted when he got home and eat with him. When he got home, he opted for some lasagna which was great for Danna since her day after tightening soreness was at it's worse right now.
   After they put the boys to bed and watched TV for a little while, it was time to go to bed which meant time to put on her headgear. She brushed, flossed and replaced her elastics as usual. Then took the facebow from the bag and slid it into place. Then placed the neck strap around her head and connected the facebow. She cried out a warning from the bathroom to Jim. "Ok... You ready?!" She called.
"Yeah!" he laughed. She sighed and slowly walked into the bedroom. His yes went wide. "Wow!" he exclaimed. She covered her face.
"It's horrible, isn't it?" she sighed.
"Oh Babe! No. It just caught me a little off guard. It looks fine. Does it hurt?"
"A little." She moaned, rubbing her neck. She crawled under the covers with Jim. He ran his hand under the facebow and rubbed her cheek as he stared deep into her eyes.
"Do you think you can kiss with that thing on?" he asked, excitedly.
"Hmm... worth a shot I guess." she said and he moved in close, sticking his tongue deep into her mouth, rubbing it all along her facebow, brackets and elastics. She took his face with both hands and kissed him hard as she rolled on top of him. He looked at her smiling as he reached over and turned out the light.
                                                                                                         The End.

That last part of the story should be chapter 4 not chapter 3. I do agree that it is a good story. It will be added to TheArchive as soon as I have time.

I hope that you will take the time to write more stories. I like how you write and would be interested in reading more of your work.

Braceface2015
TheArchive