Chapter 3
"Hello there, Jenny, would you like to come through?" asked Angela - David Bright's assistant - who had just come in the room. She suddenly froze as she recognised the other three girls. Yes, she had met Carol before, when she had come in to get, and then collect, her retainer, so she was easy to recognise. Angela's brain worked fast, realising that if there was FOUR of them together, it was very possible that the other two might be Dianne and Linda: she quickly scanned her memories, and confirmed what she thought, and a huge smile came to her face.
"Hello Angela, you already know Carol... this is Dianne, and this is Linda.... although I have a feeling you already worked that out!" said Jenny.
"Yeah, ummm, wow, all four of you! What brings ALL of you here today then?" she asked as she led them back into the surgery.
"Oh, just listen in when we explain things to David!" replied Jenny.
As Angela took them into the surgery, she announced to David: "We seem to have all four members of CJDL with us today!".
David turned to see the four newcomers. "Jenny, nice to see you again, Carol too... erm..."
"Linda and Dianne" said Angela.
"And Linda and Dianne, nice to meet you too. Come and sit down, and tell me exactly why all of you are here today! I just noticed that you actually booked a double session..."
The four of them sat down, as did David. "Come on, Angela, do join us, I know you want to hear what's going on!" said Jenny. Angela looked at David, who motioned for her to join them all.
"So, you remember a little while ago I told you that we were over in Korea - that's when my bracket fell off!"
"Ah yes..."
"So not only did the lovely lady ortho fix my bracket, she took a quick look at all of us...."
"Ok.. do go on..."
"Unsurprisingly, she was happy with my progress, and she was very happy with Carols teeth too. Whilst she explained that Linda's teeth weren't quite perfect, they were plenty good enough. However, Dianne has some rather bigger issues. Dianne, maybe better for you to explain..."
"Well, I had quite a bit of braces treatment when I was younger. I had bad buck teeth, and started off with some twin-blocks and headgear, then had metal braces, elastics and so on. At the end of it all, my teeth actually looked pretty good. Until about a year or so ago, that is. My dentist explained that it was caused by my wisdom teeth coming in: there was enough space for them at the top, but not at the bottom, and that I should probably have my wisdom teeth removed. And if I wanted my teeth fixing, I'd inevitably need braces again."
"Have you had your wisdom teeth removed yet?" asked David.
"No, I'm still filled with wisdom!" joked Dianne.
"Ah, ok. That all makes sense. But I do have a question for you: why have all FOUR of you come in? I'm sort-of guessing you're here to support Dianne? So why did you book a double appointment?"
"Ah, right, yes. Yes, not only are we here to support her today, but we want to support her through her treatment: we ALL want to have braces!"
"You ALL want braces?" said David, rather surprised. To the side, Angela was smiling: she was trying to imagine what 'CJDL in metal braces' would look like!
"Yes. I mean, I already have them...." said Jenny.
"And I'm thinking that you could fit me with braces again, so they could work as my retainers" added Carol.
"And whilst I wasn't originally planning on getting my teeth fixed, if it helps Dianne feel better with HER treatment, then I'm up for it too!" said Linda.
"Yeah, I definitely need braces....." said Dianne. "Let me tell you a bit more: there's a Canadian group that we're going to go on tour with later in the year, and one of them needed braces, so the other three of them got braces to support her. As Jenny said out in the waiting room: it's going to look pretty awesome having all eight of us on stage in braces!"
Davis smiled: he finally understood what this was all about. "It sounds like I need to have a look at all of you then: Jenny, you're due for your regular check-up anyway, so we'll get you into some fresh ligatures, then I'll look at the rest of you too. How about we start with Jenny then Carol. Then Linda, and do Dianne last: from what you say, you're probably going to to need the most detailed treatment! And Angela, while I look at these ladies, maybe you can go and do some panoramic x=rays?"
"Of course. Who should I do first?" asked Angela.
"Why not start with.... erm, Linda, wasn't it? Then she'll be ready for me to examine. Then do Dianne."
Linda was slightly upset that she wouldn't get to see Jenny's braces in detail, but went with Angela, who took her along the corridor and into a small room. Amongst the many bits in there was a white machine mounted on a big pole that was braced against the wall, with a big arm on top in an inverted 'U' shape.
"Ok, Linda, let me put a disposable mouthpiece on the machine...". Mounted from the top of the 'U' was a frame that had a certain similarity to the machine you put your head into at the opticians, when they need to examine your eyes closely. "You need to rest your forehead here.... hold on, let me take it up a bit...". She pressed some buttons to adjust the height of the unit, so Linda could stand at it better. "That's right, now hold these two handles here, they'll help you to stay still. Now gently bite down on this bit. Perfect!" Linda wriggled a bit, to get a bit more comfortable.
"Are you ok there?" asked Angela. Linda used a hand to give a thumbs up. Angela walked to the far end of the room where a screen was mounted on the wall, and clicked the mouse a few times. A sort of panel, the size of a thick pad of A4 paper moved quickly around in front of her face, then slowly returned the same way as it took the x-ray.
"Ok, all done!" said Angela. Linda stopped biting on the plastic piece, and stepped out of the machine, and over to Angela.
"That me?" she asked, looking at the images on the screen. Whilst Linda had seen pictures online that showed a 'flat' picture of all of someone's teeth, this one was in full 3D.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool, isn't it? Here, let me show you...". Using her mouse, she rotated the 3-D view of Linda's jaws, letting her see how her teeth were in her jaws: it was just as if it were a picture of a skeleton's mouth.
"Wow, that is amazing!". Linda could see her teeth, with their roots, as well as the bones of her jaws, all shaded to give an amazingly realistic view.
"We can also zoom in to get more detail..." explained Angela, showing Linda her molars and roots in her jaw.
"Looks like I have long roots" commented Linda.
"Yes, and whilst I'm not the expert, I'd say they are looking really good, so no reason you can't have braces. Ok, let me just save everything, and remove that 'bite-stick', then we can go and see how Jenny is getting on."
In the meantime, David asked Jenny to sit in the treatment chair, which he reclined back, such that Jenny was lying more in her back. "Feel free to come and watch: as long as you don't actually get in the way, stand where you like..."
David fitted plastic lip spreaders into her mouth, and took a look around her teeth. "Yes, everything is looking good! Let's get your old ligatures off, then remove your archwires..."
David picked up a tool with a pointed but hooked end and used it to deftly remove all of Jenny's old ligatures, removed her two archwires, then took another look in her mouth. Next he sat the chair up. "You know where the floss is, do go and have a good floss!".
"You know, ladies, this is one of the best bits of coming to the ortho: getting to easily and properly floss your teeth!"
"While you do that, have a think about what colour ligatures you'd like me to put on."
"Oh," said Jenny, as she walked across to the sink, "show Dianne and Carol what you've got, they can choose today!"
Normally, Angela would have got out the selection of ligatures for him, but she was taking X-rays of Linda, so he got up, and got them from the drawer himself, and showed Dianne and Carol.
Both of them were quite familiar with ligatures, both having had braces as teens. For them, there were two questions: a mix of colours or all the same? And WHICH colour(s)?
"You know, I reckon it's time she went pink!" said Carol.
"Yeah, nice and bright... how about THIS one?" said Dianne.
"Mmm, yes, good choice!"
It didn't take too long for Jenny to floss her teeth. "Pink? Yeah, why not, not done pink before, usually shied away from it." Then she saw what Dianne and Linda had chosen. "Yes, that IS a bright pink, isn't it, but what the heck!". She was about to sit in the chair again, when David interrupted her.
"I was thinking that now might be a good time to scan your teeth again, just to update your records, and for that, I'll need Angela's help: so while we wait for her, why don't I take a look at your teeth, Carol?"
"Sure, no problem" she replied sitting in the chair. As David reclined it, she asked "do you want me to remove my retainers?"
"No, leave them in please, I'd like to check their fit...". With Carol reclined, he fitted another lip-spreader into her mouth, and started with a general look around Carol's mouth, then - having quickly referred to his dental records - specifically at the tooth which had needed moving. Next, David put his fingers into Carol's mouth, and gently pulled down her upper retainer. Next he took out her lower retainer "As I suspected, they've got slightly looser, I'll tighten them both in a moment.
With her retainers removed, David had a good look at Carol's teeth. "That canine looks to be in just the right place now, it just needs time for the bone to fully heal now, so keep on wearing the retainers for the moment... and something tells me that won't be a problem for you. Ok, let's make a few tweaks...". David picked up Carol's top retainer, and used some shiny stainless steel pliers to slightly bend the adams clasps and other wires so that they held on like they used to originally. He then put it back into Carol's mouth, where it seated with a nice 'click'. "Does that feel ok, Carol?" he asked.
Carol could feel that there was a tiny bit more pressure from the wires now, but it wasn't a problem, so she nodded.
"That's good, let me do your other retainer now." Once more he bent the wires a tiny bit, and put it back into her mouth, then removed the spreaders. For Carol the effect was a bit like removing then refitting a body harness: they seemed to fit in place a bit more positively.
"I'm assuming you've had no problems with your retainers?"
"Well, apart from the lisp to start with, no. My mouth is so used to them now that it feels odd when I take them out! And no speech problems, or singing either!"
"Ah, that's good news. Ah, they're back!". Angela had just walked back into the room with Linda.
"Oh, did I miss Jenny?"
"Nah, I'm not actually done yet, David needs Angela to help him scan my teeth. He just removed my ligs and archwires so I could have a floss, so took a look at Carol in the meantime."
Angela heard what Jenny had said, so went and got the scanning machine ready.
"Tell you what, Carol, as you're already in the seat, why don't I scan you first? I want to scan you all anyway."
"Yeah, no problems with that. I guess I need to take out my retainers?"
"Please!"
Carol put her fingers into her mouth, and pulled down on her top retainer: with the clasps and wires being a little tighter, she needed to apply a little more force, then the same with her lower one.
Angela passed the scanning wand over to David, who started to scan Carols teeth: as he did so, an image of Carol's teeth appeared on the screen. With the scanning done, he had a careful look at the image. "Yes, that looks fine!"
"You seemed to do that a lot quicker than last time!" commented Carol.
"Yes, I've been reading some helpful articles that gave some useful hint's and tips. The initial scanning actually takes a tiny bit longer, but I don't seem to need as much re-scanning to fill in any gaps I missed. Angela, can you get up Carol's previous scans of her upper teeth, and superimpose the new one?"
"Ah, yes, so you can see the movement of her canine....". About 30 seconds later, she had two images on screen, and spent a few moments moving and zooming them. At last she was able to alternate between the two images: all of her other teeth remained in the smae place, but you could see a small movement of her canine: originally it was slightly out of line, now it was nicely in place.
"Ok, Carol, that's all looking good. Jenny, would you like to swap places with Carol?".
With Jenny sat in the chair, and reclined, David started by scanning Jenny's teeth, as everyone watched the images appeared on the screens. David took a few moments to look at the scan: "Yes, you're doing very well.... ok, lets refit your archwire and new ligatures." Pink ligatures, of coures!.
"Oh, yes, nice colour!" said Linda "Who chose it?"
"We did!" said Carol.
"I had a feeling it maybe wasn't Jenny! But I will admit, it does look 'very Jenny'!"
A few minutes later, with all her ligatures fitted, Jenny took a look in the mirror, and smiled. "Definitely bright, but I do like it!"
[958/3]
