My dream treatment would have to involve braces that cannot be hidden, and a plan that could not be backed out of. I'd have the whole thing explained to me upfront, and it would sound exciting and totally reasonable to me. I'd start with fixed braces up and down and I'd need a habit crib, upper and lower, as well. A few months into treatment I'd get upper and lower expanders that are turned once every two weeks at my appointment. At the same time, I'd get upper and lower lip bumpers and a thick bite plate that would sit behind my front teeth just in front of the habit crib that would show about a millimeter below the edge of my front teeth so that I can't completely close my mouth or lips and cannot pronounce my sibilants or glottals or plosives.
The orthodontist would have made all this sound very simple at the beginning but with everything piling on at once I would get very frustrated, so when it's time to add the cervical headgear, even though I have previously agreed to eight hours of wear (easy!) I don't do it. It's too much and I can't take it. At this point I'm about six months in to my treatment and I go on for another six months with extremely minimal headgear wear. At the end of one year of treatment, my orthodontist explains to me that the reason he had me agree ahead of time to the headgear is because the treatment is designed to work only with headgear, so if I don't wear it, my teeth will actually get WORSE. Now they are so bad that he must wire it in until he gets everything else in place.
Eventually I get used to it. Probably right around when it's time to stop turning the expander screws, because after that the treatment is much more comfortable and I am more confident about having such a strong lisp and wearing headgear in public. I am fine with being the headgear girl. But I am not sorry to see it go when I am done with it! I get to lose the headgear and expanders and lip bumpers all at the same time, but then I start on my elastics, which I wear in various configurations for another year, including some time spent with one or two going crossways across the front of my mouth. They are always very noticeable because the bite plate keeps my mouth propped open and I have to work hard to close my lips. But eventually I am done! The braces come off, and I graduate to retainers. My retainers still have habit cribs, and the top retainer has exactly the same kind of bite plate, but I am now very used to speaking with a lisp and actually have trouble talking without them in as well. After four years of total treatment time, I am finally given the go ahead to wear the retainers only at night.
But sometimes I still put my headgear on just for fun!
(I know this is an old topic. I hope it is ok to resurrect it since it's so much fun to speculate. I also have a "nightmare" treatment that maybe I'll share later)
