When i was eight years old i was headed to the orthodontist, as my dentist recommended. I was a careless child, free minded. I didn’t care at all about my teeth, which, by the way, looked fine to me. They looked fine to me but they definitely didn’t look nice to anyone else, dr. Richie included. My teeth were really big, considered how small i was. When i smiled my mouth took most of the space on my face, revealing all of those huge teeth. They were squished in my mouth, in no way my lips were able to contain them, in fact they would show all the time, also when my face was relaxed and my mouth “shut”. My two big central incisor came in aligned but protruding, then my left lateral incisor came in crooked and almost hidden by the left central incisor and my right lateral incisor came in even slightly crooked and even more protruding than the central incisor, slightly touching the right one. The lateral incisors are significantly smaller then the huge central ones, so my mouth looked even more uneven and messy than it actually was. None of my bottom teeth came in straight, they all pointed at different directions and they looked as squished in as the top one, as if they were about to pop out. The orthodontist wanted me to immediately start treatment with top and bottom expanders and a full set of braces, in which i had to stay in for at least three years. I refused and opposed in every way possibly imaginable. My parents had agreed with dr. Richie in waiting until i hit puberty, so that insecurities and guys would have pushed me to the orthodontist office begging to receive the perfect smile.
When i was eleven i grew out of my awkward childhood phase surprisingly looking good. I was a beautiful girl: pretty brown eyes, a tiny nose, long honey locks hanging from my head and puffy pink lips covering that mess i proudly showed. By the time i was twelve all of my baby teeth had fallen, i had grown up but my teeth still looked really large compared to my features. Now they literally looked like they were about to pop out, tiny baby teeth were substituted by really large canines and an entire set of thick moles. Two large straight protruding front teeth, rebellious lateral incisors, sticking out or partially hidden, two long canines, one was low and pretty straight, the other was positioned higher, close to the lateral incisor sticking out and protruding. Also my back teeth were misaligned. The bottom teeth looked like shark’s and the bite was atrocious with a 78% increased overbite and a pretty bad overjet as well. The mouth was crowded at the point the gums were bleeding sometimes, cause they really couldn’t contain all of those wide pearly withes. When i turned fourteen, four more big juicy moles came in, hurting badly. All of my wisdom teeth came in in about one and an half year, at this point i needed to undergo orthodontist treatment. By this time dr. Richie had retired and his niece was the orthodontist. She was a really nice caring young woman. She was so impressed by my beautiful wide healthy teeth that she did her best to avoid extractions. The easiest way to treat my case was getting extracted six to eight of my 32 wide teeth but we agreed on a longer and more painful treatment to save all of my teeth. The four new entries pushed all of the rest more and more so my teeth really got at their worst. Ten metal bands were fitted around my back teeth, eight of them connected to two appliances: two thick expanders, meant to expand both my arches, i had to turn them two times in the morning and two times in the evening for a month to create al the room needed. Then shiny attachments were placed on each of my teeth and connected with a wire, tied with metal strings and colorful rubber bands. When the tools to spread my lips and keep my tongue in place were removed, I finally had the opportunity to feel all that material. The dreadful experience was over for that day and I could leave.
It felt really tight and i couldn’t wait to get home to be able to look at my reflection and take a painkiller or something.
Got to the mirror, what i saw wasn’t really pleasing. My large thick 32 teeth enriched by thick shiny metal brackets and smooth wires. If i tried to cover all of that with my lips, they would stretch to the point they were about to bleed; my mouth, already constantly partially opened, would show my protruding front teeth and the brackets attached to them entirely. Also, my tongue felt squished in my mouth because of the thick expanders. Stretching my lips to check what all of my many teeth looked like, i noticed three shiny bands on both sides, on my top molars and wisdom teeth and two more on each side on my bottom molars. My mouth was in excruciating pain and felt hot and heavy. I tried to keep it as open as possible, trying to feel fresh air passing through the teeth and the many appliances. It was so annoying, because of the major overbite my mouth wouldn’t shut all the way to the back, my top front teeth laid on the brackets positioned on the bottom ones, making it impossible for my back teeth to touch. Even after the painkiller the tightness caused sore but at one point i was feeling weak and hungry and i needed food. I was able to bite into food (soft food, feeling atrocious pain, as if my teeth were about to fall) but it was physically impossible to chew.
After trying to eat an omelette with poor results i took about 15 minutes diligently flossing and brushing i had to turn the screws in my expanders, twice for each appliance. The moment the key finished the turn, a dreadful pain pervaded me, i literally felt fire in my mouth.
I went to sleep hungry and angry.
The following day was worst than the first one and i decided to book an appointment to solve the biting problem that made it impossible to nourish myself properly. Dr. Richie herself told me she could receive me at lunchtime and i couldn’t wait.
When i sat on that chair, she made me open wide, positioned the device used to spread my lips and started taking a look. Her rubbery touch was touching and pressing my sore teeth and gums.
She seemed to be especially interest in my top front teeth. She took a tiny ruler and started taking measurements.
“You have exceptionally large teeth and an exceptionally narrow palate, but with eight turns of the appliances, your arches expanded quite nicely. I feel like that’s working. Now bite down for me, please”
“Oh, i see. Oh my. How didn’t i notice that. Poor girl. First thing first, i’m going to put some tongue tamers behind your two front teeth to prevent them from detaching the bottom brackets, then you’re going to help me choosing the best option for fixing your bite: the situation is pretty bad, worse than i thought and we need to start fixing it to let you nourish yourself properly”
After 10 minutes i was sitting in front of her and she was taking some fake teeth to show me different appliances.
“You have a 6 mm overjet and a 78% increased overbite. I would have liked to think about fixing your bite later on, after removing the expanders, but you can’t be forced to starve yourself so we need to work on those buck teeth now. We have different option, fist of all rubber bands, which act too slowly for your bad case, so i’d really appreciate your collaboration in choosing a slightly more invasive system. If appliances can’t fix your bide, your need to undergo jaw surgery.”
“Buth my mouth ith lithrally on fire”
“I know sweetheart, thank genetics for that”
I really needed to. Both my older siblings and my parents (as well as all of my cousins) had picket fence straight, normally sized teeth and i had that complete mess.
“We can use a herbst appliance, a forsus device, power scoops or good, old headgear”
She showed orrible looking metal objects...
“I donth now anything aboth those”
“Well, in that case i’d advise you to go for the herbst”
“Ok...”
Four weeks later i was about to get the new device in. My mouth was slightly larger, not much, but i tiny bit. Dr. Richie was measuring my mouth with the tiny ruler, when she told it was time to remove the expanders. I was really excited: i was meant to wear them for six months...
“I can’t fit all of that in your mouth, right now your bite is a major issue. Your new appliance should be able to keep the space created previously by the expanders but if it won’t we would fit new expanders for you later on.”
“That’s amazing” i was so excited
She proceded removing the expanders and the glue then she placed some new bands on my back teeh: they had tiny two metal arms sticking out on the top and two on tubes on the bottom. Both top and botton bands were connected by a tiny arch, to keep the precious space in the tiny mouth. When it all was in place, dr. Richie removed the tool and i felt the cold, bitter appliance. She made me open as wide as possible, to connect arms and tubes on each side. The appliance was pushing tightly, it wasn’t pleasant at all... the doctor also removed the spiky tongue tamers, what a special appointment.
It was really painful and ugly, but i rather sobbing in pain than getting my teeth extracted. It was still better than staying 18 hours a day in headgear.
Two months later my almost all of my teeth pointed at the same direction, they were still layered and misaligned, but they looked more even. Also, the herbst appliance brought my jaw forward, i still had a pretty deep overbite, according to dr. Richie, but the overjet was gone. When relaxing, my lips almost touched, for the first time ever!
In five months the herbst appliance was removed, the painful device was gone, i couldn’t believe that: i couldn’t feel those sharp screws anymore! But the orthodontist wasn’t totally satisfied with how the treatment was going. The space still wasn’t enough for all of the teeth, i could either get her overbite fixed and get the teeth as straight as possibile or get new expanders. I agreed with my parents on getting done everything as good as possible, without trying to accomplish the mouth goal and spending further money and time. It wasn’t possible to fit nicely all of the teeth without giving up on any of the pearls.
I kept wearing rubber bands for most of the treatment and 2 years and six months since i got them off, i was finally able to feel their smoothness again. They looked totally fine, better then expected: the large central incisor were still slightly protruding, the shorter laterals laid slightly behind the big ones, the wide canines were nicely aligned and all of the teeth formed a beautiful wide arch. The bottom teeth, after many painful springs, were pretty straight, but dr. Richie said they wouldn’t stay like that for long, despite the use of any retainer. Anyway i was totally satisfied with the result and really happy about having had the opportunity of fixing my teeth with such a nice, caring doctor, that actually did their best to let me keep all of my teeth.
Right now i’m 17: i’ve been wearing my retainers basically all the time since i got the braces removed but my teeth shifted a little bit. My bottom teeth are overall pretty straight but a little jagged, my two bigger front teeth are slightly protruding but i’m happy with the messy smile i suffered so much to get.
Last month i moved up to a new state and yesterday i had an orthodontist check-up to get my retainers checked and stuff. The new team took a look and recommended me to get braces.
A young man wanted me to open wide and started feeling my gums and teeth with his hands and tools as dr. Richie used to do. He wanted me to bit down and he asked about my retainers. He expected them not to fit because of my crooked teeth and he was ready to complain about me not wearing them enough and he was interdict when he saw how smoothly they got in. So he said:
“Ok you need to get some extractions and then we can apply traditional metal brackets in a week, i don’t think Invisalign could work, then eventually rubber bands or herbst appliance, according to your cooperation. Three to five years and we can make that mouth ready for red carpets”
So i refused and explained everything to him, which responded: “You’re the one that has to get around with that rabbit mouth, if your fine with it then cool. Just think about it, it’s for your own good”
I smiled with my rabbit mouth, that still takes most of the space on my face, and proudly walked home.
