Hi! I wanted to bring back/continue this story with some tweaks to fit the forum rules
I was 18 and about to start my senior year of high school. My dad had recently gotten remarried to a much younger woman after being alone for seven years after my mom died. He had barely known his new wife, Julia, and they got married after only dating for two months. The few interactions I had with her were not pleasant and she seemed to resent the fact that I was pretty and popular in school. She definitely struck me as someone who spent a lot of time in the library in high school and probably did not have as many friends as I did. I did not know much about her except that she was an orthodontist who had just opened her own practice. My dad was very strict about me getting close to her, so I knew we’d be spending a lot of time together soon.
The weekend before school starts my dad always made a huge dinner and I was dreading having to have dinner with my stepmom. She was making my life miserable lately and had been insisting on making me wake up at 8 the last two weeks despite it being summer. My dad was super excited though so I was determined to have a good time. The dinner looked amazing, burgers, Mac and cheese, and chocolate cake.
“Abby, let me take a picture of you and Julia!” my dad said.
I stood up and put my arm around Julia trying my best to be as friendly as possible. I smiled wide and my dad snapped the picture.
“Let me see,” said Julia.
“Hmmm,” she said looking at the picture. “Abby, have you ever seen an orthodontist?”
“No, my dentist has always said my teeth look straight enough, and I didn’t need to see one,” I said.
“What’s wrong? Do you think she needs to?” My dad asked.
My heart kind of skipped a beat hearing that.
“Your bite does not look right to me,” said Julia. “I think I should take a look at it tomorrow.”
“Oh, I don’t really think I want like braces or anything,” I responded getting a little panicky.
“Abby, if Julia thinks your bite is messed up you have to let her look at it,” my dad said.
His expression told me that I shouldn’t argue with him. The rest of the dinner was awkward thanks to Julia, and I fell asleep that night tossing and turning about what Julia would say at her office tomorrow.
The next morning I woke up hoping that everyone had forgotten about our conversation last night. It was a Saturday, and I wanted to spend the day with my friends and nowhere near my stepmom’s orthodontist practice. I walked downstairs hoping that no one would be home but was immediately caught by my dad.
“Good morning!” He said cheerfully.
“Good morning!” I said internally sighing with relief because he seemed to have forgotten about our conversation.
“Oh by the way Julia scheduled you for a 9:30 appointment, so you should head over there soon!” he said.
“Dad I don’t want to go. I’m not interested in getting any kind of orthodontic treatment.” I said
“Abby, this is really nice of Julia, and you need to go. She knows what she’s talking about.”
“Seriously, I’m too old to be getting braces,” I said getting annoyed.
“You still live with us and if you want me to continue paying for everything and pay for college I expect you to get along with your stepmother. If she thinks you need braces she’s the expert.” my dad replied his tone giving no room for argument.
Julia’s office was admittedly really nice. It had a long row of chairs and a nice waiting area. The receptionist was super nice and told me to have a seat. A girl walked out from the chair area with her mouth looking so full it seemed like it could barely close. She looked like she was about to cry and I wondered what happened.
“Abby! Come on back. I’m glad you came,” said Julia who was actually smiling at me for once.
She had me sit in one of the chairs.
“Bite down for me,” she said.
Julia had me bite down in various ways and swallow, then got a few x-rays. She sat me back in the chair and called her assistant over.
“I’m going to have you take some molds of her teeth for me,” Julia told the girl.
The assistant put a giant tray of goo into my mouth making me gag.
“Keep your mouth open, I know it’s uncomfortable,” the assistant said. “These are the molds we will use to make your appliances!”
“Whaaa?” I said trying to ask her what she meant by appliances.
She pulled the mold out, “What were you trying to say?”
“What do you mean appliances? This was just supposed to be a consultation?”
“Hmm nope, Julia said that you’re a rush order and need everything ready by tomorrow! She’s already scheduled your appointment for you.”
“For braces?” I said feeling like I was going to cry.
“That’s for sure part of the plan!” the assistant responded cheerfully.
Julia walked back over, “how’s it going over here?”
“Good we just got her molds!”
“Julia, can we talk about what’s happening?” I said frantically. “I really am satisfied with how my teeth look.”
“Well, I just got off the phone with your dad and he is fine with me going ahead with your treatment! I know you like how your teeth look now, but your bite needs to be fixed, so I came up with a two to three-year treatment plan, time depending on compliance, and the good news is we can start tomorrow!”
“I’ll be in college next year! You can’t make me go to college with braces,” I exclaimed.
“Your dad said he talked to you about this and expects you to comply,” she said smiling. I swear she was getting pleasure out of this. “You can ride in with me tomorrow morning, I don’t usually take patients on Sunday so I’ll have the whole day for you!”
I didn’t even know what to say. This was supposed to be the best year of my life and now I was going to be a senior in high school in braces. I was also nervous that her assistant said braces were only “part” of the plan. What did that mean?
“You can’t make me get braces, I’m 18,” I said trying to sound firm.
“You’re right you are 18 so we can’t make you do anything, but I think your dad is very generous offering to support you through college so the least you can do is take care of your oral health. Unless you don’t want him to pay for college anymore?” Julia asked masking her voice to sound genuine and concerned.
I weighed the options in my head, braces were probably worth it to avoid student loans. “Okay fine,” I sighed.
“Great! I have a contract for you to sign to guarantee compliance, then we can leave for the night,” Julia replied enthusiastically. I signed her paper but I couldn’t help feeling like I was making a big mistake.
I refused to talk to my dad or Julia that night and instead spent it in my room researching braces. There were a lot of different options and I decided I was going to tell Julia that I wanted to do the clear braces. They were still noticeable and I was not a fan of how goopy they looked, but it would be much better than metal braces. I fell asleep feeling a little better but still not great.
Julia woke me up the next morning at 7 am.
“Good morning! We have a big day ahead so I wanted to get an early start!”
I gave a forced smile and went to get ready.
“Brush your teeth really well because it will be a while before you get to brush them with no metal!” Julia said grinning. She really seemed to love my obvious lack of enthusiasm.
She chatted excitedly on the car ride over, “I asked my assistant to come in special just for you today. I’m excited to get some quality time with you. I think it will take a little while, but afterward, I thought we could get some lunch and get you ready for your last first day of high school tomorrow!”
“Yeah I’m not sure if I’ll be up for anything after all this,” I said already feeling miserable.
“Well it’s really important to your dad for us to bond, so I would like us to spend the day together.”
I nodded as we pulled into the parking lot. I walked inside wishing that something would happen to make this moment stop.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you I did some research and it looks like I could just do those clear brackets. That’s what I’d prefer,” I said trying to sound confident.
“Well, I have something else in mind for you. I’m not a fan of all the new treatment options I really prefer the old-fashioned way. That’s what I had to go through and I think it’s the best way. You remember my assistant Margo right she’ll get you started!”
I laid down in the chair and Margo shined a bright light on my face. She put a big plastic thing in my mouth that held my cheeks open. I could already feel my palms sweating from nerves. Julia walked into my peripheral and I noticed she was carrying a tray with what looked like a few large varieties of metal appliances on it. I tried to ask her what it was but the plastic holding my mouth open made it come out a little garbled.
“These are your appliances let’s get you started!” Julia said with an evil grin.
Julia began fitting my back teeth with metal bands, and it was painful as she forced them over my back teeth.
“Usually I put spacers in two weeks before to make this a little less painful, but I wanted to make sure you got your treatment started in time for school, so this will probably hurt you a little,” said Julia.
I grunted a little in acknowledgment that yes, it did hurt, and a little bit of drool came out when I did.
“So these are your molar bands these are a little different than most of the molar bands that orthodontists use because I like to make sure they are adaptable to any extra-oral appliances that I will use.”
I had no idea what extra oral meant but I did not like the sound of it. Julia pulled something off of the tray that looked like a spider. I couldn’t really feel it because my tongue was pulled back, but it looked way too big to fit in my mouth. I was horrified when I saw her pull out another one and fix it to my lower jaw.
“These are called palatal expanders. I put one on each jaw to help widen your mouth. It works perfectly not only to help your jaw but also to give me room for more treatment methods later!” Julia said making me cringe from her excitement. “The one I’m using is an older model so it’s not as sleek as some of the newer ones, but I always think doing it right is more important than comfort.”
“Julia did my treatment too, and it was not fun, but my teeth look great now!” Margo said as she handed Julia something else. I felt so panicky and helpless in that chair while they filled my mouth with metal.
“I’ll put your brackets on next before I add your other two appliances, oh wait no I’m doing three today! I forgot,” Julia said laughing.
How on earth would she fit three more appliances and braces into my mouth? The brackets took forever to put on my teeth, and I swear they were way bigger than any of the brackets I had seen before. She put a thick wire in and then pulled out a bright pink thick piece of plastic.
“These are called lip bumpers. They’ll pull your lips away from your teeth and make sure that they don’t cause any crowding or mess with your braces. They usually are just supposed to push your molars back but I like them because I think they help make sure your lips don’t mess with any of the appliances and I think they’ll help a little in your case too!” Julia said sliding one in between my lip and bottom teeth.
To my horror, she pulled out another one and slid it between my top teeth and lip. I couldn’t feel it yet but it looked really bulky and uncomfortable.
“Final appliance for the day!” Julia announced. “This is a Herbst appliance and I’m going to use it to start moving your jaw. You’ll go through a rotation of appliances for jaw moving later, but I wanted to start you with something more comfortable for today.”
That was comfortable? I would hate to see the appliance she thought was uncomfortable. She fixed the Herbst appliance into my mouth.
“Alright let’s get that lip spreader out of your mouth! I’m sure your mouth is sore from being open for the past couple of hours! Now know that this is just the start of your treatment, I will add some appliances and change some stuff out in a week or so, I just wanted to ease you into the treatment to start.”
My eyes widened and welled with tears as she pulled the spreader out and I felt my appliances for the first time.
The first thing I realized was that my lips could no longer cover my teeth. I had to purse them out to get them over the ridiculously bulky lip bumpers that “might” help my case. The next thing I noticed was the massive amount of drool that was forming because my tongue had nowhere to go with the expanders. I couldn’t decide if the lack of space in my mouth was worse than the unnatural position my jaw was now in from the Herbst.
“How does it feel?” asked Julia.
“Naaa good,” I said my speech coming out garbled.
Not only could my lips not fully close from the lip bumpers, but I was also horrified to realize that my mouth wasn’t really opening either. Trying to talk caused a huge glob of spit to form that I struggled to swallow with all of the appliances.
“I thought your speech might be a little messy,” Julia laughed. “That’s so cute!”
I wanted to cry as I felt like she was openly mocking my discomfort.
“Let’s get you a mirror so you can see your new look!”
It was honestly worse than I could imagine. My cheeks were puffed out from the Herbst and the lip bumpers made my mouth look like it had been stuffed. The fact that they were hot pink made it so much worse as they were super noticeable. My tongue was so uncomfortable with the expanders and my jaw looked so awkward. I did not want to spend another second looking at myself in the mirror and I wanted her to take all of this out of my mouth.
“Caaa we jus do normal brathes?” I asked barely understandable.
“You’re a very complicated case, so unfortunately no. I want to make sure you have the most thorough treatment possible. Don’t worry you’ll learn to love it!”
My tears threatened to spill over as I struggled to swallow.
“I caaan barely talk, you haf to take thomething out,” I lisped.
“I know your speech sounds bad right now, and unfortunately expanders just give you a lisp, but people will get used to you talking like that and soon you’ll forget you ever were able to talk without a lisp.”
“I’m alwayth going to thound like thith,” I cried.
“It might get a little better especially when I switch out appliances,” she said which gave me a little bit of hope. “I bet you’re starving though so let’s get some lunch, and we can just go over proper care when we get back to the house!”
The absolute last thing I wanted to do was go out in public looking like this, but I also thought that saying no could piss her off enough to add something new to my already full mouth, so I just nodded and prepared myself to face the public.
Julia of course picked one of the busiest restaurants to eat at. I tried to convince her to get takeout, but she insisted that it would be fun to go out to eat.
I was embarrassed when I noticed the hostess’s eyes drifting to my bulging mouth as Julia asked for a table for two. I picked up the menu holding it a little closer to my face to try to hide behind it.
“This looks delicious!” Julia exclaimed. “You might want to get something soft though, your teeth are probably pretty sore.”
She was right. My mouth was already throbbing from the pressure of all the appliances, and I hated how unnatural my jaw felt. The waiter came to take our order, and when he asked what I wanted I tried to just point at the menu to avoid him hearing my lisp.
“Oh no! Tell him what you want Abby,” Julia said. “She just got some new braces today and she needs to practice talking.”
My face flushed bright red, “Can I get the lobthter thoup?”
I slurped trying to keep all my saliva in my mouth. This had to be one of the most humiliating experiences. I thought the embarrassment was over, but every time the waiter came to check on us Abby would condescendingly force me to say something like I was a child.
When the food finally came my predicament just got worse. The Herbst didn’t allow my mouth to open very wide so it was difficult to get the spoon in and once the soup was actually in my mouth it was hard to swallow it past the expanders. I felt like more of the soup landed on my shirt than anywhere else. I was so relieved when we finally left the restaurant. I was so ready to get home and be alone.
The next week at school was horrible. You could tell my friends were embarrassed to be around me and had a very hard time understanding me. At home wasn’t much better as Julia was constantly bringing attention to my braces and dragging me out of the house. On Thursday night she hosted a book club at our house and called me downstairs.
“I started Abby’s orthodontic treatment on Sunday!” she told all of her friends. “Abby smile and show them your appliances.”
I smiled hating the way she wanted me to be on display to everyone.
“She got quite the mouthful,” one of her friends exclaimed.
“I know! She’s lucky to have me because I’ve been helping her keep up with everything.”
Julia really had been on top of everything. She insisted on turning my expander for me which really seemed more humiliating than helpful because now she had an excuse to mess with my mouth every day.
“Actually, I need to turn Abby’s expanders,” she said. “Abby let’s do that now.”
“Do we haaave to do thith now?” I moaned, my speech still slurred despite it being almost a week since I’d gotten my brat.
“Yes, timing is very important. Now open up,” Julia said firmly.
I was so humiliated to have Julia turning my expanders in front of everyone. I immediately felt pressure in my jaw as she turned them. It was honestly pretty painful.
“Hmmm, I’m not loving how the Herbst is positioning your jaw. We’ll go back in the office after school tomorrow and switch that out for something else,” Julia said.
That gave me a little bit of hope as the Herbst was extremely uncomfortable. Maybe Julia wasn’t so bad after all.
I left school the next day excited to get the Herbst off. My friend dropped me off at Julia’s office and I went to check myself in at the front desk.
“I have an appointhment to thee Julia,” I told the receptionist.
“Go have a seat in the waiting room, and she’ll be with you shortly,” she replied.
I sat in the waiting room next to a girl who had some weird appliance on her face. She looked very uncomfortable and was fidgeting.
“It’s reverse pull headgear,” the girl told me. I guessed she’d noticed me looking at her.
“Oh, thorry didn’t mean to thtare. What ith it for?” I asked.
“I didn’t wear my rubber bands enough so Julia said I need something stronger,” she said.
“How do you have to wear it?” I asked, horrified that this was even an option.
“I’m supposed to wear it all the time except for eating and showering, but I haven’t been,” she replied. “I’m nervous because I’ve heard Julia is really strict towards people who haven’t been wearing their appliances.”
“I’m thorry. It looks really uncomfortable. I don’t know how you would wear it all the time.”
“It really is it’s embarrassing and the chin cup and rubber bands rub every time I talk.”
“Lucy, I’m ready for you!” Julia called. “Hi Abby, I’ll get to you soon!”
It only took Julia 15 minutes to come back for me, but I was so nervous it felt like forever. Lucy lead the way and I immediately noticed she looked very upset. I overheard Julia telling her how it will be so easy now to remember to wear her headgear. I wondered what that meant.
“Abby! I’m ready for you, I’m so excited for what’s in store for you!” Julia said gesturing for me to follow her to the back. Excited is probably the last thing I’m feeling right now. I’m just hoping I don’t have the same fate as poor Lucy.
