Prologue:
Rachel was a rather attractive woman in her prime. Great job, great life and engaged to the man of her dreams. She wanted her big day to be perfect. More importantly, she wanted to be perfect. She was always a bit self-conscious about her smile. It was a charming smile to be sure. A bit of an overbite, some minor crowding, prominent canines and rather large teeth for such a fine featured face. She had disciplined herself to smile in a specific way as to not show what really bothered her to the rest of the world. It was the way her lower arch matched up with the upper one. The teeth on her bottom jaw seemed to slope to one side and Rachel regarded it as simply "grotesque." Besides herself, few had seen it in all it's glory. Every now and then she would slip. When she let her guard down or laughed uncontrollably, Rachel would instantly be embarrassed, cover her smile in some way, and retreat, mortified at what had just occurred. It wasn't simply a cosmetic issue and Rachel was smart enough to know that. In fact, she couldn't even eat a sandwich without first tearing it up into smaller bits.
She managed to escape her teenage years without having to endure orthodontic treatment. Sure, her dentist would occasionally mention making an orthodontic referral, but either the finances or the timing wasn't right for Rachel or her family. Her father was self employed and while he made a decent living, he was a bit of a cheapskate. So, while he cared deeply for Rachel and her four siblings, health insurance was essentially an "out of pocket" expense and anything other than basic dental coverage was out of the question. Rachel couldn't fathom getting braces anyway. Sure, she dreamed of having perfectly straight teeth to complete her perfect look, but the "getting braces" part was more than she could endure.
When her now fiancée, Johnathan had proposed, Rachel's thoughts instantly went to her smile and how it would appear in her wedding photos. She soon sought an orthodontic referral from her dentist and soon took the plunge. Johnathan was easily convinced to accept a somewhat long engagement (he would, and often did do anything to make Rachel happy.) Soon, everything was in place and if it all went according to plan, the braces would be off the week before the big day.
Rachel had decided to document her "braces journey" from the beginning. It was her way of "owning" this experience and satisfying the demands of her ego at the same time. She had to embrace and present this as a brave and bold decision and as a admirable quest for self improvement. That's just who she was and she had a sufficient following on her beauty and fitness related vlogs to prove it. Subconsciously, she hoped for a certain reaction from her friends, family, and followers. She needed a sort of "good for you" or a "you go girl" sentiment as opposed to a "what's with your teeth" or an "oh, you poor thing" one.
Present Day:
As she rinsed the remaining toothpaste from her mouth, Rachel began to worry about what the orthodontist would have in store for her today. She bared her teeth in front of the mirror and sighed. It was still difficult for her to reconcile what confronted her after all this time. Again, she had trained her smile to conceal the worst of her braces. The main issue was the bands. Each of her molars and premolars were banded and while it seemed to her like an excessive amount of metal, she accepted it as being better than the alternative. At her initial consultation, the orthodontist had mentioned jaw surgery as an option, but the idea of being swollen and banded or even wired shut was simply too much for Rachel to consider. She accepted the bands as necessary due to the, "nature of her treatment plan" as her orthodontist had explained.
She also had a ball and post incorporated into nearly all of her brackets. At first she thought maybe that was just the way they were made, but in the past few months she realized it wasn't simply a coincidence. With a breath of trepidation, she took a rather long elastic from a pouch and attached it to the handy tool which was necessary for this complex task. She started by hooking the free end of the elastic on the rearmost molar on her lower left jaw and gave it a good little stretch. Up and down, up and down. Over and under each ball and post while she deftly maneuvered her index finger to assure the elastic was secured. Then came the hard part as she felt the tension increase and her jaw begin to clench. Up to the upper canine and, stretch, down, and snap, onto the lower canine. Always a bit of suspense on that last one or snap, wince, and start over. She repeated the process on the left side, took a deep breath, and let out a low growl at her grimacing reflection.
"Just a bit longer," she said to herself as she finished getting dressed, gathered her things, and got into the car. She inspected her teeth once more in the rearview mirror. Things were looking pretty good. Well, "pretty good" in Rachels appearance driven mindset...
