Chapter 3
It Can't Get Worse Than This!
I could see her hand reach in and out of my mouth transporting metal, she worked for what seemed like an eternity sucking back my saliva and washing my mouth out with water. After a while i began to feel my strength returning to my limbs and managed to make a few groans of exhaustion, it was a horrible feeling being helpless in your own body, Dr Taylor smiled sympathetically and stepped back to admire her work. She helped me up saying that i don't need to worry and she won't have to do that again as the majority of my appliances are fixed in already, my lips began to tingle like they were being electrocuted she gave me a white board and told me that if i wanted anything i can write it down, i wrote to ask for a glass of water so she nodded and left to go fetch it. And so there i was left on my own unable to speak and barely able to move, with sharp turn of my head i was able to see a mirror laying on the table next to me and mustering what little strength i could i slowly reached my arm towards it, the suspense was killing me! I needed to move faster! With one final push I lifted it high upon my head and stared into what appeared to be a car crash inside of my mouth…
Dr Taylor came in just as I had put the mirror down, hardly daring to breathe. She smiled. You might feel a bit wobbly for the rest of the day she said sympathetically i have a mirror here for you to see what i've done so far for your treatment, she exclaimed, picking it up and placing it in my hand as I yet again stared into the car crash. So today i've successfully managed to fit you with your upper and lower expanders, these are connected to your braces. As i looked closer they were like no braces i had seen before, rather than have just buttons with wires these had buttons attached to bulky metal ring that went around each of my teeth! We also have put in your tongue crib, this will teach your tongue to stop pushing against your front teeth like they currently are Dr Taylor remarked, ok so that's all of you hardware for today but i would also like you to wear some elastics to help correct your bite, i am trying to make this as stress free as possible she said with a sad smile, i tried to scoff when i heard those words, if this was her idea of stress free then i can't wait to see the other people she braces up! These elastics will need to be worn all day and night and replaced every 3 hours in the daytime, she continued passing me a card and 4 small bags, so the card contains all the instructions of how to put on the elastics in case you forget and the elastics can be found in the bags. I opened one of the bags and looked inside to see about 100 blue thick elastic bands. It was in that moment that the anesthesia wore off and i was suddenly able to for the first time feel what had happened inside my mouth, there was hardly any room for my tongue to move as it wormed its way through the warm slimy metal of my expanders i ran my tongue over the rough front of each of my brackets and moved round the back of each tooth to come into contact with the smooth side of metal bands and the thick steel wires connecting to the expander. I lifted my tongue upwards to find it pricked by some sort of sharp edge, I went to feel the back of my upper front teeth to find that again my tongue seemed to be raked by spikes! Dr Taylor continued to explain that i would need to use 6 different elastics in the configuration on the card, as long as i wore them as asked then the treatment time could be reduced, she then explained that because of the extensive measures of my bad bite that it is most likely and almost surely that i will have to wear headgear for a good year but that time could be extended or reduced. I didn't like the sound of that headgear; it reminded me of the harness that the receptionist wore. Dr Taylor helped me up out of the chair and lead me to a mirror with a sink below it, attaching the elastics was easy enough but i found that they were really tight and uncomfortable and also made it nearly impossible to open my mouth any great distance. From there she wished me good luck with my braces and exclaimed that if anything really was unmanageable or if there was anything she could do to make it more comfortable then I should let her know and I was handed to her receptionist. The receptionist loaded me up with about 6 different brochures on how to care for my appliances and told me that any further questions that I have, feel free to give them a ring. I was then led back into the waiting room where Steve was waiting, what took you so long he asked we've been here for 3 hours he remarked i opened my mouth slowly, struggling against the force of the elastics. Holy Shit! What Happened to you!
And well i think i can officially say that i have reinvented myself as a geeky glasses wearing braceface...