Teaser Part 2
Holly stood up and smiled at the nurse. Being single she found herself naturally assessing his appearance. He looked older than her but not much, so she guessed he probably qualified quite recently. He was average-looking with a manly amount of stubble, but somehow that contradicted his general appearance which was otherwise somehow, well… geeky! Holly felt a hint of blush and almost smiled to herself again – Control yourself!
Holly wouldn’t have called herself good-looking, but took care to maintain what she considered to be a balanced amount of style. She was into a kind of preppy fashion but she tried to never make ‘big statements’ and ‘overdo it’. It was a mantra her sister had taught her – get their attention but leave them some mystery. As she stood and picked up her bag, she straightened her skirt. Her favourite asset was her short but slim legs, which she tried to use to her advantage when appropriate. However it was a mild day and she wasn’t out to ‘try’ right now, so she’d opted for knee socks – ‘preppy’! Her flat, t-bar shoes made soft taps as she walked across the room and down the hall with the nurse.
They shared a brief, generic conversation as they walked down the hall and Holly tried to prepare herself for the impending financial implications of slow-growing wisdom teeth.
“I’m actually getting close to finishing one paper, but I have another coming up” the nurse was saying.
“Deadlines – tell me about it!” So he is still a student nurse…
“Yeah I wouldn’t mind so much but I’m just in the process of moving apartment too… it all comes at once right?!”
“I know! I did my home insurance this morning and I’m looking for a car” – not to mention my dental issues….
They arrived at the 3rd and final examination room at the end of the hall and the nurse motioned Holly inside
“Hi Holly” said the orthodontist. Amanda had been Holly’s professional orthodontist throughout her entire treatment and retention phase so far, but with various nurses assisting. During the extended 5-year retention phase, Amanda had also been joined by a researcher called Chris who was helping the department study the long-term effects of post-brace retention. His papers would eventually cover results not only on ‘straightness’ but also hygiene and other secondary effects. As an added bonus, Holly had also let them try a slightly different form of retainer. Fortunately the exam rooms were spacious enough that it didn’t feel crowded.
As Holly dumped her bag on a spare chair and retrieved her retainer case, Amanda said “Ok take a seat and we’ll see how we’re getting on”. This was barely necessary at this stage – after almost 6 years of treatment, and probably dozens of appointments, Holly knew the drill. She leaned back and swung her legs up onto the chair. As Amanda reclined the chair, Holly looked down at her feet. She loved wearing cute shoes and found it funny how they pointed up at the ceiling, looking rather helpless in the chair.
“I guess you brought your retainer”?
“Yes…” replied Holly, offering the case to Amanda.
“How are you getting on?”
“Well, to be honest I’ve had a bit of trouble recently…it sort of doesn’t really fit well any more” – and Holly explained what her dentist had said about her wisdom teeth coming in.
“Hmm ok, well we’ll take a look” said Amanda, and started to place a lip-spreader in Holly’s mouth. This wasn’t always necessary, but with Chris present it was easier for both him and Amanda to be able to see inside Holly’s mouth as they were discussing her progress. Initially, as always, Amanda performed an extensive general examination of Holly’s progress since the last visit. Chris was also making notes on a pad of paper which Holly assumed was to do with his research. Amanda then removed the lip-spreader from Holly’s mouth and took the retainer from its case.
“Ok let’s see what’s up…”
Holly winced as the retainer wire slid – or maybe ‘scraped’ – down a couple of her upper teeth as Amanda tried to put it in. It definitely didn’t click into place and fit like previously. They didn’t even bother trying the lower retainer. Amanda and Chris started talking about how the effect of wisdom teeth on retention issues was a really interesting case for Chris’ paper… but Holly wasn’t really focused. She was starting to finally accept that they wouldn’t blame her and charge her for the poorly-fitting retainer. In the end, she shouldn’t have worried as Amanda concluded that this might actually be an even better research topic anyway.
“We know how good you’ve been with your retainers…” [Holly blushed – yes I’m a geek!] “…this clearly isn’t your fault. But we do need to decide what to do now in terms of your treatment. You have a few options. We could take your wisdom teeth out now, and then try to perfect your teeth and complete the retention phase. Or we could just try to work with what we’ve got now and bring your wisdom teeth in with a more active treatment phase – there is plenty of space back there for them but they are pushing everything else forwards and outwards. How would you feel about that?”
Chris piped up “In terms of the research, we’d probably prefer to keep the wisdom teeth because we rarely get a patient who has wisdom teeth coming in right after their braces come off”.
Obviously not being an expert, Holly wasn’t sure. She had always been against any kind of extractions, but she also didn’t really like the sound of ‘more active treatment’, whatever that meant.
“Um… I don’t know. Can I take some time to think about it?”
“Sure, no problem. Obviously it is entirely your call and all of this will fall within the parameters of Chris’ research, so you probably won’t need to worry about paying anything extra. I think we could achieve similar results either way, but your notes say you aren’t keen on extractions and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it in your case”.
“Ok”. Holly was starting to feel a bit more relaxed about the whole thing, but a little frustrated that her teeth were finding more problems to throw into the mix. Why couldn’t I just not have wisdom teeth right now?!
“Great. Take a few days and we’ll call you after the weekend to see what you want to do. As you won’t be wearing a retainer, I don’t want to go too long before the next appointment. So if we don’t go down the extraction route then I’d want to start a new plan within a week really.”
“Sure, that’s fine”.
“Great. Now Jon will take you for your regular measurements. I’m afraid I’m about to head across campus so I guess I’ll see you next week”. With that, Amanda shook Holly’s hand, grabbed some papers and breezed out of the door.
Jon was obviously the name of the nurse; he had been checking Holly’s file on the computer and now turned to smile at her again. At every check up in her retention phase, the process had been the same. Arrive – checkup – measurements and x-rays – adjustments – book next appointment. The nurses and researchers had been filing extensive measurements for the research projects, which meant Holly’s appointments were often a bit longer than they could have been.
“Well she was in a bit of a rush today wasn’t she” said Holly, trying to politely start a conversation with Jon.
“Haha she often is isn’t she!” laughed Jon, “Ok, let’s go measure you up” and he held the door open for Holly, and directing her towards the records room.
