It's good to see that her dreams about Peter have shifted in a more positive direction. Having him become a dream advisor is an interesting move. I look forward to her first appointment.

Chapter 25

Last week Jane had dropped off the signed agreement, so today, Thursday, was the day that Jane would be going to her first orthodontic appointment. As well as getting the tiny rubber separators fitted (which she'd read online were likely to be uncomfortable for a few days), she was having her four front premolars removed - which she guessed would probably hurt far more than those separators.

Her appointment was early afternoon, so she went to work in the morning, but not only took the afternoon off, but also tomorrow, giving her a total of just over 3 days before she would be back at work. By then, she hoped she would be in a more fit state to actually be at work!

She had a light sandwich for lunch: she would have to eat soft foods for a few days after the extractions, so she made sure to enjoy the sandwich! Whilst she knew that she'd need to take painkillers before her actual orthodontic appointments, she also knew that her mouth would be quite numb for an hour or two from the anaesthetic she'd be given for the extractions, so wouldn't need any painkillers till later in the afternoon.

Jane's phone rang: "Hi Jane, I'm in the car park..." said Simon. Jane turned off her laptop, and went out to the car park: as she got in the car, she looked over at Simon, smiled, then leaned across and gave him a very nice kiss on his lips.

"Oh, so what did I do to deserve that then?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing special... just being here for me when I need you!".

"Oh, right... I'm ok with that!". As Simon drove them to the orthodontists, Jane told him about her strange dream. "It's odd how, just when you think you have everything sorted out, your subconscious throws up a dream like that"

"Well, I guess the question is whether you really DO feel ok about getting braces?"

"I'd say I'm 95% ok with it... there's always that tiny worry about 'the unknown', isn't there?"

"I know what you mean. I had a weird dream the other week, all about exams: would I make it in time, and how would I do, because I'd not done any revision. Of course, the exams were several years ago, and I did plenty of revision, so why the dream?"

It didn't take too long for Simon to drive them to the orthodontist, and park outside. Once stopped, he took Jane's hand, and held it between his two hands. "You ready for this?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

"Yes, as ready as I will ever be...". They walked together into the Orthodontist's office, hand in hand. Partly because they were so much in love, but also because Simon wanted Jane to know he was there for her.

"Good afternoon, I'm Jane Smith, I have an appointment"

"Yes, with Mr Sampson. I'll let his assistant know you're here. Please, take a seat in the waiting room, do help yourself to a drink...."

Jane smiled as they both sat on the rather sumptuous settee: this was actually the first time Jane had done anything as 'extravagant' as this: usually, she went to simple shops, such as clothing shops, where the changing rooms would be basic and small. Same sort of things when going out for a meal: nothing too extravagant. But the orthodontist she had chosen it was a bit more expensive than the other option, but she did like the ortho, John Sampson - he seemed to understand that his paitients  (or maybe that should be 'customers') were important. The waiting room was very pleasantly decorated, and had a pleasant 'calming' feel to it.

A lady came into the waiting roon a few minutes later: Jane recognised her as Jan, the ortho's assistant.

"Hello again Jane, would you like to come through with me please...". Jane and Simon followed into the treatment room.

"Good afternoon, Jane, lovely to see you again... and Simon, isn't it? Lets go and sit down a moment, and I'll run through what we'll be doing today." They went and sat down with John Sampson, the ortho.

"Now, before I start talking about what I'll be doing today... you've hopefully had time to read your treatment plan. Did it make sense to you?"

"Yes, Simon and I read it together, and it pretty much matched what you told us when we were here. And no, I can't think of any questions"

"That's good: if you do have any questions, no matter how small or silly they may seem to you, do ask at an appointment, or get in touch... email can be useful for not-so-critical things, but don't hesitate to call us whenever the office is open if you prefer"

"Thanks, I'm sure I'll have a question at some point!"

"So today: the first thing I'll be doing will be to inject you with several lots of local anaesthetic: that will take a while to kick in, so while that's happening, I'll get Jan to take you for your panoramic x-ray - it's maybe a bit strange, but it's nothing to be scared of. Once I've looked at the x-rays, and confirmed that your teeth, and more specifically the roots of your teeth, are all ok, I'll fit your spacers. By the time we've done all that, the anaesthetic should have fully numbed you, and we can extract your four premolars: if you feel any pain then do let me know... and yes, I'll check that you're numb before extracting the teeth!"


"After that, you'll need to sit in here for a little while, with a few wads of gauze in your mouth, while the bleeding stops, which hopefully won't take long.. I'll give you with some clean gauze pads to take with you just in case the tooth sockets start bleeding again! The anaesthetic will take an hour or so to wear off, so take some pain-killers once you get home. Hopefully all that made sense to you - do you have any questions?"

Jane thought for a moment. "I guess you'll tell me some aftercare do's and don'ts before I go?"

"Yes, I'll get Jan to go through that with you.... So, if there's no other questions, would you like to come over to the treatment chair, so i can give you your injections. Simon, you are welcome to watch - it's a bit boring to be honest - or you can wait here." Simon decided to wait where he was. Jane got into the chair, then Jan fitted her with a disposable bib, and gave her some dark glasses. Once she was settled, she opened her mouth, and John started to give her several injections of novocaine.

Jane didn't really feel much instantly, but she soon started to feel the effects.

"Ok, all done there, do have a rinse out of you like.." Jane picked up the small disposable plastic cup, took a mouthful from it, then spat it out.

"Right, would you like to go with Jan, and have your x-ray done? Simon, I'm afraid you'll need to wait here" While Jane went off to have her panoramic x-ray taken, John briefly explained to Simon what would be happening to Jane.

So, Jane followed Jan into a small room. "First, you need to remove anything metallic... so your glasses, and do you have any earrings?"

"No, but I do have some hearing aids"

"Ah, yes, you had better remove them, you can put them all over here for the moment. Now, let me put this onto you..." said Jan, fitting Jane with a lead apron over her shoulders, to protect her from the x-rays. Jan then got her to stand next to the big machine, which she adjusted to be the right height. Jane put her chin and forehead onto some rests, then Jan fitted a bit of plastic that went between her teeth, and that Jane gently bit on.

"Right, I need to just stand over here... so the big bits to the side of your head will rotate around you, just stay nice and still for me - it only takes about 20 seconds." Jane could hear a humming as the big lumpy bits of the machine rotated about her head.

"Ok, all done!" said Jan. She took the lead apron off Jane, then let her put her hearing aids back in, and her glasses back on. A minute or two later, they were back with John and Simon.

"Right, I just took a look at your x-rays" said John several minutes later, and your teeth and roots are in great condition, so there's absolutely no reason to not go ahead with your treatment. Also, the roots of the four teeth I'll be removing are lovely and straight, so they should come out quite easily. So, if you'd like to get into the treatment chair, we can get those spacers in, then see about getting your premolars removed! Simon, you're welcome to watch, but you might find it a little 'gory'".

"Nah, it's ok, I'll watch Jane scream from over here, if Jane doesn't mind" said Simon with a large smile

Jane sat in the chair, and Jan put a disposable bib on her, and passed her the dark glasses, which she put on. Next, John leaned the chair back, and shone the light into her mouth. Jane would only be getting 2 bands (on the appliance on her upper molars), so there were only 4 spacers to fit: of couse, Jane was all numbed up, so didn't feel a thing as John inserted the spacers into place.

Next, John got a 'poking thing' and jabbed around Jane's pre-molars. "Did you feel that at all" he asked.

"No, not a thing"

"In that case, I'm ready to extract your teeth - you shouldn't feel a thing.". Using a special tool, John poked around her teeth, then using what look like a big pair of pliers, deftly removed her lower left premolar - Jane didn't feel a thing. Jan passed John a wad of gauze, which John put into the gap where he'd just removed Janes tooth.

"All ok?" asked John. 

"I gign't feel a fing" said Jane as best she could.

"That's good! Ready for the next one?" he asked. Jane nodded.

Within 15 minutes, all four of her premolars had been removed, and Jane was sat in the chair, with several bits of gauze stuffed into her mouth, where minutes ago she had teeth.

"Just bite gently onto the gauze, it will help the blood to stop flowing..." said John. Jane sat patiently in the chair for another ten minutes, with the gauze pressing into the sockets where minutes ago she had teeth. "Ok, that's all looking good. So what I'll do is give it a couple of minutes, then put some nice fresh gauze in it".

"Ok" said John just before Jane left the surgery, "so go gentle for the rest of today. Eat and drink cold, or at best, lukewarm things for the next 24 hours or so. And eat soft food for the next few days, things like soup and yogurts or even ice cream are good - my young patients LOVE the ice cream!. Use some sort of ice pack if you get swelling, and take painkillers as you feel fit. Otherwise, it's common sense!"

It's been a long road, getting from there to here, but Jane has made it. Congratulations on creating the most unique and characterization-heavy story on the site. I look forward to your future works.

Great job!

Somehow I'm sad that this story came to it's conclusion, but on the other hand it has been a great story. Thanks for writing / sharing

Yes, I know what you mean. As a writer, I have a lot invested in my characters, and it's a bit of a shame to just drop the characters... and I guess that's why it's fun to sometimes have a cross-over into another story.

So, I am NOT a writer, I'm a technical trainer, but about 10 years ago, I had a go at writing (about braces), and found I enjoyed it. It's a way of living out some of my own fantasies, whilst sharing them at the same time.  I'd class myself as  an"ok-ish" writer: most of my stories have been fairly simple, with the occasional bit of humour, but Plain Jane was my first attempt at going a bit deeper into the character. As such, I never intended to really do much with her braces, that was almost incidental to the story. When I started the story, I had decided about her back-story (her brother's death a year before), that she had bad teeth that needed braces, that she had low self-esteem... but also that she should be a capable character, just in a rather bad place. Most of the rest came as I wrote the story.

Another of my "story universes" is the fairies, that's just a lightweight fun thing, allowing me to do things that normal humans wouldn't normally do (well, apart from my WTF story, which was vaguely inspired by the fairies!), and I've wanted to do another fairies story for ages, If you look back to my earliest fairy story, I had the idea of "fairies do USA", but I could never come up with a good storyline for that. However, "Core" came up with an interesting idea for a fairy story, and that has got my creative juices going again (I *was* going to take a break from writing for a bit till that happened!!). Again, the thing I like about the fairies is that not only do they like shiny things, and enjoy having fun, they are actually very positive female roles: Lilly (the bosses daughter / 'work experience' girl) is about to become quite a positive character.

Ok, enough waffling, I'm glad lots of you are enjoying my stories, it makes it worthwhile. If you want to read some of my other stories from the last 10 years, they are over in the "Club Area", also on the "Braces Archive".


And for anyone vaguely THINKING about writing a story.... have a go. Your first story is likely to be simple and short: that is fine, don't worry about it. Just have a go at actually writing! I did, not expecting to particularly enjoy it or be any good at it, and I'm glad I gave it a try!

Great story, thank you for taking the time to write it.

Thank you for that feedback, it is very much appreciated.

I actually enjoyed writing this story very much: first of all, from the start, I knew is was not going to be "an epic", and I knew where the end was going to be. Second, yes, it was interesting being able to explore Jane's feelings a bit more.

And you'll probably note that, in most of my more recent stories, the braces are typically NOT the central focus of the story, which allows me to be a bit more "realistic"...

So, now you have just a couple of dozen more of my stories to read! Many of them are over in the "Club" section....