Chapter 2 - “You’re doing well Sarah,”

“Okay, reminder… We’re just gonna get some information, alright? Nothing serious.”

After some silent seconds, Sarah nodded reluctantly.

Thomas and Sarah were in their car and had just parked in front of the orthodontist’s office. Thomas had driven. During their route he had felt Sarah’s nerves, so he had put some sing-a-long songs on from his Spotify playlist. The singing, despite not being totally in tune, had done Sarah seemingly good.

And Thomas as well.

Now, here they were… about to step into the house of giving away your control. It was the same building Thomas had gone to for his treatment when he was younger. Then it wasn’t a big deal. All kids had braces. An appointment could be even fun. You could choose a new color and the dental workers were nice. Inside it was an open space with about 8 chairs where people chatted and made jokes.

“You can do it, Sarah. Maybe they will have some sing-a-long-songs on the radio too.”

“There’s no radio in there.” Sarah was quicker in answering this time.

“There was back in the time when I had braces.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. If you’re lucky you’ll get a singy assistant and we’re about to record some viral Instagram video.”

“You will come with me, right?”

Okay, she was nervous. Not in for some jokes of lighten-up-the-mood stuff. Thomas sighed. Why was Sarah so panicky? He had already told her twice that he wasn’t going to leave her side. “Yes, yes of course. I will stay with you.”

Another nod.

“Shall we?” Thomas asked.

Once they were inside Sarah acted like she went to the orthodontist daily. She informed the receptionist about their presence and appointment and calmly took a seat in the waiting room, where a few kids were talking just like their parents. It was like no one else was supposed to know about Sarah’s nervousness.

Over the years Thomas had learned that it was best to act along. No overly worried stares, no reassurances other people could hear, and no “you can do it’s”. Maximum one shoulder touch or holding hands.

So that’s what he did. He took her hand.

Clammy.

This wasn’t her thing.

After a minute or so Thomas couldn’t resist the urge to walk to the bookshelf and grab some autosport and a vogue for his girlfriend. “Look, here is one from three years ago. 2019. ‘F1 revealed: will the rules work?’” He pointed at the long-ago title. “Let’s see what the predictions are.”

Sarah laughed a bit.

Magazines. Another thing that got Thomas’ interest only in waiting rooms. During city trips? Never magazines. During soccer matches? Never magazines. But now, it was the only thing that could help Thomas speed up time.

Sarah smiled politely and reached for the Vogue.
“Let me see.”

Hmm, maybe Sarah had calmed down a bit?

“Miss Wilson?”

Sarah froze shortly, nodded, and handed Thomas the Vogue like her brain couldn’t process what to do with the magazine.
Thomas understood his job and placed the books neatly back on the shelf, then joined Sarah in walking to the assistant.

The two followed the worker to the open space a bit further down a hallway.

Woah, the surroundings hadn’t changed that much since Thomas had hit puberty! It was almost the same!

He wanted to tell Sarah, but she seemed too focused on the nurse and the tiled floor of the building. If she would look up and sideways a bit she would notice the colored paintings.

“Here it is,” the assistant said. “Take a seat. Dr. Davies will be with you in a second” She pointed towards the last seat in a row of four. On the other side of the room were three chairs.

Sarah was probably happy to have gotten the last one in the row, as she usually didn’t like to be in the center of attention.

“Thanks,” Sarah said and she sat down in the chair.

Thomas looked around and spotted a plastic chair which he placed closer to Sarah and sat down as well. “It’s just like I remember it. Flat computer screens excluded.”

“Really? It’s so not like my old orthodontic office!” Sarah peeked around as well and took her surroundings in. She seemed mildly surprised. “It’s much more open. And more colorful.”

“You think so? It’s all white! Or a shade of white. The floor, the walls… even the computers and cupboards.”

Sarah nodded. “Well, the chairs aren’t. And the paintings… Where I had my treatment everything was either white or brown. And it was smaller, much smaller. Just two separate, tiny rooms.”

That didn’t sound pleasant at all…

“Ah, here we have miss Wilson, don’t we?” An older man, in his forties or early fifties, sat down on a dental stool next to Sarah. After Sarah’s confirmation and his small introduction, he put his gloves on.

Thomas was relieved this man seemed like a nice guy. He was well informed about why Sarah came by and he didn’t seem in a rush, which was a huge advancement compared with Dr. Jones, their dentist who put instruments in their mouths for a few minutes, rushed to another room, came back announcing x-rays, sprinted away again and so on.

“Okay, I’m going to tilt the chair a bit.”

Sarah nodded and froze again. She tried her best to find a relaxed position, but after some subtle tossing around she laid back like a wooden plank, shoulders up to her neck.

Straight away Thomas found her hand and stroked her thumb a few times. Sarah had never been at ease at the dentist. But this was the first time Thomas had seen her so… panicky? Almost frightened?

So scared, even Dr. Davies mentioned it: “Try to relax a bit, Sarah.”

His patient visibly tried to loosen her shoulders to comply, but it didn’t work well cause after just a few seconds her shoulders were up to her neck all over again. A shame, cause she was quite beautiful laying there. Her brown hair fell over the head support part of the chair.

More thumb stroking was needed, Thomas understood.

“Okay, I’m going to take a look in your mouth to evaluate the shifting. I’ll use these two tools to help me. It’s just a little mirror and a little scraper, nothing to worry about. ”

Dr. Davies genuinely sounded nice, like he picked up on Sarah’s mood and tried to calm her down. Thomas was thankful for that.

Sarah bravely opened her mouth and Dr. Davies carefully went ahead. At some point, the scraper went over Sarah’s teeth which had Sarah startled. Her body shook out of a reflex like she was about to run away in half a second. Then she seemed embarrassed about her sudden movement and lay as still as she could.

This never happened at the dentist. Well, at least not during the appointments Thomas had accompanied Sarah. Was this how she always reacted when he wasn’t there? Was she always this scared? Thomas didn’t understand. Even three years ago, when Sarah had a cavity filled, she acted normal. Thomas had seen that himself. She had calmly laid in that chair, had even joked about her hair falling into the dentist’s lap.

What made her so scared now?

“Can you bite together please?”

Sarah complied as Dr. Davies held her lips apart.

Thomas squeezed Sarah’s clammy hands.

It wasn’t fun to see this. Sarah… in this…this…weird…state. Thomas had been determined to show Sarah this was all a piece of cake. That was how it was supposed to go.

“You’re doing well Sarah,” said Thomas.

“She is,” confirmed Dr. Davies.

No visible reaction followed. Thomas could only hope his compliment helped Sarah. Hopefully, Dr. Davies was almost done with his examination.

Instead of finishing though, Dr. Davies turned his stool in multiple directions, so he could examine Sarah’s bite from different angles.
“Could you put your chin up a bit?”

Sarah bravely did so, while Dr. Davies still held her lips apart with his fingers.

“And open again?”

His tone was soft, but his demands were uncomfortable to Sarah, as far as Thomas could guess.

“Very good. And bite down again.”

Thomas tried another reassuring squeeze in Sarah’s hand. This time Sarah squeezed back like she had gotten somewhat used to Dr. Davies’ requests and was able to move again instead of sitting still like a statue.

It made Thomas feel a little better.

“Well,” said Davies, “you’re wisdom teeth are coming through…” He checked Sarah’s teeth once again.

The statement brought an annoying silence that Thomas needed to fill. “Haven’t noticed that wisdom yet.”

Stupid joke, Thomas instantly thought. Stupid joke. Dentists probably heard it all day.

Hence, Davies laughed a bit. Sadly he was the wrong one out of the patient and orthodontist to find the joke funny.

Then Dr. Davies was done with his inspection, put the mirror and scraper back on a tray, and put off his gloves. “Okay Sarah, well done,” he said as he raised the chair.

Sarah pushed her lips against each other a bit, likely to get rid of the feeling of her mouth being open for a long. She nearly put her feet on the ground and got away, but then sat back in the chair as she seemed to remember the appointment was not over yet.

Thomas smiled to take her doubts away, while Dr. Davies moved his stool to be able to face Sarah.

“So what I see is that your teeth have shifted indeed. Some of your molars are leaning more inwards than a few years ago, from what I saw on the x-rays I got from Dr. Jones. Especially your upper left side.”

Okay, that wasn’t bad, right?

“Those molars push against your front teeth which have shifted as well. Here.., let me show you the x-rays…”

Sarah’s front teeth didn’t seem to be out of line. Her teeth seemed straight, not perfectly straight, but straight enough.

At the same time, Dr. Davies moved a cupboard with a computer on it, Sarah was staring into nothingness in front of her. Like she wasn’t present.

Thomas could imagine this wasn’t a nice conclusion to here, but at the same time, it was what they’d expected. He instantly moved closer to Sarah, almost sitting next to her on the dental chair.

“Here I have an x-ray taken six years ago-”

The computer screen showed a typical black and white picture of teeth. Sarah’s teeth.

“Here you can see your front teeth. They are more outward in this picture than they are now.”

It was really hard to see the difference, so Thomas decided to thrust Davies’ judgment.

“How can you see the difference?” spoke Sarah.

Thomas was taken aback by Sarah’s voice. And how typically of her to ask a question Thomas didn’t even bother to ask.

After some confusing smart-talk that Thomas could hardly follow, Sarah seemed content with Davies's explanation.

“So, is it something that needs to be changed or is it okay the way it is?” asked Thomas.

“I’d say to prevent further problems it requires treatment. Have you already spoken to Dr. Jones about removing your wisdom teeth?”

Geez, that seemed like quite an operation to Thomas. He had seen some ‘after extractions’ videos on TikTok. It often contained people's mouths stuffed with cotton wool and drowsy people crying over their fake children stealing lollies.

“Yes,” Sarah answered. ”He wanted to do that in a couple of weeks.”

“Right then. Very good. It’s not something that needs to be done tomorrow or next week, but I would advise a couple of weeks, no less than two months. Otherwise, there’s a higher risk of infections and more shifting.”

To Thomas, it all came quite of a sudden. Sarah had never really complained about her wisdom teeth coming through and now suddenly she needed them removed.
Thomas had complained more when his lower molars had appeared. It was a nasty feeling, but when they finally arrived, it was okay. They weren’t impacted and didn’t cause any harm.

“Now for the shifting I also recommend treatment.-”

A clammy hand found its way to Thomas’ steady forearm.

“-that’s because we don’t want these teeth and molars to shift anymore. Your bite is already a bit off, which is unfortunate given your previous treatment. When more shifting occurs, it could cause trouble. Trouble eating, start grinding, more cavities as food gets stuck easier. Those sort of things.”

Sarah could only nod.

“When your wisdom teeth get removed, pressure will fade which can cause even more shifting.”

“Won’t they go back to their original position?” Thomas wondered.

“Not the position after Sarah’s braces. Expectedly their old position, before braces.”

That made Sarah swallow.

Thomas wondered how bad that position would be. He had seen childhood photos, which didn’t show signs of any shocking teeth. But Sarah appeared to be upset.

Next Dr. Davies explained about braces. He recommended a type called expanders, which could be placed top and bottom, and showed some examples. It could be fixed or removable. Both came across as being hard to hide from others.

Then Davies recommended brackets as a final step, to align all teeth. Unfortunately, Invisalign wasn’t an option after Thomas asked about it.

Sarah stayed quiet the whole time. Completely zoned out.

Obviously, the whole braces part was a worst-case scenario. It was exactly what Sarah had been afraid of since her dentist had talked about orthodontia. She didn’t want brackets and so
Thomas assumed she also didn’t want expanders. And yet, here they were, listening to a full treatment plan. Trying to understand why it was needed.

“Any questions?”

Thomas couldn’t think of any and waited for Sarah to take her chance. When she didn’t, he spoke up. “We were actually here to just hear the options. Is it possible to make a decision later?”

“Yeah, sure,” Davies said. “No problem.”

After some chit-chatting, the couple was able to leave the office. Once outside Thomas scratched his head. This had been a lot of information coming his way. Not only about the braces, but also about Sarah’s behavior. “You’re all right?”

The girl nodded.

Thomas kissed her forehead, despite not being a romantic. “You did great. Let’s just get in the car and go home. We can get some takeout this evening if you’d like. We’ll take it easy.”

Chapter 4 - “We need a bottom mold as well, for your lower expander.”

Same, building, same chair, different worker.

Just like last time Sarah was laying in the dental chair like a wooden plank. It was like this building was cursed and turned Sarah into a frightened kitten. Thomas had had some hopes that it would be better this time since it was their second time. But Sarah acted off all the same.

Now instead of Dr. Davies helping her, an assistant hovered around. As she explained she prepared something to take impressions with. Thomas remembered it vaguely.

“Okay Sarah, I will put this tray in your mouth. The material in it will harden after a minute. Then I will take it out and we have a nice mold of your teeth. Okay?”

Sarah didn’t even blink.

“Can you open for me?”

The assistant brought the mouthpiece close to Sarah’s mouth, but she still wouldn’t open it.

“They need to make impressions,” explained Thomas.

Then Sarah slowly opened as she looked insecure from the ceiling to the assistant and her fingers.

“Yeah, there we go,” the assistant said.

Thomas witnessed an enormous mouthpiece going into Sarah’s mouth. Then it was pushed against her upper jaw with quite some force, as Sarah stretched upwards as far as was possible. But she wasn’t able to escape the material covering all of her upper teeth.

She shut her eyes close and after a while started to cough.

“Easy, easy,” the assistant said. “Just a few more seconds.”

Sarah started shifting in her chair. She wiggled her feet and grabbed her shirt tight between her fingers.

“Times up! Well done, now open a bit wider.” When the assistant tried to take the mouthpiece out, Sarah started to gag heavily. “Take it easy.”

Thomas’ chest tightened. What were they doing to Sarah? He wanted to make her teeth straight right away with a spell, so she wouldn’t have to do all of this.

After the tray was out Sarah started coughing harder and got something to drink.

When the assistant started the same procedure with Sara’s lower jaw, Sarah roughly shook her head.

“We need a bottom mold as well, for your lower expander.”

Sarah looked at Thomas with pleading eyes, but all Thomas could do was squeeze her hand and give small reassurances.

After some more coughing and gagging the bottom mold was taken, as well as a mold of the width of her palates and some x-rays.

When Sarah came back from the x-rays she waited for Thomas to join her to leave the office, but the assistant made her sit in the chair again. Apparently, Sarah needed ‘spacers’.

The chair was tilted for, first time during this appointment. When Sarah opened her mouth the assistant put tiny, blue elastics between Sarah’s molars. Every time one was placed Sarah pressed her eyes shut.

“Long time ago, I guess?” ventured the assistant into small talk. “I read you had braces as a teenager.”

No response came, but the assistant didn’t give up. “I think you’ll do great. At least it’s less intrusive than the activator you had and the headgear later-”

She sat Sarah up and before the chair was even back into sitting position Sarah stood next to Thomas.

“- just let it happen. It’s for goodness sake.”

Thomas watched Sarah. Did she wear headgear as a child? And what even was an activator? It sounded like a new invention of Phineas and Ferb's Dr. Doofenschmirch. Why would someone put all those things into Sarah’s mouth? In old childhood photos, Sarah’s teeth weren’t bad at all. What kind of orthodontist did she go to before?



Once in the car, Thomas cupped Sarah’s cheek. “You did well.”

Sarah didn’t indulge in his touch. “Let’s go home,” she said.






Almost braces time...

Great story! Maybe Tom will have to get braces in the future???

Nice job @teddybear !

Oh, I would so love it for "Sarah sets the place on fire, races away in her car and continues her life on a desert island" to happen.... in fact, if you don't do it, maybe I'll write something with that idea in it!!!!

Are you French by any chance??  You used the word "stagiaire" (french for intern or trainee, accorf=ding to google's translate!) which I didn't recognise.

Great and really enjoying reading it so far.
I like your style of writing and the amount of detail.

I dont think I would have noticed at all that English may not be your first language.
(I wish I could write, or even speak Dutch so well ! I did manage to understand a little Dutch in the long-ago days of pirate Radio Caroline and Radio Veronica broadcasting in Dutch from the middle of the North Sea !)

I did notice one very small point if you dont mind me saying.....it should be 'froze' not 'freezed'.

Keep up the good work.

cool story, I think the fear of Sarah of fixed braces is really big, if they are fixed in, they are inside, you are caught by them. Therefore they decide to switch to removable braces.
While Thomas is googling removable appliances, he gets fascinated by them, he begins to imagine kissing Sarah in her removable braces.
Sarah remembers the retainers she had and thinks, removable braces were not so bad as fixed ones.
During the next visit Dr Davies proposes expanders top and down, and later, if Sarah would be accustomed to the braces expanders during the day, and at home and during the night something like an activator or bass appliance.