I was at the pool yesterday trying to cool off.  The guy, my age, was there with his grand kids, one of whom had just gotten hit in her bracket filled mouth with a ball.  She was not crying but her mouth was a little bloody and a bracket was loose.  He made the comment that such things did not happen when he had his fully banded smile in 1983.  I started laughing but asked why he was in full bands that late.

It seems his father got a professorship  in New Hampshire and they had moved from Minnesota to take the position.  Being 15 at the time he had been wearing brackets and cervical headgear, 8 - 10 hours a day for a year already and he only wore it because his mother was insistent.  They visited the new town three months before the move and talked to the towns two orthos.  The newer one did not want to take a transfer patient with a different appliance than he used.  The second one, who was a couple of years from retirement would take him but insisted on changing the appliance to the full banded one he used.  Otherwise it was a 45 minute drive to another ortho.  Reluctantly, he went  back to Minnesota and had the appliances removed.

It was the middle of October before his appointment with the old guy.  So in his new school everyone met his braces free and the he walks in with a mouthful of bands.  He said it was a shock the first time he saw his new mouth.  He kept getting comments like 'oh you go to that guy'  and 'you should have gotten these new clear ones'.  he was one of three patients of the old guy in the school and by the end of the year he was the only one.

Two weeks later, to make matters worse, his new ortho thought 24 hour wear was best.  That was why he had such a small practice.  His younger patients wore theirs to school but since he was in high school he "only" had to wear it for 16 hours a day.  And the final shocker was the new headgear was now blue a combo on his blond hair..  As he put it "that day was the absolute rock bottom of my youth".

His mother showed no mercy either.  He cheated as much as possible but was still marked as 'braceface' by his classmates.  It went on right after school and Friday night until Monday morning for a year and a half.  Then came the elastics. So what started as a two year treatment in Minnesota ended up taking another two years in New Hampshire.  By October of 1985 when it all came off he was a senior and the last patient that ortho had in the school.