The day went great! We had one minor non-braces hitch, which I'll tell you about as I describe the day. Other than that, I could not have asked for a more perfect day!
We got up and got ready. I'd already selected my wife's outfit, which was a pink polka-dotted dress, open-toed suede heels, and various diamond and mother-of-pearl jewelry I've bought her over the years. She did her hair and makeup, and off we went.
There were three crucial things to bring: my pocket video camera, a pile of cash (I paid in full), and her "braces survival kit." I'd laid them all out the night before so I wouldn't forget in my excitement.
We went to a breakfast place near ASU and the ortho office, and this is where we hit the only minor snag of the day. I'd mistakenly thought ASU was still on spring break, but students had returned last week. The restaurant was PACKED, when I thought it was going to be empty. It was a 40 minute wait to sit down, so we left and found another place. Luckily, the second place seated us in five minutes, and my wife immediately ordered a mimosa. She was nervous. I was more excited than nervous, so much so that my hands were shaking a little.
We had a leisurely breakfast. She got eggs benedict and I got hash with over easy eggs. I drank about five cups of coffee, which didn't help the shakes! She downed four mimosas and took a couple of preemptive ibuprofens. We left for the orthodontist, and that's when I started my video of the whole process.
"Where are we going?" I asked her on camera.
She smiled. "We're going to get braces, love."
This phrasing was intentional, hearkening back to the very first video we made when she got her first set of fake braces over five years ago.
We arrived at the ortho a few minutes early, but there was very little paperwork to do since she'd consulted there a few weeks ago. An ortho tech brought us to the private exam room and talked to my wife a bit, then the orthodontist arrived. He went over her records, made doubly sure that she really wanted to get braces today, and gave the tech some instructions. The tech was a little offish or dismissive at first, for some reason. She went off to get the supplies needed.
We went to the treatment coordinator where my my wife signed a couple of documents and a contract, and I laid down a few thousand dollars in crisp $100 bills. That felt GOOD.
We were escorted back to the exam room. When the tech came back, I asked her if she minded if I took pictures and video. She said she couldn't do any of that because of HIPAA law, but that as long as it was okay with my wife and I didn't record any other patients, it was okay. Excellent!
The tech, named Coral, started with cleaning and bonding my wife's teeth. She was quick and efficient, but quiet. When I started taking video, and told her it was going on YouTube and my blog, her demeanor changed completely! She brightened up and started narrating everything she was doing, and encouraged me to get really close so the camera could pick up everything little movement.
Coral finished the bonding and moved on to adhering the brackets. She positioned them quickly and very efficiently, mentioning that she'd been an ortho tech for nine years and had done this thousands of times. She didn't cure the brackets, and the orthodontist arrived to do the final positioning of the brackets. Once he was done, Coral used the UV light to cure the adhesive - and my wife had braces!
My wife picked her ligature color. We'd already discussed this and I told her I wanted her to do plain silver/gray. Coral placed and clipped my wife's archwires - a NiTi 14, so not the lightest wire, but not a strong one, either - and placed the ligatures on each silver bracket. After making sure there were not high spots or sharp edges, Coral had us watch a short video on braces care, and off we went.
I walked out that door into a beautiful Arizona spring afternoon with a beautiful wife with a mouth full of beautiful metal braces!
Check this album for some pics of the day:
https://dereferer.me/?https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeinreallife/albums/72157682149222830
