Braces.

[dr. klopek]

I got my braces put on on December 27th, 1994. I had extremely crooked lower teeth and gapped upper teeth. It wasn't pretty. I had them on for two years before an x-ray discovered that my incisors(?)(you know, my fangs.) were too high up in my gums and wouldn't come in by themselves. I had to have oral surgery to correct this. The surgery involved going up to the spot in my gums where the teeth were (think almost cheekbone) to cut holes in my gums. They then put brackets on the teeth and attached rubber bands and chains to the brackets, which were attached at the other end to brackets on regular teeth in my mouth. This was all after the baby teeth had been removed. Once a month, they had me come in so they could crank up the tension on the chains, and I had to put in new rubber bands daily. I was missing these two teeth for my entire freshman year of high school. Fast forward to june 4th 2002. After 7 years, they were finally removed and my straight new teeth set free. The other day, after my bottom glue-in retainer came out while eating, I went in there so they could look around. I decided to have another one put in so that I don't have to have the discipline required to put one in every day until I'm thirty, when, according to my orthodontist, "If you don't, you'll be back here for braces." When asked how long the retainer was required, he responded "indefinitely." He even told me that I should be wearing the removable one for the top. They glued the bottom one in and charged me $150. A hundred and fifty dollars for a retainer that I'm confident was made out of a f[/i]ucking paperclip. So here I sit, wearing retainers like a goddamn 14 year-old. I'm on tilt. Bad. Any of y'all have braces? Did you have to wear headgear(I was supposed to...never did)? Did your teeth just go back to the way they had been? I think maybe mine were overly complicated.