My braces story

I've decided to write an exhilarating and emotional story about my life before, during, and after braces. The problems and the good good things that come along with braces.

too self conscious to post a picture of me with bad teeth
so you can have this instead (before it all went wrong!)

I have a really terrible memory, but from what others have told me and pictures have shown me, when I was young my parents too my dummy (pacifier if you're American) away from me but it must've been too early or something because I got into the habit of sucking my thumb, and I sucked my thumb whilst my teeth were coming through. This caused me to give myself a huge overbite and all my teeth were wonky. Even now, I'm unwilling to post a picture of them.

I was extremely self conscious and bullied, even by my own family. My cousin once told me I looked like a rabbit or something, and as I started high schools things were terrible. Teenagers don't really think about their actions, so when I think back it's just whatever. I was asked "haven't you ever thought of getting braces?" and generally just bullied.

When I was 11 years old I was referred by my dentist to the opticians orthodontist (I have no idea why I typed opticians). I was finally going to get braces! :-) I have such a terrible memory, I don't remember what colour I had, I think just white or none maybe. Anyway, things were starting to improve. My teeth were beginning to straighten, although I hated the pain of having my braces tightened, which I had to have done every month. Not many people made fun of my teeth anymore, as although they weren't quite perfect yet, they were covered in metal so weren't as visible.

dreaded head gear

About 4 months into my treatment, they offered me jaw surgery, but I turned it down. Jaw surgery affects your whole face, and my overbite, although quite big, didn't bother me. I had, and still do, always thought as long as your teeth are straight and white, people aren't going to be like "OH MY GOD—you have an overbite?!". Anyway, the other "alternative" to jaw surgery was headgear. This was a saw-like device that you applied to your braces, then your head, to try pull your teeth/jaw (?) back to make overbite smaller. The device was awful, I felt like I was trapped, and often woke up in a situation where the device had come out of place and I was being strangled by it. After a couple of months of wearing it, I stopped. It wasn't worth being strangled to death in my sleep to reduce my overbite a tiny bit.

After just one year of having braces, they took them off. This might seem like not a lot of time, but my teeth were as straight as they could get them and they knew I wasn't wearing my headgear so there was nothing else they could do. They also over-tightened by bottom teeth and caused one tooth to overlap the other. Hey, that's what you get for having free dental care! I really can't complain though, my parents were in pitiful jobs and had we been in a country which requires you to pay for braces, I would've never got them.

this is the best picture I could manage on my phone fml I'm sorry

In the UK, sadly you are given a plastic retainer rather than a permanent metal one. It hurts a lot and you're supposed to wear it every night. I accidentally went on holiday for 2 weeks, leaving my retainer behind, and when I got back, it didn't fit anymore. I trusted real opinions of people who have had braces in the past over cautious dentists, and decided to stop wearing it (rather than forcing it in, which I did once and caused my mouth to bleed). My teeth changed a little, but they're still a drastic improvement over what they were pre-braces. I plan on getting my teeth whitened, and perhaps filed (so they're all the same size) within the next year.