Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Smile!




     Even if I tried to be in denial about having a grandson old enough to turn into a teenager this summer, I’ve had other proof. He recently had his braces removed – an impossibility to me since it seems like they were just put on a few months ago.
Although it may have felt a little longer to my son-in-law, who was paying for them. 

     Orthodontics has probably come a long way from when I was growing up. My recollection is that my older sister went without caramels and popcorn forever; her braces were on for years and years. Now I also wonder about the credentials of the orthodontist my parents chose – her overbite returned, alive and well, after the braces were off.


          Both of my own kids have beautiful smiles today, thanks to their time with gleaming tinsel teeth; no Invisalign or perky pastels when they were in junior high. Not that getting there was easy for them. Or for me either. I still shudder at the medieval morning routine of inserting a key in my daughter’s palate expander and then cranking, preparing the field for the next step of braces. And then later there was the retainer that now lies at the bottom of Lake Hamilton. 


          I always counted my lucky stars that I hadn’t needed them. Or maybe since I was the second born, no one bothered. Kind of another version of the first baby versus second baby photo albums. I have a shy lateral incisor that’s grown increasingly bashful over the years, hanging back behind its neighboring bicuspid. I’ve learned, like Barbra Streisand, to present my left side to the camera if I want to avoid the gap-toothed look of someone with a refrigerator on the front porch and a hound dog under it.  

11 comments:

  1. We have had our dental problems over the years but no braces thank goodness.

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  2. I am so grateful for what braces did for my own daughter and for Emily. Neither regrets the key.

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  3. Our family was very fortunate to have such good teeth. I still have all of mine, and I never had to wear braces. They sound a little like medieval torture devices to me. :-)

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  4. I suspect I would have benefited from braces - but there wasn't the money for it.
    Mind you, orthodontists and any one of the dental breed scares me...

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  5. I had other types of braces...And I've always had good teeth...

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  6. I probably could have used them. My teeth are great, just with a small space in the middle which I wish wasn't there but few people notice. My BIL who also had the space declared it a sign of our sex appeal. I adopted his version.

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  7. You've given a good history of orthodontics through your kids. The same procedure went on here.

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  8. My siblings and I, also my kids never needed braces either. My third child had such perfectly aligned teeth, when she went for checkups her dentist would call the other dentists in to see her teeth. Never had a filling either. We all have the wide jaws of our German ancestors. Two of my grandchildren had braces though and now have beautiful teeth.

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  9. my two wore braces. my son refused to wear the rubber bands so after two years not much correction had taken place and he would continue to be uncooperative so we just had them removed. neither the girl or the boy would wear their retainers so after a couple of years their teeth looked like we had bothered at all. what a waste of money. I should have had braces, not because of crooked teeth, but because of an overbite but my parents didn't see the need I guess. both my older sister and my younger brother both had braces though. middle child got nothing.

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  10. That last sentence cracks me up. You wouldn't happen to be talking about folks around here, would you? :) My oldest daughter wore braces and now has beautiful teeth ...unlike me!

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    Replies
    1. Hey, with family from Tennessee and Oklahoma, I wouldn't dare point fingers!!

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