Snaggletooth to Braceface: Myths and Realities

“If I die will they bury me with my braces on?”

That was my first published piece – in Sassy magazine, when I was 15.

By that time I had perfected my closed mouth smile – not because of the traditional braces but because of what my father lovingly referred to as my “beer bottle opener” tooth.

I also had an overbite. And what my orthodontist not-so-lovingly called “camel jaw” (not to be confused with camletoe, which I quite likely also had but he was too polite to mention).

Nowadays, everyone who sees my teeth says how lovely they are. Except when I’ve just eaten something with parsley – then they do that weird mouth thing where you never know what they mean but discover two hours later that your teeth are flecked with green.

My future without orthodontics

Not that I’m super-old or anything, but when I visited the orthodontist the only option was those big metal braces – seriously the coloured bits were new that year. Kids today -as with everything – have many more options. But back then that was all there was and I was just happy I didn’t need the external hardware!

When I was fitted for them, with my mouth stuck into nasty tasting playdough, I was worried, though. I’d heard the horror stories. Things like:

They’ll be embarrassing.
They were a bit. My elastics never snapped out of my mouth in mid class. And I was able to choose what color I wanted. There were also at least four other people who wore them in my classes, so it’s not like I was the only one. Also, despite the fact that I had a boyfriend who also wore traditional braces and despite our Olympian efforts, we did not get stuck together. We really, really tried. One of my elastics ended up in his mouth, but that was about it.

But they were still really visible and I felt kind of awkward about them. It was all cosmetic really. As a 14 year old it is kind of hard to understand that the straight teeth will be an eventual pay off for flashing like reindeer’s nose each time you smile.

They’re hard to take care of.
Sometimes. Yeah I had to occasionally dislodge stuck food. But there were those funky red pills to chew that stained your teeth to show you where you had missed with the toothbrush, which were awesome when you wanted to be a vampire for Halloween. Flossing was really hard and required a whole toolkit of accessories. So I just didn’t. But who other than my husband and Vivienne Ward is an obsessive flosser anyway? Not me.

It’ll hurt.
It did. Whenever they were adjusted my mouth was sore for a couple of days afterwards. But I rocked the sympathy vote. What kid is going to complain about milkshakes and soft pizza for supper after her dental appointment, which was conveniently schedule so she’d miss boring ol’ democracy class?

The worst was the mouth sores I got from the metal rubbing against the inside of my cheek and the occasional snapped wire that poked into my gums. The mouth sore was just at the beginning but it did make tomato sauce and orange juice a painful experience. And the worst snapped wire came after I ate an Oreo cookie, which as an overweight kid was painful to admit.

The positives? My TMJ Disorder was almost completely resolved; my jaw no longer clicks when it closes. I have to use an actual bottle opener now, not my snaggletooth (okay, sometimes that’s a negative). And if I ever decide to smile with my mouth open, people won’t gasp and cover their children’s eyes. Unless I’ve just been eating something with parsley.

But to answer the original question.

I asked a mortician. Yes, they will bury you with your traditional braces on. Which is why it’s so awesome that kids today have other options. For funerals and other big events it’s nice to be able to have a removable option!

This post is part of a sponsored post series between Aiming Low and Invisalign. While the content is sponsored, the opinions belong to the writers. For more information about Invisalign, please visit www.Invisalign.com or Facebook.com/Invisalign

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