Braces... AND HEADGEAR!

If anyone knew me as a child you would know that I have always had the ugly duckling thing covered and I never grew into a swan but more like a goose. Nice and homely but not the stunning type, I am not and nor will I ever be ashamed of that fact. But I thank god every day that my parents basically bankrupted themselves in order for me to go through TONES of dental treatment. Or else I would have closer resembled a bald headed vulture in the beautiful bird analogy we have going here.

It all started with a small visit to the dentist. One quick visit was all it took for my life to be altered for ever. Looking back now I realise that as a small child I used to leak food when eating. And I know that that sounds a bit odd but with the malformations in my mouth I did used to leak food while eating, often without even realising it. I am serious, after a meal my top and lap would have been home on the walls of a famous abstract art mueseums, what with the multi-tonal hues of food liberally splatted across me. This was due to a gap between my jaws. A rather large gap. When my mouth was closed there was a space about 4 cm wide between the back of my top teeth and the front of my bottom teeth - known as an 'overbite'

After being referred to a new doctor off we went for our consultation meeting with Dr Thomadakis, a brilliant young doctor not too far up the road from me. He welcomed us with open arms and immediately sent me off with a nice nurse to have my entire head x-rayed. after 20 minutes of mouth prodding and asking what felt like a million questions he brought me and my parents into the office to talk. He gave us too options. I was expected to have a new growth spurt any day now and we had to choose. Either have surgery and physically break my jaw and set it where it should be. Or ride the growth spurt until my jaw and teeth were where they should be. Now we chose the second option and I am eternally grateful. Not even 2 years later another girl in my class chose the first option and to my belief they ruined her face.

On went the braces and on the first day I thought everyone had over reacted about the 'pain' people go through. I mean maybe there was a little discomfort as your mouth adapted to the massive metal invasion but it couldn't be that bad. And then the first night happened. Oh yes, the pain was not sharp, but more like pressing on a 2 day old bruise. A dull ache - particularly around my eyes funnily enough - kept me up most of the night. But that wasn't even the start. The worst was the infamous headgear followed closely by the degrading elastics. I was lucky as my doctor was nice and said I only had to wear it at night. I will forever be indebted to that man but one thing about growing up in SA is the amount of camps we had to go on for school at least 2 a year. But still no one but my closest friends found out about the head gears as I became a pro at putting it on in the dark.

There is one night that will forever be scared in my mind. My father was an up and coming Ship Broker and we were all expected to behave ourselves as my father was having a few of the top honchos from the UK over for dinner. We were all nicely dressed, the food was prepared and they whole evening was by in large a grande success as there was at least 20 litres of wine consumed. But alas for me it was to end in fiasco much to every one else's amusement. We had just finished clearing up when I was sent to bed. It was 'Adult time now' aka further drinking time. Me, being the angelic child I was, diligently went off to bed to not only five minutes later come screaming up the passageway in my Eeyore pajamas chasing my beloved dog Star. She had decided that my much abhorred headgear was in the process of becoming a newly fashioned candle stand as Star tried her best at becoming an Artiste. Bolting through the house chasing the infernal pooch I inadvertently disregarded the warning shrieks as I ran head first in the the MD of the whole company. I died. I swear to God I died. The looks I recieved from the entire party was enough to scar me for life. Funnily enough my dog came and assisted me to my feet as well as depositing the now abused headgear in my hand.

My mom says that when she stopped smoking she lost one of her closest friends. I felt the same way when I got my braces off. There was great elation during the day - proudly smiling at even the dodgiest of strangers but at night when I was all alone in bed I reached out to get my comfort blanket and realised that it was no longer there. My headgear was gone. I didnt sleep well for a month.