Braces and Hardware

My daughter has braces. She has had some sort of contraption in her mouth since she was 6 years old. In a few weeks she is about to get her braces removed. I can't wait to see what amazing things her doctor has done with the chaotic mess that it once was. Here she is with her some of her friends who have braces, too!

A few posts ago (my picture post) I told you how I have accepted some of the things that age has done to my face. The more than occasional zit was something I dealt in teenage years. Everything else that is happening to me is just plain getting older.

Last year I did a TV interview about a quilt show I was coordinating. The interview aired on TV 8 times that day. I taped it so my husband could see. I was so excited about it, and so was he. We watched it together, and that's when I realized that my teeth were sticking out. What??? You mean those braces that I wore when I was 9-12 years old were for nothing??? I decided then that I wanted to do something about my teeth jutting forward. Hmm..

I called my kids' orthodontist, and went for my appointment. He said that it was a part of the aging process. He said that in 5 years my teeth would be in terrible shape! Oh my!!! He did, however, complement my orthodontist when I was a kid. He said that he did a great job aligning my bite. So that $3000 that my parents paid wasn't wasted.

Now I wear a top and bottom retainer. Let me tell you...some of this stuff is easier to do when you are a kid. At least I don't have to wear a head gear at night and have marks on my face from where they dented my skin when I slept. They wouldn't go away until lunch time!

Here's Julia and me with our hardware. Aren't we cute! Such a girl bond!


Oh, and by they way...I called my Dad and told thanked him for buying braces for me when I was a kid. I told him that even though my teeth are jutting out a little bit now, Dr. H. O. Blackwood did a great job, and the sacrifices he and Mom made for me to have a pretty smile weren't wasted. He said, "You're welcome!"