my trip to the orthodontist

Have you ever felt out of place? Like really out of place? This morning as I'm heading back to the waiting area at the orthodontist I realized I was at least 10-15 years older than every single patient in there. When did I become the old person in the room? Once I got over the "I'm the elephant in the room" awkwardness I then faced much more serious problems.

My mouth is WAY too small for my teeth. Duh....that's why they're crooked. I was supposed to have 8 metal spacers put over my back molars and only 3 would fit. Not good. And to make matters worse, those 3 spacers took over an hour to get on. They pounded and pulled while I bit and cringed, but nothing worked. Finally after three hours of holding my tongue to the roof of my mouth they said they would just have to wait for my teeth to start shifting before they added the other ones. THREE hours for them to figure this out. How long were they in college? I could have told them all this before I even sat in the chair.

By the time they finish I'm the last patient in there and my other ortho peeps were off to 2nd period. I was given instructions on when and how often to clean my teeth and what and how to eat. I am only supposed to use my right back side to eat (my left molars aren't secure yet) and I can't eat anything hard or sticky. I also can't bite into anything with my front teeth. She said if I wanted a hamburger I'd have to cut it into bite sized pieces. What? Who does that? That ruins the whole concept of a hamburger.

My list of foods to avoid...

ice (at least ice cream wasn't on this list...I would have died)
nuts (WHAT? I live off of these things for snacks)
popcorn (torture when Thomas eats a HUGE bowl of it)
bagels (??? don't get this one)
celery (no loss here)
finger nails (EWWWWWWW....really? This is FOOD?)
raw carrots (oh well, I'll live ;)
hard and chewy candy (the ONLY kind I love)
gum (I've never cared for it before but now that I'm told NO I want it...go figure)
pens and pencils (is this really a problem? I've never been that hungry!)

So, there you have it, braces are not the greatest idea I've ever had. Not to mention my teeth don't touch because one in the front catches on the bottom brace so I can't chew my food. I choked on a tomato at lunch and trying to eat lettuce is a joke. It took me half an hour to eat 15 crackers simply because I couldn't chew them. It's going to be so fun.