Dear audience/reader,
Has anyone ever gotten braces? I’m sure half of you will raise your hands, and if you don’t it means you’re probably upset because you’ve had braces for the past sixteen years (sarcasm), or you don’t care. This is a story about me getting braces. It is to help the common teen get over having (or getting) braces.

I can see it already. The jokes about me having the need to get braces at such an early age. Fourth Graders don’t get braces. Instead they get cool backpacks and play little fourth grade games, like ‘Oh My Gosh I Broke a Nail.’

My teeth looked horrible. My front tooth stuck straight out, and the one next to it was sucked too far in. The other teeth were just crooked each one facing a different direction. When I smiled the whole world did truly stop and stare at my ugly teeth just like in the song ‘You Don’t Know Your Beautiful’ except her teeth probably were straight and perfect.

I remember in second grade when everyone was losing their teeth and I didn’t start losing mine till I was in fourth grade. I remember talking to my dentist about it. He told me that my teeth would be straighter since my teeth wouldn’t fall out. I was wrong to believe it.

So here I am in fourth grade, (I still have not lost all of my teeth.) standing in the orthodontists office. Some lady had a big camera and was taking pictures of my messed up mouth. Usually it would be a good time of year. In the next week it would be spring vacation. Easter would be here and I would wake up to sparkling Easter Basket overflowing with the cornucopia of candy.

I blinked several times to get rid of the blotches in my sight from the camera’s flash. What was this? The eightieth picture she had taken?

“Okay all done,” The assistant said. “Now we just need to take a mold of your teeth.”

I was reluctantly led over to a dentist’s chair where they put something in my mouth that looked like foam and told me to bite down. I did. With the weird foam in my mouth I took the liberty of going through the tools the dentist uses.

I was very curious about everything. In my later years one of my teachers asked us to describe ourselves using the first couple of words that came to our minds. Mine was Curiosity Killed the Kid. (Of course I didn’t use it.)

I tried not to touch anything that looked like it had been in anybody’s mouth. I found those rubber band like things they put on your braces to make them look bright and colorful. I also found the dentist hand held mirror and looked at my hideous teeth. I shuddered. My teeth were like crooked piano keys. How on Earth would the orthodontist fix these things? I quickly set the mirror down as I heard footsteps down the hall.


The lady came back in and took the foam out of my mouth. “Okay all done. Now I will bring the orthodontist in here so you can meet him,” She smiled sweetly.

I nodded. Okay I must be honest; at that age getting braces didn’t really suck. I was kind of excited, even though I was surrounded by acne faced teens who were complaining to their parents that they would rather live with crooked teeth.

“You must be my two ‘o clock,” The orthodontist smiled. “Now we are just going to get some teeth glue and glue these little tiny brace doohickeys to your teeth. “

“Will it hurt?” I asked. There was the most frequent question asked amongst fourth graders. Now us teens don’t worry about pain. We just do what we want. No pain no game right?

“No,” The orthodontist smiled.

I laid down facing my fear and opened my mouth really wide. He got this big gun looking thing and started pasting the braces on my crooked teeth. I couldn’t feel the glue but for some reason I could tell it was hot. The orthodontist took some braces and pasted them to my teeth, he then wired it.

“There all done,” he exclaimed.

I had seen kids with braces before. When I was five I thought they were the coolest thing in the world. I silently prayed one day I would get them (Believe it or not.) that was always my curse. I am different from most kids because my wishes come true. I am one hundred percent sure that if I wanted a pony a magic portal would show up and a pink unicorn would come, although sometimes fate didn’t get my wish right. If I wished for Chinese food at school lunch, then I would get some horrible food like frozen tacos.

I moved my jaw around trying to get used to the new expensive braces. (My mom always said I had a car in my mouth.) It did feel extremely different to have something on your teeth. I will not lie because some of you might be getting braces tomorrow. It does not hurt until the second week you have had them, then you have to put pieces of wax on your brace to keep that horrid metal thing from digging a hole in your gum and giving canker sores.

I only got braces on the top layer of my teeth. The bottom layer had too many baby teeth and I would start to finally lose them.

“We need you to pick out some colors to put on your braces,” the orthodontist smiled.

I chose blue, blue, and blue, blue! I loved the color blue. Any kind really, so the orthodontist put three different kinds of blue on my braces. It’s not my favorite color anymore so maybe you can guess my new favorite color.

“When can my braces come off?” I questioned.

“When they’re ready to come off,” he replied.

What he didn’t tell me was I’d have them for the next two and a half years!

“You realize you can’t chew ice or lollypops. No gum that has sugar in it, you can’t drink pop unless you rinse your mouth out afterwards, no taffy or caramel, you can’t eat corn on the cob, but you can eat corn, no hard fruits unless they are chopped up, don’t chew on your nails or on the ends of pencils,” the orthodontist laid out the rules.

That really messed Halloween up, because everyone knows you’re supposed to chew on jaw breakers, just kidding. No chewing ice at all, what am I supposed to do this summer? Rinsing out your mouth after you drink soda pop is really lame. Rules are rules. I probably broke them all!

Getting braces is not that bad. I turned out fine. You will too. If you brush and floss them right you won’t have permanent plaque buildup on your white teeth. I know it takes a long time to straighten your teeth. As mother Gothel says in tangled “All good things to those who wait.” It’s true even though she turned to dust in the end I am one hundred percent sure you won’t after braces. The world will truly stop and stare for a while at your gorgeous teeth. For you adults, it’s not wired for you to have braces if you need them get them!

Over and out.