Take out your fucking retainer, put it in your purse

[sovay]

I've had to get a year's worth of braces because the alternative was my teeth grinding into one another at angles that were causing them to splinter and would necessitate things like crowns and lots of composite if not realigned. The effects of this on my daily life are substantially nastier than I was led to believe and I don't know what the adjustment period is going to be like. Things inside my head are kind of terrible right now.

Hana Vojáčková's Milk & Sea. I think I love best the Icelandic mermaid with her trout-silver tail and the rill of turf-breaking rock that looks like a stream, but there is something about the German mermaid waiting for her bus, or maybe just watching the nighttime, commercial sea, that is a story all in one frame. I shouldn't write it before I write something with trees. Right now I am having trouble believing I will ever write anything, full stop.

Comments

[sovay]

Have you had orthodontia before?

Retainer in fifth grade. Headgear in seventh. Braces until, I think, eleventh grade. The jaw-clenching and grinding caused by the chronic pain of the last eight years wrecked most of it. These are Invisalign braces, which I was recommended for a variety of reasons including that they would interfere less in my day-to-day life; this appears to be entirely untrue. I know it's the first day, but right now I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to make it through the next year without ceasing to eat entirely.

[phi]

That's a lot of braces. Sympathies.

I've been avoiding a trip to the orthodontist myself, even though my dentist keeps telling me I should. I've already had one round of composite that just chipped right off again.

[sovay]

I've already had one round of composite that just chipped right off again.

That is actually what started this whole carnival. The composite on my front teeth kept popping off. I got it replaced two or three times before I was finally told it was the effect of my teeth shearing into one another (at the same angle that had required both teeth to be substantially rebuilt with composite two or three years ago) and that the problem would persist so long as my teeth remained in this jumble, not to mention further complications down the line. So, braces. So, I spent a lot of this afternoon crying and now I'm talking about dentistry on LJ. I hope your outcome is way the hell simpler!

[phi]

That actually sounds a lot like the boat I'm in, except I haven't forced myself to get on the phone and make an appointment with an orthodontist yet. I had a year and a half of a jaw expander in elementary school prior to six years of braces. I'm really not looking forward to a repeat of the experience.

[sovay]

That actually sounds a lot like the boat I'm in, except I haven't forced myself to get on the phone and make an appointment with an orthodontist yet.

Dammit, I refuse to be Patient Zero for the orthodonics outbreak! Do you want to get together in the next few days and make sushi candy, which I can probably even eat if I remember to bring a toothbrush for afterward?

[phi]

Dammit, I refuse to be Patient Zero for the orthodonics outbreak!
If it helps any, I've been putting off calling an orthodontist since grad school, so if the orthodontics outbreak is contagious, some other unknown must have been Patient Zero who infected both of us.

Do you want to get together in the next few days and make sushi candy
Yes, I do! Email forthcoming.