12 years later

When I was 14, braces were placed on my upper and lower teeth. It was also the awesome time of my life where puberty had not quite hit for me, so I was this chubby girl, with awkward curly hair and braces. You can think I'm exaggerating, but ask Dan... Even he has a good chuckle over the pictures and my awkwardness in my pre-teen years.

Anyways... I wore those awesome braces for 2.5 years. I had teeth removed, I wore head gear and had countless rubber bands placed in my mouth.

At 16 my braces were removed and permanent retainers were put in on the back of my teeth. From that moment on, my tongue has rubbed against that wire and adhesive that has kept my teeth in place for 12 years.

Last week my retainer snapped on the bottom. Today I went to the orthodontist and had the old retainer removed, and I was prepped for a new one that after impressions were done on my teeth, won't be ready until Monday. Which means, that after 12 years, I get to feel the smoothness of the back of my bottom teeth for a whole weekend. I get to floss like a normal human instead of looping around the wire. People, it is weird. I feel like my teeth are so fragile. That any moment they could break because there is no wire supporting them. In all honesty, I'm really looking forward to getting my retainer back on. The annoyingness of flossing with a retainer is worth it, if it means I can have that wire on the back of my teeth again.

But I felt it needed to be documented that 12 years later, I got to feel the back of my teeth. Just weird.

PS. I also am super glad puberty did kick in and I learned how to use a hair straightener.... For reals though.