Braces and Creepy Teeth

When I was in 3rd grade, my friend Carroll and I used to bend paperclips to make ourselves fake tooth retainers to wear around.  We loved pretending to need them.  We were so cool.

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When I was 3 years old, I got sick.  I had a high fever, and the left side of my face became very swollen. I felt awful.  The doctor found that the problem was being caused by my teeth.  My parents got me to the dentist, who sent me to an oral surgeon.  After a plethora of poking, lancing and shots, 4 teeth were extracted.  All of my upper left chompers were gone.  I had to (and still do)  chew everything on the right side of my mouth.  

It didn’t seem odd to me, and still doesn’t.  

I had/have: Regional odontodysplasia  (aka Ghost teeth)

You don’t need to read all of this...

Regional odontodysplasia or odontogenesis imperfecta is an uncommon developmental abnormality (Sof teeth, usually localized to a certain area of the mouth. The condition is nonhereditary. There is no predilection for race, but females are more likely to get regional odontodysplasia. The enamel, dentin, and pulp of teeth are affected, to the extent that the affected teeth do not develop properly. These teeth are very brittle. On radiographs the teeth appear more radiolucent than normal, so they are often described as "ghost teeth".[1] Most cases are considered idiopathic, but some cases are associated with syndromes, growth abnormalities, neural disorders, and vascular malformations. Permanent teeth usually show effects of regional odontodysplasia if the deciduous tooth was affected. Many of these teeth do not erupt with an increased risk for caries and periapical inflammation.

It is extremely rare.

As I grew up, so did my mouth and with nothing to hold my teeth in place they began to float in the wrong direction.  I guess that is normal tooth behavior.  By the time I was in 7th grade my smile looked like a chess board.  Tooth, space, tooth, space, tooth, space etc.  My teeth separated themselves from each other.  On the bright side, it was VERY easy to floss. 

The changes also caused me to have slightly lopsided grin.  The left side of my mouth would always creeps up higher than the right, which causes my left eye close up a bit.  I still have to focus when taking a picture to minimize the off-kilter nature of my smile.  

Anyhooo,

In 7th grade I got braces!  My sister Robyn and I got them the same day.   I was stupidly excited about it.  They were so cool!  Until the pain set in, and my lips kept getting stuck to the wires.  It was a long process for me.  The orthodontist was like cowboy using his wire lasso to pull my teeth back into place.  Ooooh, so much discomfort.  I had to wear rubber bands in an attempt to fix my bite. (FYI- my bite cannot be fixed, it is impossible.  It is, to this day totally messed up.  My dentist has to do all kinds of crazy things to get accurate x-rays and molds of my mouth.) My gums were swollen the entire time.  I wore them for over 3 years.  During that time I built a lot of character.  (My mom would say that everything builds character, especially those things that are difficult)  

Strangely enough... during my “character building” years, I had a tooth appear in the upper left area of my mouth.  It was a mystery tooth and everybody was surprised by it’s magical reveal.  I could tell that it was a monster tooth and that would not be staying very long BUT, my dentist thought it would be best to try and save it.  SAVE IT?  FOR WHAT? It was an evil hitchhiker in my mouth and I wanted it kicked out.  

The dentist sent my to a endodontist, who proceeded to "save" the demon tooth.  He spent hours working and when he “finished” he made me a follow-up appointment to come back for more tooth salvage.  

BUT, within 10 hours I was rushed to the oral surgeon to have the loathsome fiend extracted.  My roof of my mouth  had begun to swell up and was close to cutting off my ability to breath.  The tooth was gone and I was back to "normal".

Below: This is not my monster tooth, but it looked similar.  Although, mine had 5 creepy roots exploding from the tooth.  How would you like that in your mouth ?

(Someone else's Demon tooth)

As my sophomore year ended, my time had come.  The orthodontist had done all that he could.  The braces came off.   This was not the end of my dental problem, but it was a great chapter of life to close up.  

3 years later Robyn and I both had our wisdom teeth removed on the same day, YAY!  

Back when I was Sue Heck (Part 1)

When I watch The Middle,  I am reminded of myself.   I love the character of Sue Heck.  She is happy and kind... but terribly awkward.

During my junior high & high school years I was her.  I was incredibly clumsy and awkward. 

I am planning to write a few different memories from my awkward years.  Here is one...

One weekend during my freshmen year, I decided to dye my hair blond.  I used my mom’s bottle of peroxide and a blue powdery substance (not sure what it was). She would buy them in bulk and keep them in the cabinet under the bathroom sink.  I mixed it up and applied it to my hair like shampoo.  (I didn’t have any idea how to  proper apply it)  I waited until my hair looked blondish, and rinsed it out.  My hair was yellow... although that is not the worst part.  The problems really came during the upkeep.  Every few weeks, I would once again try the method of smooshing the dyeing agent into my hair.  Each time the ends got brighter and brighter, much lighter than the roots.  After many months I decided that I needed to stop trying to make myself blond.  Since my mom only had blond dye, my only option was to let it grow out.  Months passed, I had about 3” of brown roots, and then every 2-3 inches was a different shade of blond right down to the bright yellow, very brittle ends.  

Now, as a freshmen I made the top choir at my high school.  Unfortunately, that was not saying much.   The music program was not good at all.  Everybody else in the choir was at least 2 years older than me.  They were all a bit odd too. So, even though everyone was a little weird in the choir, I still didn’t fit in cause I was so much younger than them.  Practices where after school on Thursday and this interfered with ... you guessed it, my cross country practice :)  

I ran, and I sang.  And I wasn’t very good at either of them.  

Towards the end of the school year.  My choir was asked to sing the national anthem at a school rally.  This was terrifying for me.  I didn’t mind singing with the choir at concerts, choir competitions (which we NEVER won) or at locations around the community.  Indeed, that was much better than singing in front of my classmates.  WHY, why, why?

So we sang.  It was actually pretty good.  Everybody cheered and as the crowd quieted down we walked back to our seats.  Once everybody was mostly quiet, someone yelled out “HEY, SKUNK HEAD!”  It didn’t take me long to realize that the yell was aimed at me.  I quickly made it back to the freshmen area and sunk into my seat.  I could feel my face turn a crimson color.  So embarrassed. 

Over the last few weeks of school  I tried to minimize the calico nature of my hair.  Pony tails looked bad, braids seemed worse, so I wore hats whenever possible.  As soon as school was out, I cut my hair at chin length. This got rid of a lot of the blond.  Before the end of the summer I was able to cut off the last bit of it.  I started the the next awkward year with chin length hair, no blonde :)