My mouth is EXTREMELY sore. I mean I guess it’s starting to get a little bit better. But when I bite down it feels so weird. Like a millions little compression belts are squeezing my teeth. Now I know what you’re thinking. “Why are you rambling on and on about your oral pain?” Well I want people to know the process it takes for healthy teeth. One of the procedures are braces. And according to my orthodontist and my dentist I am in serious need of braces. I know it’s really weird to write about dental experiences instead of my usual roundup of stories and other things. But this is an experience that about 75 percent of the children in the world need to face. For the good of their our oral hygiene and the sake of your teeth. Let me start from yesterday at exactly 2:30 pm.

“Kanmani, time to go.” My dad snickered. He knew that I hated going to the dentist when I had a really loose tooth. It was one of my teeth at the bottom left. It was so loose that I was able to twist it the entire perimeter of it’s little gap with my tongue. I was really agitated and tenacious about this because the last time I had a dentist appointment, my dentists pulled out two loose teeth of mine. It’s my only phobia. Swallowing something that isn’t supposed to be swallowed. And that included teeth. My dad was ridiculing me. Saying things like “Hehe, I bet their gonna give you a bunch of shots Kanmani.” But I can resist pain. The average human body can handle 45 Dels(units) of pain. But when woman give birth, they feel up to 57 units of pain. That is similar to 20 bones getting fractured, all at the same time. And if that’s what woman go through then I can definitely handle my teeth being pulled out.

We were visiting a new dentist because my old one was meant for adults. What was really cool was that I got a dentist that had a building that was right being my pediatricians office. That’s pretty lucky if you ask me. Anyway, we walked in. My dad spoke to the lady in the front desk telling her that I had an appointment at 3:00 for Dr. Ballancio. We waited for about fifteen minutes, I had to sign a paper with my name, birth date, age, and gender. They finally called my name into the room. The first lady who cleaned my teeth and did x-rays was really nice. “So what are your hobbies?” She asked. “Hi ham hay hartist, hand hay hriter. Hi halso hlay huh hute and I hrite heet husic.” I doubted that she would understand but surprisingly she did. “Ah I see, so you are an artist, and a writer. You play flute and write sheet music as well? Wow, such a talented girl.” She replied. “Hank hu.” I said. “You’re welcome honey.” She let my dad in and showed him the x-rays of my teeth. “She will need braces.” I tried to keep my face straight. She handed my dad papers related to an orthodontist nearby that I could see for an evaluation.

~ Today ~

“Okay Kanmani, I want you to take of your glasses for me and turn around. That’s it, okay now can you sit on the seat for me? Thanks.” I was in the orthodontist’s office. The woman who was with me was really careful when using her hands. Her names was Tiffany and she was very nice. She made sure I was comfortable and when I winced, she always squeezed my hand or gave me a reassuring look of gratitude. We did a bunch of teeth examinations. A lady took me into this room where there were these machines that examined my teeth by spinning around my head like a mechanical halo. She was really nice as well. Okay, now that I think about it everyone was really nice. Like when the Dr. Miller the orthodontist spoke to my dad and I about the braces, he always threw in a joke or two. Tiffany lead me to another chair and told me that she was going to be putting spacers in my teeth. I cringed each time as the little blue rings squeezed into the gaps of my  teeth. When she was done I tried biting down. It hurt. A LOT. It felt like big chunks of food were stuck in my teeth or something. When I walked out my dad handed me a folder with information about the braces. I showed my dad the little blue spacers in between teeth. I sat on the leather sofa Then we were out the door.