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Getting old braces taken off 8 years after the fact

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ladyrainbow

Junior member
Joined
Nov 22, 2018
Messages
1
I went to the dentist for the first time in 8 years today. It ended up being far less emotionally taxing than expected. Unfortunately I have to go to an ortho next week because a traditional dentist doesn't work with braces (a possibly obvious thing that I didn't really know until today.)

I never wanted braces, my mom took me in at 14 to get a routine check up and I ended up having the next appointment scheduled to get a pallet expander in. It ended up being one of the rare cases where it was actually all covered by our rather strict state healthcare, so my mother brought me back and forth every few months or so to have work done. For 2 years we made every appointment.

My mom followed her now-ex husband to North Carolina when I was 16. I was left in our old house with my step-uncle and his wife and newborn. These were not great people to say the least, constantly leaving the baby alone in the house so I had to take care of it when I got home from school, "borrowing" money from my paycheck, bickering all day and night. It was a toxic situation. And they wouldn't drive me to work, let alone 3 hours away to the closest ortho who worked with state healthcare.

I was 18 when I finally dug myself out of that living situation and by then, my state healthcare expired. All the brackets in my mouth had been sitting there for two years doing nothing. So i sat down with a pair of nail clippers and set to work. I took out the ones that were just glued on, but was not able to get the ones that go all the way around the tooth. I have 6 still in, now at 24 years old.

I'm hoping that the ortho I was referred to won't have too much to say about it. Iwas also curious if anyone else had similar experiences with braces left in too long or unfinished ortho procedures. I live in a fairly big city now and the dental assistant said that it was the only time she had heard of someone taking their own braces off. I'm looking forward to getting tjese brackets off after all these years :)
 
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