Who am I?
- I am a mature woman (age mature, not always attitude mature).
- I have 2 children who will soon start their own individual braces journeys that I will blog about here too.
- I am afraid of dentists.
- I have loads of fillings in my teeth.
- I am possibly in mid life crisis – my son asked me if I was trying to look like a teenager; my more gracious friends have commented that I look younger; I’m hoping a modified diet will assist me with some weight loss!
- I work for MOG, so you are getting an insider’s view on braces.
- I promise to always be objective in sharing my experiences.
- I have spent the past 2 yeas following braces forums, conducted a patient survey, and talked to patients. So I have heard the best and worst about braces experiences…not always a good thing!
A dental phobia!
I was one of those poor unfortunate children who had a very very bad experience at the dentist. You know back in ‘the day’ when children were given laughing gas and their teeth were drilled and filled at will. In fact I think my first dentist was the original Dr Drill-n-fill on which the popular play-doh based game was modelled.
That left me with a mortal fear of dentists, dentistry, mouths, teeth…the only cure? Having children of my own to take to the dentist and my wish to not imprint them with the same phobia.
So my teeth have quite a bit of reinforcement in them already, and even the cold water jet fills me with the quakes! So my parents did see the irony of me starting work at MOG, having a bit of a mouth phobia as it was!
Well it has been 2 years since I started working with MOG, and about 1 month after I started seeing files of exposed snarling records photos I realised just how much it made me squirm. My first orthodontic conference was a hoot – wall sized images of gums, snarls and juicy red mouths….but I digress…the best part about a visit to the orthodontist is the fact that there are basically no drills, no needles, no cutting….that really makes coming to work stress free for an dental phobic like me.
Prelude to braces
My much younger siblings had braces, but due to economic constraints during my childhood I missed the boat, so a few small issues needed some attention. Nothing major, but now that I am in ‘the biz’ as it were, my ‘quirky’ smile seems more ‘quirky’ and being increasingly surrounded by those that have achieved said look I thought it was at least worth investigating.
So I trotted off for an ‘OPG’ and ‘LatCeph’ dental x-rays , the most difficult part was being told about 5 times to stand very still, very still, don’t even move…hmmm, I asked, “how do young children manage that?”
I regretted my decision to wear my 2 inch heels as I tried desperately not to wobble while the machine moved around my head.
I collected my x-rays and headed back to visit MOG and Dr Levinson to see what needed to be done.
