My visit to Kansas City

Coming to Kansas City to speak at the Gini Awards for SCL was a true honor. I am not a public speaker by any means and most people who know me tend to know I’m more on the shy side. However, speaking about my experience with SCL and what it has done for me reminded me just how blessed and lucky I am to have been one of the chosen kids to get braces. I didn’t just get braces, I got confidence and self esteem to smile without wondering if people are judging me on my teeth.

Dr. Colby says I should be moving into my last wires shortly and he’s planning on having my braces off “this winter”. That means December-January or March-February It’s sooner than I had planned. I still feel as though I just got them. I mean, I got them April 28th, 2010. Who says I’m ready to have them off? I really don’t mind them.

I no longer need jaw surgery. My bite is pretty “right on”. The only minor problem is my midlines don’t meet up as good as they should, but it’s not noticeable if I don’t point it out. To be honest, my teeth are straight and I can bite better than I ever have before so I’m not too upset about midlines.

My next appointment is on Halloween! It looks like I will be eating applesauce instead of caramel-covered apples!

When an orthodontist comes through your cashier lane

To be honest it has been a while since I’ve last blogged. Nothing too drastic has changed on my teeth. I am still wearing my rubber bands. I have learned they can be quite entertaining to people. Little kids especially get really intrigued by them! As a cashier, I see hundreds of people a day. Of course it’s in my job description to smile. It’s a must for me to show braces because quite frankly I just don’t have a good “closed lipped” smile. One day, a week or so ago, I had a guy come through my lane. I asked him my routine questions and the only thing he replied back with is, “Who is your orthodontist?” I was confused because I had only asked him, “Did you find everything okay today?” He was stunned by my braces! I then went on my spiel about SCL and about Dr. Steven Colby in Edina, MN. I live in River Falls, WI, so Edina is a bit of a drive, but worth it to have such an amazing orthodontist! So far I have loved my treatment. Sure, braces are stereotyped as only for children and young teens, so I do look younger than I am, but I wouldn't change it. I have waited too many years for braces to become sad about people’s comments calling me a baby-face or too old for braces. When did braces come equipped with an age limit?

Back to my customer: He just loved Dr. Colby’s work so much and congratulated me up and down saying, “He is making your smile look just beautiful and your teeth just gorgeous! I am an orthodontist myself so I can see you’re in good hands with your teeth!”

His comments made me really happy and renewed my confidence as a 20 year old with braces. Since all my friends have already gone through the braces stage I am doing this alone. It’s just nice to know there are other people that focus on the end result rather than questioning my age because I have metal in my mouth.

Besides, changing my band colors is like painting my nails. I love picking the color! I decided to try gold once which turned into an embarrassing few weeks. It is not a color I recommend. It just doesn't work well. Yellow isn't too bad, but gold is a NO-NO!

A new experience

For the first couple of weeks, I have to say I absolutely hated my braces! Well, let me rephrase that, not the braces themselves, just the pain. The pain of not being able to eat all the foods I love to eat! However, I have learned to survive, and surprisingly, I’ve been doing amazingly well. There are some lessons I had to learn the hard way (especially that pickles are a NO- NO! And I love pickles). After an incident I had while eating a pickle, I had to play orthodontist because while eating a pickle I bit down hard on a space where there is not a tooth, and my wire came out of the back bracket.

After calling Dr. Colby’s office they said, “Either you can drive to here to have us put the wire in or you can take tweezers and try and get it in yourself. “ I decided to try it, and 25 minutes later—it worked! There are some lessons not worth learning, like chewing gum or eating hard candy with braces. Those are sacrifices that are worth making! I know that I’ve worked so hard to get the chance to have braces and I still love the fact that when I smile, people tell me how much my teeth have changed. I know that this couldn’t be possible without SCL and Dr. Colby. Everyone at both places have been so great with have patience with me during this whole process.

SpAcErS & BrAcEs!

After booking my two appointments, I was able to get spacers in on April 21^st. I didn’t know what spacers were exactly, but man did they hurt! I couldn’t chew too much on my right side for a while because of the pain (FYI to anyone who is getting braces and doesn’t know too much about the spacers…flossing where the spacers are is a HUGE NO NO! I learned the hard way).

On April 28^th I went to my orthodontist appointment to get BRACES! I was still in shock and basically couldn't believe I was finally getting braces. However, while sitting in the waiting room reading a magazine, I became incredibly aware of my guilt that I was one of the lucky ones that had been approved by Smiles Change Lives to receive braces, and I have been lucky to have an incredible orthodontist (Dr. Colby & his wonderful staff) that went above and beyond to make sure I would have the chance to get this treatment.

I think I felt so guilty because my whole life I was turned down for braces, I just never thought I would actually be getting them. Then I went in to get worked on and when Dr. Colby came in to check on me and talk to me he explained to me that he was very happy and relieved that we had gotten everything with my oral surgery figured out and how he was told by many that he "didn’t have to work this hard," and he, "didn’t have to go this far" for me, but he said, “No, I do, because if I’m going to be doing this for Christine I want to do this the right way.”

Dr. Colby then explained to me that, “We achieved what I thought was impossible and after all of this Christine, you will basically be getting about $50,000 donated to you.” I think I was just about to start crying because I was so startled to have faith that people like Dr.Colby are still around. Smiles Change Lives has changed everything about my life, and that kind of feeling is hard to find but never leaves the soul. I didn’t ever think my health insurance was actually going to cover my surgery. I just sat in my chair as they worked on me and thanked God that there are people and foundations that put in every effort to help others who need it.

My next appointment is in June. I have my braces now; I picked a tropical pink for my first color and for once, I can’t stop smiling. Right now I’m still sore from having braces put on and it’s hard to get use to it. I can’t eat too many things, but in time I will be able to eat what I want again. I can’t thank everyone enough who helped my case become what it is today. Thank You!