The Experience Room Story 04 Pt. 09

Chapter 9 - Or Does It?

They notice that I am making noise and come back into the room. I don't recognize the first girl that I see. The second one is the woman in the wheelchair. I start to give her a smile, but there seems to be something wrong with my lips. They don't want to move as they should. It feels as if they are sticking to my teeth.

The woman in the wheelchair rolls to the end of the treatment chair and turns to face me, waiting as the girl pushes a stool over beside her. The girl begins to talk to me calmly. "I don't know how much of our conversation you heard, so I will start at the beginning. Please let me explain as much as I can before you try to ask any questions. There was a mix-up earlier today that you were a part of."

I give her a nod of agreement, some of what I heard beginning to make sense.

"We had a busy day and fell behind in our appointments. It was my job to assist whoever needed me and the last person that I was assigned to work with was in a hurry trying to keep up. He was assigned to a patient in another room and didn't verify that he had the right patient. I made the mistake of not checking the records completely and just took his word that you were the patient that we were supposed to be working on. I apologize if this upsets you, but when I saw the condition of your teeth, I just assumed that you were here to get braces put on. This side of the office is usually used for our orthodontic patients."

"I did look at some of your files and saw that you had all the required scans done that a regular orthodontic patient would have. When we started to fit the bands around your back molars, they fit as they should and we just moved on with installing the rest of what I thought were supposed to be your braces."

By this point, I am running my tongue over the inside of my teeth and finding the metal that is around my back molars. I am not as shocked as I feel I should be at finding them there.

"We didn't realize what had happened until we had finished installing them all and curing the glue. My boss came to check on why it was taking us so long to get to our next patient when we should have been done already. That is when the mix-up was discovered. I want to point out here that I am not using the terms accident or mistake."

I see the woman in the wheelchair cringe at the word accident, but she stays quiet.

"I don't see what has happened to you as an accident or a mistake. It should be taken as a mix-up."

She hands me a mirror and I get my first look at myself. My lips look slightly puffy but not enough for anybody to notice. I close my lips tightly and puff out my cheeks, freeing them from the metal that I feel against the inside of them. I slowly open my lips and watch, fascinated, as my teeth come into view. As the bottom of the metal brackets appear, followed closely by the archwire, held in by silver ligatures, a smile begins to spread across my face. Rather than being upset or angry about what has been done to me, I am surprised at how I look. It becomes apparent to me just how misaligned my teeth really are. The archwire doesn't seem to have a straight part anywhere, going up and down and in and out between each metal bracket.

The woman in the wheelchair watches my reaction closely, a smile spreading across her face, revealing her pink ligatured braces to me. It seems as if she already knows what my answer will be to what is about to be said.

The girl continues with her explanation. "As you can see, there is an opportunity for some improvement to your smile. I can offer you a few possible solutions to how we can resolve this situation. We can get you back here as soon as possible to remove them. There isn't enough time to do it properly today. You would be stuck wearing them over the weekend. I could remove the archwires now so that there would be no pressure on your teeth, but it wouldn't be very comfortable having your lips snagging on the edges of the brackets."

"My next offer is to let us treat you at a greatly reduced cost. Since you already have the braces on and it was our mix-up, there would be no charge for what has already been done to you. We are even offering to let you pay for each appointment as you have them or finance them free of additional charge."

"If you choose not to keep them on and don't feel confident in our services, we would be willing to pay to have them removed at the orthodontist of your choice."

By this point, I am running my tongue over the brackets glued to my teeth and grinning at my reflection in the mirror. A stray thought runs through my mind. I wonder what my boyfriend would think if I came home with braces on my teeth, especially if he didn't know that it was only for the weekend. "Would you mind if I took the weekend to think about it? This is a lot to take all at one time. For now, I think that the best thing is to just leave the braces as they are until I can make a rational decision. I do like the colour that you choose for the things holding the wires in place." I direct my gaze to the woman in the wheelchair. "I think that I would have chosen a brighter colour if I had been here to actually get braces. Probably something similar to the colour on my nails."

They both move closer to me and take a good look at my nails. The woman in the wheelchair looks at the assistant and smiles. "I think that we can do something about that. We don't have that particular shade, but we do have something similar. If you don't mind me asking, where did you have them done? That is one place that I definitely need to visit and soon. That is spectacular work. She must be very talented."

I can't help grinning as I think about the guy that did my nails and the effect he had on me. "It is actually a guy, and if you would like to meet him, I can introduce you to him. I have a feeling that you will enjoy meeting him. I have to stop by his shop on my way out to pick up some bags that are still at his salon."

The lady in the wheelchair gives me a big smile and replies, "Lean back in the chair and we will take care of changing your ligatures to a more desirable colour for you. This time you will be able to experience what an orthodontic appointment should feel like when you are awake for it. If you are anything like me, you will enjoy it. While she is doing that, I will just go and check to make sure that all the other patients are finished for today. If you wouldn't mind waiting, I would like to accompany you to the salon."

The idea of laying back in the chair and having the ligatures on MY BRACES changed is causing a rather unique and exciting reaction, one that I had no idea about. As the chair begins to recline again, I slowly run my tongue over the front of my newly braced teeth, exploring the brackets and the archwire running through them, pausing briefly when I feel a slightly longer length of wire where it goes up and in to the next bracket. I am being mentally and emotionally turned on by MY BRACES. My body is responding to the feel of the metal that has unintentionally been placed into my mouth.

The chair stops moving and I look over at the assistant who is going to be changing the ligatures on MY BRACES. She turns to the cabinet beside her and takes out a hoop with lots of coloured rings on it, then hands it to me. "Pick out what colour you would like. I can also do more than one colour if you want."

I look through the collection of rings, all separated by colour like a rainbow. My eyes switch between the rings and my fingernails, and my brain starts to send strong signals to a variety of places in my body. What colour and shade do I want on MY BRACES, the ones that I am determined that I am going to keep. I find a few shades of purple that are close, but can't decide which I want. I smile at the girl beside me, feeling my lips slide over the metal brackets so recently placed in my mouth, and ask her, "Can you help me decide which shade is best?" I show her which shades I am considering and wait for her opinion.

"The first two are nice although the darker one will show a bit more. That last one is a favourite with the kids and teens. It glows in the dark and is reactive to U.V. light. The adults don't usually choose that one. The kids have told me that if they are in a grocery store and pass by the bug zapper, the ligatures light up." She picks up the blue light that they used to cure the glue on MY BRACES and shines it on the ring. The purple ligature lights up and is a perfect match to my nails.

"That is the one that I want. It matches my nails." I can't keep the excitement out of my voice. "Please use that shade on my braces." Even the 'my braces' comes through as I say it. I open my mouth, ready to have her change the ligatures on my braces.

"I do have one suggestion. If I put a twist in the ligature, it will slow down how much the braces will move over the weekend. There shouldn't be much at all, but it is better to be safe." she picks up a model to show me what she means about twisting the ligatures. It looks as if there are little x's of colour on each bracket and the colour does stand out more.

It is hard to keep the excitement out of my voice as I reply, "If it will help, please do it."

She goes to work on my braces, removing and replacing the ligatures one at a time. Since I don't remember what it felt like the first time they put them on, it is an interesting experience. She has a gentle touch, yet still moves fast, getting done just as the lady in the wheelchair returns. When she rolls into the room, the assistant motions back to the hallway and they both leave the room. They get into a quiet conversation that I can't hear, the lady in the wheelchair looking happier all the time. By the time that they are finished talking, she has a huge grin on her face.

"I'm going to let my assistant lock up behind us and then clean up a little. If you are ready, I would like to go with you and meet the guy who did your nails. Are you satisfied with the colour that she put on?"

I realize that I haven't seen how I look with the ligatures changed. "She just finished as you came back. I haven't had a chance yet." I pick up the mirror and look at myself, feeling my lips sliding over the brackets until the new colour comes into view. I don't have to say anything. The smile on my face says it all. "I like it better than the other colour. I wonder what the guy at the salon will say when he sees my braces?"

"Why don't we go and find out." She has a pair of crutches attached to the frame behind her, painted the same colour as the chair.

I swing my legs over the edge of the treatment chair and stand up. The three of us make our way to the front doors, where the assistant apologizes for the mix-up and thanks me for being understanding about what has happened to me. This is the first time that I have seen her smile and she has a beautiful smile, most likely the product of the orthodontic treatment. As I am trying to reassure her that I understand what has happened and how it happened, I take a closer look at her teeth. They aren't quite as straight as I first thought. The top and bottom edges of her teeth are even, but several of them are just slightly too far in or out and don't line up with the teeth on the other jaw.

I shift my gaze to her boss and say, "Would it be possible to have her as the assistant when I return? I feel comfortable with her and like how she has handled things."

The smile on the assistant's face gets wider, and when she turns to her boss and says, "I would appreciate the opportunity," I see that there is a metallic sparkle on the inside of her teeth.

"Make a note in her file that you are to be included in any further visits that she has with us," then the lady in the wheelchair turns to me and asks, "Is there anything else we can do for you today?" I can't think of anything, so say, "No".