Vol. 2 No. 1
EMBRACING BRACES Two long strips of metal wire, ends pointed, poking into gums cutting them up, food stuck in them, catching your tongue when trying to speak, broken brackets, rubber bands... the list of annoyances, embarrassments, awkward situations and funny anecdotes goes on and on. Though braces are used by orthodontists to straighten teeth and place them specifically, there is no shortage of embarrassing, awkward, hilarious and endearing stories of students and their braces. For some students, braces and their implications become an essential part of their memories from growing up. Junior Kenzie Giese had her braces for four years and five months. For Giese, the
20 - Aureus
“I learned to love it because it was a huge part of me.” - Junior Kenzie Giese
way that her braces made her look initially made her insecure, but grew into a fond memory of her time with braces. Before she had braces she had no gap in between her front teeth on the top row, but after having braces for six months her teeth began to spread. It grew consistently, but stopped growing for about a year and a half at which point she had a considerable gap between her teeth. “I was embarrassed because I had to walk around with a huge gap that I didn’t start with. I learned to love it because is was
a huge part of me for eighth grade,” Giese said. Others with braces remember the way that having a foreign object on their teeth made their speaking change. Sophomore Josh Meitz had braces for a year and a half, but most distinctly remembers the first few days of having them on. “Right when you get [braces] on you have a lisp, so when I talked in Harkness discussions I would have a lisp, which was awkward and embarrassing,” Meitz said. The pain of having braces, changing the wires, adjusting them and tightening them is something that most with braces can recall. “The first time I got them adjusted there was a kid who went in front of me while I was waiting, he started saying ‘This is the worst pain I have ever felt