this might gross you out, but bear with me

Last Thursday, i went to the dentist, and the hygenist who cleaned my teeth was so zealous in her work, that after tugging on my permanent bottom teeth retainer for about 30 minutes (see photo) she managed to loosen it enough for one side of it to break off 2 days ago. So i had to go to an orthodontist to get the other side yanked off as well. Also, i had to shell out some serious cash for a new, clear plastic, nighttime-only retainer.

The stuff you see on the retainer is actually dental cement and although the orthodontist now thinks i'm completely crazyy--i did ask to keep the yanked out retainer. Why? you might ask. Well, the reasons are relatively simple: I had 4 years of miserable braces to straighten out my snaggle-teeth and I cried every week when i would visit the orthdontist. It was not a great experience, but this was not due to shoddy workmanship or anything like that. Apparently, they had to move teeth from the bottom of my feet up to my mouth. Or at least, it seemed like that.

Anyway, when i got my braces off at 15 years old, they installed this thing on my lower teeth. Cemented it in and there it stayed for the past 17 years. I could elabortate, but i think you get the picture: this thing has been a part of me for a long time. Not only did my teeth feel strange and naked (and i felt that they were instantly shifting back into old patterns of behavior), but I felt like i had unwittingly let something go from the past. Isn't that stupid? Oh well, i don't care if it's stupid. I'm a sentimental person. And this yanked retainer made my mind skim over the last 17 years and take assessment.

I wore my new plastic retainer last night for the first time. It felt strange. Change can be good, I suppose, but I woke up feeling like I'd been chewing on a credit card all night.