If you’re a parent, no matter how wonderful you are or how hard hard you try, there will be some ill-fated things you do or don’t do that your children will forever hang over your head. Like the time you headed up the Macarena as a prom chaperone. Or the time you accidentally led them into sewage drain.
In the case of my mom and dad, who otherwise did just about everything else right (look how awesome I turned out!), there are only two things I make them regret:
1) Not teaching me Chinese. (I could be taking over the world right now.)
2) NOT GETTING ME BRACES.
“But you didn’t want them, honey.” Of course I didn’t want them! This is when you use your parental powers to override the decision-making skills of a self-conscious 12-year old. Right?
While my top teeth are not too bad, my bottom teeth are rather wayward, though you can’t really tell thanks to my massive overbite. My grandmother is certain that this unfortunate smile is the sole reason I am old (26!) and unmarried.
I’ve been more or less okay with my teeth through the years, except for the fact that my mouth is perpetually open (though I don’t really know if that’s a ‘dental’ thing or a ‘retarded’ thing), but lately, with all the new technology out there, it seems that there is really no excuse for jacked-up teeth. My mom just got veneers and they look nice. She keeps looking in the mirror and smiling. Why shouldn’t everyone have perfect, beauty-pageant-ready pearly whites?
Then my sister just got Invisalign even though she already had braces when she was a kid (parents always get it right with the second child). And I’m tired of her always being better than me (another post, people), so I’m thinking that I would like Invisalign too!
I’m going to the dentist tomorrow (scurred), so I’ll ask if it’s right for me. I know that you have to take the thing out when you eat, so I wouldn’t be able snack all day like I usually do, which could be a really great thing. And it seems like it doesn’t really interfere with your adult life the way braces would. My sister went through just one workday saying, “Hi thith ith Caritha from Thathi and Thathi (Hi this is Carissa from Satchi & Satchi)” but now she talks normal. And you can’t even see them.
I shouldn’t get too excited, though. As I was researching Invisalign, this is what I found in a Google image search. WTF?
16 responses so far ↓
1 mandy // Oct 7, 2008 at 5:54 am
Whoa that last image is scary! LOL. I had braces for FOREVER, ok it was more like 2 years but when you are 13, thats forever! Good luck with the Invisalign
2 Noelle // Oct 7, 2008 at 6:25 am
My little sister’s teeth are also more perfect than mine. I had a retainer, and promptly pushed my overbite back into place a few years later.
I’d love to get adult braces of some sort, but I can’t even afford a cleaning right now.
3 CC // Oct 7, 2008 at 6:45 am
ugh, i had braces for like a thousand years when i was kid. but, i have to say that as much as it sucked, it’s nice now because my teeth are fine.
i have a friend that uses invisalign and is loving the results! i think you’ll like them. good luck at the dentist!!
4 HBee // Oct 7, 2008 at 8:19 am
1. Oh no for those ducklings!!! How so very sad. I hope that whoever took that picture helped out.
2. Your sister’s name is Carissa? For some reason that reminds me of Clarissa Explains It All on Nickelodean…
3. Good luck at the dentist. I hear those invisaligns are the way to go.
5 bigskygirl // Oct 7, 2008 at 9:09 am
also a lot of twelve year olds who get braces (me) are really irresponsible 15 and 16 year olds who don’t wear their retainers so their teeth are all jacked up anyway. Mine aren’t NEARLY as bad as when I was a kid, but I’ll probably get braces again when our first kid does. Let me know how the invisilign thing works — might have to try that. Oh, and the kid with the plastic things at the end of your post? They only do that twice in the process to do xrays at the beginning and end. Don’t worry. :)
6 m@ // Oct 7, 2008 at 1:22 pm
We should start an Internet fund to get you Invisalign. We can let Jessica do the work. She needs the practice, right? It’ll be an adventure. You’ll have straight teeth at the end, or you will have lost a friend.
7 brandy // Oct 7, 2008 at 5:26 pm
I love that you put in that Biden picture. His smile always dazzles me. As for the second picture? Dude. If I have a nightmare tonight, I’m holding you responsible.
8 Zandria // Oct 7, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I totally agree with you on the “my parents should have made me” thing. I had corrective surgery for scoliosis when **I** made the decision to do so in my early 20s. I could have gotten it over with YEARS before, if my parents had had bigger backbones!
9 rachel // Oct 7, 2008 at 7:17 pm
that picture scares me more than dragonflies. that’s a lot.
10 allthewine // Oct 8, 2008 at 8:12 am
I’m scarred from the last picture! Eek!
I was lucky enough to have pretty straight teeth growing up, but now I have one top tooth that’s starting to shift. My dentist is trying to scare me into getting Invisalign (for one tooth!!) but I think he just looks at me and sees dollar signs.
11 downbeat // Oct 8, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Invisalign’s expensive ish. I hear there’s a generic version of it that’s a little less expensive.
12 alexa // Oct 8, 2008 at 8:36 pm
i have heard good things about invisalign! if you think it would make you happy you should get it!
13 CC // Oct 8, 2008 at 9:20 pm
i’m so glad to “meet” someone else who is messy organzied! i thought i was really weird for that. :)
14 Di // Oct 8, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Did you really never want them? I begged my parents for them. I refused to smile in pictures because of it and even promised my parents if they got me braces I would follow the “do not eat list” the ortho would give me. Now everytime I smile my mom reminds me how much my mouth cost her. :)
15 Julieann // Oct 8, 2008 at 11:47 pm
I remember i begged my mom for braces because the boy i had a huge crush on had them too.
16 carissa woo // Oct 21, 2008 at 11:07 pm
i think your teeth give you character but u definitely should have took up the offer when grandma said she would buy you braces. Maybe you can move to Japan where crooked teeth are “in”.
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