A Simple Smile Final

A Simple Smile
If there was one worldly communication term that would mean “friend” it would be a simple and honest smile. A smile can always brighten up a person’s day, a person should never be afraid to smile. Unfortunately, I have no confidence in my metal infested smile and so I’m afraid to smile. For the past six years or so (To be perfectly honest, I have lost count) I have endured the childish institution of braces. This adolescent tradition has been incorporated in the process of me becoming the man that I am developing into today. Growing and maturing through out high school and college, I am no longer the baby toothed boy of old. I am very conscious about my braces, which is why I wanted to talk about my special grill. I am always worried that when I meet a new person the first thing that they notice about me is that I have braces. I have been told by a variety of people that “you barely notice them,” or “you worry about them way too much.” That’s easy for others to say and to some extent I believe it to be true, but people do notice them and I can’t wait to be rid of these platinum burdens.
I started my orthodontic treatment on Dec. 6, 2000. I was a sophomore in high school and, at that point, around half of my friends had braces as well or had just gotten them on or off. It was way more common for my peers to have the same type of oral dilemmas as me, which made dealing with braces much easier. It allowed me to be much less conscious about them. There are countless of embarrassing memories involving my braces, hopefully one day the embarrassments will end.
On a day to day basis I barely notice them, just because of the duration of time I have been involved with orthodonics. I go through my day thinking that my teeth are no different from anyone else’s, but unfortunately that is not the case. These tawdry pieces of metal that call my mouth “home,” are not always so subtle. When eating certain foods my “braces awareness” becomes extremely heightened. Foods like pizza, a hamburger with onions, creamed spinach, and peanuts all can cause major complications when talking with people out in public. Of course, functionally, I am still able to talk after eating these items, but as far a being confident in how my mouth and teeth look, let’s just say that I am less than happy to smile. Always having to worry that a chunk of food is right in the middle of my teeth is rather stressful, especially when talking in a situation that I am not very comfortable. For example, I went out on a date with an old girlfriend, we went for pizza. Perfect, easy and affordable I thought to myself. If I only knew that 15 minutes later she would be pointing out that I had mushrooms and pepperoni “stuck all over my braces, HAHA.” Let’s just say that since then pizza dates have been retired.
There are times when I become very aware that my teeth have metal brackets and wires on them. When talking to a girl that I find attractive, my “braces awareness” is on red alert; hiding my braces and consequently, not talking, becomes my main concern. Maybe I am a shallow person, which could very well be the case, but regardless these are some of the things that I think about throughout my day.
Many people have expressed to me that they are not as noticeable as I think, but I still am very skeptical about their comforting comments. Each person that has told me that “they aren’t that noticeable,” has been someone that is relatively close to me. People who are close to me like my mother, a girlfriend, or even close friends are around me enough that, they too have become callused to the appearance of my braces. The more familiar people become with my flaw, the more they are able to look past my metallic smile. The most recent example of this is the relationship with housemates that I met four years ago. When I first met them as a freshman they all asked “why did I have braces?” Now, four years later, they still ask the question “Why do you still have braces?”, but it is asked with a shocking voice because they forget that I still have them. Over time people become callused to the fact that I have them, and sympathetic when my shiny smile is brought up.
I have always wondered if I would get the same response from a person who I had just met. I have wondered if they would tell me that they did notice them or would they say that they didn’t notice them even though they did, just to be polite. Polite? I’m not sure why I used the word polite, it must be because I view my braces as being something negative. Just as some one wouldn’t say “hey, I noticed that you were carrying some extra weight around the midsection,” should people not comment on my braces because it is not socially acceptable? I feel as if people sub-consciously view my braces as being a type of flaw and therefore always redundantly say “you have braces? You can barely notice them.” Every time I have ever asked someone close to me about my braces I get a very positive response. Maybe I am over concerned about my mouth or maybe I am just naïve.
Over the years my thoughts about my braces have changed about as slowly as the progress with my teeth. When I started in braces I was a young teen just starting to develop into a man. Now, six years later and about to graduate college I look back at all the experiences that I have encountered during the time; each experience I have had while in braces. It makes me wonder if things would be different if I had gone through college without the distraction of having braces. Would I have found better friends, would I have not had a great experience playing college basketball, would I have done worse in school because of female distractions, would I be overweight? All of these events could have happened during college if I did not have braces. I wouldn’t trade my college experiences for not having braces ever, not in a million years. Throughout this paper I have talked about braces as a flaw with negative connotations to them. Braces are a flaw, but they are my flaw and I am happy with the experiences and people they have brought into my life.