GOING STRAIGHT
It’s never too late for braces
‘I SPENT THREE DECADES NEVER EXPOSING MY TEETH’
And they’re off! After a year of wearing teen-style fixed braces, affectionately known as ‘train tracks’, I can finally feel my teeth again. I haven’t smiled this much in years. Seriously – I’ve spent the past three decades never willingly exposing my teeth, thanks to a dodgy front incisor that had been filled, crowned and turned into a failed implant. It’s why (as a magazine health and beauty editor, before I launched my own lifestyle brand, JOGB Living) I hated wearing lipstick. But mounting pressure to embrace selfies and videos for work meant I was increasingly faced by my own grim expression. It was that, and an ever-widening gap (unhelpfully highlighting the hated incisor), that got me into the dentist’s chair – somewhere I’d avoided for five years. After three root canals, a crown falling off (mid-gym class) and a new implant (let’s just say ‘fixed to my gum, not the bone’), can you blame me? So I found myself in the office of the warm and effusive Dr Uchenna Okoye of London Smiling, crying a river of tears over her jacket and hiding my mouth with my hands as we talked. Braces, she gently suggested, would be a start. It wasn’t an option I’d considered before, but while I’d been fixating on a single tooth for so many years, the rest of my otherwise healthy teeth had been twisting and shifting out of place – it happens to us all with age. It was this that really needed fixing.
As it happens, adult braces are on trend – treatment has gone up by 75% in the UK in the past five years alone*. In fact, over
a quarter of us are having some kind of cosmetic dentistry done. ‘We’re all under such scrutiny now, thanks to selfies and social media, that many of us feel we have to “do” stuff,’ says Dr Okoye. ‘Cosmetic dental work has become part of the norm.’ Braces, she explained, can take years off. They support your face better by pulling everything back into alignment and the end result is a lot subtler than veneers, as you’re still looking at your own teeth. ‘If you’re ever considering a tweakment, try doing your teeth first,’ she adds.
Dr Okoye gave me the choice between wearing removable transparent moulds (the best-known of these is Invisalign) or fixed metal brackets. While the latter are more noticeable (think Ugly Betty) and have to be tightened and adjusted every couple of months, they work quicker to align the teeth, and once they’re on, they’re on. Removable moulds must be worn for a minimum of 22 hours a day, but can be taken out, if needed – to eat or drink in public, say. Knowing this, I opted for the train tracks – I just didn’t trust myself to put the removable kind back in again. Dr Leone Giacosa, one of Dr Okoye’s specialist orthodontists, pushed, prodded and glued 14 tiny ceramic blocks under a UV light to my upper teeth, then wove a thin wire in between and tightened it in place. Quicker than the time it takes to have a blow-dry, this was my kind of dentistry! Fast. Effortless. And yet…
‘Your teeth may be sore for a few weeks,’ Dr Giacosa said, and he wasn’t kidding. Every tooth felt extremely sensitive and ready to fall out at any moment. Even eating a lettuce leaf was agony. ‘Your speech will be affected and you may develop a temporary lisp,’ he added. Spot on, again! I could barely speak on the phone or order a drink for the first week. I also became self-conscious about my mouthful of metal at the supermarket checkout, in department stores and especially while dining out. ‘Eating may be a challenge,’ he said. ‘No nougat and toffee. Avoid hard nuts and crusty baguettes. And cut back on red wine, curry and coffee, as they’re more likely to stain due to brushing becoming harder to do thoroughly.’ Spices are in just about everything I eat and turmeric, in particular, became a big issue towards the end of my treatment, when the metal wire was swapped for clear plastic and what was underneath became more visible. What Dr Giacosa didn’t warn me about was kale. Oh, the embarrassment! Like seaweed clinging to the hull of a boat. You can’t floss while wearing braces, so I kept a toothpick and mirror on hand at all times. Soup was my only true ally. Worse than the seaweed was the pain caused by rough metal edges and exposed wires that repeatedly grazed (then tore) the delicate skin on the insides of my cheeks. I’d been forgetting to apply dental wax on to the offending sharp edges. Once I remembered to use it, my braces became much more comfortable.
Within six weeks, the gap at the front of my teeth had completely closed up, spurring me on through the sensitivity, the cut skin and the many repeat visits for re-tightening, until little by little, I almost forgot the braces were there. A year on, and what felt like a life sentence at first has flown by and, wow, has it been worth it. Sure, I was self-conscious at times; some strangers and colleagues stared while I spoke, but I didn’t care. Now, my teeth are all neatly aligned and, as for that incisor, I have a temporary bridge ready for implant prep. Confidence-wise, I haven’t quite learned to love red lipstick yet, but yesterday, in the supermarket, a complete stranger complimented me on my beautiful straight teeth! Excuse me while I grin a little.
‘I COULD BARELY SPEAK ON THE PHONE OR ORDER A DRINK AT FIRST’