Payton Gets Braces!

Payton has been seeing the orthodontist for about two years now, and they finally thought that it was time to put the long awaited braces on her. So, today, this morning, she went off to the orthodontist with Jasmine (they were both allowed to take off school, their parents had to go to work (though Payton's mom took off).

Jasmine walked over to Payton's cabin (on the farm, their cabins are next to each other, so it wasn't a long walk) after breakfast to see if her mom & her were ready to go.

"Hi Jasmine," Payton smiled.

"Hi Payton, don't worry, today will be fine," Jasmine assured her. She could tell her friend was nervous.

"Thanks, I hope it'll be fine too. I'm so scared it's going to hurt," Payton replied. Payton was afraid of shots, needles, and anything else that looked like it would hurt.

Soon, they were in the car and already at the orthodontist's office.  

"Hello, please tell your name and age," the nurse said.

"I'm Payton and I'm 10," Payton told her, before Payton's mom stepped in to sign paperwork.

"Girls," Payton's mom said, "Please go sit down, I'll be over to sit with you as soon as I get this paperwork straightened out."

Jasmine and Payton went to sit down on a red bench. Payton immediately looked into the room, where she could clearly see one of the orthodontists (it was a practice with two doctors) putting braces on a boy that was a couple years older. She saw that the doctor was sticking some sharp looking thing in his mouth and telling him to bite down on it.

"Oh no!" Payton cried, resisting the urge to look away, she had to see what was going to happen to her.

"Relax, Payton, it'll hurt less if you just think about something else," Jasmine told her gently. "Don't get all worked up about it. It'll only take about half an hour and then you'll be fine. Besides, it'll probably only feel sore for today."

"I can't go in there!" Payton cried, nearly in tears.

"It'll be fine. I'll come with you and stand somewhere nearby. Your mom will be there too. Besides, the sooner you get it over with, the sooner you get that ice cream that your mom promised us!"

"I guess," Payton smiled, thinking of ice cream.

"Payton?" the Nurse called. "Right this way, please." The Nurse led her to a reclining dentist chair, where Payton was instructed to lie down. Jasmine was right - Payton's mom and Jasmine sat in two chairs nearby.

Payton laid back on the chair, trying to soak in the last moments of a free mouth. According to her mom's last meeting with the orthodontist, Payton would have her braces on for an estimated year to two years.

Soon enough, the orthodontist came over. His name was Dr. George.

"Hello, Payton," Dr. George greeted her, "I can see you aren't too excited for this putting on the braces appointment."

"You're right, I'm not," Payton mumbled.

"Well, it'll all be over soon enough. You'll only feel a tiny bit of pain, and it will be quick - if there is even any!" Dr. George was obviously trying to make her feel better, but Payton felt worse. The doctor hadn't even denied that there would be pain as he put the braces on.

"We can always numb your mouth a bit," Dr. George prepared a needle looking thing and shot it into her mouth.

"Ouch!" Payton cried.

"See how fast it was?" Dr. George smiled as if he was proud of himself.

"Yes...sort of," Payton felt the urge to cry. She didn't want braces and she didn't want to feel any pain.

Dr. George worked and worked, and told her to bite down a few times, and did some teeth stuff, and soon he was done. Thanks to the numbing, Payton had barely felt a thing, though it still had felt a bit weird, it wasn't nearly as bad as what Payton had imagined. Besides, her braces looked pretty cool anyway.

"Now that the braces are done, we must arrange that headgear that we got your face and mouth molds for," Dr. George went back into his office and came out with a small box. After opening it, Payton recognized it as the headgear that she had gotten molds for.

"Is that going to hurt?" Payton asked.

"Maybe a bit for the first few days, but nothing serious. It shouldn't even hurt as bad as a mild tooth ache," Dr. George assured her.

"Okay."

Dr.George arranged the headgear on her, and strapped it around her neck.

"Take it off only to eat, drink, or you can take it off for 10 minute increments if it feels really uncomfortable, but keep it on the next couple days to get it molded in and feeling comfortable - in other words, keep it in to get your mouth used to it."

"Okay," Payton replied.

"All done," Dr. George smiled. "The numbing should wear off in the next half hour, and you may experience some drowsiness and pain, but otherwise, you are good to go. Here is some wax if you need it. In the last appointment we discussed how to use it, remember?"

"Yes," Payton smiled now that it was over, "Thank you."

"Of course. Now come back and see us next week, we'll need a quick follow-up."

"Okay," Payton said, not particularly happy that she had to come back so soon. "Bye."

Payton walked out of the room and off to go get ice cream with her friend Jasmine and her mom.

(We will be checking up on her next week - until then, we'll be following Kirsten through the process of getting her tonsils removed - it seems like this year has brought lots of interesting events into the lives of the girls on AG Farms).

(Start expecting more photo stories and things from me - I am homeschooled and have had some good free time lately).