Brackets

Ha! You probably thought I was going to talk about the basketball tournament. Screw that noise, because I couldn't care less. When I heard that some of the games were going to be played here in Boston, my first thought was, "Great, traffic and crowds--stay away from the Garden this weekend." Now that might seem harsh, but there's no point in being dishonest about it: basketball just doesn't interest me.

The brackets I'm referring to are the ones the dentist put on my teeth six weeks ago. For the most part things have been fine, except for two that refuse to stay attached. I went back the day after they were first put on to have them redone, and they came right off again. I went back the following week, and that time they lasted three days. After that I didn't even bother calling or going back; I decided I'd just wait until this week's visit, the main purpose of which was to change the wire to a slightly thicker one.

I thought eating was causing the brackets to dislodge, but the dentist said he could see that the adhesive was still on my teeth, so the failure was between the adhesive and the brackets. On my way home from his office on the T, approximately 30 minutes later, I felt one of the troublemakers pop off, and the other one did the same thing about an hour later. So I've dutifully put in the call to the office, and I'll probably have to go back in a couple of days. Fortunately the office is only a 20-minute walk from where I work.

Otherwise, the braces are doing what they are supposed to do. He compared my teeth to the models he had made before the braces went on, and said that my upper bite has widened slightly more than 1.5 millimeters in the past six weeks, which is right on target for expected progress. It might seem hard to believe, but I can feel the difference, and my sister, who works for a dentist, said that she thought she could see a slight difference. In six more weeks the lower braces will go on, and I'll have another progress report.