Marc's Story

Here is an interesting account from Marc of growing up with an interest in orthodontia.

My story is that I never got braces as a child nor as an adult, but I remember that I was really jealous to my classmates who got braces and that I was not so lucky to need some. I even asked my dentist if I do not need to get braces for closing the gap between my incisors, but he just made a little cut into the flesh inside of my mouth above the incisors and said, now they will move agains each others and close the gap. And damn it, he was right. The only chance to get braces, was lost, as all my remaining teeth were totally straight, unlike myself! ;-)

I once remember one very hot experience I will never forget my whole life. There have been several guys at my school and in my class who got braces back then in the 70ties and 80ties. And also some few of them got retainers.

Well, to start with the story: One day we had swimming a the sport lesson, but I had got a medical certificate that I can't participate at the swimming lessons this day, because I had an otitis media. So I had to sit at the tribune at the swimming pool watching the others playing waterball. But then I needed to go to the toilet and so I asked for permission and went to the toilets in the locker room. There I saw just by the way, that one of the guys who had got retainers, had taken them out and left them on top of his clothes which he hasn't put inside of one of the lockers. I was already on my way back to the tribune of the swimming hall, when something inside of me pushed me back to go to take these retainers in my hands and to explore their details. Then I went to the room of the showers and long row of lavatoris and washed this retainers and then I put them into my mouth. Logically they didn't fit well, because my set of teeth was different to the one of this guy, but for seconds I felt like a king. I saw myself with this brilliant silvery wire all allong the upper row of my teeth blinking and I felt like floating on a cloud and if having reached the paradise. Also this feeling of the moment when this transparent upper denture disk of these retainers attached to my palatine, was absolutely great. A "first time" like "the first time" everybody else use to remember his whole like. Then I quickly took out these braces of my mouth again and dried them with some toilet paper to pleace them on top of the clothes of this guy again and went back to the tribune. [I remember that my experience with the brace made me physically excited, but I tried my best to hide it from others. ]

At home I was finally thinking about how to make my own retainers and one day I made a mold of my palatine with plaster I found in our cellar. With this mold I have been thinking what to do and finally I soaked it in oil and put on it some plaster again. So finally I have got a "negative mold". Then I arrangemy teeth that were visible when I smile. Finally I tried out several materials for making the mold with the tips of this wire in it. First I used wax of a candle, but It broke at the firstd a wire in my mouth in the way this wire could go through some very nerrow spaces between my teeth going all along the surface of my frontal teeth, so it could be seen at the whole width of  test to fit in these self-made retainers in my mouth. For the second attempt I used glue, but it didn't work either. The glue shrank while drying. Finally I found a plastic that was easy to melt, but caused a terrible stench in the cellar, but this finally worked. So I had my first "retainers". I never could really enjoy them, as I was almost never alone. Just in the bathroom I put them in from time to time, enjoying me a lot to watch myself in the mirror and there have also been some very few occasions, when nobody has been at home, so I could wear this retainers for several hours, smiling into all available mirrors in the house enjoying my "new" look. As they didn't stick so well to my palatine, I often used some toothpaste to fix them.  Not the best option, as there was alwyas present this taste of the toothpaste.

I am not sure, but I think I was about 15 y/o back then and I enjoyed this self-made retainers for years at least I was about 17 y/o or so. Just imagining if there would have been cell phones with cameras back then. I surely would have taken some dozens of mirror selfies with the other guy's retainers in my mouth in this locker room and I surely would have taken hundreds of picture of myself with these self-made retainers in my mouth. But back then nobody even expected that we will once have cell phones and cameras all the time and so there is not a single pic of myself with these retainers. :-(.

Braces on New Yorker Cover

 The cover of the New Yorker for September 13, 1999 featured a predicament involving a metal scanner and a metal mouth. It doesn't appear that orthodontia really causes metal detectors to go off that often, but it's an amusing thought.

'60s and '70s Magazine Ads

Wells Fargo Bank

1970's

The matter of paying for orthodontia was a common topic of magazine advertisements during the '60s and '70s.  As shown by this '70s era Wells Fargo ad, the ordeal of braces not only affected kids and teens, but their parents who had to pay for them.

Savings And Loan Associations

1964

This 1964 ad from Savings and Loan Associations also deals with funding orthodontia. The ad doesn't specifically mention braces, but reads "Most families believe that a beautiful future is worth a few sacrifices. For 135 years savings and loan associations have been encouraging people to save for the things they want most in life for their children and themselves."

The Savings and Loan ad is recognizably from the '60s, as it features authentic '60s era banded braces.

GMAC

1969

Heres a 1969 ad from GMAC aimed at parents with braces-bound kids, offering financial arrangement to assist in putting tin grins on your kids. 

The GMAC ad wants to help when "your kid's bill comes in from the orthodontist."

State Farm, 1973

In 1973, State Farm insurance asks "who braces you" for those dental bills. 

Want to see more braces-themed magazine ads? Here's a prior Braces Memories post about a braces-themed toothpaste ad from 1975.

    
 

Freaky Friday Braces Memory

Since were looking back at the '70s, here's an amended re-post of a prior braces memory.

Here's Annabel Andrews from the 1976 Disney movie "Freaky Friday," about to get her braces off.  (She's played by a young Jodie Foster, and the braces were actually just a movie prop... but still.)  She hates them and wants them off.

Her braces get quite a bit of attention in the movie.   First, some '70s era school dude asks about them.

Then, her little brother thinks she looks beautiful in them. And he wants some braces for himself as well!

'70s Braces Commercials

 Here's are examples of braces appearing on '70s television commercials.  This post is put together from content on previous posts on this blog.

When I was young kid, braces were much less common, and being told you needed braces was something that was dreaded by kids and teens who had to undergo orthodontic treatment.  This toothpaste commercial from the mid '70s shows the awkwardness of showing up at school for the first time with braces.

Check out this orthodontic Public Service Announcement from the 1970s. In this one, it looks like braces were really catching on with adults. But I remember the '70s, and braces weren't all too "groovy" with teens, much less grown ups. 

Braces in '80s and '90s Commercials

In the 1990s, football star Brett Favre was also known for having braces, which he put to great effect in this commercial for orthodontia.

When I was a teen in the '80s, braces were still stigmatized. This early '80s cheese commercial shows the tendency to hide newly acquired braces by keeping one's mouth closed and smiling without showing one's teeth.

This 1987 commercial shows the odd combination of fascination and embarrassment with which braces were perceived at that time. 

Of course, as shown by this mid '80s commercial, some kids and teens had no problem grinning through their metal mouths. Perhaps it took having a strong sense of individuality to bear one's tin grin without embarrassment.

Marcia Gets Braces

One of the classic sitcom episodes involving braces is the one where Marcia Brady gets braces, and has a hard time adjusting to them. This 1970 episode of The Brady Bunch shows a time before braces became cool, when kids dreaded getting braces, and were often nervous about being seen wearing them. These was the true "metal mouth" era, when when fewer kids had them, and they were much more conspicuous.