Friends With Braces

Here are some memories of my memories of my friends who had braces. The names have been changed to protect their privacy.





Kyle was one of my best friends. I first met him in freshman year ofHigh School. We were both similar in some ways. Both kind-of quiet and (admittedly) also kind-of odd. we were both misfit types.

There were some differences between Kyle and me. In particular, Kyle was a very skinny kid who was also a bit on the short side. In fact, after I got to know him, he always voiced concern about being very skinny and having skinny arms. Kyle also had glasses, something I didnt get myself until a year later. The glasses, along with the skinny, short body, and his quiet odd nature, gave Kyle a clearly nerdy appearance. I noticed that when I first saw him in class.

Well, shortly after our freshman year started, I was in class, minding my own business. Kyle was in the same class seated a few seats away from me, very quiet. Somehow, we got to talking about something, probably music. And then, I saw it clearly: amidst all his other adolescent plagues, along with his shyness and nerdy glasses and skinny physiqe was a mouth packed with braces, both uppers and lowers.

After a while, Kyle became less shy around me. We became pretty good friends, and remained so until the end of our years at school. Quirky kid, Kyle. He was one of those quiet nerdy kids who longed to be more "rebellious" and "on the edge" than he really was. This was the '80s, and Kyle was a major fan of heavy metal music: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Poison, Kiss, etc.. Kyle's parents were always strict with him, though, and that, along with Kyle's typically shy nature, prevented him from being as outgoing and "wild" as he would try to be. His hair was always in a state of being "just about' to grow long... which is to say it was always heading toward metal-head long hair just before his parents kept making him cut it. of course, it didnt help that he also had a mouthful of braces and four-eyed geeky glasses.

You could see Kyle was conscious of his appearance, and shy about his mouthful of metal. I can't remember when Kyle finally got his braces off, probably in his Sophmore or Junior year, but I'm sure it was a major relief to him. After he got them off, I remember his commenting to me that his parents would always drive him up the wall making sure that he used his retainer.



Jeff was a brash red-haired kid with a mildly, very mildy Southern country accent. Although I knew him for a few years before, I really got to know him when he sat accross from me for a whole year in aHigh School art class my freshman year. He was very "regular guyish" in his style. This was in the '80s, so he was into all the typical '80s bands certain guys were into: hard rock like Motley Crue and Ratt, but also stuff like Billy Idol, Prince (in his Purple Rainera) and Duran Duran. 

Anyway... yes, Jeff wore braces too, on his top teeth only. He had his braces since I first saw him back in middle school, around the seventh or eighth grade. In fact he seemed to have them on for a while when I first sat with him in that art class. Sometimes he would even talk about his braces... not too often, but occasionally. He would comment that theyre "a pain in the ass."  He would also complain sometimes about his home headgear wear. At one point, Jeff mentioned that his ortho told him that he either needed to wear his headgear to school, or get braces on his lower teeth. Jeff, who did have a capacity to get pissed off at things and comment about it in his mildly redneckish speech, made it clear that he wasnt going to do either. Apparently Jeff got his way, and got his braces off toward the end of that year.


Another friend I had was Chris. I got to know him during my senior year. He was one grade below me (a junior). He was a bit taller than me, maybe 5'11 or so, and had a sturdy thick build but with a lot of chubbyness, with a big stomach that looked like it benefited from quite a few buffets. Although he didnt look like a typical jock, Chris was on the wrestling team at our high school, although not one of its more illustrious members.
Chris also had the trinity, the triple whammy, of adolescent plagues: ance, glasses.... and braces!!! With a falttop haircut, he looked kinda like a teenage Drew Carey with braces.


I remember Eric when he first showed up at school. He was transferred from another school in the middle of the school year. We didn't know each other too well, but I remember Eric for his braces. Mainly because he had this ritual whereby he would seeminlgy always be attaching new rubberbands onto his braces. And seemingly always in the same class. I know that using elastics is part of orthodontia, but Eric seemed to always be in need of putting in new elastics in this one class. He would take them out of this little ziploc bag that had plenty of them, and taking one out, he would stretch it between two fingers, open his mouth, and hook the rubber band onto his braces. Many years later, I would learn the same technique.