Mouthwear Stories: Glasses and Headgear

This story was retrieved from the old M's Mouthwear website from an internet archive. Glasses and Headgear

What was it like to wear glasses and headgear? Well I can't really react to wearing glasses. I've worn them since I was a toddler and I can't remember not having them. They're just a part of my everyday routine. I don't remember any teasing or ever feeling different because of my glasses. In fact, about the time I got my braces and headgear, a classmate was told he needed glasses. He was distraught about having to get them and I distinctly remember thinking, "What's the big deal?" And, as I recall, it really was no big deal for him. The braces and headgear were another story. I got my braces just before I started seventh grade. I remember being nervous about starting school with all that hardware in my mouth. I was part of the last group of braces wearers to get full bands. Tingrin really meant something then. In my seventh grade class picture, I had my lips sealed carefully to avoid showing my metal mouth. I dreaded the first day of school but for the most part my friends were cool about the braces and didn't say much after the first few days. I think that was partly because quite a few of them knew they would get braces too. I guess headgear is something you don't forget easily. I can still remember the appointment at which it was fitted. It was the Thursday after Thanksgiving. I always went to the Orthodontist on Thursday. I'm not sure why but every appointment was on Thursday. I went in the mornings for my banding and for major arch wire changes and after school for checkups and minor adjustments. Usually I went every two or three weeks. On this particular morning it was first thing in the morning, about 8:30 a.m. I knew I'd get to miss first period at school and maybe second. After the Orthodontist checked my braces, he told the assistant to fit my facebow. I didn't know what a facebow was and didn't even know I was supposed to get headgear. I had only seen a couple of kids wearing headgear when I came in for adjustments. So fitting the facebow was a surprise for me. The assistant took her time sliding the facebow in and taking it out to adjust it. When she was finally satisfied with the fit she took it away then returned and fit it into the tubes on my molar bands. Almost immediately she picked up the navy blue neckstrap and slipped it around my neck and hooked it to the facebow. She used some kind of gauge that looked like the scale my granddad used to weigh fish to check how hard the strap pulled and then she adjusted it tighter. She told me to wait for the doctor to check my headgear and disappeared. I sat there for what seemed like a long time before the Doctor came. By then I had discovered that this headgear thing was not any fun. Boy was that an understatement. The Doctor checked my headgear and took it off to adjust the facebow then hooked it back on me and told me that the assistant would show me how to take it off and put it back on. She did and I practiced for maybe 10 minutes. It wasn't easy to get the facebow into the molar tubes but hooking the strap up was not hard at all. Then it was back to the chair for instructions. The Orthodontist came and explained the headgear to me and my mom who had been called back into the treatment room. I can almost hear his voice as I think about it today. He said because my malocclusion was as bad as it was I would need to wear my headgear all the time. He did say I could take it off for meals, brushing, bathing and for gym at school. This registered a bit slowly and he was almost through with the instructions when I realized that he had said wear it all the time. How did it feel? At first I think I was stunned; then scared. Nobody wore a headgear at my junior high. I remembered the teasing I got about my braces when school started and I was ready to try anything to get out of having to wear the headgear to school. I tried. I asked if there wasn't any other way. I tried to be persuasive but to no avail. He just said wear it all the time. By the time mom dropped me off at school, second period had started. I really didn't want to go into that school building. I tried the old upset stomach excuse but mom never bought that one and she didn't this time either. She just told me that I'd have to let the other kids see my headgear eventually and that I should just get it over with. By the time I got my excuse from the office and walked to my classroom, I was nearly sick to my stomach. Nervous is probably not an adequate description, fear and anxiety seem appropriate. Of course when I opened the door, every eye in the classroom was looking my way. The silence was deafening. Then there were the giggles. Fortunately the teacher was strict and there was no real opportunity for teasing until we changed classes. The teasing was relentless. Almost everyone had to make some remark. I think I disliked the remarks about how cute it was from some of the older girls more than any others. But none of the comparisons to a horse's bit or the nerd/geek type remarks were enjoyable. And the one that I had least expected was the one about trying to be the Orthodontist's pet. Like I wanted to wear the thing. As aggravating as the teasing was, the biggest problem with wearing the headgear all the time was the constant reminder of its presence. Every time I looked down I saw the facebow. Sometimes I caught a glimpse of it with my peripheral vision and was distracted. I couldn't turn my head without being reminded of the headgear because of the extra tug the neckstrap always gave. During the first week, the dull ache my molars felt was a distraction from studying or paying attention in class. It diminished after a few days but returned each time the neckstrap was tightened. I developed the habit of grasping the front of the facebow with a couple of fingers and pulling outward to relieve that pressure. Pushing in on the outer arms of the facebow also gave some relief. I also quickly learned that keeping my head bowed could relieve some of the pull of the headgear. (I still notice kids doing this when I see one wearing headgear). Other thoughts about wearing headgear. You don't eat many snacks when you wear a facebow all the time and it's almost impossible to drink from a glass with that facebow in the way. Even a water fountain is a mess if you're not careful. I got laughed at quite a few times when I bent over the water fountain and sprayed myself good when the water scored a direct hit on my facebow. You can sleep on your back. They didn't have those pillows with the hole in them back then and there was no way to sleep comfortably except on my back. Oh yes, I discovered that sometimes it hurt my teeth just as much to take my headgear off after I had it on for a while as it did when I first put it on. And after it was tightened I did everything I could to get some relief from the relentless pressure (chin down, push in on ends of facebow arms, pull out on facebow) and one teacher griped me out for fidgeting with my braces. None of it was fun but the thing I remember most was that for almost two years I was the kid with the headgear. Not a single other kid wore one to school when I did. I saw kids at the Orthodontist's office with headgears but either they didn't have to wear them full time or their parents didn't make them. And no matter where we went, people always stared and a few asked what is that thing. Little kids always asked, kids my age usually laughed or the polite ones ignored it. My friends usually ignored it especially after the first month or two. One guy who went to the same Orthodontist as I did would try to stop the teasing when somebody started. I later found out that he was scared that he'd have to wear one to school too. Of course he never did. I played seventh grade basketball. Nope, couldn't wear the headgear in games or practice but I spent a lot of game time on the bench with my shiny facebow and blue neckstrap securely in place. If we were ahead, I got to take the headgear off and play part of the last quarter. Did it bother me to sit on the bench with my headgear on? Well, it really bothered me more to sit on the bench than it did to wear the headgear. In baseball that summer, I wore my headgear even in games. I played left field and wasn't really in any danger of taking a ball to the facebow or anything else that would have hurt. It was hard to get the batting helmet on with the headgear on but I got pretty good at that too. I guess after a few months, the headgear became like my glasses, it was just natural to put it on and wear it. Of course, I didn't sleep with my glasses on. I also clearly remember the day just before Christmas after wearing that headgear all the time for two years when the Orthodontist said I only needed to wear it 14 hours a day. It was, up til then, the best Christmas gift I ever received. And almost a year later I got to trash it for good.