"Hello, Mallory," greeted Dr. Rivera cheerfully, "Have you thought about
what colour you're going to switch to?"
"Hi, and no, I've decided to stick to clear."
"That's boring. What about pink and clear?"
"Nah."
"Blue and clear?" suggested Dr. Rivera, " Green and clear?"
"No!"
"Okay, okay. Clear they will be, then." Replied Dr. Rivera with a sigh;
gesturing towards the 'arm chair' I'd grown accustomed to, " Sit down."
I sat- no, lay down in the chair and opened my mouth at her instruction.
"Did you bring your toothbrush to school, Mallory?" she asked as she
examined my teeth.
"No," I replied slowly.
"No wonder, look at all this plaque on your teeth!" she said, showing me
some instrument with what seemed like chewed-up rice on it.
"Ew," I said, scrunching up my face in pretended disgust.
"Yes, disgusting, isn't it?" she asked, and without waiting for an
answer, " If you keep this up, you'll have to wear braces for a longer
period of time. Maybe 30 months instead of 24, or something like that."
"Why?" I asked in alarm.
"Well, the braces are unable to push the teeth back properly because the
plaque is blocking it from doing so. Also, when you finally do take the
braces out, you'll have little white squares on your teeth where the
brackets used to be. The rest of the tooth will be yellow."
"Yuck."
"I've got to see a patient at 5.15, so I'll have to hurry this up, ' aid
Dr. Rivera with a glance at her watch, " Open your mouth."
I did so, and she started using some sort of pliers to pull out the top
wire. After a couple of seconds of twisting, she finally extracted a
semicircle-shaped wire from my mouth.
She repeated the process with the bottom wire, and soon I could feel that
there weren't any wires on my teeth.
Soon she began using her weapon to twist and turn in mouth, I figure to
pull out the top part of the bracket, the part that could be the colour of
your choice.
Once those were out, she began to attach new wires onto my teeth.
The next thing I saw was Dr. Rivera and her nurse were playing 'Hot
potatoes' with pliers. She used the pliers to 'apply' the bracket cover (or
whatever it's called). She was twisting the wires, and before I knew it,
she said that it was done.
"Okay, Mallory, you're done." She said, rolling back to a table behind her to retrieve a folder, "I want you to bring a toothbrush to school everyday. If not, gargle vigorously at least 10 times."
"If not," she continued, "I'll just have to get my assistant to call you everyday during lunch time to make sure you brush your teeth in school."
I remained silent at the thought of Dr. Rivera's assistant calling the school office and them broadcasting, "Mallory Pike, kindly go to the toilet and brush your teeth." Or something like that. The boys would be in fits of laughter!!!
"All right, all right, I'll bring my toothbrush to school. And, if I forget I'll gargle."
"Good."
"Bye' Dr. Rivera,"
"Bye'"
5.15!
5.15! Yikes!
"Mom! I'm going to be late!"
"Okay, okay, just let me get my wallet out . . ."
I shuffled my feet impatiently. By the time Mom was done, it was 5.20 already. We practically sped to Claudia's, and I just managed to get into Claudia's room when her digital clock flipped to 5.30. Kristy frowned at me, but called the meeting to order anyway. Phew!
"Okay, Mallory, you're done." She said, rolling back to a table behind her to retrieve a folder, "I want you to bring a toothbrush to school everyday. If not, gargle vigorously at least 10 times."
"If not," she continued, "I'll just have to get my assistant to call you everyday during lunch time to make sure you brush your teeth in school."
I remained silent at the thought of Dr. Rivera's assistant calling the school office and them broadcasting, "Mallory Pike, kindly go to the toilet and brush your teeth." Or something like that. The boys would be in fits of laughter!!!
"All right, all right, I'll bring my toothbrush to school. And, if I forget I'll gargle."
"Good."
"Bye' Dr. Rivera,"
"Bye'"
5.15!
5.15! Yikes!
"Mom! I'm going to be late!"
"Okay, okay, just let me get my wallet out . . ."
I shuffled my feet impatiently. By the time Mom was done, it was 5.20 already. We practically sped to Claudia's, and I just managed to get into Claudia's room when her digital clock flipped to 5.30. Kristy frowned at me, but called the meeting to order anyway. Phew!
