Kevin Linder

I am finally metal free! I have just gotten my braces off today. First a little back story.

I had braces when I was a kid, however I had a single tooth that was turned sideways. I never got it turned around nor fixed. I never knew why my parents never got it done. Perhaps we ran out of time or money or we moved before I can get it taken care of.

Fast forward to college when my parents gave me some money to correct the tooth. Instead I paid off some bills. The next time I saw them, they wanted to see the work and I had to tell them I didn’t do it. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I was so bad in debt that I couldn’t use the money for my tooth when I was having a hard time paying bills.

About a year ago I was finishing my acting class and realized I really needed to get my teeth fixed if I was going to be serious about being an actor. So I went in to see about fixing it and got lots of suggestions. I decided to not go the quick way of getting veneers and covering up the problem. I went to an orthodontist and got their opinion. They suggested a few months of "braces" (which they said I was a candidate for invisalign) which should fix my teeth and also my jaw problems. Seems the years since wearing braces when I was a teen but not wearing a retainer has caused my bite to go back to the way it was. Ugh!

So I signed up for Invisalign and started the process. Got "buttons" placed on my teeth so the plastic trays could grab my teeth and turn them. Then had to get used to having plastic retainers in my mouth all the time. Then carry around a little clamshell case to hold them whenever I need to eat. For the longest time I would excuse myself to the bathroom to take them off or on for fear of being seen or disgusting people nearby. Eventually I stopped it and took it off at the table, if someone didn’t like it they could kiss my ass as far as I was concerned.

It started off with just being for only a "few months." However after adding a few months here and there due to this or that problem, I found myself in the dentist chair after seven months all the "buttons" off my teeth and looking in a mirror at my problem tooth that hasn’t moved…at all.

I’m pissed. I’m pissed at the dentist for not doing her job, my parents for giving me bad teeth and just about anything I could think of. What I was most pissed off was at that little fucking tooth. It was a mini me. It was stubborn and would NOT be moved. Which happens to remind me of myself. But I was not about to let a piece of my own bone break me down. I looked at the dentist and told them to put the metal wires on.

"Make me a metal mouth", I said.

Soon I had full metal braces up top and an invisalign on the bottom. I felt like some terrible hybrid. Part Borg, part recycled water bottle.

After almost NINE months of this, I finally got them off…and that day….was….TODAY!

I beat that damn little tooth. It has moved into place and is straight. Of course it’s a small tooth so I still have more work to do to get the smile I’ve waited for since I was a little kid.

I am over the hump now. So close to getting the smile I knew was always there and waiting to come out and show the world.