Brace Face & Four Eyes

This is Jeremy. My sister calls me Brace Face now because I had to get braces in January. I've actually been wearing invisiline for about 3 years now. I originally got invisiline because I have this weird bite problem where my bottom teeth are digging into my top front teeth and have created these notches that are almost exposing the nerves. So my choice was to either get my teeth aligned correctly to keep the problem from getting worse, or I end up with lots more problems down the line. So I got invisiline because it was only supposed to be 6 months to a year. My orthodontist kept saying things were going right along as they should, but I got skeptical after the 2nd year. Then, they stopped making appointments with me. 

(Jeremy has braces in this picture)

After 3 months of not hearing from my ortho and not being able to call their office, I decided to look online to see if anyone else was having the same problem. Turns out the guy is a crook! A complete fraud. He took his Dad's name, who was a real orthodontist, and pretended to be one himself. All this time he duped me into thinking I was actually wearing Invisiline. Instead, he was making the molds himself. No wonder they hurt so much.

So I joined a class action lawsuit against him. I probably won't get any money from that since the guy has gone bankrupt and lost his house and everything. But it turns out that since I paid in full with my credit card, and I can prove that he didn't complete the job, our Discover account paid us back for everything we paid the fake ortho, so that's nice. 

Now I have a real orthodontist. He says that if I want to have my teeth move correctly, it's best to do it with real braces. So I got them on the next week. The first month was terrible because they put these cement risers on my back teeth so that I couldn't bite down all the way. Only two little places in the back of my mouth would actually touch when I tried chewing. This meant that I went about 4 weeks only eating soup, smoothies, yogurt, mashed potatoes and old people food like meatloaf. 

Luckily, I can bite down better now and eat more normal foods. It's still really annoying though because I constantly bite my lips. And food gets stuck in them all the time. And Tanner thinks it's really cool to smack me in the face so that the inside of my cheeks get smashed into my braces. I can't wait until he's 14 and has braces because then I can get some proper revenge.

Now it's SarahLynn writing. Jeremy is brace face, and I'm four eyes. I've actually had glasses and contacts since I was 18. But in Feb 2012, I lost my glasses and couldn't find them anywhere. I kept thinking they would show up, but no luck. I am near sighted, so it only becomes an inconvenience to not have glasses when I'm driving, going to the movies or looking at the view. So I let time go by without replacing them (and I don't wear contacts because they irritate my eyes).

In the summer, I had time to get new glasses, but it turned out I needed a new prescription. Of course, that took a few more months to do. Not because of the Dr. It was because of life just making it very difficult to actually go to an appointment. I think by August I had one, so in November we chose some glasses from Walmart. But then Jeremy realized that if we waited until January, our insurance would cover most of the costs. So in the end, I went an ENTIRE year without seeing anything far away.

The first day that I wore my new glasses, I was shocked at how much I was missing out on. There were at least four signs on my way to work that I literally noticed for the first time. I could see the shapes of the clouds in the sky. I could see the leaves individually on trees. I didn't have to squint to read the clock in my classroom. I could see the facial features on my students that sat in the back row. It was amazing! I'm so grateful for my glasses and I never want to go that long without seeing again.