Day: July 27, 2012

We’ve been going to this one orthodontist on and off for about … ten years now. Dude first went to him when he was in third grade because he had too many teeth and not enough mouth – so we stretched his upper palate and MADE room. He was in braces for a year. We then had to take him back when he started high school and put him back in braces for another three years.

Now he has a mouth full of pearly whites. (Well, they could be whiter).

Jazz’s teeth, on the other hand, weren’t that bad. He had room for all of his teeth and they weren’t really crooked enough to justify braces, (we thought at the time), but he had a pretty noticeable overbite – think bunny bite.

We took him to the dentist. He took a mold of his mouth and showed us what needed to be done – Jazz’s teeth were a little worse than we initially thought.

So, we put him in braces in November 2009.

He was only supposed to have braces for two years … it ended up being two and a half years.

They finally took the braces off yesterday.

I left work and went to his orthodontist’s office so that I could participate in the “embarrass the teenage boy” ceremony. The boys’ orthodontist always plays the “Celebration” song by Kool and the Gang, lines up, claps and makes the kids wear funny hats whenever they have their braces removed. It’s quite the fanfare.

A chance to embarrass my teenage son?!? I wouldn’t have missed that for the world. I told the gals at work I was leaving to witness this momentous occasion and to bite my ass if they didn’t like it. (Okay, I didn’t say that last part, but I meant it because HELLO, family first, ya’ll).

Jazz was happy to see me. I hammed it up and danced along with the song and that only added whip cream to his embarrassed pie. Ha!

He’s happy. He’s happy to have them off. He’s happy to have pretty teeth. He’s happy because he doesn’t have to feel self-conscious about his smile. And I think he’s really looking forward to showing off his pearly whites to his band friends … his GIRL band friends.

I don’t even want to know.

But you know what Jazz told me was the best part about having his braces off now? He could eat popcorn again!

It’s all about priorities, you see.