Braces

[chuckb]

I know so much about the music of the period thanks to a contolling orthodontist and anal retentive mother. In 73 and 74 I was one of the losers that wore his headgear everywhere (including high school). I mean braces were miserable enough, but I was called 'horsehead' (headgear bridle reference) until I graduated in 77. Found a small clique of music fans (and fans of oter substances). During that time I spent untold hours listening to music, especially the Dead (bootleg tapes) and the Stones. Surprisingly, when I got to college, (braces, no headgear) I was respected for my music knowledge, got a DJ slot at the radio station, and was cool. Still some latent anger about that forced headgear high school experience.

[John G]

I had the braces in my freshman year in 1975-76, but the retainer I wore was mad of plastic as opposed to those "headgear" model you wore and it was very expsensive - as I found out whenI broke one my parents made me save money pay for the replacement!!

[sloth]

I also had braces from 1970-1973
Horrible memories~
Not like the ones of today~
The dr.s pulled half my teeth because of
overcrowding and then wired me up and
twisted every few weeks~
The pain,the embarressment and that l
ousy retainer that all the food got stuck in~
I would never do this cruel treatment on any
of my kids ever!!!

[Jan]

I wore braces in the 70's. No headgear though. Didn't have to have teeth pulled either. My kids think they had it bad with braces, if only they knew.

[goldenfire]

BRACES!! Yuck! I, too, wore them. Talk about all those rubber bands. That was worse than trying to sleep with the headgear. I kept breaking them & trying not to yell out in class.

[Mysty]

Like Sloth, I had the awful metal braces and they removed lots of teeth because of overcrowding, also went in every few weeks to have the wires done, re-tightened, twisted and snipped. Also had rubberbands, no headgear though. I did a plastic globular type of retainer for my bottom teeth before the braces, to force my jaw forward (as I had a underbite). I was 9 (1974) when I got my braces and got them off in my senior year of highschool (1983). Ugh! Needless to say, at age 41 my teeth are no longer straight, didn't last very long.

[Susie]

Oh gawd...how I dreaded my braces. I had to stay home from school each time they were tightened. Painful was an understatement.

Once I tried to rip them out buy deliberately popping the brackets off. I only got halfway before my mom caught me and whipped me with her shower/shampoo brush.

I can still hear it now..."Brace Face" "Metal Mouth" "Trekie Tracks" "Choo Choo Moo Moo". I used to turn BRIGHT red from embarrasement after the onslaught of insults, and then they would start singing "...little red caboose...woooo woooo..." and make the chug-a-lug sounds of a train coming down the tracks...sheesh...kids can be cruel.

And when I would smile, my bottom lip seemed to stick out abnormally. And my top lip would get stuck over the top ones till I manuvered it back into position. And I had big lips to start with, so this didn't help matters. One girl told me I had n-word lips.

And the band instructor made me play the trombone. He said with my lips and the braces "enhancing thier size", as he put it, that it was perfect for me. (I'm a GIRL for God's sake...what kind of instrument is a trombone for a girl's sense of self esteem...not girl-ish at all) It was that or the baratone. He said if I didn't like it, he could always put me on the tuba. I told him what I thought of that, and had to spend the next month in in-school suspention in a little trailer on the edge of the school grounds.

I remember having to carry around a travel style toothbrush to get the food out of my braces after lunch. I hated looking at other kids with food stuck in there braces. It was gross.

I had to cut up my apples and cut the corn off the cob. I didn't mind that part too much...permission to play with a knife.

They never gave you enough wax...the inside of my mouth is still scarred up, even after all these years. Every morning I had to pry the inside of my mouth off the metal.

Once my dad slapped me in the face for mouthing off and the insides of my lips and cheeks split right open and nearly right through to the outside flesh. Those babies were sharp! He didn't anticipate that and felt so bad, although, I'm sure I felt the worse for it.

My daughter needs braces soon, and I feel sorry for her.

I refused to wear my retainer, and soon some of my teeth started to go back out of whack. So much for 3 years of angish and all that dough my parents put out.