Where's My Braces?

Where's my braces??
It's gone for good. Yahoo...
What a 1-year-9-month-wait? Erps.. not to mention the $4170-deal. :P

What I naturally and gladly "endured" through :
1) "Hey, you know your age not? Still go put braces?" (The first person asking knows best. She is as old/young as me.)
2) "Ask you ah, why you go put braces? Is it due to vanity reasons?" (The first person asking, later also went to put. Did I inspire him? :P )
3) "Hey, I didn't notice your set of teeth is not well-aligned." (Even from friends of many years. Aiyo, making me feel "why-the-need-to-spend" and have to endure the pain some more. Haha.. )
4) Can't bite anything too hard. The gum region can be really sore. That was really a period of "吃软饭". That was also the period when I mastered the art of swallowing when the hurting is real bad.
5) Can't smile too much immediately after meal, unless you want to appear like a monster-of-sort. I needed a thorough rinse of the mouth first. But, no matter how hard I rinsed, I just cannot guarantee that the oral cavity was cleared of foreign objects. The best way was still to do a quick check in a mirror. So 麻烦 .
6) I acquired a habit of always bringing some tooth-picks with me, and got to leave a set of tooth-brush and tooth-paste at my work place.
7) Eating long uncut vegetables needs practice. On a few occassions, I had one end of the vegetable stuck on my braces and the other end was half swallowed, koo-chee-ing the far deeper end of my tongue (or was that the upper end of the throat). It could be rather comical.
8) The soreness when the tender skin was rubbed against the metallic structure. It took quite some time to get used to it. Maybe the skin had grown thicker in the process.
9) As the teeth were making their 'journey' to re-align themselves, they may create gaps between them in such process. Saliva could just flow out in the most unappropriate time. Eee.. The problem was, before I can get used to the re-alignment, it changed again. I was caught in a few embarrassing situations. Always have some tissue papers at hand may be a good idea.
10) Ulcer. Oh dear. I once had a pretty large one under the tongue. Besides, it was right beside the sharper metallic end of the braces. Every attempt to move the tongue (i.e. when we want to eat or talk) was so 'electrifying'. OMG. Unimaginable. How did I go through that?
11) The wait to remove the braces for good. The 'promise' as to when it could be taken out changed a few times. Haiz.. can be so disappointing leh. Okay la, it was due to the professionalism/perfection the orthodontist wanted to achieve.

Haha..
There were also numerous heart-warming moments.
For example, many *little pals or colleagues who had past- or current-experiences of wearing braces automatically came forward and shared their experiences.

At present, I just got to make sure I have the discipline to wear the "retainer" (getting only next week). That will be truly the final phase.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm now always ready to smile. Just for you? No problem. :)