MY BRACES JOURNEY IN NIGERIA (PART 1)

I have always wanted to share my brace journey but for some reasons I have been postponing and procrastinating. I honestly don't know why I have been doing that but I'm happy to announce to you that the jinx is broken! Hallelujah! To make it simple and interesting, this brace journey is going to be in series or parts.

For those that don't know, Braces are devices used in orthodontic process to align, straighten, position and correct teeth. Orthodontics is a field in dentistry that deals with the movement, repositioning and arrangement of teeth. Orthodontists are dentists that specialises on orthodontic practice. There is a clear cut difference between a dentist and an orthodontist. If dentistry is studied say for 5 years, orthodontics is studied further for an extra 2 years- you get my drift?

Growing up, I have always been the odd and weird looking one with unaligned and scattered dentition. Some people noticed and gave me this cold stare, others did notice and didn't seem to mind and some people never noticed. I remembered vividly how I tried using a sharp object in causing an injuring on my gum years ago. I thought my parents would notice and take me to the dentist but they never did. I had already decided to tell the dentist to help in 'filing' and reducing my two front teeth. My teeth were literally flying out of my mouth. I couldn't bite properly, they never aligned! It made covering of my mouth to appear as hardwork.

You rarely see me smiling in a picture. I think this is part of the reason why I don't like pictures. Most times when I do take pictures as happy as I may have seemed before the pix, I always looked like i was 'squeezing my face' (as most people termed it) or I looked like I had something stuffed in my mouth. At the end of day, most people blamed me for ruining their pix and some had the courtesy of just saying it behind me. Either ways I got it and i knew pictures weren't my thing and I only do take pictures when it's necessary or in keeping a memory.

In Nigeria dental braces was/is still not common. Mentally, I have decided whenever I'm out of Nigeria that I was getting braces. It was top on my mental wishlist. As fate would have it, I didn't travel out but a member of my family just suggested it to me and told me to find out how much it would cost. Her friend had it done in the 'abroad' and she was stunned by her progress and end result.

If you are thinking of getting a brace done by all means do, trust me when I say it's totally worth it! Be ready for snide remarks however. Lol. I'm on the slim side and some hit me with "as slim as you are, you still went to tie your teeth", "you want to be a model abi?", "you want to disappear", "which weight are you watching really?". These are few of the comments I get on a regular, a grown man that looked educated actually stopped me one day and said "all these girls that will do anything in the name of fashion, na wa!"- I just gave him that stern look that meant mind your business! Honestly, to have braces done in Nigeria and especially in some areas where it's not common and seems foreign, you have to develop a thick skin! I mean it, thick ponmo skin (cow hide). But hey! Do you, the world will adjust!

Next part loading, here I will take you through the places I visited in the quest of getting a brace done. I ended up once at a dentist that nearly used plier and chisel on my teeth😂😂😂 I was just saying a word of prayer!