Retainer

Oh, my retainer. Oh, my teal retainer with silver glitter and stars that I still put in my mouth every night after I brush my teeth. You have been with me a good number of years now and what a vital piece of plastic and metal you are to me in my life.

I know it's pretty common for people my age, who have had braces, to still own their retainer. However, the difference between me and them is that most people just need it every once in awhile and can go for long periods of time without wearing it, particularly for occasions where not having to worry about your retainer would be helpful...like camping. Not me though--I'm like a 13-year-old--if I go more than two nights without wearing my retainer I can feel my teeth move and can barely get the thing back on. Why is this? I don't know. I blame it on my wisdom teeth that still currently reside in my mouth.

This isn't a big deal, but it is annoying. For example, the times you go camping and you wake up take it out and look at those handy little side pockets of the tent and think, oh that looks like a convenient place to put your retainer...only to pack up go home, realize you don't have it and then, have to call your in-laws to ask them to search the tent they let you use to see if you can find their daughter-in-law's retainer. Hmmm...you think think this would make me embarrassed, but what I was most concerned about was if I had lost it forever. What would I do!?! I'd have to go to the orthodontist, that doctor guy who I haven't been to in over 10 years, and get fitted for a new one? Then, the fear that by the time that happened my teeth had gone every which way? Awful, awful. Luckily, this didn't happen and they did find it. Whew!

I tell ya, I hadn't had an experience like that since I was in 8th grade and I went and dumped my lunch tray in the garbage can and my retainer was still on it. I have to say calling my in-laws was far less humiliating than searching through the trash for a very aforementioned reason in front of my fellow adolescent peers.