Really, Kerry? Who does that?

So, when I was 14 I thought I had lost my last baby tooth. 14?  Yes, I remember being in Beginning Composition and Literature as a freshman in high school and having to ask my teacher if I could go to the drinking fountain because I had just lost a tooth.  She glared at me in disbelief, I showed her the little tooth, and she responded that in her history as a teacher she had never had a student lose a tooth.  Go figure, since most people do that in first grade.

Well, turns out I still had another baby tooth that was pretty comfortable just sticking around.  It wasn't noticeable to the average observer and it didn't really bother me.  Somehow my dentist wasn't concerned.  He figured when it came out the other one would come in and it would all be hunkey dorey (not sure how to spell that since I've never typed it and I'm just using it because it was one of my favorite phrases that my grandma used).  WRONG.  I was 21 and about to leave for India for the summer when I felt something poking through the roof of my mouth.  Not in the middle, but right behind that baby tooth.  Well, sure enough, the tooth was coming in whether that baby was going to leave or not!  Rude, but apparently necessary.  I made an appointment to see the dentist and he proclaimed that there was not much I could do now, so I might as well go to Asia and not worry about it.

So I took his advice.  Then I came home.  Next I moved to Africa.  This catches us up to 6 months or so ago.  The baby tooth was starting to move and a small gap had formed.  It was becoming clear that I should do something, but weddings pretty much trump all else and I wasn't going to try to fit dental work into my wonderfully cramped summer, and I definitely would not have braces in my wedding pictures.

A few weeks after we came back to Rwanda, gum started to grow between these two teeth and Douglas encouraged me to go see someone.  Now, Kigali is a city with lots of people, but not lots of orthodontists.  It is a blessing that many people at our school have lots of connections.  One woman who has been here 5 years told me about Dr. Pineda, an orthodontist/dentist from the Philippines who had put braces on some KICS students a couple of years ago.  She assured me that she was legitimate, so we made an appointment and went to see her the following week.

She said braces, which was no surprise.  The happy surprise came when we realized that they'd cost about one fifth of what they would charge in the States. Score!  God provides in awesome ways.

On Thursday morning I got my last baby tooth pulled from my 24 year old mouth.  They gave me the tooth in a small capsule and I put it under my pillow.  The tooth fairy left me enough money for the down payment of my braces!  What a humorous tooth fairy.

So here I am, braces and all.  For now I have a bite block so that the adult tooth can move forward.  This means that I am unable to chew for a few weeks, so I'll mostly be eating soup!  Yes, it also makes my smile look funny.

This is the excitement in the Bryan house as of late.