Insights Into Teens

Insights Into Teens: Episode 0 "Braces"

Joseph and Madison Whalen Season 1

Joe and Madison start their podcast series talking about the challenges and issues with getting braces. We discuss the process, the pain, the complications and dietary restrictions and how Madison was able to cope with all of that to ultimately learn to live with braces.

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An original podcast by a husband and wife team of self professed pop-culture geeks. It is a discussion about all things entertainment from movies and music to television and pop culture. We examine some of the more obscure aspects of the entertainment industry.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to insights into teens, a podcast series, exploring the issues and challenges of today's youth. Your hosts are Joseph and Madison, Waylon, a father and daughter team making their way through the challenges of the teenage years.

Speaker 2:

This is episode zero of insights into teens. My name is Joseph Waylon and I'm here with my cohost Madison Waylon.

Speaker 3:

Hi, Lana said, how old are you? I am 12 years old. Not nearly a teenager, but I will be 13 soon. So,

Speaker 2:

so clearly we are blatantly lying with this podcast. It really is not insights into teens just yet.

Speaker 3:

Well, nearly a teen. So,

Speaker 2:

so when do you become a teenager?

Speaker 3:

October of 2019

Speaker 2:

so you're pretty close to be much, but I think for our purposes that's probably close enough for us. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I think today we were going to talk about braces, so it might be worthwhile to give it a little bit of a overview as to what this podcast is about, correct? Yep. So give me in your description of what this podcast is going to be about.

Speaker 3:

This podcast is basically going to be my dad asks me questions about my life. I answered them honestly. And we're going to have a specific topic for each episode.

Speaker 2:

And today's episode is braces. How old were you when you got braces? The first 11 or 11. And was it painful getting braces?

Speaker 3:

Well, it was slightly uncomfortable. I mean it was painful afterwards, um, especially when I was eating. So it was just uncomfortable when they put it on, but it was painful afterwards.

Speaker 2:

So describe what it was like getting braces. Did you like, why did you need braces?

Speaker 3:

Well, my first off and the main reason people get braces, my teeth weren't straight. Another reason I had to go to my orthodontist was because before my teeth were right on top, my top teeth on my bottom teeth were right on top of each other. And like instead of my top teeth being in front of my bottom teeth, so I had to get on up. I had to get, um, an appliance on my, for the top of my teeth so that they can get pushed forward. So I will be able to have a normal um, mouth. Pretty much.

Speaker 2:

So in a normal situation you would have a slight over bite with your top teeth over your lower teeth? Pretty much. Okay. Now by the time you went to get braces done, how you transitioned out of all your baby teeth and how all your adult teeth?

Speaker 3:

Uh, not exactly. I had a few more baby teeth left and I actually had to get some pulled out when I had my braces because I have another problem on the bottom I my teeth where I need a lip bumper.

Speaker 2:

So when you did that, you had to have a couple of teeth extracted. Was it the same doctor that did the braces? Who did the extraction?

Speaker 3:

Uh, no. I actually had to go to my dentist and I wasn't able to get them pulled out at my, at my orthodontist. So I went to the dentist.

Speaker 2:

So you're seeing, or you were seeing at least two different doctors for your, your teeth to get your braces set? Yeah. So when they put the braces on, what w what, what did they put on? But did they attach what? Explain to me. Explain to the audience. Uh, exactly what they did with the braces.

Speaker 3:

Well, basically they had to first put on the brackets, so they basically had the small brackets they put in the middle of my teeth and they had a light that would shine for a few seconds on each tooth because it was like this type of glue they put on my teeth beforehand. And to let the glue dry, they had to put the light on it and that was one of the most uncomfortable parts of it. So.

Speaker 2:

So the light actually is what they use to cure the glue to make the glue stick at that point?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Well the glue was sticky anyway, but they just had to let dry it. That's kind of interesting. What was painful about that? Um, nothing really painful about that. It was just very uncomfortable.

Speaker 2:

Is it because they had so much stuff in your mouth? Is, did they have to open your mouth for, other than it was comfortable, what was uncomfortable?

Speaker 3:

Well, pretty much whenever they had to put like they actually put the lighter guns, the bracket, which was kind of uncomfortable because it kind of pushed against my tooth, which didn't, wasn't very comfortable. Okay. And all this happened to you after you had how many teeth extracted? Um, I actually didn't have any teeth extracted at the moment, but after I had gotten my braces when, um, my limb from bumper was way out of place when they were trying to put it back in, after they took it out, they realized that they couldn't put it back in because of some baby teeth, so I had to get them extracted. So I never really had any teeth extracted, um, before I had to get my birth sir.

Speaker 2:

Oh, so you're the first fees of your braces, you still had your baby teeth in that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I gotcha. Okay.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

What else? What else was of note with that first

Speaker 3:

phase of getting the braces? Put it? Well, they had to take a small break after getting my bottom all set. Then after that break I was able to see my mom. Like I was able to talk about it. I said it wasn't really painful at first, but it started getting a little more painful after that. So yeah. So how long did the whole process take to get all that stuff done? Um, I honestly didn't take, keep track of time. Bud took maybe an hour or two hours. Okay. Well not cause it was like 1238 by the time we finished and I don't remember the actual appointment time. I think it was like nine, so probably about two to three hours. Okay. So after you got all that done, did you have any kind of restrictions on what you could eat, what you could drink? Yes. So I couldn't drink any sugary drinks like lemonade or regular coke. So I was pretty much on a diet for drinks. I also couldn't eat ice or like chewy candies and like apparently Jerky, I couldn't either. Big Jerky eater, army? No. Like whenever we had jerky, whenever we went on like a road trip, I would eat it because, well one of the only foods but so the why can't you eat those things? Well, because they, because they could pull my brackets off. Now the brackets are the things that attached directly to your teeth? Yes. And then what do they have a wire that goes between those brackets? Yeah, pretty much after a few visits, after I'd gotten it on, they had to take it off and it was actually very weird either. Either my legs are falling asleep, but I couldn't stand, I could barely even like brush my teeth when they told me to. I was just like very week after they had, I was like sitting there for a while though. So maybe that was it. I don't know. Just felt a little weird when they had taken the bar off and it was on the brackets.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk about dental hygiene. Since you've gotten the braces, how's that change? I mean you used to brush, you used to floss, obviously mouthwash. Are you still doing those

Speaker 3:

things? Are you doing them differently? Well if you were going to floss while using braces, you would actually have to use the string and like be very careful. But my mom didn't want to take any chances of me hurting myself. So she had decided to get me a water pick. A waterpik. What exactly is that? Well it's basically like, you know when you go to the dentist and they spray water in your mouth, it's similar to that. It's just like a little contraption where you turn it on and like you fill it up and there's water that squirts out and there's like a little brush or you can brush as well while the water squirting. So

Speaker 2:

is it like high pressure water that that squirts out? Well

Speaker 3:

at the beginning I thought it was high pressure but once you get used to it, it actually doesn't really feel like I

Speaker 2:

fresher. So I want to ask what seems like an obvious question. You're, if you're squirting water into your mouth to clean it, doesn't your mouth filled with water?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. What do you do with that water? You spit it out. If, if he gets too full to the point where like it feels like your mouth that's completely full of water, you spit it out. And I've had to do it a few times whenever it's like completely full and I use it. All right. Makes sense then.

Speaker 2:

So what about brushing? Are you brushing the same way you would brush before?

Speaker 3:

No. Um, to have extra safety. My mom had gotten me an electric toothbrush that I use now. Um, you basically turn it on, you need it needs to get charged. So you basically just have, it's spinning while you're regularly brushing your teeth. So what does that do to help with the braces? Well, it can help you. It helped me brush a bit better. So yeah.

Speaker 2:

So the head of the brush, is it, I'm assuming if it's spinning it's, it's around head. Yeah. Yeah. And it just spins back and forth and your brush like you normally would. Yeah. Does that cause any discomfort with the braces at all?

Speaker 3:

No. No. Almost like you push it really hard and that causes discomfort.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So what else unusual with the races are you dealing with or you have, do you like some, sometimes you have to put bands on, don't you?

Speaker 3:

Ah, yeah. And it's a nightmare. No. Okay. Talk about that. If that's a nightmare. Well in the beginning I had to room during the day and believe me I could, I had to go on the soft food diet. I could only drink, I could only have liquid foods like applesauce and yogurt and it was horrible. You don't like yogurt? Not really. Did you get to have ice cream? Yeah, I got ice cream. That was probably one of the only good things about it. I mean I could have, I could only have soft foods and it was really painful. I didn't know where them on and once I learned yet to change them every day, it was just really painful every day yet to change them and change them and change and change and change them. So you have the change in that many times a day, like only once, like in the, like at night I would change my band and then repeat it for the next day at night. Changed the band pretty much.

Speaker 2:

So when you say you had to keep changing and changing and changing and she's, you really just had to do it once a day? Yeah, pretty much. So that was just an exaggeration

Speaker 3:

and eventually it had gotten painful. So what, what was painful about the bands? Well, can you imagine having very, very small rubber bands on two hulks of your jaws pulling them up?

Speaker 2:

So where did the rubber bands book?

Speaker 3:

Um, they, they hook up, they hook up. Um, so there's like something in the back and my back teeth on my top and then I pull it down and the, and all my lip bumper, there were two hooks that are in the front and I hooked them on there. And what is the purpose of the bands? Well, in, well before it went to the orthodontist, my teeth, my teeth in the back, we're really far apart. So the orthodontist is trying to pull them together and so far it's worked. But it kind of worked a little too. Well, sports do you mean by that? What I mean is when I was wearing the bands all day, my bar was actually moving upward to the point where I couldn't move it where it was supposed to go. And like now my complete front teeth where gap to completely like I could fit my tongue through it without when I was trying to close my mouth because of the gap pretty much. Yeah. She they do to correct that. Well that's when they took off my, um, my lip bumper and told me not to wear the rubber bands for a month, but it lasted a little longer. So now you're back to wearing bands or you're still not wearing, well, I'm wearing bands on the at night now, which is a little more comfortable. But even when I had to wear them at night, sometimes my boy would still get adjusted and then after a moment of time they had decided to change it again. But even now, once they changed the third time my mouth, well actually there was this one, well before they had tooken my bar out, they had told me not to wear the rubber bands, but eventually I got in there bad sores. So they had to take my bar completely for for a month or two. But the sore heel. Yeah. So explain what you were, how you put the bands. Well in the beginning I would have to use my parents' help cause it was too painful for me. They had a hook, you're hooked it onto the rubber band is stuck it on the hook, a fish Hook Daddy. And we're like, no, it's like a little tool. It's a mini tool. It has um, a hook shape on one end. And the other is like, um, a claw shaped thing. I don't know if that's the best I can describe it. Pretty much. Jairek weapon. No. Anyway, so just describe how you put the bands on. So there is, so when I take them out of the package, I get one rubber band, I hook it onto the hook. Then I hooked the rubber band onto my back tooth where the hook is. Yeah. Then I pull it down towards the hooks on my, um, lip bumper on my bottom jaw, and then I hook it on and then let go the t and then get the tool to go off. And then the rubber bands just stay there. But he's flexible for such a tiny thing.

Speaker 2:

So it's first you had difficulty, you need help with that. You needed help with it. How are you now? Have you gotten used to doing it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, like one time I had actually used the hook kit to do myself. Then even though it was painful, I got it, got used to it then and now I'm actually able to just use my finger without the tool.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk about what it's like living with braces. So first of all, I'm assuming you're still on some kind of restricted diet. There's somethings you can't eat. Yup. Um, but I'm guessing it's not a liquid diet, right?

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm still kind of going on the liquid diet. I don't have, I don't really have too many sugary drinks. Like whenever there's diet, lemonade, I get that because there's no real sugar in it because, um, if you could sugar it when you get sugar on your teeth, it could get a little harder to brush them. So.

Speaker 2:

Okay. So what other things can't you eat now?

Speaker 3:

Well, I can't eat corn on the cob, so my mom just cuts off the corn. Okay. So yeah, I'm not normal for that.

Speaker 2:

What about, what about like regular food, Judy? Like pizza, you can eat pizza, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, unfortunately I haven't adapted my mouth so we always have to cut it.

Speaker 2:

So you cut it up and you're okay? Yeah. Oh, and fruit.

Speaker 3:

So, um, my mom always has stuck. Now you know how you have those apple slices? Well, my mom has to cut up tiny little bits now.

Speaker 2:

Okay. And why is that? Because you can't chew it or because of damages? The braces?

Speaker 3:

Well, part of both. It'll dent, it can damage the braces and I can't really chew a whole apple or the whole slice, so it's better for me to just have like a bite size one. Okay.

Speaker 2:

So outside of food restrictions, what else do you have restrictions on? You played trumpet too. It does it affect your trumpet player?

Speaker 3:

Yep, it does. I have. So, um, since the mouthpiece, um, goes against my lips, it can push my braces and it could possibly damage them. So I have to wear layers of wax.

Speaker 2:

All right. You, you're going to have to explain what the wax does, how you put it all on, how it helps.

Speaker 3:

All right, so what the wax does, it gives me a layer, so, so it gives me a layer on my braces so it's more smoother I guess. And then like,

Speaker 2:

so the wax goes between the braces and your lips then?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, pretty much it goes on my braces and I have my lips done and then my lips go over it. And whenever I play my trunk and when I play my trumpet, it guards my braces would, they don't get damaged.

Speaker 2:

So we're, after you're done playing, how do you get rid of the wax?

Speaker 3:

Uh, I just have to peel it off. Unfortunately, there was some tiny pieces that always gets stuck on my braces. But luckily, sometimes when I move my mouse around or like my tongue pretty much they come off.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

What am I talking, I mean obviously you're very, um, understandable. Now when you first got the braces on, did you have issues with talking and all that stuff in your mouth?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean when I first had them on I could barely even say s and like the doctor said like recommend stinging and I'm saying ass. And I sounded kind of like, um, I kind of sounded like I was mumbling and like you could barely understand me on the phone the first time after I got my breasts on and mommy called.

Speaker 2:

Now did you have a lot of discomfort after that?

Speaker 3:

Well, a little discomfort for a few days, but it went away.

Speaker 2:

So from a maintenance standpoint, now do you go back and get adjustments done or like how do they, how do they take care of the braces?

Speaker 3:

Well, pretty much they just like change the colors. Normally

Speaker 2:

you get to pick your colors. Yeah, pretty much. Well that's Kinda cool. So now we're, we're at what colors change? Where does it change? Is it

Speaker 3:

like those like little events that go over my brackets and like they change them for different colors. I don't remember what color it is now. Can you see what color it is? It's too dark. I can't say. I can't remember what I checked.

Speaker 2:

But you get to pick the color and it pretty much it.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk about school and your friends and stuff like that. Now I'll, I'll, I'll be honest with you. I never had braces and myself. I know, um, I was, I was blessed with teeth that were straight but fell out when I was younger. So I don't think we should say that to the viewers will know me. I don't traditionally have bad teeth. Um, it runs in my family, but there were straight, so I never had to go through all that stuff. So what I'm curious about is how did the kids at school treat you? Cause I know, you know, kids can be mean sometimes. And when I was a kid and someone came in with braces, you know, we'd rather them a little bit and make fun of him a little bit. Did you run into any of that at school?

Speaker 3:

No. Nobody made fun of me. People were just like saying why you got braces? Cool.

Speaker 2:

Now are you the only kid in your grade with braces?

Speaker 3:

No, I've seen a few other kids. I mean it is, comes to pointing when you see them get there as off. And I'm like, why can't get mine off? It's been torture. So. All right, fine.

Speaker 2:

That a little bit. Why is that that they get them when they were younger and you may have gotten years when you were a little bit older. Is that it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I was kind of a little late, but I'm not too late. So I'm getting my braces

Speaker 2:

cause I see them. I remember when I was in school and kids got braces. They got braces probably seventh, eighth and ninth grade. So to me that's what the normal is. So I thought you got your braces. You made have been a little young for it. But you're saying kids are even younger than that? Kidding?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I mean, my mom got hers in third grade, so. Wow. Really? I didn't know. I didn't realize that she told me about it when we were talking about, um, what it was like getting braces for her. Hmm. Interesting. So with the kids aren't bothering you or anything,

Speaker 2:

so how long do you think or how long has the doctor said that you'll probably have braces?

Speaker 3:

Well, I'll have to win. See when I get my bottom braces on.

Speaker 2:

Oh, so you're not even done with all your braces at this point?

Speaker 3:

Nope. The doctors said in a few months I'll be able to like get my bottom braces on and I'm probably going to have those for while. So I'm kind of far away from getting my braces off.

Speaker 2:

So what are we talking about? Are we talking about two years? Three years, five years? What do you think?

Speaker 3:

I honestly don't know. I mean I all dewalt the downloads to really said timewise. Then a few months I'll be able to get my bunk braces on and I don't know how long I'll have to have them on a long list. My top places. Okay.

Speaker 2:

So all in all, what, what do you think about the experience of getting braces and the appointments and all that stuff? What's your opinion?

Speaker 3:

Well, the appointment are mainly an hour long, but just sitting there doesn't really seem like an hour. They don't really do much in the hour cause they're always helping other pieces. But I've gotten used to it, so it's not really that big of a deal. I mean, and having races now we're four. I could like, it felt so strange, but now I can hardly even notice them. So you've adapted to it at this point? Pretty much. It doesn't really feel like there's anything wrong to my lips. And one time when they had to take and when I took my burrows and actually felt weird to have normal teeth on my bottom on the, on my bottom drawer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So what do you think of your orthodontics?

Speaker 3:

Well, he's a really nice short, the dumbest, well that's good. He's funny too, so

Speaker 2:

I guess that helped. Right? Sure. Um, explained to me like you'd go, how often do you go? Once a month for adjustments and stuff. So explain what a typical appointment is.

Speaker 3:

Well, normally through, normally you would come in and you'd have to find a parking spot because they don't have a lot of parking. Sometimes we would have to poke at another street. So yeah, it could be a problem. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not that big of a problem. We've done it before and then we would walk in, I would sign it. Nan, I don't normally ask my mom what time was my orthodontist appointment because I always forget. That's important to know that. Yeah. Yeah. And then I would, and then, um, you would sit a few minutes and then they would, I would wait for them to call my name. Then I would sit where they would want me to sit. Then they would normally like change my colored and asked me what colors do you want? Then depending on the appointment they were that they would do with the APP, what else they needed to do. The only real regular thing is what I just told you.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Yeah. So it doesn't sound like it's that bad of an experience going in for the follow ups then?

Speaker 3:

Well, the only problem was in the beginning it always hurts you to my colors. So we had to like get me medicine. So every time I would go to the orthodontist right beforehand I would um, take some Tylenol before we went in or some other type of medicine. So I wouldn't really feel too much pain.

Speaker 2:

So just like regular over the counter stuff, nothing the doctor prescribed? Nope. Okay. So then the pain wasn't that bad and it was just more of a preventative thing then? Yeah, pretty much. Did you ever have to use anything like, um, or a gel or anything like that to apply directly to your gums if they hurt?

Speaker 3:

Well, well, sometimes I would have because in the beginning it was when I put on, I had to put my band on. It was pretty painful. So we put the lawn to numb myself a little bit. So yeah. But I've gotten used to it now so I don't really use it anymore. But just in case we always have a spare.

Speaker 2:

Well you've gotten used to what the pain or you've gotten used to actually doing what you need to do.

Speaker 3:

Well there's no real pain anymore. I don't really feel I'm what pain whenever I do what I do.

Speaker 2:

Well that's good. That's important. So if you were going to give any advice to someone else out there who might be getting rid of they go through this, what would the advice be?

Speaker 3:

Oh my advice would be to, if you are going in for a checkup, you might want to take um, something in something. And if it, if you realize it started hurting whenever you go to you first, like few appointments after you get your braces, I would recommend get trying out some Tylenol or some other pain medicine.

Speaker 2:

And what about any advice you have for someone who's going to be going to get braces just in generals or any maintenance or any little tricks or anything like that? Not

Speaker 3:

really. I mean, I, I can't really think of anything off the top of my head.

Speaker 4:

How has

Speaker 2:

the experience of getting braces been? Has it been terrible? Has Been Life Changing? Has it been tolerable?

Speaker 3:

Well, I could say I could say all three. Okay. So, so it's been a pretty

Speaker 2:

big impact on your day to day life then pretty much you think you're okay with it at this point in time dealing with,

Speaker 3:

yeah. Right now I would just say it's tolerable. Before for I would say I'm terrible and life changing, but now I'm able to say it's tolerable.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Well that's good. Did you have, before we sign off on the podcast, did you have any other, uh, any other comments you wanted to make before we sign off?

Speaker 3:

I only have really one comment, which is if you're getting braces, it'll be a hard experience at first. But once you get used to it, like I have, even though I'm only, I'm barely through my first year, you'll get used to it eventually. I mean, you're going to have pain, you're probably going to have discomfort, but eventually you'll get used to all the pain and eventually you won't even have it. And if you ever going to get rubber bands, I would just say it does get a little uncomfortable, but you will get used to it. That's pretty much all I have to say. That was very well said, and I think that's going to do it for our discussion this week. Hopefully we'll be back next week with another interesting insight into teens topic to talk about why

Speaker 5:

[inaudible].

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