I had a relative who raised horses. Many times I watched him place a feed bag onto the horses. I had not idea that I would have to wear something similar one day.
Do you remember when your two front teeth came in? I daresay most people don’t, but I do because mine came in crooked. My mom thought it was from an accident where I hurt my mouth. When I was a little girl, I loved to swing. One day I was swinging when my hands slipped off of the chains attached to the seat. As luck would have it, I was high up in the air when that happened. I slammed onto the ground on my stomach and my mouth. My mouth even bled a little. A dentist told my mom to use her thumb to press against my incoming front teeth to hopefully push them back in place. Bless my little heart, she pressed against my front teeth every chance she had.
Finally, my teeth finished coming in. On the good side, no more of my mom pressing on my teeth. On the bad side, they still came in crooked. In fact, they were also overlapped in that the bottom of them were crossed over each other.
Then my mom took me to an orthodontist. She told him about my wonderful swing accident. He told her that had nothing to do with my teeth coming in the way they did. Plus, pressing on them didn’t help either. I was so relieved that was over, but what came next was much worse.
According to the orthodontist, I had too many teeth crammed into a mouth that was too small to hold them. He immediately placed brackets on my back top molars for my headgear. The actual headgear was a thin metal bar in a semi-circle. It had two prongs that slid into the brackets. Attached to one end of the headgear was a leather strap. Once the prongs were in the brackets, I had to stretch the loose end of the strap to the other side of the headgear and hook the strap onto it. It was such a tight stretch that my mom had to help. While it was wrapped around the back of my head, it pulled my teeth toward the back of my mouth. Best of all, I was supposed to do this every night and sleep like that. I was so upset that first night. It was horrible. I was almost to tears when I told my mom that I felt like a horse wearing a feeder bag.
“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;” Romans 5:3 (KJV)
At the time, I was not finding glory in wearing that headgear. Not at all. But as time went on, it became easier to deal with. It not only toughened me up, but it also taught me endurance. God knows what we need even when we don’t.
Once all of that was over and my braces came off, I had a beautiful smile and new nickname. My orthodontist frequently called me: “Tough Mouth.” I was very proud of that hard earned title.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.