Brilliant … But Bouncy

Are You Wearing the Rubber Bands?

Today, Dylan got his braces off.

He looks stunning, like someone out of a magazine. He’s happy and smiling huge like he did when he was little. But now, his teeth are straighter and his smile is even more beautiful (if that’s possible) than it was then.

No one expected it to happen today – least of all me. Dylan did great with his braces, until he was in the final stretch. During the last few months, he was supposed to wear rubber bands.

Dylan didn’t wear his rubber bands faithfully. In fact, he almost never wore them. He would show up for his appointment and the orthodontist would say, “They look pretty good. Are you wearing the rubber bands?”

“Yeah,” Dylan would say. Simultaneously I would say, “No.”

So at every visit, the orthodontist would say, “You need to wear the rubber bands for longer every day, to make up for the time you didn’t wear them before.”

During the past month, he was supposed to wear the rubber bands for 12 hours a day, with an extra rubber band in the front, to make up for his not wearing rubber bands for four months.

And for the past month, every night, Dylan was supposed to put on his three rubber bands at 6:30 p.m. Invariably, I would remind him at 10 or 11 o’clock at night to put rubber bands in – and he would say, “Oh, I forgot.”

So it was a surprise to everyone when, today, the orthodontist said, “He’s 98% done. And since he’s obviously not going to wear the rubber bands, I think we’re going to take them off.”

And so, they’re off. And Dylan looks gorgeous.

And I can’t help but think, gee, my five months of nagging about rubber bands was utterly useless.