Happy & Healthy

TO BEUGEL OR NOT TO BEUGEL

And if to beugel, which one should I choose?

In my teenage years, I desperately wanted it; the braces. Everyone had them, so I had to have them too. But my dentist thought my teeth were beautiful, so I shouldn't complain.

Moreover, I already had (disclaimer: anyone who wants to maintain a romantic and charming image of me should skip this paragraph) a hefty pair of glasses, so my share of awkwardness was more than covered. I had the brilliant talent of choosing the absolute ugliest pair from the entire glasses selection. That combined so nicely with the poorly cut thick bangs. My mother has many qualities, cutting bangs is not one of them.

Anyway. I parked my desire for braces, discovered the phenomenon of daily lenses, and went through life, at least to the outside world, reasonably without appliances. Until the day before yesterday. For weeks, I had a referral from the dentist in my agenda that kept disappearing every time I wanted to schedule an appointment, and now I finally made an appointment and parked my car in front of Orthodontics Amsterdam South.

What the problem was, asked the charming woman. Well, there is a tooth that wants to go its own way, which I want to nip in the bud, and I have the feeling that I, well, I'm not going to share all that because I still want to be considered somewhat charming by you, but there is something going on.

The orthodontist (that word alone, it is fully accepted at sixteen, but now it sounds so misplaced) could do something about that. A brace would be the answer to all my problems. But that would take a year. A year, yes.

I had a choice. A traditional brace (yes, a traditional brace, yes, a traditional brace) or invisalign. The advantage of a traditional brace (yes, I apparently really write that) is that it is cheaper and you get rid of it faster. Another option was invisalign, the Gucci of braces. It is a plastic tray that you have to wear for 22 hours a day and can only take off when you eat.

How that would work with drinking wine, I asked. The orthodontist didn't quite understand that. I just had to take it off when eating, she said. The fact that I actually want to drink wine all evening and eat cheese, I just swallowed. She wouldn't understand that in her crispy little uniform.

Immediately after my appointment with the or-tho-don-tist (I still have to get used to the idea), I went to a presentation by Dior and saw my industry friend Esther Goedegebuure from JAN Magazine. With invisalign. Then I ran into Claudia Straatmans, my successor at Marie Claire once. Did I see something there? Yes, indeed, a plastic layer over the tooth.

I am out of my choice. Invisalign it will be. After all, all ‘forty-year-old girls’ have it. Finally, thirty years later, I am still part of the brace posse. Yessss.