across the wire

I used to wear braces, now I am supposed to wear a retainer to help keep my teeth in line. My orthodontist said I have severe overcrowding in my mouth and my teeth would move fast if not cared for properly. She also told me that I would have to wear my retainer everyday, all day until I was in university then I could consider wearing it only at night. She told me that in senior 2. 10 years later, I still wear my retainer....occasionally. It did not take me long before I stopped wearing my retainer to school every day. Nothing bad happened to my teeth.

Recently, I have been forgetting to wear my retainer at night (which I still do). Sometimes I would forget for a whole week and nothing really happened. Then on day, as I grabbed my retainer, I realized I had forgotten for a lot longer this time, in fact, I could not remember the last time I did wear it. Well, as you can guess where this is going, I tried to put it in with little success. I pushed so hard that I cracked a piece of it to finally get it in. Once I had it in, I couldn't get it out so I had to wear it until my teeth moved enough to pop it out. For anyone who has had braces, you know what that feeling is like when your teeth start to move, and to hurt, badly! So for the rest of the night and part of the next day I was transported back to my high school days of wearing a retainer.