Unlike my childhood friends, my baby teeth took forever to come out, they seemed to be happy to stay just where they were. This upset me, while other little girls proudly sported gaps in place of teeth and received money from the tooth fairy, mine stubbornly refused to loosen. By the time my teeth DID start to come out I was teased unmercifully, everyone else had big shiny permanent teeth by then. My mouth was too small for the new teeth, and the dentist had to pull quite a few of them out to make space. I had to go to the dentist more often than my siblings, I was the only one who seemed to get cavities on top of having teeth removed so, again, I was the odd one out. However, my teeth grew in nice and straight, although my eye teeth remained babies for a very long time! One came out when I was 21, the other had to be yanked out by a visiting dentist on Bequia when I was in my 30’s.
Rachel inherited my teeth. She was the splitting image of Mac but didn’t receive his strong set of chompers. Her baby teeth were slow to come out as well, and when the permanent teeth began to grow it was quite obvious she was going to need braces. Rachel’s teeth had a mind of their own, and they began to grow in a haphazard way. I often wondered if the crooked teeth were a result of being hit by the Cable and Wireless truck years before, but that wasn’t the case; my daughter simply took after her mother! Rachel became increasingly self-conscious about her appearance, and as there were no orthodontists in St. Vincent and the Grenadines I took her to Barbados.
Dr. Ronald Ramsay was (and still is) a hard-working orthodontist, his waiting room filled with youngers there to have their braces tightened, and although Rachel hated going to the dentist, she was excited about the prospect of having her teeth straightened. Alas, after examining her, Dr. Ramsay explained that until all of Rachel’s permanent teeth came in there was little he could do to help. At that point in time only one of her front teeth had come out, and the replacement appeared to be coming in sideways! Poor Rachel, she was disappointed and so was I, obviously braces would not be happening for quite some time. We were told to return for another examination in a year’s time, and left Renfroe Orthodontics that day rather disheartened.
Rachel’s life took a hard knock just before she was due to return to the orthodontist – her father and grand-father had died in a plane crash. Between her grief and the state of her teeth, Rachel became very withdrawn, and held her hand over her mouth whenever she spoke. I decided something HAD to be done to boost her self-esteem, and sent a fax to Dr. Ramsay before we left Bequia. I explained to him what Rachel was going through, and that I would be eternally grateful if he would put some wire around at least ONE tooth to reassure the child that some kind of positive action was being taken.
Arriving at Renfroe Orthodontics we sat in the waiting room, where Rachel eyed the other children wistfully. They all sported the coveted braces, and I mentally crossed my fingers and hoped that Dr. Ramsay would put some metal in Rachel’s mouth! Her name was finally called, and I waited. And waited. And WAITED. When she returned to the waiting area, it was with a huge smile and a mouth literally gleaming with silver! Rachel had BRACES.
I thanked Dr. Ramsay, who took the time to speak me with me privately before we left. Although Rachel’s teeth were not ready for braces, he understood the situation and promised to work around the missing teeth. He warned that Rachel would be wearing braces for a very long time, and that we would have to make monthly trips to Barbados. I was SO relieved, I hugged the good Doctor and thanked him profusely, he had gone out of his way to be kind and I appreciated it. The smile on Rachel’s face with her shiny braces meant the world to me, what Dr. Ramsay had done for a grieving child was nothing short of miraculous.
Rachel DID wear those braces for several years, all the way through High school and A-level college. Her second front tooth never emerged, and she had to undergo surgery to make way for an implant. I recall holding her hand while the oral surgeon operated, watching the tears roll down her cheeks. I told her that she would thank me some day when she had nice straight teeth, and three decades later she made a point of doing so. Today young people in St. Vincent and the Grenadines can get braces without having to leave the country, we’ve come a long way since those monthly flights to Barbados!