My ride in the sky
I stood in the parking lot, my white boots laced up tight, in white baggy snowboarding pants looking superfly, and my freshly waxed board in hand, ready to hit the slopes with my friends. The sky was blue and the parking lots were filling up fast. It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains and it had just snowed the night before. But before I headed up the mountain, I had a decision to make.
Do I go for the aesthetic appeal and use the bumpers (it's all about looking good right?), or do I wear the frankenstein mouthguard that offers maximum protection? It was a tough call. I don't want the Freak alarms to go off because I chose the mouthguard, but knowing I was going to probably go down the steepest run on the mountain aptly named 'The Face', I didn't want to go light on the protection either.
The bumpers offer up comfort and they are very unnoticeable. I popped one of them onto my brackets before I drove up that morning just to see how they worked. They 'snapped' over my brackets very easily and felt comfortable to wear.
The mouthguard offers good protection in all areas (not just the brackets). It has a bite plate along the centerline that keeps your uppers and lowers from smashing together. Having wiped out hard before and landing on my tailbone, which caused me to bite my tongue, I had a feeling this might come in handy.
After thinking for a few minutes (I try not to do to much), I decided to go with the freakishly large mouthguard! Oh boy this was going to be fun! Luckily, a saavy student of mine suggested a great idea the week before. She said to wear a bandana over my mouth to cover it up! Bandanas are in style for snowboarding ever since the pro boarder Shaun White wore one on his gold medal run in the last winter Olympics in Turin and I thought it was a great idea! So I went down to WalMart the night before and picked up two!
I grabbed the mouthguard and the bandana and we all headed up the mountain where I quickly discovered that talking was nearly impossible with that 'thing' in my mouth.
So after I got on the ski lift I took it out and held it until we got to the top where I popped it back in each time. Picture this...I would pull my bandana down to my neck, pull out my mouthguard and hold it so I could talk, then pull off one of my gloves, so I can reach into my zipped pocket to pull the digital camera and take some shots before we got the top of the lift. Then repeat the process in reverse right before we got off at the top! One time I didn't think I was going to make it as the chair sped up and I was still bumbling with everything...haha.
Overall, I'd say that the day went very well. It was my first day of doing some real activity since getting braces. Good planning helps a lot! One thing you have to learn with braces is to plan the food thing on trips. I took only food I knew I could easily eat, and that would give me energy. I took a soft banana (that froze in the car before lunch!), 3 Tigers Milk bars left over from my last trip (pre-braces) which I prompty handed over to my friends for their eating enjoyment, an orange, bottle of water and some soft bread. That held me over for lunch.
I took my travel kit for my braces too but decided after lunch that a good mouth rinse with the water bottle would suffice. It's a pain to be carrying all that in your pocket if your not anywhere near the car. But it's also difficult going out in public where you know that half your food is stuck to the front of your teeth. So I when rinsed my mouth out with water, I grabbed a pipecleaner brush from my travel kit and picked out the remaining pieces with this handle little tool. Then I brushed soon as I got home. It was a great day and the snow felt good on my teeth when I shoved a handful in my mouth. The mouthguard was a little annoying at first but I got used to by mid-day which was nice.
Next time I'll try the bumpers, although the very sound of that suggests what might happen if I go between the trees again!
![Image](http://www.michaelemo.com/braces/snow4.jpg)