Orthodontic Emergency: Peru style

     The apples in Peru are some of the sweetest I have ever tasted. Unfortunately, I enjoyed my last one today after an errant bite ripped out my permanent retainer, the one that's been attached to my bottom teeth for the past six years, protecting a $4,000 brace job from my teeth returning to their natural (and very crooked) state.
     I arrived at work and selected the juiciest  of fruits from the communal basket. I bit into the apple, and realized something was off. I felt the area with my tongue, and was immediately stabbed by the rogue wire. "Oh no," I thought, "I broke my retainer and need to get it fixed before my teeth start moving." Then I became cognizant of my whereabouts.
     "Oh no," I thought, beginning to panic "I broke my retainer and I am many miles and even more dollars away from my orthodontist, whom I will not be seeing for another 3 months." For many, this wouldn't be a problem- their teeth would handle the couple of months until their return. Unfortunately, I have a very small mouth and my wisdom teeth haven't been removed- without my retainer my superfluous will crowd the other ones until I've regained my childhood (an embarrassingly awry) bite.
     Distraught, I scurried into our program director's office and pointed over and over at my mouth, and tried to explain the situation. She understood my qualms about visiting one of the local orthodontists whose office's are nestled between hair salons, laundromats, and bakeries. She then remembered that another ProPeru worker is dating a dentist who works in Cusco (one of the bigger cities), who knows how to do permanent retainers.
Thank God.
     Within an hour I'm on a van to Cusco. I get there, and a very nice passenger who sat next to me and got to witness my distress (for an hour, poor man) hailed me a cab and even paid for it. Two hours after my apple, I was sitting in a dentist chair and my retainer was being reattached. The dentist laughed when I told him that a piece of fruit had been my downfall. "Una manzana MUY fuerte (It was a VERY strong apple)", I said, trying to defend my dignity.
     As it turned out it was good that I came in so soon- not only was my retainer broken all the way off (I thought it was only half but the other side had surreptitiousness begun to detach as well) but according to the dentist my teeth were already loosening. Hours after the whole ordeal it's still difficult/painful to eat as my teeth are still being pulled back into their desired position.
    I returned home to find that my host mother had misread my note and thought that I had been hit in the face by something and broke my teeth. I reread my note, and realized that I had made it sound as if I had, in fact, been hit by something and broken my teeth. Thankfully when she called the office the program director was able to explain it better and she wasn't worried anymore.
    What I learned today is that little emergencies happen fast and unexpectedly whether you're in a position to take care of them or not. I'm very grateful that this time I was in that position.