I find myself travelling quite frequently with my job and to catch up with friends and family so I am no stranger to airports. Travelling out of Gatwick on an all too frequent basis has meant that I have had the opportunity to visit all the restaurants in the terminal quite a few times. In one particular place, long since closed unfortunately, I was served by someone who, like me, had just started with braces and we struck up an awkward conversation about our experiences. Being a busy restaurant, these interactions tended to be quite short between taking orders and serving food but I found that over the months, well years as it turned out, we regularly chatted and updated each other on progress sharing something in common as we both moved towards straighter teeth.

We both had conventional metal brackets which is more unusual for adult patients and I guess this is something that made it easier for us to start talking about having braces. I think there is something just a little uncomfortable about saying “Hi, I see you have braces too..” when someone has spent a lot more money on clear brackets hoping that no one notices (sorry, as fellow brace wearers we usually do!) so I guess we both felt more comfortable about starting this conversation.

Unfortunately the restaurant closed and was replaced with another one and alas we never got to say hello again leaving me wondering how she got on and what final result she achieved. I enjoyed our intermittent and brief catch-up’s as I waited for my flight to be called and I know she did too so don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with another brace wearer, they may be in as much need to share and chat as you are.