This Is My Mouthguard’s Time to Shine

Photo by Candid on Unsplash

My mouthguard has seen some shit. It’s been through medical tests, cat illness, and job changes. But it’s never been through a pandemic.

Normally, it sits in its tiny case until a few days before a dentist appointment when I wear it so I can honestly say yes when the hygienist asks me, “Have you been wearing your mouthguard?” But when phrases like “death toll” and “respirator shortage” started circulating, it made a powerful and timely comeback.

When my kid’s school shut down, I started waking at 3 a.m., dreaming that my music teacher was going to make me do a trombone solo, but I no longer knew how to play, and I could feel my teeth desperately trying to crack through the plastic. But my mouthguard stayed strong. The night after I took six rolls of toilet paper to the post office to mail to my elderly mother, I woke up with my molars reaching for each other like Kurt Russell and Billy Baldwin in Backdraft. And when I watched the video of that doctor sterilizing groceries, I started to think about wearing my mouthguard around the house during the day.

And then I realized: This is what it’s been waiting for. This is the job it’s meant to do. It was pulled from its mold to serve at the pleasure of this pandemic. In fact, I believe it also sets an example by making my teeth practice social distancing. Sure, there are things it…