I turned 37 today and I just had braces put in my mouth. Here’s what it taught me about product management:

Sorry couldn’t help myself 🤪

But more seriously, bodies and the procedures to fix them are weird. You start having to be more concerned for your health as your body starts to decay, creaking more & more as time goes on, and sometimes you find yourself signing up for a treatment to fix it that is normally assigned to 10-year-olds.

And they work!

I’ve had somewhat regular jaw pain for years now which has progressively gotten worse, and recently got a (mild) sleep apnea diagnosis. I coincidentally asked my dentist about correcting a small gap in my teeth, and then she sent me to an orthodontist about this.

The orthodontist then, upon examining my mouth, identified that I had developed a pretty gnarly crossbite. This explained everything: the teeth gap (though not wearing a retainer didn’t help), the sleep apnea, the jaw pain.

So I found myself signing up for essentially redoing much of the orthodontia I had as a kid: a palate expander to fix my crossbite, and now braces to put my teeth back where they should be.

What’s wild is that I’m already sleeping better.