Once a month, from second grade until I was in high school, one of my parents would pick me up from school and drive me to Dr. Wells’ office. He was my orthodontist. There I would sit in the waiting room, thumbing through reading material like the Complete Family Circus until the receptionist, Dr. Wells’ wife, told me the orthodontist was ready to see me. His wife always had braces.

Candid, a 2-year-old New York company, is the new Dr. Wells. It doesn’t put my childhood orthodontist out of business. But Candid’s orthodontics-by-mail service makes it so I’d likely never have to sit in his office inhaling the faintly toxic, faintly sweet smell of plaster and rubber cement.