Holy moly you guys, did you have braces? I did and every other appliance one could have during orthodontic treatment. I had the palate expander, retainers, double rubber bands, teeth pulled to make room for others and the cherry on top…I even had corrective jaw surgery. That right, my jaw was broken and moved forward. It. Was. Not. A. Good. Time.
So when our own kids started getting their adult teeth it was really obvious that they too, would need a lot of orthodontic work.
So far we have two who have had braces on and taken off and two currently in braces. Fletcher has only lost 2 teeth so we have some time there.
We went to the orthodontist today with 3 of the 5 kids. Cooper has had his braces on already for a year. He has a palate expander. He has already had 3 teeth pulled. The poor kid. Today was rough. They had to tighten his palate expander and it looked quite painful. I will say though, they have come a long ways since you and I had braces. I can vividly remember sitting in that chair for 20 minutes with the mount expander/torture device that keeps your mouth open really wide in while I waited for the orthodontist to come over and say things like “that hurts doesn’t it?” They don’t even use that same device anymore and it appears braces are a lot less painful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful it’s gotten easier, but being back in the ortho office brings back a lot of unpleasant memories for this lady.
Fiona’s mouth is also a train wreck. She got braces on in June. She has gigantic teeth courtesy of her mom and no room to house them all. She will be getting her palate expander on her next visit. She is also missing an adult tooth, which is genetic. I had two missing teeth and as a result had to have two dental implants put in. So I’m hoping Fiona can avoid that fate because that, was also not fun.
To round out the good time today…Finley found out that he needs 3 teeth pulled. A dentist cannot perform said extraction so we will need to go to an oral surgeon. Good times. Did I mention he has already had 2 teeth pulled at an oral surgeon? Yikes.
Once Finley’s final teeth are pulled out he will get his second and final (GOD willing) set of braces. He was excited about this news. Our bank account is not feeling that same level of excitement right now.
Ellen will be going back to the orthodontist next week to get her evaluation to determine when her second set of braces will go on. Thankfully she doesn’t have lack of space in her mouth like her siblings but she has had to have two root canals in her front teeth after some trauma she experienced to those teeth from a teeter totter on her grade school play set. Needless to say, our orthodontic and dental bills are considerable.
I’m not complaining. I’m very grateful we have jobs and insurance and the ability to fix all of these problems for our children. I’m also grateful to Bulleigh Orthodontics. They are amazing. I have never one time waited more than 5 minutes for our appointment. The nurses are incredibly nice and patient and answer the many questions my small children ask them. Also, because I have so many small children with messed up grills we get a family discount which is greatly appreciated.
While I can’t say that I’m excited that this Christmas season I will be spending a considerable chunk of money on dental work, I am grateful that we can get their dental issues fixed and spare them from jaw surgery and having braces on through their senior year in high school. This lady barely got her braces off before going to college and their dad had braces in college. So they are so much better off then we were.
Isn’t that the goal? To have your kids life be better than your own? Well, I’m happy to say when it come to orthodontics…we are crushing that goal.
Also brace faces are the cutest on small humans.
So it’s been an informative and expensive day. I will spend the better part of my morning scheduling all the next steps for all the dental and orthodontic work we will need in the coming weeks.
But, again, it’s all good. We are grateful that we have the ability to give our kids a perfect smile. GOD is good.
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