Dr. Teeth

Since C11 started getting her adult teeth in we knew with a high degree of certainty that she'd need braces. So for the last few years she's had a little checkup in the fall with the orthodontist, where he'd spend 5 minutes looking at her mouth and teeth and would say "not yet!" and tell us to schedule an appointment for next year, because we were waiting for all of her adult teeth to come in.

Until this year. By the end of 2014 all of C's baby teeth had fallen out and been replaced with adult teeth. Molars not all in yet, but that's normal. So this fall,  September something, we went, met the NEW orthodontist, and found out IT WAS TIME. We set up payment and appointments for the first steps to be taken that very day.

Poor C11. First things first. Palatal expander was the first item up. I remember having one, and having to turn the thing every morning or night or both and the pain. Ouchie.

So. After some dental spacers, molds, and a fitting ... the palatal expander went in on October 21. I had to do one turn every night (two turns of the key made the thing go around one time).

After a couple of days of giving C11 tylenol before doing the turns, TCR told C11 about the analgesic properties of dried pears. So, we gave it a try, and lo! it worked well enough! :) We phased that out earlier this week, too, so while it still hurt to get the turns every night, she was used to it by then.

And! Magic happened. She has a space between her front teeth. We measured it with household items every night ... paper, necklace, purse strap, spoon, small book ...

Until this morning, at our two week follow up visit with the orthodontist ... and he said she'd actually gone a little TOO far! (WOW!) and we got to stop.

Look at her smile! Look at that gap between her teeth! Palate expanded indeed.